Archived FLow Team Leaving Their Mess Behind

[ineedhours]

We rush rush rush while we push push push. Then, we're done. That's when I return back stock/trash and vehicles. THEN, I let the TL know I need to do a walk through my aisles 1st before I clock-out. He agrees. 9 out of 10 times, it's all good, maybe just a small box over-looked or a piece of styro in the heat of unpacking left on an end cap. Cover Me, The TL's & The teams butt when we ask for that extra 3 minutes to declare an all clear.

 

[waterspout]

The thing with flow is, we're generally the only team in the store that consistently works past their scheduled times(well at my store anyway, and it sounds like all the other stores as well). And some weeks we just get tired of it. It's an expectation that we will stay. We don't get asked to stay, we just do because we know we're all only scheduled 730-11:30, and we still have half of grocery, C&D and E/Seasonal to push at 10:30, and we feel bad for our TL who's a great guy and can only do so much with the shit he's given every truck. You know why your Flow team doesn't help guests as often as they should(according to Target)? Because every minute spent with a guest is another minute we have to stay pushing the truck. And unfortunately, that extra time helping guests doesn't get us any more help. The ETLs and STLs always say if we meet sales goals we get more hours! But that's BS. Yeah we get more hours, but when that happens, the ETLs and STL just divide them up to finish their own little pet projects, or do dumb shit like get an extra zoner for a day because we all know that perfect toys zone will last any longer than 2 days. So yeah, sometimes Flow does leave a tub behind or a flat of one spot behind or a couple zbars. Because sometimes we have stuff to do that day, or have made plans with family for after work. It gets exhausting never knowing when you're going to get out of the store each and every truck day. If we were properly staffed (as any other department can attest to never been staffed correctly) I probably wouldn't hate it as much. But when you walk by the team member hiring needs and every month it says there's still 4-8 open Flow positions year round, you get kind of annoyed after awhile. When a flow tm quits or moves over to Pricing/plano cause it's a much easier team with as many hours, and no one replaces them, you get annoyed again. When they just cut 4 out 5 seasonal hires even though we STILL need 5 regular flow positions filled you get annoyed. Some days it's built up enough and you just leave at your scheduled time for once, cause if they don't want to schedule enough hours with enough TMs to push the truck, well that's not my $8.50 problem, that's the 100k STL, DTL, and $2 billion dollar net income corporate problem. But in the end, the truck will get pushed and backstocked anyway, whether by the sales floor, or the flow staying an extra 2-3 hours each every day. So it really doesn't matter, the store doesn't shut down because there were a few things left behind, or pushed wrong, or not backstocked. No one dies. Target keeps rolling in the cash, and I keep getting my biweekly $400 paychecks for busting my ass lifting heavy shit for 6 hours a day while continually harassed about red cards by the fresh out of college ETL who went to the same college I do now and had a few classes with me.

Why is Plano easier? Try resetting cosmetics. A 30 hour reset. And you are asked after about 10 hours ... Aren't you done yet?

So yes, in a way, Plano is easier. Less heavy lifting. But it has it's harder parts too.

The one thing I will say is that the hours are more regular. You have a point about your out time on flow. Target needs to address that somehow.

 

[commiecorvus]

I've worked both Flow and Plano.
While Flow is certainly harder work, Plano is much more frustrating.
The detail work that goes into Plano is ridiculous (if you're doing it right) and the time restrictions are ludicrous.
Flow is backbreaking and tiring to the extreme.
Very different skill sets but neither one is harder per se.

 

[Kompa]

You know who pays for flow staying past their hours? The rest of the store. I have my hours cut many times cause truck team couldn't or wouldn't get it done.

You also get hours because the flow team stays.
No flow team staying = less product on floors = less sales = less hours for you

Flows hours are pretty much the only ones that don't get cut due to low sales in my store because the shit needs to get to the floor

 

[BigEyedPhish]

I've worked both Flow and Plano.
While Flow is certainly harder work, Plano is much more frustrating.
The detail work that goes into Plano is ridiculous (if you're doing it right) and the time restrictions are ludicrous.
Flow is backbreaking and tiring to the extreme.
Very different skill sets but neither one is harder per se.

