Archived Cutting hours but hiring people?

[BeelzeBecky]

We have 5 dedicated cashiers in our store and we're all wanting more hours but lately they're scheduling non-cashiers on the lanes.

Dude from the back room was scheduled an hour to cashier the other day in the middle of his shift. An hour. One. He twiddled his thumbs and kept asking why the hell he was up there.
The trainer who makes the schedule now cashiers 3 hours a week. Hard lines people are scheduled to cashier while the main cashiers are getting hours cut.

WTF?

Then I see that we've hired new people, not cashiers, but still, if they're hiring people for other areas and putting the regular TMs from those areas up to cashier, then ??? I don't understand it.

All of us cashiers have good performance. We all sell red cards, we have fast times, we're dependable and we're all quite nice and friendly and a few of us are cross trained on fitting room, guest services, soft lines, hard lines. We're not being put into alternate positions.

I need to vent because after a year things have gotten crappy. I've seen people come and go, lots of useless, lazy, sloppy, rude people. I've seen core employees getting disgruntled because of cut hours and sleazy tactics used by higher up's. I don't want to get another job, I loved it there until the past few weeks.

Oh well, I'll come back later to bitch about more stuff. There's definitely a seedy underbelly in my store.

 

[Deli Ninja]

Scheduling people for cashiering hours who aren't keyed in as cashiers might have to do with making sure everybody does some time on the registers so they remember what to do when the entire store ends up on backup. Has your store had problems with specific people ignoring calls for backup? Do you have any new ETLs (or a new STL/DTL) who might be thinking that this is a genius idea for whatever reason?

I know my Deli is trying to hire new people without the hours to keep everybody happy, but that's because we currently have zero flexibility when someone has to call out or someone just doesn't show up (for whatever reason)... because the meat/bakery/produce TLs refuse to allow any of their TMs to be cross-trained in deli.

 

[Ringwraith917]

Could be the people they're about to be firing for low performance in their regular areas. They may be trying to find a better fit for that TM. Meanwhile they have to hire the replacements before they end up shorthanded.

 

[redeye58]

They have to give the new TMs hrs to get the hang of their areas so the regular salesfloor TMs are bumped up to the lanes to keep THEIR hrs up.
Cashiers tend to be the bottom of the heap when it comes to lack of respect; your hrs are given to SFTMs who are on a lane maybe 10 min before they're taken by the SFTL who ASSURES the GSTL/GSA that they'll be the FIRST to respond to back-up.

There's definitely a seedy underbelly in my store.

Every store, kid, EVERY store.

 

[buliSBI]

One hour...sounds like a visit/inspection.

 

[glo]

At the end of the day, everyone in the store needs hours, regardless of their keyed workcenter. Think of your team as the store and not just your workcenter and maybe you'll see that they're trying to be fair to the entire store.

 

[Kartman]

On the other hand, if you have a lot of call-outs/NCNS then you NEED a large hours-hungry core group to be able to call in.

It socks.

 

[mrknownothing]

We didn't even hire anyone new in my workcenter and we're all still getting our hours cut.

 

[Deli]

Scheduling people for cashiering hours who aren't keyed in as cashiers might have to do with making sure everybody does some time on the registers so they remember what to do when the entire store ends up on backup. Has your store had problems with specific people ignoring calls for backup? Do you have any new ETLs (or a new STL/DTL) who might be thinking that this is a genius idea for whatever reason?

I know my Deli is trying to hire new people without the hours to keep everybody happy, but that's because we currently have zero flexibility when someone has to call out or someone just doesn't show up (for whatever reason)... because the meat/bakery/produce TLs refuse to allow any of their TMs to be cross-trained in deli.

I work in the deli and there is absolutely no flexibility right now if someone doesn't show up they just simply don't get replaced and everyone suffers. I literally closed food Avenue and the deli a couple of nights last week by myself because we had call outs. I'm just curious why every time they hire it seems like it's only for cashier positions. They never seem to hire anyone for the deli.

 

[tinkerbell333]

I know my Deli is trying to hire new people without the hours to keep everybody happy

Target REALLY needs to wake up and realize that the job market is stronger than it has been in a while. At my store there are SO many people who are getting 20 hours or less and end up needing a second job to get by. They get established it that job and realize they can get more hours (and more consistent hours) at their new job and they just end up quitting. At my store they are also trying to be hard asses and not let people change their availability to accommodate a second job. WTF??!!

 

[BeelzeBecky]

I've always subscribed to the school of thought that happy employees are productive, loyal employees. Disgruntled employees piss of guests, do lazy work, and steal (not all, but some) MANY team members are disgruntled at my store.

When someone calls in they don't try to replace them. Sales are down so why hire new people? Why spend training dollars on new people when existing people can be cross trained?

So yeah, some of us need to get second jobs which means that we won't be as available which means Target will just hire more people and the cycle goes on and one.

 

[DoWork]

This is the not so new norm in most of retail. Increase your employee pool, cut their hours, and pay no benefits. It increases margins and makes companies able to say they employ xxx employees, but they refrain from mentioning the average hours.

