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[TBRTWITCH]

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[MrGeppetto]

probably not enough hours to go around, it's April. ._.

 

[Life201]

Last year my weekly average was 35 hours. I qualify for benefits but I couldn't apply for medical because I hadn't been with the company for 12 months in January. I used to cover call outs all the time, but they haven't called me in months. My hours have been consistently lower and I've used up all the vacation hours I'd saved to keep my weekly average up.

I keep asking for more hours and I get the run around. They tell me to crosstrain(even though I'm trained in 3 departments), then they never give me any crosstraining when I ask for it. They'll say things like, "If you REALLY want hours, you can always cashier or push carts", assuming I'll say no. But I tell them they can throw me on a register or out in the parking lot, I'll do anything as long as I'm getting paid. Even saying that gets me nowhere. I've even reached out to the overnight team leaders when I hear the LOD tell them, "Well, you've got 7 call outs tonight". But they just look at me like I'm an idiot.

I'm a great worker, I've received team member of the month and I got an EX on my annual review. The only reason I can think of for them resisting me so much is that they plan on cutting my hours low enough that I don't qualify for medical before I can actually apply for it. I don't even care that much about medical, but if they plan on keeping me below 29 hours a week then I think it's time to start looking for another job.

I absolutely believe they work hard to make sure the fewest people possible are eligible for benefits. They probably have an official percentage of people they will cover & tell the ETLs to tweak hours to make sure they don't go over that number.

 

[SFSFun]

I don't know which workcenter you are normally in but maybe you should consider asking to transfer to overnight flow or backroom? If your store has an overnight process, I'd bet that you won't have much trouble getting 30+ hours that way.

 

[Rarejem]

They did it to me. I had insurance since I was eligible many years ago. I ended the year with an average of 29.3 hours. And just like that I am uninsured for the first time in my life. (and yes...did use the swap shift board, begged for more hours, etc.)

 

[Kartman]

It sucks.

 

[PassinTime]

Are their any leadership parameters where the leader gets some sort of bonus or bump in pay if they minimize the number of employees who have insurance? Or, any parameter where where they lose pay if too many employees have insurance?

In absence of either of those, there isn't any reason why leadership should try to limit insurance qualification for TMs.

I could see limiting hours so you could have a larger employee base...the need to keep hiring more and more employees...cause you never know when employees might quit and you don't want to be short staffed. Heck, give adequate hours, and insurance when needed, and people wouldn't quit! A vicious circle!

 

[commiecorvus]

Are their any leadership parameters where the leader gets some sort of bonus or bump in pay if they minimize the number of employees who have insurance? Or, any parameter where where they lose pay if too many employees have insurance?

In absence of either of those, there isn't any reason why leadership should try to limit insurance qualification for TMs.

I could see limiting hours so you could have a larger employee base...the need to keep hiring more and more employees...cause you never know when employees might quit and you don't want to be short staffed. Heck, give adequate hours, and insurance when needed, and people wouldn't quit! A vicious circle!

I could believe however considering the level of kool-aid drinking that there might be a bit of "Will no one ride of this troublesome priest?" going on.
How many ETL HRs might there be seeing themselves as good knights of Spot out to save the company?


For that folks confused by the reference,
In the presence of English Barons, Henry II—who was by that point totally pissed off by Becket's actions—cries out: Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?
Believing the King meant for Becket to be murdered, four knights ride to Canterbury Cathedral and kill Becket on December 29, 1170.

 

[Joejoe12]

While spot will never confirm it HQ does try to limit the amount of people that are can receive benefits. At the end of the day it cost spot more to provide benefits to someone than it does to hire x number of people and only give them x hours. It's sad but at then end of the day HQ only cares about making a profit and providing a bonus for the CEO and profits for shareholders. Sadly they could care less if you have insurance

 

[LadyCynide]

They do it all the time. 3 out of 4 weeks a month I work about 35-40 hours. But one week each month they drop my hours down to like 20 so that the average stays low.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

To give you the short answer;

Yes, they absolutely will do this.

