Archived Typical Team Leader Routine?

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Imerzan said:
Cashiering is the worst job at target, and recognition goes a long way to make them enjoy their job more. We don't need to take that away from them 🙂
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It's not necessarily the worst, it's just the most boring. I thought you would say cart attendant, seeing as you used to have to battle the elements and clean the restrooms before you became a GSA. Thank you for caring though, it's greatly appreciated.
 
I'd take doing carts over cashiering almost any day lol. Being able to move around and stretch is the best 😉
 
Imerzan said:
Being able to move around and stretch is the best 😉
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That's one thing I like about hardlines as opposed to cashing. I had to help with carts a couple times (after being bribed with free Starbucks) - just pushing carts, no bathrooms or anything - and I'd still rather cash. But that might just be the wimp in me. 😀
 
1)Sit in my car for 10 minutes while yelling and convincing myself that today will be a good day
2)Punch in at 7:59 because 759 is my lucky number, check email (oh look, 5 more emails from HR. Awesome, no team members worked past schedule yesterday and no one had a meal compliance! Already starting out to be a great day!)
3)Pull 7:30 AM CAFS, freeze my fingers off in the god-forsaken freezer, and try to avoid any ETL's. If they don't know I'm here, they can't bother me
4)Get to the main stockroom, fake annoyance because the AM backroom team has the stockroom a mess and backstock lined up outside of the stockroom
5)Flirt with female backroom team members
6)Flirt with male backroom team members
7)Listen to *****ing from the backroom team about workers rights, terrible pay, and lack of hours. (One of my team members couldn't even clear $200 on his last check. Now I know why its hard for me to get them to backstock the food order)
8)Follow up with LOG-ETL's . Act like I care about why the truck isn't even close to being pushed.
9)Pull more batches throughout the day because I'm just a glorified backroom team member at this point.
10)Around 3, I sit at the computer in receiving for an hour or so and act like I'm working.
11)4:30, time to sneak out and grab a drink. (Usually a milkshake since I don't drink alcohol)

My day is slightly different when I work flow. The only thing that changes is that I get to leave early
 
stupid rules said:
Fix it? There is no fixing it. You have to understand the store and the culture there. If you challenge the STL on things then you are marked and there are very few who survive then. If you don't get in with the 'click' then you better perform your ass off and try to maintain a low profile. Every work center dumps on the sales floor there and that's just how it is. They don't finish the truck? No problem, hardlines will do it. The planograms didn't get set correctly, pushed or missing signing? No problem, hardlines will do it. There is back-up needed at the checklanes (while the GSTL is somewhere??, food ave., starbucks and guest service is doing nothing). Don't worry, hardlines is on the way! Team it's time for the midday zone! SLTM 1 you have RTW, SLTM 2 you are in mens, SLTL 1 can you make sure the team is on task? SLTL 2 is going on break! SLTM 3 you have shoes. Electronics you have electronics and E. HLTL or HLTM you have A, B, C, D, F and 8 CAF's and some PTM on the line and your reshop is overflowing. HL why are you not getting all 3 call boxes and doing back up?
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Wow sounds like your store is a mess, I used to think the same at my store, then I realized once I became a TL that I can make a difference and drive change if i wanted to, and I did. All you need to do is work together that is the biggest opportunity stores have and if you focus on that, everything else is easier to handle, I have challenged my STL back and forth and ETL-OPS and at the end of the day they thank me for it. It's all in the approach, not enough coverage? Challenge the schedule but have a solution, if you don't have one then cant argue with the issue as your on the same boat as your leadership and that's where the attacks come in. If your HL team does that much work then focus on cross training, work balance, and streamlining the processes. Backup issues? Cart attendant's should be first responders, if its backup that can be fixed if 2 ppl instantly hop for backup then the CA and GSA/GSTL should hop on and let the LOD know. Guest Service and Food Ave doing nothing? Let the guest know if they have 10 or less items they can go to Guest Service, Labor Distribution 🙂
 
Do you honestly think that hasn't been tried? I have wrote ****ing essays on how to streamline some of the processes and get more productivity out of the store, explaining the hows and whys in detail. The first thing I want to respond to is you mentioning challenge the STL, you don't do it here if you want your job. You can get away with little things but that's it. You do it his way or his way. The schedule has been an issue for so long...there have been so many solutions offered from the TL's writing it, to suggestions on who to schedule when and how many per shift but it doesn't work. Backup issues have been addressed to the GSA's, GSTL's and ETL's but nothing changes.

