Archived Crying at Target .... Good / Bad / ...?

[greentreen]

I have always found the topic of tears in the workplace to be interesting because it evokes so many differing opinions. Within the context of Target as a workplace, what do you think?

So in my opinion crying on the floor i.e. in front of guests and fellow team members is a no-no.

Crying behind closed doors in private with just one or two people in the room doesn't need to be a bad thing necessarily.

 

[mrknownothing]

 

[greentreen]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL:good:

 

[stupid rules]

You are at your place of employment, crying isn't fine or o.k. How in the world did this even come up? Do you just randomly start crying?

 

[greentreen]

Who said I was crying ... LOL ;0 It is hypothetical! 🙂 lol

FYI I thought it would be interesting to discuss as I have seen different people cry at work over my less than 1 year working at Target....including Team Leads.

 

[buliSBI]

I knew a TM that Meowed at Target.

 

[lovecats]

We have one that Moooooos. The Lod's look forward to it. Now I have cried once in the breakroom with just another (very understanding) team member present. I was on the 6th day of 7 in a row and was really tired.

I also cried on the day that I was at work and had to leave when we got word that my father-in-law was dying. But other that those times I've only come close.

 

[nolongerspecial]

I'm sure it's not a good thing, but I've been there. But my store is so dramatic, it's not unusual to see tm's, tl's, or execs in tears.

 

[redstripes]

I've laughed until I've cried more times than I could even guess.

I've seen crying from others for negative reasons many times, it's certainly not uncommon. Reasons have spanned from being disciplined on the sales floor, to a pregnant woman believing she had miscarried at work (she had not), to a team member finding out a regular guest had died, to the site of another team member's blood following an accident, to harassment from a guest, to being fired... but I guess that person would no longer be "at work".

There are also some more heartfelt ones, like goodbyes on someone's last day or when a ream member transfers or gets promoted. Or when a team member finds out at work they or another team member just became a parent or grandparent.

I can't imagine doing it myself, but it can be justified easily.

Guests crying, that is a whole new story altogether, and I have certainly seen some doozies there.

 

[redeye58]

When a guest chewed my face off (including remarks directed at my appearance), I cried in 300 with the lights off.
When an ETL gave me mind-crushing 'feedback' (nothing constructive about it), I cried in the walk-in.
Always off-stage, short & terse, NEVER in front of a guest.
I'm only surprised it doesn't happen more frequently.

 

[antivibe]

One of operators/fitting room attendant cries when guests are rude to her.
A few people start crying on their last day when saying their goodbyes.
A GSA started crying when a guest yelled at her and made fun of her appearance.

I've been dealing with depression, and I've had days where I feel like I'm going drop on the floor and start sobbing. But I keep my cool.

 

[odie]

I don't think it's appropriate. I've had people cry on their last day, and that's fine, but I've also had people just break down in front of me due to stress/frustration, which makes them come off as unprofessional and unable to deal with the obsticles of their job. It also makes me feel really awkward. Once I was on the verge of tears because I got a bunch of stuff thrown on me without any help and then those that could have help waited on me to finish so we could take a lunch and they were acting frustrated with me. I was getting pissed off, and when I reach supersaiyan levels of pissed off, I start tearing up automatically.

 

[commiecorvus]

Only once, when I found out a friend had died.
That's what I get for checking my texts on break.
Also one of the few times I went home from work early.


I can understand why, with all the stress Spot piles on, that people break down in tears.
As redeye said, I'm just surprised it doesn't happen more often.

 

[Supercallafraga]

I dont recall ever crying on the clock, just during lunch breaks :girl_sigh:. I've cried in my office with a close colleague present over painful personal stuff like deaths in my family. Oh I did cry on the clock once when I was 15 yoa. I was "let go" at my 1st job. Turns out I was an awful telemarketer! Go figure!:wacko:

 

[STLinMaking]

Had someone start crying when I was delivering a corrective action. I told her that there was no crying at work and that I needed him to gain his composer so that he understood what I was telling him. He kept crying and crying. The ETL that was with me told him to man up and own his mistake. LOL

 

[Snook]

When one of our TMs came in to tell us that her cancer was in remission, there was a lot of happy tears that day.

 

[looseseal]

I've only cried once before when I was dealing with a particularly nasty guest over the phone this past Christmas. Long story short, he was asking for one thing, and because he was mumbling I thought he meant something else similar to the product he was actually asking about. He started to scream at me because of the misunderstanding and told me I must be "f-ing stupid", then he called back and screamed at my LOD and told him that he had "no idea what was going on at our store".