You could say the life of a PA is these combined, which added frustrations of there being a plano/flow team ;p

 

[tellmeaboutatime]

Which area is the hardest to work in can be debated until the cows come home. The reality is that each area has its good and bad points. The other thing is that each area affects the other as well. The backroom team often winds up making bales for the entire store. Flow often winds up working 30+ carts of reshop left from the sales floor. Sales floor is cashiering more than working pulls, cashiers are dealing with guests who want the price changed because it was stocked incorrectly. Plano spends way too much time trying to get the correct fixtures because the sales floor didn't put them away correctly and so on and so on and so on. Sure there are times when flow leaves a few carts. I am sure almost everyone here has filled the baler without running it knowing that a bale would need to be made. If you say you have never put an item in the wrong place because you could find where it really went I would bet you were not being truthful. Raise your hand if you have ever pretended not to hear the "additional cashiers needed". So I guess what I am saying before you throw another team under the bus make sure you are guilt free. I know "seek to understand" is thrown around so much it makes you want to puke, but it really does have merit. Maybe they had 4 or 5 call offs? Usually if flow calls in you just deal with it. It's hard to call people in at 4 am.

 

[CaptainRevision]

The thing with flow is, we're generally the only team in the store that consistently works past their scheduled times(well at my store anyway, and it sounds like all the other stores as well). And some weeks we just get tired of it. It's an expectation that we will stay. We don't get asked to stay, we just do because we know we're all only scheduled 730-11:30, and we still have half of grocery, C&D and E/Seasonal to push at 10:30, and we feel bad for our TL who's a great guy and can only do so much with the shit he's given every truck. You know why your Flow team doesn't help guests as often as they should(according to Target)? Because every minute spent with a guest is another minute we have to stay pushing the truck. And unfortunately, that extra time helping guests doesn't get us any more help. The ETLs and STLs always say if we meet sales goals we get more hours! But that's BS. Yeah we get more hours, but when that happens, the ETLs and STL just divide them up to finish their own little pet projects, or do dumb shit like get an extra zoner for a day because we all know that perfect toys zone will last any longer than 2 days. So yeah, sometimes Flow does leave a tub behind or a flat of one spot behind or a couple zbars. Because sometimes we have stuff to do that day, or have made plans with family for after work. It gets exhausting never knowing when you're going to get out of the store each and every truck day. If we were properly staffed (as any other department can attest to never been staffed correctly) I probably wouldn't hate it as much. But when you walk by the team member hiring needs and every month it says there's still 4-8 open Flow positions year round, you get kind of annoyed after awhile. When a flow tm quits or moves over to Pricing/plano cause it's a much easier team with as many hours, and no one replaces them, you get annoyed again. When they just cut 4 out 5 seasonal hires even though we STILL need 5 regular flow positions filled you get annoyed. Some days it's built up enough and you just leave at your scheduled time for once, cause if they don't want to schedule enough hours with enough TMs to push the truck, well that's not my $8.50 problem, that's the 100k STL, DTL, and $2 billion dollar net income corporate problem. But in the end, the truck will get pushed and backstocked anyway, whether by the sales floor, or the flow staying an extra 2-3 hours each every day. So it really doesn't matter, the store doesn't shut down because there were a few things left behind, or pushed wrong, or not backstocked. No one dies. Target keeps rolling in the cash, and I keep getting my biweekly $400 paychecks for busting my ass lifting heavy shit for 6 hours a day while continually harassed about red cards by the fresh out of college ETL who went to the same college I do now and had a few classes with me.

Why is Plano easier? Try resetting cosmetics. A 30 hour reset. And you are asked after about 10 hours ... Aren't you done yet?

So yes, in a way, Plano is easier. Less heavy lifting. But it has it's harder parts too.

The one thing I will say is that the hours are more regular. You have a point about your out time on flow. Target needs to address that somehow.

WOW such ignorance to think Planogram is easier than Flow or any other job.

If anything, Planogram is the HARDEST job in the store.


Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

Answer: ONLY Planogram!