Here's my typical day, this isn't including cleaning up after other teams or finishing their work, giving or writing coachings, reviews, 4x4 walk (yes we do a 4x4 walk, business walk and brand buster walk...), planning sales planners, looking to check mpg areas, price change workload, trying to help with ad prep, looking through signing that just came in, whatever project the ETL's want done, checking and correcting issues with twt and sfla, etc. etc. etc.
11:00 - clock in (HLTL work mids or closes only, though no one else has to do that ****)
11:00 - 12:00 - walk my area and fill out a brand list, fill endcaps, make labels, make signs, etc., go to a stupid huddle, pcv
12:00 - 1:00 - cover a break for the front end and/or electronics, try to get a sales planner done, push whatever is on the line, try to sneak in a break which is actually checking message boards, email, mysupport, print ebatches, urgent news, etc.
1:00 - 3:00 - midday zone, zone one of my runs, caf's, reshop
3:00 - 4:00 - lunch which normally consists of working on my business walk and any other paperwork I can squeeze in without getting caught, push whatever is on the line
4:00 - 5:00 - pcv, push the line, sneak to the backroom and pull some d-code and push it with caf's
5:00 - 6:00 - push the line, try to sneak in a sales planner or some paperwork
6:00 - 7:30 - cover the gstl lunch, get with the closing team and give them the expectations of the night, try to sneak in some more work somehow, zone some of my area, go to the huddle which informs us daily of how bad we suck, send a recap of the day to my peers and etl, email myself a reminder of what needs to be done, hide my pda
7:30 - clock out, go to a computer and pull up ehr and workbench so I can actually get **** completed that requires me off of the floor, purposely forget to leave my business walk, message boards and merch update so I can read them or finish them at home
 
stupid rules said:
Do you honestly think that hasn't been tried? I have wrote ****ing essays on how to streamline some of the processes and get more productivity out of the store, explaining the hows and whys in detail. The first thing I want to respond to is you mentioning challenge the STL, you don't do it here if you want your job. You can get away with little things but that's it. You do it his way or his way. The schedule has been an issue for so long...there have been so many solutions offered from the TL's writing it, to suggestions on who to schedule when and how many per shift but it doesn't work. Backup issues have been addressed to the GSA's, GSTL's and ETL's but nothing changes.

Here's my typical day, this isn't including cleaning up after other teams or finishing their work, giving or writing coachings, reviews, 4x4 walk (yes we do a 4x4 walk, business walk and brand buster walk...), planning sales planners, looking to check mpg areas, price change workload, trying to help with ad prep, looking through signing that just came in, whatever project the ETL's want done, checking and correcting issues with twt and sfla, etc. etc. etc.
11:00 - clock in (HLTL work mids or closes only, though no one else has to do that ****)
11:00 - 12:00 - walk my area and fill out a brand list, fill endcaps, make labels, make signs, etc., go to a stupid huddle, pcv
12:00 - 1:00 - cover a break for the front end and/or electronics, try to get a sales planner done, push whatever is on the line, try to sneak in a break which is actually checking message boards, email, mysupport, print ebatches, urgent news, etc.
1:00 - 3:00 - midday zone, zone one of my runs, caf's, reshop
3:00 - 4:00 - lunch which normally consists of working on my business walk and any other paperwork I can squeeze in without getting caught, push whatever is on the line
4:00 - 5:00 - pcv, push the line, sneak to the backroom and pull some d-code and push it with caf's
5:00 - 6:00 - push the line, try to sneak in a sales planner or some paperwork
6:00 - 7:30 - cover the gstl lunch, get with the closing team and give them the expectations of the night, try to sneak in some more work somehow, zone some of my area, go to the huddle which informs us daily of how bad we suck, send a recap of the day to my peers and etl, email myself a reminder of what needs to be done, hide my pda
7:30 - clock out, go to a computer and pull up ehr and workbench so I can actually get **** completed that requires me off of the floor, purposely forget to leave my business walk, message boards and merch update so I can read them or finish them at home
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wow. you would be fired at my store. dont work off the clock. it aint worth it. personal balance is. im surprised you havent had a mental breakdown :hang1:
 