Normally these kinds of situations just roll off my shoulders, but we were just in the tail end of seasonal hours and my stress was at an all-time high, and my tolerance for Target and ignorant guests were at an all time low... and I also think I was kind of in shock because although I had worked there for over a year at the time this happened, I had never been treated that way by any guest before. I went back and cried in the cooler for about 5 minutes before I realized people like that aren't worth it. 😛 I felt better when my LOD and I had a laugh about how much of an a-hole the guy was!

 

[Deli Ninja]

Had someone start crying when I was delivering a corrective action. I told her that there was no crying at work and that I needed him to gain his composer so that he understood what I was telling him. He kept crying and crying. The ETL that was with me told him to man up and own his mistake. LOL

That's incredibly cold. I would have finished the corrective action and sent him somewhere (the bathroom, maybe an empty office) to get his act together before going back on the floor. If someone were to tell me to stop crying and "toughen up" when I was in tears, it would only make things worse.

I've cried three times... twice when I was overwhelmed by work and told to do more than I perceived as physically possible and once when I was describing to my ETL-HR how a TL was insulting the SL team. I'm fairly easily triggered toward crying, but I handle it by stepping off somewhere alone (even the fitting room returns closet works for me) and forcing myself to calm down. Target isn't worth that kind of stress.

 

[ZombieGurl]

ive cried a couple times. I get really upset easily and feel guilty when im sick and have to go home and I normally cry then. i also cried when my sister hurt herself and I had to leave to go to the hospital.. o and there was that one time when my ETL asked me how I liked being a flow tl. i was like 🙁 Niagara falls

 

[MissKitKat]

I've only ever cried once, and it was in the first few months I had worked there, on Christmas Eve. It was a guest calling on the phone for a bunch of different cookies to put on hold. He was absolutely nasty, and rude. Everytime I tried to put him on a line to go check for the cookies or get someone to check for me, he would start screaming about me not doing my job/checking! It was absolutely ridiculous! Finally, I tried to tell him that I was just going to transfer him directly to Market (which he wanted anyway apparently) and he yelled at me again and told me he was going to wait on the line while I took my 'stupid ass' over to Market and found his 'god damn cookies'. At this point I just gave up and started crying because it was Christmas Eve and I had been working all week already so I just found my TL told her everything that happened and gave her the phone. Thankfully she told the guest that he could call back when he wasn't going to treat her team members in such a foul manner so...that made me feel a bit better.

 

[Softlines Owns My Soul]

Had someone start crying when I was delivering a corrective action. I told her that there was no crying at work and that I needed him to gain his composer so that he understood what I was telling him. He kept crying and crying. The ETL that was with me told him to man up and own his mistake. LOL

You'll make a great STL, seriously. You are exactly what they're looking for. Automaton.

I understand you have to finish the CA, but there are better ways of dealing with people, that don't open you up to issues. The ETL is worse.

 

[StackerMistress]

Yeah, I've cried a number of times at work. I'm an easy crier. When I'm scheduled alone on a busy weekend and everything is a mess, cardboard freaking everywhere, pulls out of control, maybe three or four green racks of backstock taking up the whole freezer... I get angry and teared up. When my favorite ETL told me she was leaving, I cried (in the freezer, lol). When some BS harassment went down, I spent my lunch break sobbing in my car, then another 20 minutes more in the HR office--that's the only time anyone's seen me cry at Target. I've learned to not take my job so seriously. If it's not in your control, it's not in your control, you can't invest so much of yourself into it.

 

[dyskrasia]

Everyone reacts to stress differently. To say crying is unprofessional is to me completely untrue.

I've cried a few times on the job. Never in front of guests, but off stage usually in an office. I'm one of those people whose emotions are tied to their tear ducts. If an certain emotion is running high, I tend to tear up. I don't mean to but it happens.

Once I let go, I feel better. Frustrations can leak out with those tears and the person can go on with their day.

Just telling some one to man up, is quite rude. I honestly wouldn't want to continue to work for a company that didn't treat me as a person who has emotions.

 

[Spotcat]

I knew a TM that Meowed at Target.

I have a fellow spot meower? : ) I can't help it, I was raised by cats.

 

[Bored Food Aver]

What? Me? No... I"m not crying...

[video=youtube;ZGes7FDmHAM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGes7FDmHAM[/video]