Definitely get with the team leaders of the places you want to cross train in. I have been known to do small bits of training at a time for sbux, fitting room, etc. . . . Basically, grab the TM for 15 or 20 minutes every time we are scheduled at the same time and start with the basics. Before long, you are halfway trained and it just makes sense to the store to complete your training. Ask your HRTM to print learning plans for areas you are interested in. You may already know how to do some of it. Offer to cover breaks too. That's another way to sneak in some extra cross training. If you aren't scheduled 8 hours, offer to come in for an hour before your shift starts to get some training. I know hours are tight, but just one hour might be ok. (I would point out any call ins as a way to justify it). Also, I know a couple of instances where a team member took a shift from the swap board that he wasn't trained for. Ended up getting approved and the TM got trained for it. In that case, it was an area similar to the TMs original area. (Cashier took SD shift, HL took electronics shift).
Team Leaders all want good, motivated Team Members. I have current baristas who were cross trained in sneaky small doses. Before anyone realized it, I had them on my schedule. One of the ETLs has told me to keep away from her teams, lol.
at my store we have a tm, who was hired seasonally && no one expected to be kept on.... Yet she is still here six months later & really no better at her job. She walks with zero percent purpose -- I've watched her meander from her section back to the FR to get one lousy hanger and plod back to her zone, in the middle of what she is doing .... Like a complete time suck. Esp because she is a really slow and mediocre zoner .. When we started seasonally she got caught multiple times and spoken to by 3 separate LODs for taking her own areas go backs from zoning & dumping it into reshop before the end of the night so she didn't have to do it. One time it was like a half a cart of infants reshop && the FR girl that night almost strangled her. Her more recent solution to not wanting to do her own go backs is literally dumping everything in a huge clump on a rack at the end of her last zone. (Which, news flash, is easy to tell it was her / a ™). I also found out the other day she lied to another soft lines tm and claimed she could not understand how to operate the portable phone / would not cover a break .... Which is bs because I've personally taught her the phone & forced her to cover my FR breaks before because we have worked shifts where it was literally just the two of us ..... I feel bad because she is a nice girl but she is just awful at her job. She never responds to walkie calls directed at her - even from LODs - until the second or third time. She won't answer back-up cashier calls or call boxes unless specifically told by someone she "has" to . I used to think I could help motivate her / teach her things to make her life (and in turn the whole softlines dept. lives ) easier - but much like you I've just decided if no one else cares it's not going to be my problem.
