Greetings,
I was hoping for some advice on how to handle a few situations at work as I'm unsure what to do at this point. This is going to be super long. I'm going to be as vague as I can when it comes to "he" and "she".
I was promoted to SFT (Now PMT) a little more than a year ago. The previous SFT went on to become an ETL. During my training they made the logistics ETL the direct supervisor for all SFTs. Coming back to my store, they brought the previous SFT back to become our new logistics ETL.
The problem with this was that during training I was specifically trained to not be like the previous SFT. My trainers told me this and the FM-BP at the time. They said I was going to have to teach the store how to get back on track with the culture as the previous SFT did a lot of things "store-side". (They even wore red and khaki most of the time).
All this was fine, even when I heard the previous SFT was coming back as my direct supervisor. Anyways, to get to the point, it was hell. Pure hell. I would spend most of my days in smart huddles, or walking the store and zoning. I would be in the middle of a project and be stopped to work on something else. My current FM-BP was new and would basically say, "Just try and help as much as possible." That Black Friday I even had to be GSTL.
I told our STL that the FM-BP has a workload for me already on Black Friday and they said it was fine, that they had talked to the FM-BP already. I asked the FM-BP and they said,
"No. That's nice of you, but I need you doing SFT work".
I related that BACK to the STL and they said,
"No we talked to them again and they said it was fine".
Later I found out that never happened when talking with the FM-BP. Yet still they didn't do anything about it. I found myself doing things like opening Starbucks when no one showed up, etc etc. It was like mommy and daddy were fighting and each had something different to say, but no one would talk to each other. During visits they'd talk and it'd always turn into "Just do what you can to help."
One of the major issues was when my ETL-LOG called me a Mother Fu****. They didn't know I was listening and I and confronted them. I talked with HR about it and absolutely nothing happened. I found that out later on this year when another ETL new to the store told a friend that they heard "That never happened". The HR at that time has since left the company.
I demoted. I tried to keep the peace. Not start any drama. I just want to go to work man. I demoted to Target Cafe as the Food Assistant, a job I was the team lead for in the past, before SFT and GSTL. After the demotion, the TL over Target Cafe actually demoted as well. This left my new department with no leader, and the other TM who worked in there had put in their two weeks. Soon, I was literally the only person working in Target Cafe. I rearranged my schedule so I could open and close at decent times throughout the weeks. I came in on my days off to pan the pizza dough. I made sure the orders were placed. I did this for an entire month all alone.
When we finally did get some new TMs I trained them and made the schedule since no one was doing it. I no longer had access to the system, so I typed it up in word and turned it into HR. I made the Black Friday plan and ensured that it went well. All of this is pretty basic stuff as far as I'm concerned. I had no problem doing it. I've always been a worker. That's how I was promoted to TL and SFT in the first place. The big problem -
My review came last year. They hired a new GSTL and told us that from now on Food Ave no longer has TLs and that it's suppose to fall to the GSTL (I'm not really sold that this was the truth). I got my annual review and it was insane. It was IE in every single category. All the way down the board.
I wouldn't have mind if SOME of the category were IE. I use to write these reviews. I understand there's always room for improvement. The review covered the 7 months I was SFT and the rest FA. I was told,
"I need to be available to train team members."
I said, "I've trained everyone who works in the department..."
No one literally had a response. I mean...my face is literally on the board in the training room!
I was told I need to work on my attendance. I wasn't late at all during my time as SFT or FA, in fact I changed my entire schedule to be at FA when their was nobody but me. I asked them to check this.
I was told I need to be available to work in other departments. I said, "I cover Starbucks breaks and lunches everyday while we shut down my area." even though that particular TL giving my review was trained in Starbucks but refused to ever go cover. The weirdest part was -
Nothing about SFT was on there at all.
They told me that I could talk with the STL about it. So I did. Beforehand I talked with my ETL (over the sales floor) who had told me since the HR-ETL was on vacation and never really got to look the reviews that it was probably messed up. They said that the score was reflecting from SFT and not actually FA. I told them, "Okay well right there. This should be changed based on that alone." he told me to talk to STL.
I basically told the STL everything I just typed. They said that it was because I struggled as SFT. I said, "Yeah because I was opening Starbucks and GSTL and what have you." the STL said, "Those are things that need to be done in retail to which I replied, "Okay, but since they are, and the FMBP didn't do the review......I should have been the BEST SFT you ever had then!"
The STL was not saying I struggled because they went in and look at work orders, or store costs, etc etc. It was because I would be like, "Hey I really can't hang a picture on your wall right now I'm in the middle of a pest inspection." and stuff. If opening Starbucks and stuff are things we need to do in retail, and I do them, how is it struggling from that POV?
The STL said, "Okay. What do you want?" I said I didn't need a raise or anything. I just didn't want it to say IE in every single category. I was told it was impossible to change. I said that when I was GSTL I was pretty sure that we got another team member's changed once.... again I was told that it was impossible, but I could talk to the HR-BP about it. Okay. So I did.
