I'm Lost! Unable to complete all my tasks and stressing out about it.

Joined
Nov 24, 2018
Messages
31
So I’m what they call go to girl and everywhere girl. Just now hitting my year anniversary and I’ve been crossed trained on every department. I’m who they call when someone calls out. I don’t have a department and I think they keep that under the radar because of modernization. I’m labeled under General Merch, but I float to any department except for Beauty.
My STL set me up to do anything she needed done when I first started and it’s great I love helping my ETLs wherever they need me. My store now no longer has a Store leader though, she left because of health issues.
I’m starting to feel my responsibilities pile up though and I’m worried I don’t move quick enough to meet expectations. I know the ETLs appreciate me considering I’ve worked 13-16 hour shifts regularly with no warning just to help them get caught up.

BUT lately two ETLs have been asking me, “You doing okay?” Or “How much you got left?” a lot lately. I can’t seem to get all the tasks they want done. I would stay from dawn to dusk to get everything done, but with payroll sometimes that’s just not possible. It’s hard when I’m expected to help Starbucks when they need it and Flexibles when they need it, cover Electronics on top of every other responsibility a DBO has in a shift.

I’m a slow zoner and a slow pusher given the department, so sometimes I find myself wondering if I’m actually doing a good job or not. I love my job. Even wanted to be an ETL someday...I really want to do a good job, but I can’t seem to get it all done.

Yesterday I was working Toys, Seasonal, and Sporting Goods. That’s 10 one for ones, two departments to zone (Toys is a mess and I can’t help but pick up everything stray product that has no location), two departments with full reshop, and then five piled high flats that have repacks. How can I get all of this done? I tried my best, but I can’t help feeling like I have to slack on something just to complete it all. Ended up leaving without a good zone, a repack, and a cart of reshop I had to pass on.

We had a visit and I overheard the ETL and the outsider saying that they needed more people that take pride in their job as they walked my area and my zone was terrible.

Help! I really want to do better, but I can only do so much. I hardly ever even take my fifteens because I’m so concerned I won’t get done.
 
I would talk with your Leader. Make them aware of the workload.

"I am in T, SG, and Seasonal. There are two carts of reshop, the zone is terrible, I have 10 fillgroups for 1-for-1s, I have 3 sheets of pricing labels, and ### number of clearance items, and there are 5 flats of freight/repacks. Where would you like me to start, and what is the priority?"

At my store, zone and 1-for-1s are supposed to take priority over freight.

So - my best advice, talk with your leader. Make them aware of your workload, and try to hit the most important tasks. (1-for-1s, zone, clearance, pricing labels, freight?)

I let my TL know ahead of time when I am not going to finish something.... like if my freight is heavy, or my 1-for-1s are huge, or I walked into a terrible zone.
 
I applaud your dedication and energy. I agree with @jenna. Talk to TLs about expectations and how to prioritize. And take care of yourself. This job is not worth compromising your physical or emotional health. Take your breaks esp on long shifts please. It’s tempting to work through them, I did (and off the clock too neener neener). Seriously that sets up unrealistic timelines and the teams don’t need that. Let us know how it goes.
 
I can relate to that, I was working another job aswell as target for 10 months. I worked between 60 - 70 hours a week. It became physically/mentally/emotionally draining. I wasnt able to keep up with my work load. I talked with my ETL's about what I was struggling with after being confronted about how something seemed different with me and almost every week we go offstage to have a talk for a couple minutes to see how everything is working out. So I would honestly suggest talking with your leadership team about your concerns, and let them know you feel your being over worked.
 
Help! I really want to do better, but I can only do so much. I hardly ever even take my fifteens because I’m so concerned I won’t get done.

If you're cheating yourself out of your breaks in order to meet the unreasonable expectations that the company sets, you are letting them know their unreasonable expectations are very reasonable & profitable. And they'll expect EVERY tm to be able to accomplish just as much as the people who are already willing to work for free. You're cheating yourself AND hurting everyone else.
 
Agree, take your 15. Turn it into 20. Not hard to do. I liked our Log ETL, she left, most of our HRs were palatable, one GSTL was a joke, PMT/SFT everyone liked him, he went on to something better. Latest LOG TL was an abomination. I left on my terms to do more fly fishing. Captains orders......use your breaks.....
 