I havent reached the point of working off the clock to that degree but sadly people, in our store this kind of action is necessary to keep your job with just the minimum amount of satisfaction from our STL. Its a situation you can never fully grasp unless you experience it first hand but we work in a store where literally 100% of the focus is accountability and "what can we add to the TL's (mostly hardlines) workload this week?". I could go into detail about a number of things that happened just this morning if it didnt put me at risk for being too specific. Ill be vague and say that a perfect District visit was rewarded with belittling the team that actually made that visit a success and being told we are hiring/promoting 5 people for a specialty position while knowing that when we are cut back to 1 or 2 people allowed in this position due to sales volume, we will simply take the raise from those who arent chosen and send them packing. That being said, just as Stupid Rules describes, there is NO challenging this person. He has been in position at our store for a year and a half now and there is not a single person who has challenged, disputed, or otherwise strongly disagreed with him who is still at our store. We have been through over 150 team members, probably a dozen or more Team Leaders, and aside from our ETL-HR our ETL staff has been completely new every 6 months or so. And the expectation and workload described above is also on a regular basis if not heavier. Due to our always reliable scheduling, for the next three weeks (could be longer once more schedules are posted) I am expected to perform all PA tasks in open market, as well as maintain my other 5 departments. Yes that includes Salesplanners, PTM, FIFO, Short-Dating, Vendors, Merch Update...and of course any interviews, visits, and GSTL lunches that are dropped on me without warning. On top of all the useless paperwork described above i.e. Business Walks, etc. And even if I performed all these tasks with grace and flawlessness, my attention will be directed to why I didnt meet expectations or there will be something new&improved dropped in my lap that must become part of my "routine".
 
cj, what are your dtk scores like? what type of follow up do you guys have with the stl? does he/she go to chats/tl meetings/etc? how is he/she viewed in the district?

i hate that you guys are so stressed. our first stl was a military man, biggest PITA ever. our 2nd, very experienced, but no clue on how to run a store. our 3rd was there for two months. our 4th, was in position 3 weeks. our 5th, was a crazy psycho woman who actually drove around looking for tm when they called out. our 6th, hides in his office ALL DAY LONG and only works like 4 days a week. he's my favorite lol. my point---just keep doing what you can, this stl too shall pass.
 
The only ones I pay attention to are Food Dashboard in which we are green in all except for the occasional shortage and b-markdown, 1st in the Group for SDA, 1st in the Group for Food Safety Audit. We bounce back and forth from 1st through 4th in the District for AAR and Red Card Conversion if I remember correct. The main things that hold us back off and on is Guest Survey, Payroll, and Location Accuracy. As far as follow up it pretty much consists of constant emails, getting picked apart whenever he passed through your department, and during the meeting we basically just get told why we suck (pretty much an hour and a half huddle) and we get no time to address our own concerns or bring up anything we feel needs to be discussed. The one time we tried this the meeting was stopped immediately and he went on a rant for 30 minutes and then that incident was mentioned at every huddle for the next 3 months. As far as how hes viewed I really cant comment. I know he puts on an everyone's best friend facade around DTLs. We went from a Red store to a high Yellow occasionally Green store but honestly that speaks more about how terrible the previous STL was. So as far as his superiors are concerned he gets **** done. From what I gather when Im around DTL's thats all that matters. Not so sure about how soon he shall pass he was moved down here by Target and just had a house built. I dont think hes going anywhere unless hes promoted theres no reason for him to.
 
For dtk we are green ytd in every category except 1...logistics, which is led by the stl's favorite person. Follow up with the stl? It's called avoidance for piece of mind. He will go to some meetings and then we are bombarded with more negativity and snide remarks. The best one so far...we were discussing review scores and the best team survey and he makes this remark in front of everyone that pertained to me. No one else knew it but I did...**** that. During meetings or huddles we are threatened constantly or told how bad we suck. How is he viewed in the district? It's more about how is he viewed in a few districts and that's as a ****ing nightmare. It wouldn't be so bad if it was consistent to the whole store (good or bad) but it's the favoritism and double standards that are the worst. Who knows how long we will have him, it looks like a while.
 
As far as favoritism among different departments...Lets see if this sounds like a common theme amongst stores or is unique to ours for piece of mind. The only TL's that have to cover GSTL/GSA breaks, close regularly, do 4x4 walks, send follow-up emails at the end of every shift, and get no hours or sales floor coverage outside of closing TM's is Hardlines (im sure im missing a few things). Softlines has twice the hours/coverage and half the workload in our store. The only department that is allowed no breaks, excuses, or free passes for anything is Hardlines. When Logistics is backed up, we are told they are not pulling our POG's...even though we get coached if we are caught pulling them ourselves. When Logistics fails to push the truck, it is tagged with a green pull clip and given to us to push. If Planogram doesnt set correctly, sign correctly, fill completely...we have the luxury of fixing it ourselves. However if Hardlines ever tried to say we were too busy to push CAF's or reshop, too busy to finish our spl's and ad-ro's, too busy to zone, too busy to PTM, too busy to get the call boxes...we would probably go straight to CA. I cant even picture that conversation in my head its so unrealistic.
 
im sorry you guys are in such a hot spot.
4x4 walks went away... i thought the business walks actually said that it replaced all other walks in the initial bp? i would pull up the original communication for the walks and bring it to their attention. your business walk should have everything a 4x4 does.

