Archived ETL and TL turnover

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StackerMistress

What's a team lift?
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Just found out one of our ETLs is transferring to another store, just a month after another one left. I've only been with the store for 1.5 years, and now every ETL (including the STL) that was there when I started is gone. TLs are even more of a revolving door. Is this typical? It's hard to have faith in a store when they can't even keep their managers around for more than a year or two.
 
Sounds like our store! I've been with Target for 1.5 years as well, and we've had our STL, ETL-LOG, ETL-GE/SL, ETL-Rx, and ETL-HR all leave (not at once) throughout that time. We've gained a Target Cafe Team Lead, but the rest of the Team Leads are still the same.
 
My store went 3 years without a change, then the LOG, AP, and GE all left within months.
 
lost the last of the originals yesterday from 2 years ago....and a couple of the spots have gone through 2-3 changes (backroom and GE come to mind). I think with us losing the last of the originals and a volume spot, we are in for way more turnover. For instance, newest ETL is covering GE and softlines, we have no backroom ETL and I want our HR ETL to disappear.
 
we had the same leadership for a decade. our youngest tl had 4 yrs. until last year, when we got a 25 yr old stl. then we lost 3 etls, couple of tl, and around 15 folks with several yrs experience.
 
Just found out one of our ETLs is transferring to another store, just a month after another one left. I've only been with the store for 1.5 years, and now every ETL (including the STL) that was there when I started is gone. TLs are even more of a revolving door. Is this typical? It's hard to have faith in a store when they can't even keep their managers around for more than a year or two.

Three points I think everyone forgets:

1. SOME ETL's have pretty good degrees. (Chemistry, engineering, physics, computer science, etc.) These ETLs only ended up at Target for a quick job after college. They are in high demand and get "poached" from their industries within a year of landing at Target. Anyone with one of these degrees can easily be making 80K starting in their field with benefits that put Target to shame and 8-5 working hours.

2. The economy is getting better and unemployment is going down. That means the rest of the ETLs with less desirable degrees (history, English, sociology, etc.) are also being able to land jobs in their fields, although at a much slower rate and with less pay than the ones above. These ones are likely getting offered 50K to start in their fields, with better benefits, and with 8-5 working hours. Not as great as the degrees above, but still better than what Target is offering.

3. Because of the bad economy, the company has sucked up a sh** load of ETLs during the past few years who likely never would have considered retail. These ETLs likely would never have even considered retail, and they are jumping ship the first chance they get now that the economy is getting better. I think we will see a lot of ETLs jump ship all over the company during the next 1-2 years until the unemployment rate gets down to the normal "good" level of 4-5%.

Probably in 1-2 years the ETL turnover rate will drop.... but I think right now we are just starting to see it heat up.
 
My store went 3 years without a change, then the LOG, AP, and GE all left within months.

See my post above.... Economy has finally started adding jobs over the past year. This is providing a way out for ETLs who wanted to jump ship but couldn't find another job.
 
ETLs are supposed to change position sometime after every 18 months anyway. Often they will go to a different store
 
ETLs are supposed to change position sometime after every 18 months anyway. Often they will go to a different store

What is going on is not normal ETL rotation. (the 18 months change you refer to)

Here is how you know:

Normal ETL rotation:

1. You will usually hear an ETL is changing to a new store about two months ahead of time. This is usually not a secret, and anyone from TL down to the cart attendant hears about it well ahead of time. Usually, it is announced in a huddle.
2. There is usually a "going away" party of some kind, which can take the form of an actual party, or be something simple like a cake and/or going away card that lots of TMs in the store will sign.
3. After the ETL leaves, you will occasionally hear other ETLs mention this ETL and say things like "Oh Sarah says hi from her new store and misses you guys".
4. If you ask how the ETL is doing at the new store, other ETLs will usually say "they are doing well" or something along those lines.

If an ETL is termed/quits:

1. You will not hear a damn thing ahead of time. They will be there one day, and all of a sudden the next day they are gone. Poof.
2. There is zero going away party, cards, cake, etc. No mention of the ETL what-so-ever either before or after they leave.
3. After the ETL is gone, every other ETL will act like he/she never existed and will never bring that ETL up for any reason.
4. If you ask another ETL how the ETL that disappeared is doing/where the ETL went/why they are gone/etc, you will almost ALWAYS get the following response "Sarah is no longer with the company" or "I don't know/can't talk about it"

Every TM who has been with the company a fair amount of time knows how to tell if an ETL just transferred or if they disappeared and are "no longer with the company". The signs are pretty obvious.

