Hi, I'm new here. I currently have an extremely stressful full time job, but I have been considering reapplying to Target, despite the fact it'd be a significant cut in pay and hours. I know, weird. You know it's bad if Target is less stressful, lol.
Here's the thing, though: I previously worked instocks for Target back in 2011. I was hired in August around back-to-school time, but was terminated by October. My store was very clique-ish, and my TL was absurdly unhelpful in giving advice, and would sometimes just stare at me when I asked a question and then walk away looking disgusted instead of answering, even when I'd only been there a few days. The rest of my team also ignored me when I tried to join in their group conversations.
Actually, due to the comments of a couple guys in the backroom, I suspect my race might have been a factor in her not liking me ("Hey, [reference to my race] of the month" was how they began to greet me, but they also directly stated that my TL was not very welcoming of people of my race, and that people of my race were often hired for "diversity" and fired soon after), but as I would have no way of proving this, I never brought it up in my defense. I was also the only member of my team of my race, which I was fine with. I figured it would be stupid to make waves when the store itself was probably just a bad fit, and I knew I might want to try again someday. Also, I just really didn't want to believe she hated me for such a silly reason, I suppose. I'm not usually a "race card" person at all, and I feel bad every time I consider it, but in this situation it was hard to ignore the possibility. And yes, I'm being intentionally vague about my race because, like I said, I'm new here, and I don't want to accidentally spark any kind of racial argument. What color I am doesn't really matter, but I felt this factor should be mentioned.
The official reason for my termination was underperformance, but I always performed my job as I'd been trained; from what I witnessed, most others would scan a few missing items per aisle and move along, though the TL denied this and said I would be reprimanded if I did that. There were many, many item spots that would remain empty for weeks (especially in cosmetics) because nobody but me took the time to scan all the spots that were out of stock, which is what I was trained to do. I asked for help many times, including whether I was allowed to skip over some items. I was told I still had to scan everything, just more quickly. I was scanning things as fast as the PDA would let me, and I'm still really not sure what more I could have done without skipping spots. I've never had underperformance complaints in any other job.
So, I guess my question is, will they give me a chance at another Target? It's been over four years, and I don't fully understand how I messed up, if I did indeed mess up. I assume I must have, and they just decided I was so irredeemably stupid or something that it wasn't worth telling me what I ACTUALLY needed to do. Would they even still have the info that I used to work for them? If they ask, I don't want to lie, but it just feels like interview suicide to say, "Yeah, I worked for you before, and you fired me." I don't want to say anything bad about my old TL, whatever her issues with me were. At the same time, I never received effective feedback to really say I learned from my mistakes (of performing how I was trained, I guess?).
What should I do?
Here's the thing, though: I previously worked instocks for Target back in 2011. I was hired in August around back-to-school time, but was terminated by October. My store was very clique-ish, and my TL was absurdly unhelpful in giving advice, and would sometimes just stare at me when I asked a question and then walk away looking disgusted instead of answering, even when I'd only been there a few days. The rest of my team also ignored me when I tried to join in their group conversations.
Actually, due to the comments of a couple guys in the backroom, I suspect my race might have been a factor in her not liking me ("Hey, [reference to my race] of the month" was how they began to greet me, but they also directly stated that my TL was not very welcoming of people of my race, and that people of my race were often hired for "diversity" and fired soon after), but as I would have no way of proving this, I never brought it up in my defense. I was also the only member of my team of my race, which I was fine with. I figured it would be stupid to make waves when the store itself was probably just a bad fit, and I knew I might want to try again someday. Also, I just really didn't want to believe she hated me for such a silly reason, I suppose. I'm not usually a "race card" person at all, and I feel bad every time I consider it, but in this situation it was hard to ignore the possibility. And yes, I'm being intentionally vague about my race because, like I said, I'm new here, and I don't want to accidentally spark any kind of racial argument. What color I am doesn't really matter, but I felt this factor should be mentioned.
The official reason for my termination was underperformance, but I always performed my job as I'd been trained; from what I witnessed, most others would scan a few missing items per aisle and move along, though the TL denied this and said I would be reprimanded if I did that. There were many, many item spots that would remain empty for weeks (especially in cosmetics) because nobody but me took the time to scan all the spots that were out of stock, which is what I was trained to do. I asked for help many times, including whether I was allowed to skip over some items. I was told I still had to scan everything, just more quickly. I was scanning things as fast as the PDA would let me, and I'm still really not sure what more I could have done without skipping spots. I've never had underperformance complaints in any other job.
So, I guess my question is, will they give me a chance at another Target? It's been over four years, and I don't fully understand how I messed up, if I did indeed mess up. I assume I must have, and they just decided I was so irredeemably stupid or something that it wasn't worth telling me what I ACTUALLY needed to do. Would they even still have the info that I used to work for them? If they ask, I don't want to lie, but it just feels like interview suicide to say, "Yeah, I worked for you before, and you fired me." I don't want to say anything bad about my old TL, whatever her issues with me were. At the same time, I never received effective feedback to really say I learned from my mistakes (of performing how I was trained, I guess?).
What should I do?
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