Archived Been with Target for several years, taken on responsibilities of a team lead, but cant actually get promoted to that position. How do I make progress?

[Little Mac]

I enjoy working for the company a great deal as it matches my personality and desires from a job. I don't love everything especially some of the current changes but I feel like I've reached a point where I need more than a paycheck every month for my hard work, I keep adapting to the fast repetitive changes but I always stay in place. I want personal growth and new challenges, and a change of pace. Making well above the chains minimum of 12, have negotiated multiple pay raises outside of normal yearly ones with the store team lead. They very clearly value me, and appreciate everything I do but I've been waiting quite some time for a promotion inside our outside our store, and I'm starting to get tired of waiting. I've been on the bench since mid first quarter, still nothing has happened. The store team lead seems to think I just need to be patient, and listen to his advice/steps to more forward.

But I've been doing that for months, but my last team lead was toxic and lied/misconstrued things to come up with a complaint that made no sense relative to the reality in our section of the store. The Store Team Lead could ask literally anyone in my section, and they would contest the claims made against me as they were the opposite of the reality. As a result i'm starting to feel like they are making excuses and refusing to promote me as if I leave the section will likely fall into disarray without my presence. Numbers have been green most of the time I have been in this position, and they were not so pretty before I arrived. If I move and grow, they will have to do the same and struggle until they find someone else to take up my role.

Things have been so good the Store Team Lead has repeatedly praised our section and myself directly giving me credit where its due, as we have had nearly no issues since the modernization started and have carried our workload and then some every single day under my leadership. I've earned the respect and admiration of those below me, as I am always who they fall back on when things don't go well, I've always got the answers and can always smooth things over with guests no matter how bad the guest or foo-pah from my team. My actual team leads always have no clue what they are doing one tossed over me, and become reliant on me to watch the section while they take care of whatever others they lead over. I'm tired of having people over me who make more than me and are building towards something while I run in place and have for years. To make matters worse they just throw their work and responsibilities on me, and I get nothing but a bigger pay bump each year which does not help my resume.

I feel like a rabbit, and someones holding a carrot out on a stick, they keep promising a reward when I meet goals, but then when I meet or beat them I end up with a nice pay bump but no progression. What do I do here, start applying at locations within 50 miles for team lead positions, and start commuting every day and go over my local management? What do I need to be doing to get noticed and promoted in or outside the store i'm located in?

His biggest request is he continues to demand I lift everyone in my team to the same performance levels as myself, the problem is the rest of the staff work way less hours and care way less. I don't hire these people, I just train them, and I cant force someone to change their attitude and work ethic. I've improved them, but I cant imagine pushing them to carry out my work load without being actively monitored. Only one maybe has the drive to do it, and he is loosing motivation from watching me struggle to get promoted as he is starting to see Target as a dead end.

 

[Formina Sage]

Where's your ETL during all of this? They should really be advocating for you to the STL and vocalizing their support for a promotion.

Also they have to have an opening for you to promote into. If the store has a complete headcount of TLs, they can't do anything until one leaves or is termed.

You say you're on the bench, does that mean you've interviewed and passed, or have you just been identified as hi-po and been put "in the pipeline"?

 

[Little Mac]

Where's your ETL during all of this? They should really be advocating for you to the STL and vocalizing their support for a promotion.

Also they have to have an opening for you to promote into. If the store has a complete headcount of TLs, they can't do anything until one leaves or is termed.

You say you're on the bench, does that mean you've interviewed and passed, or have you just been identified as hi-po and been put "in the pipeline"?

I'm identified as a hi-po, and put in the pipeline. Was not interested in moving up until late last year, but i'm starting to feel like I'm ready to do so. My store head count is maxed for now, has been for a while. Turnover is slow here, which is why i feel like going elsewhere is really my only option at this point.

I usually just refer to ETL's as Team Leads, Last ETL over my section hated my guts as i described above, primarily because I wanted her job when she got it and was shoe-horned in because of restructuring. It was either either stick her in over me, fire her, or relocate her, so they did the affordable thing and pushed her in over my section. Doing that did not go over well, obviously I was upset, and most of the staff under me are upset as well, most of them have hurt morale now which isn't great for productivity. It put her in a tough spot, I tried to just put it behind us but she took every chance to attack me, my work, or put me down. The ETL before her, was not liked by the rest of management so he did not get much say.