This is not a case of ETLs transferring and people are mistakenly thinking they quit/got termed. There is a mass exodus of ETLs leaving the company right now, and most TMs at most stores are fully aware of what is going on. ETLs may not want to tell us what the deal is, but I promise you most TMs are smart enough to figure it out....
 
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ETLs are supposed to change position sometime after every 18 months anyway. Often they will go to a different store

What is going on is not normal ETL rotation. (the 18 months change you refer to)

Here is how you know:

Normal ETL rotation:

1. You will usually hear an ETL is changing to a new store about two months ahead of time. This is usually not a secret, and anyone from TL down to the cart attendant hears about it well ahead of time. Usually, it is announced in a huddle.
2. There is usually a "going away" party of some kind, which can take the form of an actual party, or be something simple like a cake and/or going away card that lots of TMs in the store will sign.
3. After the ETL leaves, you will occasionally hear other ETLs mention this ETL and say things like "Oh Sarah says hi from her new store and misses you guys".
4. If you ask how the ETL is doing at the new store, other ETLs will usually say "they are doing well" or something along those lines.

If an ETL is termed/quits:

1. You will not hear a damn thing ahead of time. They will be there one day, and all of a sudden the next day they are gone. Poof.
2. There is zero going away party, cards, cake, etc. No mention of the ETL what-so-ever either before or after they leave.
3. After the ETL is gone, every other ETL will act like he/she never existed and will never bring that ETL up for any reason.
4. If you ask another ETL how the ETL that disappeared is doing/where the ETL went/why they are gone/etc, you will almost ALWAYS get the following response "Sarah is no longer with the company" or "I don't know/can't talk about it"

Every TM who has been with the company a fair amount of time knows how to tell if an ETL just transferred or if they disappeared and are "no longer with the company". The signs are pretty obvious.

This is not a case of ETLs transferring and people are mistakenly thinking they quit/got termed. There is a mass exodus of ETLs leaving the company right now, and most TMs at most stores are fully aware of what is going on. ETLs may not want to tell us what the deal is, but I promise you most TMs are smart enough to figure it out....


My store has the ETL HL that it's had for like 7 years. o_O Unless it's just referring to the new etls?
 
So are the transfers always involuntary or can the ETLs request a transfer? SoT, you are right about the differences between having a transfer and quitting. One of our ETLs quit, and I thought for sure she had to have been canned by the way she just slipped out the door without saying anything. But no, this is apparently how Spot works.

Our management seems to get burned out so fast. I actually don't mind the "fresh out of college" ones, because at least they have some enthusiasm. But six months later, suddenly they just develop a cynicism that infects everyone else. If I'm feeling it in the BR, you know it's gotta be bad, because I'm always the last to know anything.
 
Even ETL's who quit on good terms will be excised like they didn't exist.
We had a HL ETL who found a better job.
The next night after he put in his two week notice they came in, took his keys and pushed him out the door telling him his services were no longer required.

Not sure what they were afraid of.
I'm sure it didn't help that he was very popular and had been with the company for a long time.
 
Even ETL's who quit on good terms will be excised like they didn't exist.
We had a HL ETL who found a better job.
The next night after he put in his two week notice they came in, took his keys and pushed him out the door telling him his services were no longer required.

Not sure what they were afraid of.
I'm sure it didn't help that he was very popular and had been with the company for a long time.

Target is big on information protection. So, once you tell them you want to jump ship, they do not want any chance of any protected information leaving.
 
We had an ETL leave earlier this year who gave more than 2 week's notice but didn't get the farewell party that the most recent ETL'er did (he is now a business partner....I have no idea what that really means). She wasn't "allowed" to tell us where she went but every once in a while her name comes up. Some of the ones who have even stayed within the company are treated with the "they who shall not be named" treatment.
 
Is it true if they push an ETL right after they give their two weeks, they have to pay them for those two weeks?
 
Even ETL's who quit on good terms will be excised like they didn't exist.
We had a HL ETL who found a better job.
The next night after he put in his two week notice they came in, took his keys and pushed him out the door telling him his services were no longer required.