I don't know since when does difficulty of work equate to just lifting heavy boxes? No, it's how much you have to do that determines it!

The disrespect that Plano get is just pure ignorance, period.

 

[Kompa]

The thing with flow is, we're generally the only team in the store that consistently works past their scheduled times(well at my store anyway, and it sounds like all the other stores as well). And some weeks we just get tired of it. It's an expectation that we will stay. We don't get asked to stay, we just do because we know we're all only scheduled 730-11:30, and we still have half of grocery, C&D and E/Seasonal to push at 10:30, and we feel bad for our TL who's a great guy and can only do so much with the shit he's given every truck. You know why your Flow team doesn't help guests as often as they should(according to Target)? Because every minute spent with a guest is another minute we have to stay pushing the truck. And unfortunately, that extra time helping guests doesn't get us any more help. The ETLs and STLs always say if we meet sales goals we get more hours! But that's BS. Yeah we get more hours, but when that happens, the ETLs and STL just divide them up to finish their own little pet projects, or do dumb shit like get an extra zoner for a day because we all know that perfect toys zone will last any longer than 2 days. So yeah, sometimes Flow does leave a tub behind or a flat of one spot behind or a couple zbars. Because sometimes we have stuff to do that day, or have made plans with family for after work. It gets exhausting never knowing when you're going to get out of the store each and every truck day. If we were properly staffed (as any other department can attest to never been staffed correctly) I probably wouldn't hate it as much. But when you walk by the team member hiring needs and every month it says there's still 4-8 open Flow positions year round, you get kind of annoyed after awhile. When a flow tm quits or moves over to Pricing/plano cause it's a much easier team with as many hours, and no one replaces them, you get annoyed again. When they just cut 4 out 5 seasonal hires even though we STILL need 5 regular flow positions filled you get annoyed. Some days it's built up enough and you just leave at your scheduled time for once, cause if they don't want to schedule enough hours with enough TMs to push the truck, well that's not my $8.50 problem, that's the 100k STL, DTL, and $2 billion dollar net income corporate problem. But in the end, the truck will get pushed and backstocked anyway, whether by the sales floor, or the flow staying an extra 2-3 hours each every day. So it really doesn't matter, the store doesn't shut down because there were a few things left behind, or pushed wrong, or not backstocked. No one dies. Target keeps rolling in the cash, and I keep getting my biweekly $400 paychecks for busting my ass lifting heavy shit for 6 hours a day while continually harassed about red cards by the fresh out of college ETL who went to the same college I do now and had a few classes with me.

Why is Plano easier? Try resetting cosmetics. A 30 hour reset. And you are asked after about 10 hours ... Aren't you done yet?

So yes, in a way, Plano is easier. Less heavy lifting. But it has it's harder parts too.

The one thing I will say is that the hours are more regular. You have a point about your out time on flow. Target needs to address that somehow.

WOW such ignorance to think Planogram is easier than Flow or any other job.

If anything, Planogram is the HARDEST job in the store.


Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

Answer: ONLY Planogram!

I don't know since when does difficulty of work equate to just lifting heavy boxes? No, it's how much you have to do that determines it!

The disrespect that Plano get is just pure ignorance, period.

That goes both ways.
Who else does of these?

*Unloads the Truck
*Separates the freight
*Cleans the Backroom
*Helps Guest
*Pulls the autofills (about 3+ times bigger than what plano pulls)
*Pushes all the those
*Keeps BR numbers up to date
*monarchs the bulks that plano had to pull
*Pulls the 12pm CAFs, which are also huge
*does most of the inventory prep
*only TMs on the floor because 6am/8am stores bring in SF later


and so much more really.

 

[RhettB]

A similar list can be made for any work center. Until someone has held a position in every area for a year they need to keep quiet.

 

[Produce Queen]

A similar list can be made for any work center. Until someone has held a position in every area for a year they need to keep quiet.

+1

 

[RhettB]

Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

The same can be said for the salesfloor and sales plans. And yes, I know that a POG is more feet to set, but there are more people to do it.