Internal politics are a huge issue in this location, its basically be friends with the STL and the Assistant Manager or your going to have a rough time. I get along with them OK, we have a healthy work relationship.

Other ETL's even have voiced that i'm grossly overdue for promotion and deserving of it to STL, corporate even has stated their interest in me as I've stood out from every store they had visited in days either because of how knowledgeable I was or because I was doing more actual tasks than the majority. There are very few team members or leads that do not like or respect me. In the last discussion with the STL, he even outright said I have the respect of everyone in the store, no one in management could think any higher of me or would be hard pressed to find a reason to speak poorly of me. Yet here I am, still sitting in limbo.

Current ETL seems to be relying on me again, and respects my knowledge and ownership of everything around me.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Wait till next year.

 

[Bullseyerc]

What’s happening next year?

 

[DeadEnd]

What’s happening next year?

Other company wide reduce of team leaders head count depend on business after done with flow and backroom team members head counts.

 

[Little Mac]

Other company wide reduce of team leaders head count depend on business after done with flow and backroom team members head counts.

Wouldn't this just make it harder to move up?

 

[Planosss]

Wouldn't this just make it harder to move up?

Hi little Mac, do you know if there are any TL openings in your store right now? What about neighboring stores with opening you might be interested in?
You can’t just wait for them to “make” you a TL. If there is an open position please apply for it.

 

[signingminion]

Unless they put you through interviews and you pass... they are carrot dangling. It's not your fault, you can't know better.

Ask to start prepping for the interviews. Their reaction will let you know how to proceed.

 

[Little Mac]

Hi little Mac, do you know if there are any TL openings in your store right now? What about neighboring stores with opening you might be interested in?
You can’t just wait for them to “make” you a TL. If there is an open position please apply for it.

Nope, nothing open, and the fact its a smaller store with low turnover has made things difficult. Pretty much just gonna go ahead and start applying externally to other locations. Looked just now, 4 management positions are open. Two are executive team leads and two are store team leads.

Is it really a good idea to just jump in that deep, only management experience I have is around two years of managing a team but without technically being a ETL? What are going to be the best positions to apply with that in mind if not?

Unless they put you through interviews and you pass... they are carrot dangling. It's not your fault, you can't know better.

Ask to start prepping for the interviews. Their reaction will let you know how to proceed.

Since they have not even brought this up to me, sounds like my above choice is the right one. Probably going to bring it up to them and see how they respond, just to test the management.

 

[Planosss]

Nope, nothing open, and the fact its a smaller store with low turnover has made things difficult. Pretty much just gonna go ahead and start applying externally to other locations. Looked just now, 4 management positions are open. Two are executive team leads and two are store team leads.

Is it really a good idea to just jump in that deep, only management experience I have is around two years of managing a team but without technically being a ETL? What are going to be the best positions to apply with that in mind if not?



Since they have not even brought this up to me, sounds like my above choice is the right one. Probably going to bring it up to them and see how they respond, just to test the management.

If there aren’t positions open in your store, the store can’t just makeup a position. Apply to another store as a TL.

 

[Little Mac]

If there aren’t positions open in your store, the store can’t just makeup a position. Apply to another store as a TL.

Reason I was just waiting and not applying to other stores was because the store team lead of my store stated it was not necessary and opportunities would present themselves in the form of other stores wanting recommendations for advancement, but based on the comments here its obvious he is probably just trying to prolong my stay under his leadership to make himself look good until he moves on at my expense which IMO is pretty rotten.

Just going to start applying for team leads. Thanks for the input.

 

[Little Mac]

I will ask however is there still a team member only job listing page? Tried to access it on EHR like I used to from my home pc, and all the links are dead besides the one that is available to anyone online. Can you only access those services through a Target location?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I will ask however is there still a team member only job listing page? Tried to access it on EHR like I used to from my home pc, and all the links are dead besides the one that is available to anyone online. Can you only access those services through a Target location?

On workbench