In fact, they probably receive an email when your average hours worked goes above 25 telling them you are in danger of hitting 28 hours.

To give you the long answer;

With the ACA, Target is forced to carry insurance coverage for each employee with an average hours over 28 regardless of if they choose to carry this insurance themselves. As a result, spot (and most other retail companies) have shifted to a hire more, work less mentality which allows them to cover shifts while carrying as little benefit impact as possible. It's a discussion purely of profit. To Target (the company, not your manager) you are a number. As a very good employee, you are a positive number. Most employees are not excellent, and would cost the company more to carry the benefits then they actually benefit the company, and as a result this is the mentality that is driven by the corporation.

If I had to take a guess, they will also soon move to a company wide 5 hour compliance window for lunches, and staff flow in a way that the goal is to get the truck completed in 4.5 hours, so flow TMs do not need to take a lunch, increasing their average hours.

If you don't like this, you can blame the Affordable Care Act, not Target. Washington was short sighted and should have seen that Corp. America would dodge the intended effect of the bill by just hiring more people and limiting hours. It sounds great on paper, more jobs. But in practice it just means people are working for essentially nothing.

They do it all the time. 3 out of 4 weeks a month I work about 35-40 hours. But one week each month they drop my hours down to like 20 so that the average stays low.

If that were the case your average hours would still be around 32. They would have to cut you to like 8 hours after working 35 for 3 weeks.

 

[commiecorvus]

To give you the short answer;

Yes, they absolutely will do this.

In fact, they probably receive an email when your average hours worked goes above 25 telling them you are in danger of hitting 28 hours.

To give you the long answer;

With the ACA, Target is forced to carry insurance coverage for each employee with an average hours over 28 regardless of if they choose to carry this insurance themselves. As a result, spot (and most other retail companies) have shifted to a hire more, work less mentality which allows them to cover shifts while carrying as little benefit impact as possible. It's a discussion purely of profit. To Target (the company, not your manager) you are a number. As a very good employee, you are a positive number. Most employees are not excellent, and would cost the company more to carry the benefits then they actually benefit the company, and as a result this is the mentality that is driven by the corporation.

If I had to take a guess, they will also soon move to a company wide 5 hour compliance window for lunches, and staff flow in a way that the goal is to get the truck completed in 4.5 hours, so flow TMs do not need to take a lunch, increasing their average hours.

If you don't like this, you can blame the Affordable Care Act, not Target. Washington was short sighted and should have seen that Corp. America would dodge the intended effect of the bill by just hiring more people and limiting hours. It sounds great on paper, more jobs. But in practice it just means people are working for essentially nothing.



If that were the case your average hours would still be around 32. They would have to cut you to like 8 hours after working 35 for 3 weeks.

Oh, you certainly can blame Spot.
If they are doing it on purpose then it is illegal and they should be prosecuted for it.
Washington recognized that greedy bastards might do shit like this and specifically wrote rules against it.

The sad thing is that corporations were pulling this shit way before the ACA came along.
They had started turning insurance to shit and cutting peoples hours down to the bone years before it passed.
In fact part of the reason it was created was because of the crap the big corporations and insurance companies pulled.

 

[semantics]

Well it's that sort of half measure we get, instead of adoption and system like japan's or france's in which most procedures are covered anywhere from 60-100% but the overall avg any medical cost is around 75% covered by the government and you're liable for the rest. Meaning you can mandate prices more in the super noncompetitive market that is healthcare, that or they could have at least removed the barring of medical instruments from other nations and À la carte pricing. Yes unless your ETL/TL really loves you they'll look to limit those who do have benefits to a minimum.

 

[Guest]

Gonna have to beg for scraps and crumbs.

I have been begging to be cross trained for the last 3 weeks and nothing. No scraps or crumbs available for me. I have even literally said "hey, I am willing to be cross trained in grocery AND hardlines and stay till midnight on BOTH Saturday and Sunday" and nothing.

