Archived Cluttered Freezer Makes for Unsafe Work Environment

[BR Broad]

I work part time hours in the backroom at my store. I only work evenings due to my availability. I never see my ETL or TL bc they only work days. Our freezer in the backroom is always crammed packed with vehicles and pallets of back stock. I won't go in there most of the time bc of it. I get anxious and panic bc of all of the potential dangers under those conditions.
We just recently received our reviews and bc I never see any of my backroom leads the headlines ETL gave me my review. Before my review I had planned to mention the lack of communication the evening tms receive for the leaders (I was going to say this to whoever gave me my review). I don't think that my Logistics ETL like this bc everyday since I have been communicated to by the LODs to back stock the coolers and freezer. I have no problem back stocking in any of those places as long as it's safe. But my ETL is clearly retaliating against me for pointing out his lack ofcommunication with the entire team. No one ever gets told to do the freezer in the evenings. It seems like no one does it during the day either. It's just funny that I get assigned to do the least liked job after I asked for communication when there was plenty of other back stock to do. Not to detour from the title of this thread.
So I'm fairly new to target still (3 months) and I haven't been informed on the way all the processes work there. What is the standard process for receiving trucks (specifically food truck), pushing, and back stocking? It seems like everything is brought straight back to be back stocked. When I'm scanning back stock a lot of times it's telling me it's supposed to be pushed to the floor, but I've been told to back stock it anyway.
Also who do I speak to about this retaliation/ bullying that's happening? I don't trust any LODs bc they all stick together. I've seen the back lash of talking to the STL about issues, when other tm's have.
What's ur advice here?

 

[Leonhart621]

If you don't trust anyone, call hotline.

If the reason you're going to give for not being able to backstock is "it's unsafe" and refuse to do it, I would suggest find another workcenter to at.

 

[tgtguy]

@BR Broad I can relate to some of what you are saying. I am the only person at my store who will touch the bs in the cooler and freezer. If I go on vacation all the bs sits there till I come back. So, I can relate with feeling like you are getting the crappy section that no one wants to bs . I bs the freezer and cooler ( usually without complaining ) because I don't so much mind doing it ...but I don't like them always assuming it has to be doing it . I wish that my leadership and peers would realize that the cooler and freezer are in the backroom and thus needs to be backstocked and shouldn't be left for one person. You could try talking to your leaders and just simply asking ...if there is a way that there could be a rotation with backstocking the cooler and freezer. Tm a does it this day Tm B this day etc etc. I wouldn't start the conversation out with...I feel like I am being targeted etc and they are punishing me by making me do the cooler and freezer ( although this could be true). If you start the conversation out that way...you can be almost certain they will blow off everything you say after that because they will be spending time being defensive instead of listening to what you are saying . I would at least try this before I would call the hotline etc. As far backstocking things that the system says should had went to the floor...I usually just repush it or if I don't have time I just backstock it and let it come back out on the cafs.

 

[BR Broad]

I don't have an issue with back stocking the freezer bc I understood it was a job requirement when I took the job. It's just the principal of y I am being asked to do it, and that I'm back stocking truck. Shouldn't that be done when the truck comes in, at least most of it? This large load of back stock is what makes the freezer unsafe. If there was another team member scheduled with me and we could both do the freezer together I may have never suspected that I was being targeted, but that was not the situation. In order for it to be back stocked safely the pallet and some vehicles would have to be removed, and than have to be back in the freezer with in 30 mins. I'm not risking anything or beating myself up to do a 2 man job by myself. Our LODs hardly come check on br tms anyway. If i fell in there and was knocked out its hard telling when someone would find me. There's less than a foot a space to move in there with the large load of bs sitting in there.

 

[Produce Queen]

I would approach your TL with a plan: How about if 3 BR tms all go in and get it all backstocked. After that it wouldn't be too difficult to keep up on it and that you would dedicate an hour (if necessary) every night to keeping it clean.

 

[IHeartCarts]

lol'd at the thought of 3 BR TMs working at once

 

[qmosqueen]

i just STO'd 6 metros of backstock in my Freezer in 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Just get to it and work hard, you will clean up your freezer in one 8 hour shift.

Tell your TL that you want to clean the freezer and would like to spend the entire shift in the freezer. BEST way to STO loose items is to bring out 9 empty wacos out of the freezer , take out the metro STO loose items in wacos and then put the wacos back. This way you don't have to spend the entire time in the freezer. Only when you have to STO full case pack.

EDIT ::: the freezer has been crazy this week due to the resetting of the freezer aisles and all the NEW product. This should level off late next week.

 

[tgtguy]

Another thing that I do every shift...when I am pulling in the freezer and cooler I will do a mini purge. I will do three wacos in the cooler and three in the freezer. Any Waco that has just a couple items in it...I locu and work that out as well. This makes backstocking so much easier and faster like @qmosqueen said you can bs outside of the freezer this way.

