Archived First casualty today

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Today a cashier of 7 years got fired for having too low of a red card conversion score. First one at our store, but 'm sure there will be more to follow. Morale is akin to a concentration camp, and the TLs won't let cashiers transfer departments. Is this really what it's come to?
 
Just curious, was the 7 year employee basically a decent employee in every other way or were they just using the conversion rate as an excuse for culling someone who was problematic and starting to cost them too much?
 
Today a cashier of 7 years got fired for having too low of a red card conversion score. First one at our store, but 'm sure there will be more to follow. Morale is akin to a concentration camp, and the TLs won't let cashiers transfer departments. Is this really what it's come to?

Welcome to Tarjay. Where things only appear to be fast fun and friendly. :(
 
Just curious, was the 7 year employee basically a decent employee in every other way or were they just using the conversion rate as an excuse for culling someone who was problematic and starting to cost them too much?

He was good. Good attendance, friendly with guests, helpful with carts and reshop. Just couldn't get enough red cards I guess.
 
Just curious, was the 7 year employee basically a decent employee in every other way or were they just using the conversion rate as an excuse for culling someone who was problematic and starting to cost them too much?

He was good. Good attendance, friendly with guests, helpful with carts and reshop. Just couldn't get enough red cards I guess.

That sucks.
Fear and retribution.
The motivation techniques of losers everywhere.
If you have nothing in terms of humanity and decency then what the hell just fire people that'll show em.
I hate this frelling world some times.
 
Two of our best Red Card cashiers have left the store in the past eight weeks. Pretty soon we'll be seeing the conversion scores without these two....wonder how low our numbers go.

You know, often when an LOD hops on a register they'll get e red card. I think that happens because guests see the "cashier" as someone in authority since an LOD usually has store keys hooked on somewhere so the guests tend to listen more and think that they're getting a "great deal" by signing up.

Sometimes, it is just the way the LOD looks. We've got this LOD who is really good-looking and I swear that ladies sign-up with him because he is so hot!
 
I carry around more keys as a GSA than the LODs, so it can't be that. I am not looking forward to this week's numbers coming out on Monday. In fact, I'm already in tears thinking about it now, and there's still a small chance of turn around for my week tomorrow.

I don't even know what to do anymore....as a cashier having a bad week or as a GSA whose cashiers can't even get her a REDCard.
 
Two of our best Red Card cashiers have left the store in the past eight weeks. Pretty soon we'll be seeing the conversion scores without these two....wonder how low our numbers go.

You know, often when an LOD hops on a register they'll get e red card. I think that happens because guests see the "cashier" as someone in authority since an LOD usually has store keys hooked on somewhere so the guests tend to listen more and think that they're getting a "great deal" by signing up.

Sometimes, it is just the way the LOD looks. We've got this LOD who is really good-looking and I swear that ladies sign-up with him because he is so hot!

I think that might have a bit to do with it... I think there are three major reasons...

1) ETLs are generally more professionally dressed and Target will generally hire "good-looking" people for their leadership roles
2) ETLs receive a ton of pressure from above about REDcards so there is a ton of motivation for them to do well
3) ETLs generally HAVE to be good at communication, specifically concisely explaining detailed information to get their points across! They interview and are interviewed all the time, and have to do coachings and statuses a ton! If you have a few difficult team member/team leader coachings, talking to a guest about a REDcard is pretty easy!
 
The reason ETLs at my store have high conversion rates is two-fold.

1. They don't give a damn about speed score and have no problem pushing the red card for upwards of a minute or two whereas most cashiers are worried about their line and give up after being rebuffed at first.

2. They have a much lower number of prompts than cashiers do, so if an ETL gets one red card a month they will have a very high conversion rate. It's the same reason why our GSTL has an 8% conversion rate at my store. She has less than 100 prompts for the entire year (an average cashier is looking at 2500+ by now) so when she gets a walk-in while backing up the service desk it makes a huge impact on the score.
 
What a terrible direction this company is going (or should I say continuing to go) if low conversion is now grounds for termination. I can understand lowering raises for sub-par scores or firing cashiers for just not asking guests to sign up for a REDcard. But termination for what is sometimes just plain, old bad luck?

I've been back at Spot for 2 weeks and have yet to get a single card. The issue for me? I get 2 or 3 guests every shift who want to sign up for the debit card after I ask. Then when I tell them I'll need a blank check or deposit slip, they don't have their checkbook with them. I also had 2 older guests who did have their checkbooks, but refused to enter their SSN when they started filling out the application.