I get the "thanks, if something comes up, I'll let you know" every time I beg for scraps.

 

[Kartman]

I don't give a flying crap about insurance... I just want more hours!

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

They do it all the time. 3 out of 4 weeks a month I work about 35-40 hours. But one week each month they drop my hours down to like 20 so that the average stays low.

Oh, you certainly can blame Spot.
If they are doing it on purpose then it is illegal and they should be prosecuted for it.
Washington recognized that greedy bastards might do shit like this and specifically wrote rules against it.

The sad thing is that corporations were pulling this shit way before the ACA came along.
They had started turning insurance to shit and cutting peoples hours down to the bone years before it passed.
In fact part of the reason it was created was because of the crap the big corporations and insurance companies pulled.

There are actually no rules against this. If you are classified as part time (you are) there's no reason why they can't cut your hours whenever they want for whatever they want.

It's kind of the obvious thing that would happen.

When minimum wage increases start to outpace profits next year, don't think that won't have an impact too. Hiring will decrease and they will push for more productivity, it's already started.

I'm not saying corporations aren't to blame, I'm just saying things like enforced minimum wage and aca don't mesh well with our economy. You can't force things into a free market, it's inherently opposite.

 

[PassinTime]

While spot will never confirm it HQ does try to limit the amount of people that are can receive benefits. At the end of the day it cost spot more to provide benefits to someone than it does to hire x number of people and only give them x hours. It's sad but at then end of the day HQ only cares about making a profit and providing a bonus for the CEO and profits for shareholders. Sadly they could care less if you have insurance

However, a STL's goals and corporate's goals don't always align.

Just like when Spot allowed dealers to buy large quantities of loss leaders, particularly those expensive electronic items. Corporate wanted to use those to draw in shoppers. Corporate assumed/hoped that the guests would load up their carts enough to offset the losses on the loss leader. However, some leadership didn't care and would allow dealers to buy most/all the loss leaders, just to get the bump in sales. In this kind of situation the store had high sales, but they were not profitable sales. To the STL didn't matter, they beat sales plan...which is part of how they're compensated.

 

[Rarejem]

Oh, you certainly can blame Spot.
If they are doing it on purpose then it is illegal and they should be prosecuted for it.
Washington recognized that greedy bastards might do shit like this and specifically wrote rules against it.

The sad thing is that corporations were pulling this shit way before the ACA came along.
They had started turning insurance to shit and cutting peoples hours down to the bone years before it passed.
In fact part of the reason it was created was because of the crap the big corporations and insurance companies pulled.

HOW do you prove it? I am so irritated because it also means a loss of holiday pay, personal hours, well being hours, etc. I can get insurance, but that is a significant loss in pay!!

 

[commiecorvus]

HOW do you prove it? I am so irritated because it also means a loss of holiday pay, personal hours, well being hours, etc. I can get insurance, but that is a significant loss in pay!!

They are violating d §510 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) which prohibits interference with an employee's ability to obtain benefits to which they are entitled.
Proving it is tricky, in a case won against Dave and Busters the management were flat out saying that was what they were doing.
In your case it would probably involve spread sheets and trying to prove that this isn't part of a normal pattern of hour cuts for your store.
Target does one thing well and that is CYA.

 

[redeye58]

Commie's right in that you'd have to show a pattern & - if you were able to - it could quickly morph into a class-action suit.

 

[Rarejem]

Commie's right in that you'd have to show a pattern & - if you were able to - it could quickly morph into a class-action suit.

I'm not privy to the schedules of others so that's not going to happen. I'll just have to wallow in my sorrow.

 

[commiecorvus]

I'm not privy to the schedules of others so that's not going to happen. I'll just have to wallow in my sorrow.

Nothing says you can't talk to people about their schedules.
Just be careful how you do it.
I wouldn't want you to get fired.