i have to send emails every shift. and im the only one harassed about it. most people just delete them anyway. sometimes i even say "i like carrots". no one ever notices because THEY DONT REALLY READ THEM lol.

softlines has more hours, but keep in mind instocks/market/electronics falls under salesfloor coverage. so even though not "technically" hardlines schedule, they are responsible for coverage in absence of daytime tm, and that is in direction from hq. if your store has any opening hl tm, consider yourselves lucky!

are you guys backroom certified to pull your own pogs? we coach anyone not br certified. other than that reason, sounds a little picky.

is your logistics team short handed or just broken?

ive been where you are, and felt your pain. i would come in on my opening days (days we got frozen) and push 4 or 5 pallets of frozen dairy alone. do my freshness crap. work pulls. shoot instocks for a/b. work out (literally) 10+ buggies of go backs first thing. then get lectured about not being able to ptm half the aisles, or responding to back up quickly enough. i would be electronics until 10, then still have to cover their breaks at 12, 2, and 4 before going home as well as gstl breaks and sometimes operator. close, open, close, open, off, close, off. had to ad set up every sunday because our team was stupid. after two years of it, i about snapped. started looking around, fielded a few offers. then i went to early am and never looked back. best move ever.
 
4x4 walks did go away but they have been reimplemented at our store this year. They are fully aware they are not bp, it doesn't matter. In-stocks as coverage for salesfloor? Not here, they come in and scan and go home They don't do back-up, they don't answer call boxes, etc. Market and electronics are HL coverage you say? Then what about operator and jewelry? I guess that softlines coverage, then why are the SLTL's there in addition to their TM's? No matter how you look at it there is not an even distribution of hours. Certified for the br? I think we are more than qualified to pull a sales planner, yeah we got that taken care of. The log-etl and stl just doesn't want anyone pulling unless you are a brtm. Guess who listens out for the br when they go on break. Guess who helps with the audits the days they have no leadership. Our logistics is broken and short handed. Sounds like you understand the frustrations we have.
 
cjllonewolf said:
As far as favoritism among different departments...Lets see if this sounds like a common theme amongst stores or is unique to ours for piece of mind. The only TL's that have to cover GSTL/GSA breaks, close regularly, do 4x4 walks, send follow-up emails at the end of every shift, and get no hours or sales floor coverage outside of closing TM's is Hardlines (im sure im missing a few things). Softlines has twice the hours/coverage and half the workload in our store. The only department that is allowed no breaks, excuses, or free passes for anything is Hardlines. When Logistics is backed up, we are told they are not pulling our POG's...even though we get coached if we are caught pulling them ourselves. When Logistics fails to push the truck, it is tagged with a green pull clip and given to us to push. If Planogram doesnt set correctly, sign correctly, fill completely...we have the luxury of fixing it ourselves. However if Hardlines ever tried to say we were too busy to push CAF's or reshop, too busy to finish our spl's and ad-ro's, too busy to zone, too busy to PTM, too busy to get the call boxes...we would probably go straight to CA. I cant even picture that conversation in my head its so unrealistic.
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Sounds about right.

My situation isn't quite as bad, but I can definitely relate to everything you said. I think one of the main problems with the HLTL position is that we don't have the same "tasks" that other teams do. We don't have a binder full of POGs to set, or a task-list of research in the PDA, or CAFs to pull each hour. Our workload varies greatly on the day and the shift and is open to interpretation based on who the LOD is at that time. So it's easy for the LOD to ask a HLTL to spend over an hour of their 8-hour shift covering Electronics breaks, or the first half of their shift pushing leftover truck, because there's no alert that is going to buzz on the LPDA telling us that we only have 30 mins left to finish our tasks.

I'm certainly not implying that HLTL is a more difficult position than other TLs - not at all. I don't envy any of the other TLs at my store because I've seen how hard they have to work. But the nature of my job is different and that can make it very hard to accomplish the things in HL that I want to accomplish, like PTMing that aisle that has been empty all week or zoning that Clearance endcap that is a mess. And then, before you know it, the STL puts in his closing email that that specific aisle is empty or that endcap is awful, as if you haven't had it on your to-do list for days.
 
Lol...so many of you are upset that I said what are you doing to fix it. Why is that? You really feel like you are trying your hardest??? If you don't feel like your STL and ETLs are doing their best, then you should challenge them. It is ridiculous to think that you can't do better or challenge your superiors. If you guys had ever had it harder in life, you may understand that. If you hate your job that much, then leave! No one wants you to be miserable. The happier your subordinates are, the happier you and your guests are. It doesn't hurt to try. Although, I'm sure no one will actually take this to heart, most will just complain more....that sure helps a lot.....
 