 

[SFSFun]

While the dayside team SHOULD finish backstocking the truck, that doesn't always happen. It's not necessarily the TLs fault, but sometimes there just isn't enough time or TMs to get it all done. And it can snowball quickly if it doesn't get done for several trucks in a row.

Unless your ETL told you to backstock the freezer in the same conversation when you told him you'd like more communication, I wouldn't read too much into it. You said yourself it needs to be backstocked.

If you need to make room in the freezer to move around, pull out some pallets or green racks and leave them outside the freezer (no more than 30 minutes). And don't forget to bundle up if you'll be in there for a while (heavy jacket with hood, ski mask, heavy snow pants, gloves).

 

[Produce Queen]

lol'd at the thought of 3 BR TMs working at once

We had 3 ppl backstocking the cooler at the same time on Tues. It is possible.

 

[MrGeppetto]

I've been in my freezer and it took me 20 minutes to get a ladder across pallets, tubs, carts.
It's so cramped back there it's quite scary to think about being in there during a Earthquake.

 

[SFSFun]

I've been in my freezer and it took me 20 minutes to get a ladder across pallets, tubs, carts.
It's so cramped back there it's quite scary to think about being in there during a Earthquake.

Wait why do you have a ladder in your freezer?

 

[MrGeppetto]

high shelves are the reason, but it's impossible to use

 

[tgtguy]

We have a step stool in ours. I try to keep the boxes down low so a ladder isn't needed . However, sometimes you have to do what you have to do .

 

[SFSFun]

Our freezer and coolers have the green racks minus the wheels along the walls for backstock locations, and even our shortest BR and market TMs can reach items on the top.

 

[tgtguy]

Ours is like that as well. However, when the freight is heavy ( like this past week with the reset and all) I have to stack boxes on the top shelves sometime two or three high.

 

[SFSFun]

Ah ok that makes sense. We have a barrier hanging from the fans that runs along the 3 main walls. It leaves about 2 feet of room on the top shelves.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

If your fdc truck come at night, it should be on pallets in the coolers. Our store doesn't push them till 4am.
What size your store? Are you back stocking truck push by mistake?
communicationis needed for all parties involved.

 

[mrknownothing]

If your fdc truck come at night, it should be on pallets in the coolers. Our store doesn't push them till 4am.
What size your store? Are you back stocking truck push by mistake?
communicationis needed for all parties involved.

I believe the OP was referring to backstock left over from that morning's truck push, but I could be wrong. Ideally, the FDC team should be coming clean on all of their push and backstock, but ain't nobody got time hours fo' dat.

Like qmosqueen said, the freezer should be more manageable once the frozen reset is finished.

 

[pfreshdude]

Must be nice to have backroom actually backstock cooler/freezer backstock. For the morning pulls all my BR does is pull it (usually super late at like 8am) and the Pfresh opener has to push and backstock it. Same goes with the afternoon pulls to. The only time our backroom actually might backstock something back there now is when C&S backstock they didnt finish sits there for days and the BR TL makes them do it

 

[callmetaylor]

I'm curious, why are you saying that it's "unsafe" in there? The fact that it's full of vehicles shouldn't make it any less safe than it normally is, assuming you don't needlessly wander to the back of the room and have all of those vehicles between you and the door- that's the only thing I can even think of as being a safety hazard.

I get pretty pissed over the state of our cooler/freezer. I refuse to wear any of the disgusting coats/gloves/hats/etc they provide, so that kind of sucks, but I enjoy being in the cooler- it's really not bad if I'm wearing a hoodie, and my fingers only hurt if I've been in there for 30-45min straight. Step outside for 2-3min and hop back in. The freezer obviously sucks. Sometimes I'll bring my own gloves if I think I'll get stuck working it, but most of the gloves don't cooperate with the PDAs/MyDevice's anyways, so it feels pointless.


I really wish Spot would disable pulls from areas that are re-setting. Doing all of the freezer pulls was hellacious when there were TWELVE vehicles of crap in the way. I moved ~half of them right outside the freezer, but they were so full of product that stuff was sliding off left and right. It was a total waste of time.

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

I'm curious, why are you saying that it's "unsafe" in there? The fact that it's full of vehicles shouldn't make it any less safe than it normally is, assuming you don't needlessly wander to the back of the room and have all of those vehicles between you and the door- that's the only thing I can even think of as being a safety hazard.

I get pretty pissed over the state of our cooler/freezer. I refuse to wear any of the disgusting coats/gloves/hats/etc they provide, so that kind of sucks, but I enjoy being in the cooler- it's really not bad if I'm wearing a hoodie, and my fingers only hurt if I've been in there for 30-45min straight. Step outside for 2-3min and hop back in. The freezer obviously sucks. Sometimes I'll bring my own gloves if I think I'll get stuck working it, but most of the gloves don't cooperate with the PDAs/MyDevice's anyways, so it feels pointless.


