Does this sound like a situation that I should report to someone?

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May 4, 2023
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Our store has a newly promoted Front End TL and me and him have gotten along since before he became a lead. I'm a Style TL who's well aware of this guy's religious leanings. I'm personally not religious and I've had a lot of patience with him constantly trying to convert me and "see the way", but now we're in a position that comes across as a legitimate conflict of interest.

He's against the store's Pride displays and he admitted to me that he's played a part in their recent takedowns. I knew things were going to get interesting when he started his sentence with "Promise me you won't tell anyone." and he told me himself that he's been getting members of his church to call our store and voice their complaints about the Pride displays. He also told me that he's been phoning in multiple times with different numbers and putting on fake voices. He also told me that he's been doing it to other local Targets.

This seems like something that should be reported, but I'm not 100% certain. And even if it was worthy of a report, I'd still feel iffy about it. For one, I'd feel bad since he's newly promoted and he's been wanting a Lead role for nearly a whole year. On top of that, there's just that little voice telling me to just leave well enough alone and not get involved. I personally have my doubts about the claims that any report to the Hotline would remain anonymous and I don't want to be caught up in any type of investigation or drama that unfolds. What do you think I should do?
 
Since he likes doing things anonymously, you can too: hotline.
The fact that he's doing this with church members in an attempt to make it seem like there's a majority of complaints is hypocrisy at best & shows a lack of respect for anyone 'different'. At worst, he's sabotaging a major marketing campaign.
As a leader, he's shown that he's not to be trusted. As a 'christian' he's as bad as the zealots who paraded thru the stores screaming how Target is letting 'men dressed as women' into restrooms with your wives & daughters. Remember how that turned out?
If he can't tolerate what Target promotes, he needs to work someplace else where he can promote his beliefs like Hobby Lobby.
 
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Our store has a newly promoted Front End TL and me and him have gotten along since before he became a lead. I'm a Style TL who's well aware of this guy's religious leanings. I'm personally not religious and I've had a lot of patience with him constantly trying to convert me and "see the way", but now we're in a position that comes across as a legitimate conflict of interest.

He's against the store's Pride displays and he admitted to me that he's played a part in their recent takedowns. I knew things were going to get interesting when he started his sentence with "Promise me you won't tell anyone." and he told me himself that he's been getting members of his church to call our store and voice their complaints about the Pride displays. He also told me that he's been phoning in multiple times with different numbers and putting on fake voices. He also told me that he's been doing it to other local Targets.

This seems like something that should be reported, but I'm not 100% certain. And even if it was worthy of a report, I'd still feel iffy about it. For one, I'd feel bad since he's newly promoted and he's been wanting a Lead role for nearly a whole year. On top of that, there's just that little voice telling me to just leave well enough alone and not get involved. I personally have my doubts about the claims that any report to the Hotline would remain anonymous and I don't want to be caught up in any type of investigation or drama that unfolds. What do you think I should do?
Sounds like an ethics issue and I would report this.
 
Our store has a newly promoted Front End TL and me and him have gotten along since before he became a lead. I'm a Style TL who's well aware of this guy's religious leanings. I'm personally not religious and I've had a lot of patience with him constantly trying to convert me and "see the way", but now we're in a position that comes across as a legitimate conflict of interest.

He's against the store's Pride displays and he admitted to me that he's played a part in their recent takedowns. I knew things were going to get interesting when he started his sentence with "Promise me you won't tell anyone." and he told me himself that he's been getting members of his church to call our store and voice their complaints about the Pride displays. He also told me that he's been phoning in multiple times with different numbers and putting on fake voices. He also told me that he's been doing it to other local Targets.

This seems like something that should be reported, but I'm not 100% certain. And even if it was worthy of a report, I'd still feel iffy about it. For one, I'd feel bad since he's newly promoted and he's been wanting a Lead role for nearly a whole year. On top of that, there's just that little voice telling me to just leave well enough alone and not get involved. I personally have my doubts about the claims that any report to the Hotline would remain anonymous and I don't want to be caught up in any type of investigation or drama that unfolds. What do you think I should do?

Let's put it this way...
you can walk away from this.
Ignore it, because it really isn't going to effect you or your coworkers much.
However next time when he decides that your gender fluid coworker should be perfornanced out because he hates having to use they/them pronouns, keep in mind you could have stopped it.
Because these assholes always escalate and bigots want to hurt people.
If you have the chance to keep it from happening, always do it.
 
Report it to your etl & SD about the new tl asap. This event sounds like a protest will at your store soon.
The guest complaints can be seen by sd & Etl. That front end tl will get in trouble because complaints are metric against the tl.
We are getting returns from "Christian" guests because of the pride thing. Their reason is that they don't want to support/buy things from spot because pride display, etc.
 
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Our store has a newly promoted Front End TL and me and him have gotten along since before he became a lead. I'm a Style TL who's well aware of this guy's religious leanings. I'm personally not religious and I've had a lot of patience with him constantly trying to convert me and "see the way", but now we're in a position that comes across as a legitimate conflict of interest.

He's against the store's Pride displays and he admitted to me that he's played a part in their recent takedowns. I knew things were going to get interesting when he started his sentence with "Promise me you won't tell anyone." and he told me himself that he's been getting members of his church to call our store and voice their complaints about the Pride displays. He also told me that he's been phoning in multiple times with different numbers and putting on fake voices. He also told me that he's been doing it to other local Targets.