 

[commiecorvus]

Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

The same can be said for the salesfloor and sales plans. And yes, I know that a POG is more feet to set, but there are more people to do it.

Most of the time for Plano you might have a team but you've been assigned a an entire aisle, or a big chunk of it, to do by yourself.
Until you've tried to do a HBA, infants, or freaking cosmetics revision you haven't lived.
It's like herding cats, while doing a jig saw puzzle with missing pieces, as you lift weights and do dishes, and all the while someone screams at you to do it faster.

 

[semantics]

Flow had a cart of pets, a cart of checklanes, and a cart of dollar spot push that they brought up at about 9AM, left the carts, and clocked out.

Sometimes it's not flow's fault, sometimes we're told to take these carts out we want them to sit on the line but some ETL overrides you and you're just a TM. Best you can do is ask the ETL if someone will be working on it soon because you gotta punch out.

Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

The same can be said for the salesfloor and sales plans. And yes, I know that a POG is more feet to set, but there are more people to do it.

Most of the time for Plano you might have a team but you've been assigned a an entire aisle, or a big chunk of it, to do by yourself.
Until you've tried to do a HBA, infants, or freaking cosmetics revision you haven't lived.
It's like herding cats, while doing a jig saw puzzle, as you lift weights and do dishes, and all the while someone screams at you to do it faster.

In general doing anything in HBA is time consuming.

 

[CaptainRevision]

Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

The same can be said for the salesfloor and sales plans. And yes, I know that a POG is more feet to set, but there are more people to do it.

Your thinking of more people to do it, is severely wrong here. We only have 3-4 permanent TMs to do at least 200-300+ planogram workload. As previously said, 1 person takes a whole aisle, or sometimes, 2-10 aisles, depends on if it's just a 4 foot set or a 24 set and the intensity of each aisle.

If you think we are having fun and party, I don't know where you got your delusion from, but if your store is like that, how come our store is so different? We are crazy busy, behind, and BURNED out!

Also, if you think that a bunch of us maybe working in the same area, never does it mean that we are all working on the same set whatsoever. Unless, again your store does it vast differently than ours. I sure wouldn't mind a buddy system, but no we certainly don't have that much.


And, PULLING our pulls never count as these hours, but they want us to do it anyway because they think we are all Super humans that have these impossible speeds! As if 200-300 hours of workload is not enough for 3-4 perm TM, they ask us to do so much more!

 

[Bosch]

A similar list can be made for any work center. Until someone has held a position in every area for a year they need to keep quiet.

+1

Or you work on a good In-Stocks team, you will learn them all.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

Which area is the hardest to work in can be debated until the cows come home. The reality is that each area has its good and bad points. The other thing is that each area affects the other as well. The backroom team often winds up making bales for the entire store. Flow often winds up working 30+ carts of reshop left from the sales floor. Sales floor is cashiering more than working pulls, cashiers are dealing with guests who want the price changed because it was stocked incorrectly. Plano spends way too much time trying to get the correct fixtures because the sales floor didn't put them away correctly and so on and so on and so on. Sure there are times when flow leaves a few carts. I am sure almost everyone here has filled the baler without running it knowing that a bale would need to be made. If you say you have never put an item in the wrong place because you could find where it really went I would bet you were not being truthful. Raise your hand if you have ever pretended not to hear the "additional cashiers needed". So I guess what I am saying before you throw another team under the bus make sure you are guilt free. I know "seek to understand" is thrown around so much it makes you want to puke, but it really does have merit. Maybe they had 4 or 5 call offs? Usually if flow calls in you just deal with it. It's hard to call people in at 4 am.