 

[Apapaia]

This stuff unfortunately happens in my store as well. I make the schedule for the cashiers and these are the things that play a huge role into the scheduling. Keep in mind that my store is a ULV and we have been getting less than 1900 hours a week.
-According to best practices, every TM has to have 2 days off in a week a shouldn't be working more than 8 days in a row.
-TMs with limited availability (no matter how small the window of unavailability is) make the scheduling process A LOT harder and make the scheduler jump through hoops
-Mytime is a pain in the butt. When making the schedule, for each day of the week there's a graph that needs to be looked at. It will tell you WHEN exactly you need extra hands on deck. It will also keep in consideration all breaks and lunches. Sometimes it will show that 1 cashier is missing for 15 minutes because that's when Mytime foresees her going on break. For this reason, very often TMs will have a random (not so random) shift at the cash registers.
-Unfortunately with the hours going down and TMs being unhappy, you can pretty much tell who will stay and for how long (in my store alone we have had almost 15 people leaving the store voluntarily or involuntarily) and with the hours being thin you need to be very strategic on when you're going to on board people and in what position.
-Some work centers are harder to staff than others and 1 person calling out from a work center already suffering makes the whole team suffer and because hours are so tight they decide to save the hours when anyone is calling out.

It's a crappy situation for everyone. I am glad soon it will be 4th quarter again and we'll have more hours than we can give out

 

[BeelzeBecky]

Some front end tm's were complaining about the "useless" 3 hour shifts since they're so short, and it's not worth it to interrupt their day (and a few openly said they'd call in if they were only scheduled 3 hours) but that's something I understand because of peak sales times so I'm happy just to get those hours.

But their refusal to cross train people who want hours, and who are good performers, it just boggles my mind. I understand not wanting to put people on full time because of insurance. But cutting people from 30 hours down to 12 or 13 is outrageous when we see new people getting hired in.

 

[Apapaia]

Some front end tm's were complaining about the "useless" 3 hour shifts since they're so short, and it's not worth it to interrupt their day (and a few openly said they'd call in if they were only scheduled 3 hours) but that's something I understand because of peak sales times so I'm happy just to get those hours.

But their refusal to cross train people who want hours, and who are good performers, it just boggles my mind. I understand not wanting to put people on full time because of insurance. But cutting people from 30 hours down to 12 or 13 is outrageous when we see new people getting hired in.

Some front end tm's were complaining about the "useless" 3 hour shifts since they're so short, and it's not worth it to interrupt their day (and a few openly said they'd call in if they were only scheduled 3 hours) but that's something I understand because of peak sales times so I'm happy just to get those hours.

But their refusal to cross train people who want hours, and who are good performers, it just boggles my mind. I understand not wanting to put people on full time because of insurance. But cutting people from 30 hours down to 12 or 13 is outrageous when we see new people getting hired in.

I don't know your store and obviously all stores are different but in my experience, management couldn't care less if you get insurance or not. Honestly in my store we'retrying to get as many people covered as possible as a way to reduce turn over and keep tm engaged. Unfortunately everyone's hours went drastically down. One of the SrTL only had 18 hours last week because she cut her own to give it to her TMs.
When it comes to cross training, you need to pick the right time to cross train, not the time of need. Training 1 person can take anywhere between 8 hours to 20. During these hours, the trainees need to be shadowed by a trainer. That means doubling the hours and if hours are stretched thin, nobody is getting trained in anything.
I never let that stop me though! If you're on register you can help out with reshops when it's slow. If you're in food avenue help at service desk and so on.
"Train yourself " as much as you can and when the chance comes around, pick a shift from the swap shift board.
Honestly, I don't think management gives a crap if you get 40 hours or 3, or if you get insurance or not.

 

[LUR99]

Our store is cutting hours too and hiring new people but we have a lot of team members who call out all the time. Team members who don't call out, show up on time, do their job don't get their hours cut. Some Team members call out once a week and then they complain about not having hours to pay their bills.

 

[GlitterBerries]

Yeah its a target wide thing not just your store. Happens over and over. It will be fine a few months, then hrs are cut, then a mass hiring, then everyone has good hours then hours are cut.. Vicious cycle.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Less hours, no benefits.

 

[BeelzeBecky]

Our store is cutting hours too and hiring new people but we have a lot of team members who call out all the time. Team members who don't call out, show up on time, do their job don't get their hours cut. Some Team members call out once a week and then they complain about not having hours to pay their bills.

Only one cashier calls out and she's had her hours cut months ago. The rest of us call asking if there are extra hours, if they "need help". It looks like cashiers are the last monkeys on the ladder so we get pushed off when electronics, backroom, etc, get cut. Since they can call for extra cashiers, if they get busy, they cut us out. but why hire more people? That's what doesn't make sense.

 

[Apapaia]

Only one cashier calls out and she's had her hours cut months ago. The rest of us call asking if there are extra hours, if they "need help". It looks like cashiers are the last monkeys on the ladder so we get pushed off when electronics, backroom, etc, get cut. Since they can call for extra cashiers, if they get busy, they cut us out. but why hire more people? That's what doesn't make sense.

There is MANY things behind the scenes that TMs don't see. Just hang on and try to do your best to be the person they will always need

 

[BeelzeBecky]

I bust my ass to be nice to everyone (it's easy, I'm a very happy person) and I try to up-sell when I can (and often I do sell extras like wrapping paper, snacks, drinks, etc) and I always do what I'm told and am not afraid to ask questions. I've never even had to do a punch correction. I'm not perfect but I'm damn good at customer service, it's easy for me. I've never had a complaint, I've had good surveys and everyone seems to like me. I'm not the fastest on the register, sometimes I drop below 90 but shizballs, if that's the worst I do, surely they want to keep me happy (and the others like me)

Oh well, I just needed to bitch and moan. I've used my days off wisely and just told myself it's a mini vacation.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

You are at the place to do it that.