Albusmc said:
Lol...so many of you are upset that I said what are you doing to fix it. Why is that? You really feel like you are trying your hardest??? If you don't feel like your STL and ETLs are doing their best, then you should challenge them. It is ridiculous to think that you can't do better or challenge your superiors. If you guys had ever had it harder in life, you may understand that. If you hate your job that much, then leave! No one wants you to be miserable. The happier your subordinates are, the happier you and your guests are. It doesn't hurt to try. Although, I'm sure no one will actually take this to heart, most will just complain more....that sure helps a lot.....
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Ok Dr. Phil...while you were on commercial break the rest of us were paying attention. If we are agreeing strongly that this particular STL CANNOT be challenged then obviously weve tried and failed many times. Noone was "upset" about your textbook comment we just apparently all share zero patience for stupid questions...side affect of dealing with guests all day i guess. It IS ridiculous to think that you cant challenge your superiors (especially since its in our core roles); however, even if we broke the ETL wall...once the challenge reaches the STL level it is dead on arrival so eventually even the strongest-willed person will begin to pick their battles. And ill finish by saying you lost everyone once you started preaching about having a hard life. Might wanna avoid ignorant comments like that if you want people to take you seriously. *drops mic*
 
Albusmc said:
Lol...so many of you are upset that I said what are you doing to fix it. Why is that? You really feel like you are trying your hardest??? If you don't feel like your STL and ETLs are doing their best, then you should challenge them. It is ridiculous to think that you can't do better or challenge your superiors. If you guys had ever had it harder in life, you may understand that. If you hate your job that much, then leave! No one wants you to be miserable. The happier your subordinates are, the happier you and your guests are. It doesn't hurt to try. Although, I'm sure no one will actually take this to heart, most will just complain more....that sure helps a lot.....
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I wish you could come work in our store. You would change your opinion so fast and I would be right there to say I told you so, then laugh in your face and tell you to **** off. ETL's are easy to handle. I've done it for years - you explain things slowly to them and follow it up by letting them know if they stay the **** out of your way the job will be done, ahead of schedule and with great results. With that it will make their job easier, hell we will be doing their job for them.

You mention having it harder in life, well how do you know anything about how hard or easy someone has had it. We can challenge all we want, did you not read what he said about the turnover in our building since this new STL came? If it's something like a signing issue and he's wrong, sure I will challenge him on that but if he wants a god damn 7x11 on every endcap, I'm putting a 7x11 on every endcap. When he wants a TM gone or put on corrective action then I will be doing that ASAP because I'm not risking my job trying to defend someone else again.

People don't get upset and stressed if they don't care. Either you are a lazy ass ETL who tries to justify getting a paycheck for texting and talking about food or glee or you are a TL in the best store in the company that has an abundance of payroll and superstar team members.
 
Albusmc said:
Lol...so many of you are upset that I said what are you doing to fix it. Why is that? You really feel like you are trying your hardest??? If you don't feel like your STL and ETLs are doing their best, then you should challenge them. It is ridiculous to think that you can't do better or challenge your superiors. If you guys had ever had it harder in life, you may understand that. If you hate your job that much, then leave! No one wants you to be miserable. The happier your subordinates are, the happier you and your guests are. It doesn't hurt to try. Although, I'm sure no one will actually take this to heart, most will just complain more....that sure helps a lot.....
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Not to pile on but dude, seriously?
Did you read what the folks wrote with an open mind and not the auto-correct of 'they're just not doing enough'?
You can always gently nudge your bosses, I do it all the time.
As long as you do it with humor and make sure you are 100% right, many of them can be trained.
Some however are oblivious or major doucenozzles, so nothing you do will have effect.
In that situation, your only hope is to grit your teeth and hope of the two year cycle out or that they self destruct whichever comes first.

How hard a life do you need to have had to understand?
Most of us are working because we need to pay bills for such minor things as rent, food, child support, etc.
Many of us are under employed and would be perfectly happy to quit tomorrow given the opportunity.
You really don't know me so without going into detail let me just say that my life has had its share of ups and downs, with a few very deep (like you couldn't see the sky) downs.
Still, by in large, I'm one of the more positive people at work.
I like the people I work with and would rather not bring them down with my problems and if I can be supportive I will.

Doesn't change the fact that Spot works very hard to make the day to day work environment very difficult to handle.
Corporate likes to encourage teamwork but not comradery, the first gets the job done but the second means that people join together and care about one another.
That could cause problems, might even lead to organization.
 
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