Raises both hands.. as far as i am concerned me having to take my meat pull a

The thing with flow is, we're generally the only team in the store that consistently works past their scheduled times(well at my store anyway, and it sounds like all the other stores as well). And some weeks we just get tired of it. It's an expectation that we will stay. We don't get asked to stay, we just do because we know we're all only scheduled 730-11:30, and we still have half of grocery, C&D and E/Seasonal to push at 10:30, and we feel bad for our TL who's a great guy and can only do so much with the shit he's given every truck. You know why your Flow team doesn't help guests as often as they should(according to Target)? Because every minute spent with a guest is another minute we have to stay pushing the truck. And unfortunately, that extra time helping guests doesn't get us any more help. The ETLs and STLs always say if we meet sales goals we get more hours! But that's BS. Yeah we get more hours, but when that happens, the ETLs and STL just divide them up to finish their own little pet projects, or do dumb shit like get an extra zoner for a day because we all know that perfect toys zone will last any longer than 2 days. So yeah, sometimes Flow does leave a tub behind or a flat of one spot behind or a couple zbars. Because sometimes we have stuff to do that day, or have made plans with family for after work. It gets exhausting never knowing when you're going to get out of the store each and every truck day. If we were properly staffed (as any other department can attest to never been staffed correctly) I probably wouldn't hate it as much. But when you walk by the team member hiring needs and every month it says there's still 4-8 open Flow positions year round, you get kind of annoyed after awhile. When a flow tm quits or moves over to Pricing/plano cause it's a much easier team with as many hours, and no one replaces them, you get annoyed again. When they just cut 4 out 5 seasonal hires even though we STILL need 5 regular flow positions filled you get annoyed. Some days it's built up enough and you just leave at your scheduled time for once, cause if they don't want to schedule enough hours with enough TMs to push the truck, well that's not my $8.50 problem, that's the 100k STL, DTL, and $2 billion dollar net income corporate problem. But in the end, the truck will get pushed and backstocked anyway, whether by the sales floor, or the flow staying an extra 2-3 hours each every day. So it really doesn't matter, the store doesn't shut down because there were a few things left behind, or pushed wrong, or not backstocked. No one dies. Target keeps rolling in the cash, and I keep getting my biweekly $400 paychecks for busting my ass lifting heavy shit for 6 hours a day while continually harassed about red cards by the fresh out of college ETL who went to the same college I do now and had a few classes with me.

Why is Plano easier? Try resetting cosmetics. A 30 hour reset. And you are asked after about 10 hours ... Aren't you done yet?

So yes, in a way, Plano is easier. Less heavy lifting. But it has it's harder parts too.

The one thing I will say is that the hours are more regular. You have a point about your out time on flow. Target needs to address that somehow.

WOW such ignorance to think Planogram is easier than Flow or any other job.

If anything, Planogram is the HARDEST job in the store.


Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

Answer: ONLY Planogram!

I don't know since when does difficulty of work equate to just lifting heavy boxes? No, it's how much you have to do that determines it!

The disrespect that Plano get is just pure ignorance, period.

Perishables Assistant

As well as...
-QMOS,
-Ordering,
-Inventorying
-Steritech
-SDAing
-TPCing
-Weighing
-Vendor Herding
-Probably 15 other things I have forgotten

-You also have no one else to really rely on other than yourself, which can be a good/bad thing most days.

 

[RhettB]

Who else do all of these?

* Set shelves
* Set pegs
*Clean shelves
* Romove and put back products
* Help guests
* Often pull our own pulls
* Push all the aisles that we set?

The same can be said for the salesfloor and sales plans. And yes, I know that a POG is more feet to set, but there are more people to do it.

Your thinking of more people to do it, is severely wrong here. We only have 3-4 permanent TMs to do at least 200-300+ planogram workload. As previously said, 1 person takes a whole aisle, or sometimes, 2-10 aisles, depends on if it's just a 4 foot set or a 24 set and the intensity of each aisle.

If you think we are having fun and party, I don't know where you got your delusion from, but if your store is like that, how come our store is so different? We are crazy busy, behind, and BURNED out!

Also, if you think that a bunch of us maybe working in the same area, never does it mean that we are all working on the same set whatsoever. Unless, again your store does it vast differently than ours. I sure wouldn't mind a buddy system, but no we certainly don't have that much.


And, PULLING our pulls never count as these hours, but they want us to do it anyway because they think we are all Super humans that have these impossible speeds! As if 200-300 hours of workload is not enough for 3-4 perm TM, they ask us to do so much more!

My setting of 148 salesplans was no party either. Oh, and with no help. Many of which I had to pull myself as well.