Not sure what they were afraid of.
I'm sure it didn't help that he was very popular and had been with the company for a long time.

You're not sure why they did that? That is standard operating procedure.

I once knew a guy who worked in IT. They had the same procedure. Why? Because once someone in a position of a power decides to leave, they can weak havoc to a company. In IT, say you are a system admin, you have access and ability to do possibly millions of dollars of damage to a company in the span of a few hours.

ETLs are the same. They have access to damn near everything in a store. If an ETL wanted to, they could seriously screw up a store. That's why Target kicks them out the moment they turn in a 2 weeks notice.
 
We had an ETL leave earlier this year who gave more than 2 week's notice but didn't get the farewell party that the most recent ETL'er did (he is now a business partner....I have no idea what that really means). She wasn't "allowed" to tell us where she went but every once in a while her name comes up. Some of the ones who have even stayed within the company are treated with the "they who shall not be named" treatment.

If she is a business partner, she did not leave the company. She just got promoted to a really high level.... Business partners are above even DTLs.
 
We had an ETL leave earlier this year who gave more than 2 week's notice but didn't get the farewell party that the most recent ETL'er did (he is now a business partner....I have no idea what that really means). She wasn't "allowed" to tell us where she went but every once in a while her name comes up. Some of the ones who have even stayed within the company are treated with the "they who shall not be named" treatment.

If she is a business partner, she did not leave the company. She just got promoted to a really high level.... Business partners are above even DTLs.

it's a he....and he didn't give me his official title but the last huddle I was at before they left our STL mentioned he was going to be a business partner. Thanks for the info!!
 
Even ETL's who quit on good terms will be excised like they didn't exist.
We had a HL ETL who found a better job.
The next night after he put in his two week notice they came in, took his keys and pushed him out the door telling him his services were no longer required.

Not sure what they were afraid of.
I'm sure it didn't help that he was very popular and had been with the company for a long time.


You're not sure why they did that? That is standard operating procedure.

I once knew a guy who worked in IT. They had the same procedure. Why? Because once someone in a position of a power decides to leave, they can weak havoc to a company. In IT, say you are a system admin, you have access and ability to do possibly millions of dollars of damage to a company in the span of a few hours.

ETLs are the same. They have access to damn near everything in a store. If an ETL wanted to, they could seriously screw up a store. That's why Target kicks them out the moment they turn in a 2 weeks notice.


I know he would never have done that, honorable guy and all that.
But I guess Spot isn't familiar with that concept.
 
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ETL's and STL's are only SUPPOSE to stay at a store for a limited time, then they are usually "promoted" to another store. If an ETL isn't that good and they cant fire him they usually will stay at their store. TL are easier to performance out and at my store we go through them like candy.
 
We had an ETL leave earlier this year who gave more than 2 week's notice but didn't get the farewell party that the most recent ETL'er did (he is now a business partner....I have no idea what that really means). She wasn't "allowed" to tell us where she went but every once in a while her name comes up. Some of the ones who have even stayed within the company are treated with the "they who shall not be named" treatment.

If she is a business partner, she did not leave the company. She just got promoted to a really high level.... Business partners are above even DTLs.

Business partners are not above DTLs..they're not even above STLs (except senior business partners)
 
Even ETL's who quit on good terms will be excised like they didn't exist.
We had a HL ETL who found a better job.
The next night after he put in his two week notice they came in, took his keys and pushed him out the door telling him his services were no longer required.

Not sure what they were afraid of.
I'm sure it didn't help that he was very popular and had been with the company for a long time.

Hmm. When I quit I put in my two week, worked the full two weeks and at the end of my last shift signed over my keys. The only time I ever saw somebody "pushed out the door" I found out they were already on CA and about to hit Final anyway.
 
We had an ETL leave earlier this year who gave more than 2 week's notice but didn't get the farewell party that the most recent ETL'er did (he is now a business partner....I have no idea what that really means). She wasn't "allowed" to tell us where she went but every once in a while her name comes up. Some of the ones who have even stayed within the company are treated with the "they who shall not be named" treatment.

If she is a business partner, she did not leave the company. She just got promoted to a really high level.... Business partners are above even DTLs.

I know you were already corrected on this, but I thought I would add that a BP is parallel to an STL, however, at an STL's own store, pretty much what the STL says, goes. They have ownership of that store.
 
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