I always take one 15 but usually skip my second one, when I'm scheduled long enough to actually get a second one. But I will occasionally stop and browse a bit on the way to the back room or run into the fitting room to try something on, so I figure that makes up for it.
 
If you're cheating yourself out of your breaks in order to meet the unreasonable expectations that the company sets, you are letting them know their unreasonable expectations are very reasonable & profitable. And they'll expect EVERY tm to be able to accomplish just as much as the people who are already willing to work for free. You're cheating yourself AND hurting everyone else.

This.
 
Agree with what others say about taking breaks, talking to your leader about expectations and work load. I'd add something about what you said about being a slow zoner and slow pusher -- how can you boost your speed in these two areas? When I zone, I don't do it perfectly as I used to do; instead of making a shelf perfect, I bring 1 or 2 of a product to the front and that's good enough. The shelf is faced and I move on. I pick up strays and take them to the front for the re-shop carts if they don't go in that same area. To do push quickly, it really helps if whoever pulls the batch keeps things together; so for a Chems batch, all the air fresheners are together and the dish soaps are together etc.
 
Every ETL I know asks me "are you doing okay", "how are we doing so far?" or "how's it coming along?" and almost always they just want to hear that I'm positive about it getting done. They never follow up again after that and I just get it done. I even stay 15-30 minutes after schedule without asking to get it done and never get talked to about it. Once the tasks are done they don't have to do them or worry about delegating someone else to finish them. That's literally their first worry. 2nd is payroll of course so if they are saying shit about tight payroll and hours then expect to be hustled along but don't feel pressured to hurt yourself by going too fast or cutting corners. Work at a smart and comfortable pace and ignore any ETL or TL who pressures you to work at a stupid pace. No one is a machine.
 
Every ETL I know asks me "are you doing okay", "how are we doing so far?" or "how's it coming along?" and almost always they just want to hear that I'm positive about it getting done. They never follow up again after that and I just get it done.
This seems on point to me for the most part, although there are weeks where payroll is tightly monitored so I always check in before I stay more than just a few minutes past my out time. Almost always get the go-ahead, but still, I find it keeps me on the leaders' good side to ask first.
Work at a smart and comfortable pace and ignore any ETL or TL who pressures you to work at a stupid pace. No one is a machine.
Also this. I'm still learning how to do revisions and found myself going to fetch a couple more pegs and then another trip to get a few magnetic shelf dividers, taking more time than would be necessary for someone more experienced to rearrange pegs, etc. It'll get better as I figure out what I'm doing, but right now, it's a bit slow. Fortunately, my store's leadership is pretty good about giving us time to learn the new tasks.
 
We used to have a GSTL who ran Ad Set. She would come by every area and bother us. I liked to do the freezer stuff and refrigerated area. No one else volunteered! She would say in a very condescending tone of voice "we need to work with more sense of urgency". Wrong move saying that to The Captain. I had enough one sunny Sunday morning and asked her politely to just leave. "please. this is the 3rd time in 2 hours you have bothered me, will you please just go." She did. Couple of weeks later she was history.
 
Do they still do Ad Set on Sunday mornings? It was fun, always good stuff in the break room (after that lousy gstl left) The young lady who ran Plano ran the Ad Set frequently, she was nice.
 
In other news I was assured my ETL will always give more than one can finish to keep you productive your whole shift. Made me feel much better about the whole thing.
 
Do they still do Ad Set on Sunday mornings? It was fun, always good stuff in the break room (after that lousy gstl left) The young lady who ran Plano ran the Ad Set frequently, she was nice.

Yep. POG used to own ad set, at least at my store. Another POG veteran and I still do it most weeks, sometimes all by our lonesomes.
 
We always finished on time, nobody paid any attention to her. Where did The Dog pirate the term "modernization" from? Silly word. I shouldn't have ended my sentence with a preposition. We had a good Ad Set team, same folks for a couple of years, we got it done and had some fun doing it. I liked Black Friday also, the food in the breakroom was excellent and we usually had an adequate staff.
 
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