I really wish Spot would disable pulls from areas that are re-setting. Doing all of the freezer pulls was hellacious when there were TWELVE vehicles of crap in the way. I moved ~half of them right outside the freezer, but they were so full of product that stuff was sliding off left and right. It was a total waste of time.

Double up on your gloves, get them to order both the fingerless gloves and the ipod gloves, then combine for comfy gloves that work on my devices.

 

[BR Broad]

I'm curious, why are you saying that it's "unsafe" in there? The fact that it's full of vehicles shouldn't make it any less safe than it normally is, assuming you don't needlessly wander to the back of the room and have all of those vehicles between you and the door- that's the only thing I can even think of as being a safety hazard.

I get pretty pissed over the state of our cooler/freezer. I refuse to wear any of the disgusting coats/gloves/hats/etc they provide, so that kind of sucks, but I enjoy being in the cooler- it's really not bad if I'm wearing a hoodie, and my fingers only hurt if I've been in there for 30-45min straight. Step outside for 2-3min and hop back in. The freezer obviously sucks. Sometimes I'll bring my own gloves if I think I'll get stuck working it, but most of the gloves don't cooperate with the PDAs/MyDevice's anyways, so it feels pointless.


I really wish Spot would disable pulls from areas that are re-setting. Doing all of the freezer pulls was hellacious when there were TWELVE vehicles of crap in the way. I moved ~half of them right outside the freezer, but they were so full of product that stuff was sliding off left and right. It was a total waste of time.

I say unsafe for exactly what u said. If my TL knows the condition the freezer is in than he clearly knows that it's a 2 person job to bs. If i was to move all of the bs out of the freezer by myself. I wouldn't get much bs before I would have too be it all back in. And that's not considering any interruptions that I may have, like FAs or assisting sales floor tms with items that r unreachable without equipment. So I can only assume I was expected to go into the freezer and maneuver around the mess which I did not and will not. It was all b.s. from truck too. It's still a mess and even worse now bc the POG team did a reset and didn't bs any of their mess either. So 4 additional vehicles were crammed in after they removed the pallet. I honestly can't even tell u how they did that and got the door to shut. Won't this eventually damage the freezer?

 

[signingminion]

I say unsafe for exactly what u said. If my TL knows the condition the freezer is in than he clearly knows that it's a 2 person job to bs. If i was to move all of the bs out of the freezer by myself. I wouldn't get much bs before I would have too be it all back in. And that's not considering any interruptions that I may have, like FAs or assisting sales floor tms with items that r unreachable without equipment. So I can only assume I was expected to go into the freezer and maneuver around the mess which I did not and will not. It was all b.s. from truck too. It's still a mess and even worse now bc the POG team did a reset and didn't bs any of their mess either. So 4 additional vehicles were crammed in after they removed the pallet. I honestly can't even tell u how they did that and got the door to shut. Won't this eventually damage the freezer?

It is not part of pog hours to backstock. Unless your store makes it and provides the hours to support it.

The coolers get full and pulls have to happen. It sucks, but it's really not as unsafe as you make it sound. Your attitude is what's getting you freezer duty. You bitch the most so they figure you will want to help fix it the most. It's not retaliatory unless they are insisting you do that and only that. Even then, you would have to prove its unusual to ask you to do mostly freezer work, and it sounds like it's not.

 

[BR Broad]

It is unusual for anyone to get asked to bs the freezer, hints why it looks that way. But it seems like this is a norm for target per what I have seen in this thread and others. I am new to target but I have worked in fast food a long time ago for 2 years with a freezer and this was never an issue. The freezer was always priority due to the environment that exists. This is clearly not the case at my target store and others. It is unsafe and a waste of labor to expect one person to bs a crammed packed freezer. It's unsafe for the tm to go in there with all the vehicles and poses a high risk of food safety if food is not returned to freezer in time. I'm speaking on it to bring awareness to the issue in my store. The process in which it is bs when received and transitioned is very flawed and should be addressed. POG should be bs some of the load, if not all. An unbs truck on top of unbs transition is too much in there especially when the metro is barricaded behind several vehicles. There is ice on the floor in the freezer as well as several items under racks that have been there for Lord knows how long. It's just a mess that I have never seen before and it blows my mind of how much it is neglected. I've seen other posts in here stating that flow teams have a bs tm in the freezer during truck. I highly doubt that is the case in my store. I will find out more today of how these processes are supposed to work when I finally get the have a conversation with my TL for the first time since I have worked there. I think I am going to let the retaliation thing go for now but if I suspect anything in the future I am calling the hotline and possibly an attorney.