I wish that, in cases like this, TMs could issue guests some sort of "code" that attaches to our TM number, so that if they apply online or through the mail later on, they can include it and we'd get credit for the conversion.
 
Our ETL-GE closed the store tonight. I asked if people could really get fired for not getting redcards. She said that a person can't get fired for not getting redcards. The TL said that, while getting redcards is important, they can't fire you for not getting them.
Both people asked where I'd heard about a TM getting fired for not getting redcards....I told them about the website. My ETL-GE says she doubts that anyone can be fired just for lack of redcards. There would have to be other things happening to get fired.

So, I'm wondering what the cashier (who's been with spot 7 years) also did. I think that part of this puzzle is missing.
 
I dunno...the written coachings they are giving out at my store mention that if a person's score doesn't improve, they can receive more coachings and eventually be termed. (They got saved to the desktop in the TSC).
 
My observation is that they didn't fire the person for red cards.
Or at least that wasn't what everyone signed off on.
I'm guessing it was performance, that's the easiest to rig up and it just takes a a series of small dings to add up.
They found someone who wasn't performing on red cards (made sure everybody knew it), who was costing them a far bit of payroll, had a some visibility, maybe even a bit popular, and buried him.
It was a win/win, they scared the hell out their people and got rid of a expensive TM.
Welcome to Spot.
Not all stores are like this but enough of these young ETL's have read some of those "The Art Of Managing by Gengis Kahn" books when they in business school that this event is not going to be uncommon.
 
I dunno...the written coachings they are giving out at my store mention that if a person's score doesn't improve, they can receive more coachings and eventually be termed. (They got saved to the desktop in the TSC).

Silly gstls still don't know how to use my site.... /sigh
 
Wow....I have never heard of somebody getting fired for too low of a conversion score. Doesn't surprise me though. Amazes me the people who they WILL fire, who some, don't deserve it. And the ones they WONT fire who DO deserve the fucking boot.
 
But if a cashier gets 3+ redcards every day and a poor speed score they'll overlook the speed.

Shoot. As a salesfloor TM who just got cashier shifts a lot, I had the fastest speed in the store. Faster than all of the cashiers by a lot, and I even edged out the GSA by a few seconds, and he was one of those cashiers that would do fancy speed tricks. Naturally nobody ever said one positive thing to me about this. They just crawled up my bottom about redcards. I managed to get away from cashier shifts and backup in general by switching around workcenters, but now they're telling us in my new work center that they want us to pitch redcards now too, which isn't really appropriate for the work center I'm in now.
 
Thats sad if it is true.

I have heard of GSTLs jumping on cashiers for missing one prompt. But to just plain term for not getting red cards. Thats why I asked every guest prompted or not. Plus I was used to it since I was a TM from the old DOS version of the POS.
 
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At my store anyone observed not talking about the red card to a guest at check out (regardless of prompts) are coached on the spot. I just had to accept a note from a cashier's doctor for a medical condition because she was being coached for her speed score-- which was 94% YTD. She is also 76 years old, green YTD on red cards & has a fan club that meets daily in our store. We have a GSTL who coaches the older cashiers like its her greatest joy in life.
 
At my store anyone observed not talking about the red card to a guest at check out (regardless of prompts) are coached on the spot. I just had to accept a note from a cashier's doctor for a medical condition because she was being coached for her speed score-- which was 94% YTD. She is also 76 years old, green YTD on red cards & has a fan club that meets daily in our store. We have a GSTL who coaches the older cashiers like its her greatest joy in life.

That's terrible! We had a gstl like that too. My least favorite.
 
At my store anyone observed not talking about the red card to a guest at check out (regardless of prompts) are coached on the spot. I just had to accept a note from a cashier's doctor for a medical condition because she was being coached for her speed score-- which was 94% YTD. She is also 76 years old, green YTD on red cards & has a fan club that meets daily in our store. We have a GSTL who coaches the older cashiers like its her greatest joy in life.

That's terrible! We had a gstl like that too. My least favorite.

Some of the younger TLs and ETLs like to take out whatever parental issues they have on their older TMs.
Always a joy to deal with people with deep seated psych problems and power over your life for eight hours a day.
 
My store has actually started handing each cashier TM a card with their name, speed score, conversion rate, and a daily goal. If you don't reach your goal, you're yelled at. The GSTL said that nothing is going to happen as a result of this, but that remains to be seen.
 
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