This seems like something that should be reported, but I'm not 100% certain. And even if it was worthy of a report, I'd still feel iffy about it. For one, I'd feel bad since he's newly promoted and he's been wanting a Lead role for nearly a whole year. On top of that, there's just that little voice telling me to just leave well enough alone and not get involved. I personally have my doubts about the claims that any report to the Hotline would remain anonymous and I don't want to be caught up in any type of investigation or drama that unfolds. What do you think I should do?
Hold on, isn't what he admitted to doing a fireable offense? As in, getting caught doing it once is enough to get you immediately termed.
 
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I would personally report his ass not even because I have a problem with his religious beliefs but because he wants to drag that shit into the workplace and is apparently moron enough to cop to pulling some termination worthy hijinks to boot. It’s already cringe enough when corporations strategically embrace superficial woke capitalism to snag more dollars, and then there’s dingus here who is too dumb to understand how overmatched he is when his church prolly got $500,000 in assets if they’re lucky and Target has a gazillion times more and they actually literally categorically won’t care even if every single Karen was writing in bad reviews to every single store on account of being triggered by LGBTQWERTYUIOPASDFGHHJKLZXCBNM nonsense

tl;dr this TL should ask his congregation for a donation to open a Chic-fil-A franchise and send me free coupons
 
I have my personal beliefs as well . But I also have a motto not my life not my problem . And just because we sell pride clothes doesn’t affect me in anyway shape or form . What he is doing is an ethic violation, he literally just took that training 2-3 weeks ago . Report his ass , or say to the tl as a good Christian you claim to be report yourself and quit . Because he is working for a company that promotes inclusivity .
All guest are just that guest I don’t look at a person and worry about who they shag or what they purchase .
 
He does realize where he works, right? Target makes a big deal out of being inclusive of all sorts of people - observe many of the displays in Style with persons of different ethnicities and body sizes. There was the announcement about being supportive of Black-owned businesses and the t-shirts (still part of my own collection of red shirts) expressing support of the Black community when the BLM movement took off.
Point is, Target doesn't hide its support of diversity. If the TL at your store feels so strongly that he's willing to endanger his job, maybe he should find a different employer.
Does no one at your store realize that some of the Pride displays have been taken down? Or is your store's leadership okay with them mysteriously being dismantled? (I can see how in some parts of the country, it'd be conveniently overlooked.)
If he says "promise me you won't tell," he already knows what he's doing is wrong. He may believe he on the right side morally, but he's on the wrong side when it comes to company policy. People from his church don't have to shop at Target if they feel strongly enough about it. He doesn't have to work (or shop) at Target if he feels strongly enough about it. But to sneak around and undermine company policy is not okay. And he should not have put you in a difficult position; that he did makes me wonder why you'd want to stay friends with someone like that because that's not the kind of thing a friend does.
It's also not the way a good leader behaves. The Pride thing isn't new at Target - he would have known about it well before being promoted. If he had such a huge issue about it, he never should have put in for a promotion. Being in a leadership position doesn't mean he has to be all rah-rah-rah about every single thing Target promotes, but it certainly doesn't give him leave to actively work against company policy, especially in such an under-handed way.
 
"Target said that customers knocked down Pride displays at some stores, angrily approached workers and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores."

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ being ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
 
Oh my word, this is out of control. I don't shop at Walmart, not because I work at Target, but because I don't agree with their business model. Like they miss my few dollars, right? But my point is that I choose where to spend my money, just like all the anti-whatever crowd can choose to spend their money at anti-whatever stores if they feel so strongly about it. Or do without. But instead, they make a big stink about it. Sure wish they would put their energy into something worthwhile ... like figuring out housing for the homeless, actually helping at their child's school (instead of crusading against the library offerings), mowing an elderly neighbor's lawn, and any of a hundred other truly useful things.
 
And, instead of standing up to the bullies, Target whips out it’s wet noodle of a spine and slinks away in defeat, abandoning, and yes, betraying, the people they set out to support. Guess it is all about the Benjamins for Corporate, unless, of course, someone mentions the U-word…🙄 That’s a different story…
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(If Corporate needs to borrow a spine in the meantime they can try DisneyWorld. They seem to have steel-plated spines in abundance, along with a few other solid brass anatomical parts that seem to be lacking at Spot HQ.)
 
In the last 2 weeks we have had in store threats from " crazy" guests and HR told me there's nothing she can do about it. No one not on the floor at the time is warned. Just one more elephant in the room we r supposed to ignore. That's how you end up with Columbine. Someone sees it coming and was silenced.
 
I was at a restaurant today and woman told her mother not to order a Bud Light because she was boycotting them along with Target.

Okay Karen.

I am sure she stills supports Kid Rock.

 
So this Thursday will mark two weeks since I filed a report on the Integrity Hotline. Not only is the TL still working here, but he's still active on social media calling for people to call Target and voice their complaints. He's also been subtly defending the people who threaten violence against stores, which has garnered a lot of issues in our social circles outside of work, specifically on social media.

Let's assume that an investigation is being launched. How long would one realistically take before some type of action is taken? Even though I considered this guy a friend at one point, he's done and said some things that I think are downright despicable and I think he needs to learn the hard way about consequences for his actions.

I should also mention that I filed the report anonymously and I did my best to word it so that it's not obviously me. I haven't been talked to about it at all, so I'm not worried about the SD or ETLs finding out it's me. But I stupidly didn't write down the Report Key to follow up on the report and I have no way to log back in. I'm worried that they might've suspended a potential investigation due to me not being able to log back in and follow up with additional details.
 
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