We talked on the phone. Immediately they asked me if I wanted to transfer. I said no, and they pestered me about it a bit more. Talking about the review I was told again that it was impossible to change, but how I could get ready for next year. They said that I shouldn't have done all the store-side stuff and followed what the SFT was suppose to do. I didn't think to say it at the time but seriously? I was just told by the STL the opposite. I said the current SFT doesn't have to open Starbucks. In fact the current SFT told me that the FM-BP has said, "I am going to not worry about anyone else from now on and focus solely on FM", that's great but I needed that. The HR-BP said that the current one doesn't have to do that now because they have an ETL-LOG who has their back and use to be an SFT. I said that was the problem in the first pace. I mentioned being called a Mother-Fu****, which is when I heard that it "never happened" -
I would also like to state here that.... you just don't start drama. Hopefully some of you who are leaders will understand this. While I told HR when I was called the name, and apparently nothing never happened about it. Calling the hot line, or say, bringing it up to the HR BP in the current conversation, felt really risky. I have seen other TLs call on this particular ETL and were transferred out of the store. As crappy as it was, I didn't want to be transferred, or at least make everyday in my store worse than what it already was. There's a line that is crossed, even if you're right.
- Anyways, they didn't say anything about that. They told me they would at least check into why it said what it said about my attendance and training team members, and that they would call me back on Tuesday. That was months ago. At that point I was pretty defeated. I never heard back from the HR-BP. I tried to just go on about my job.
Our GSTL wasn't even trained to work in Food Ave, so I still did all the work, save the schedule. Eventually they had the Starbucks TL become our new TL. It's a bit better since at least it's someone who is close and listens when I try to explain WHY things are the way they are, or how something is suppose to work. However this past Sunday I came in to the Food Ave opener on a check lane, and I had to try and open the place up at noon while people were in line wanting pizza that wasn't even ready.
I mention these kind of things and no one cares. In fact most of the time they seem annoyed with me for doing so. I don't get it. I understand the needs of the store. I've been told, "what is more important to the overall success of the store." and I understand that too. However I believe that if we are having to constantly shut a department down than we have some bigger problems. Not to mention it makes the work load on the next person insane. Couldn't they have just pulled the opener after I came in? We have a new DTL now, but the one before was quoted as saying, "If I come in here one more time and Food Ave is shut someone is getting fired."
I told the LOD that night "Hey I'm going to be here pretty late..." and the look on their face was shocked, "Doing what?" they said. They don't understand that it's more than just serving bags of popcorn. It's a food production department. No one cares until the moment Steritech shows up (whom I walked the same person as a GSTL, SFT and now FA.) I'm always ready. My thinking is if we do these things then we will always be ready for a visit because we are doing things the correct way. When a visit comes we don't have to scramble and literally run around like chickens to sign the past months of cleaning logs.
I mentioned the review to ETL-HR a few months after the review (and they were back from vacation). I thought they knew about it. Apparently they didn't know much. Even just the other day they saw my picture with the other trainers for the board and made a comment about it and I said, "How can you guys say I didn't train any one on my review?!" somewhat in jest. They said, "If it happened this year he would defend me on it."
In conclusion. Yesterday marked my 5th year with the company. But I really don't feel like I can continue on. It's hard outputting so much effort, and actually trying to care about the work you do, when it seems constantly useless. Maybe there is no advice anyone here can give. Maybe it is time to move on to another job, though I really don't want to. Maybe I'm just venting. I don't know....
The WarCraft trailer comes out on Friday, so that's pretty neat....
I was hoping for some advice on how to handle a few situations at work as I'm unsure what to do at this point. This is going to be super long. I'm going to be as vague as I can when it comes to "he" and "she".
I was promoted to SFT (Now PMT) a little more than a year ago. The previous SFT went on to become an ETL. During my training they made the logistics ETL the direct supervisor for all SFTs. Coming back to my store, they brought the previous SFT back to become our new logistics ETL.
The problem with this was that during training I was specifically trained to not be like the previous SFT. My trainers told me this and the FM-BP at the time. They said I was going to have to teach the store how to get back on track with the culture as the previous SFT did a lot of things "store-side". (They even wore red and khaki most of the time).
All this was fine, even when I heard the previous SFT was coming back as my direct supervisor. Anyways, to get to the point, it was hell. Pure hell. I would spend most of my days in smart huddles, or walking the store and zoning. I would be in the middle of a project and be stopped to work on something else. My current FM-BP was new and would basically say, "Just try and help as much as possible." That Black Friday I even had to be GSTL.
I told our STL that the FM-BP has a workload for me already on Black Friday and they said it was fine, that they had talked to the FM-BP already. I asked the FM-BP and they said,
"No. That's nice of you, but I need you doing SFT work".
I related that BACK to the STL and they said,
"No we talked to them again and they said it was fine".
Later I found out that never happened when talking with the FM-BP. Yet still they didn't do anything about it. I found myself doing things like opening Starbucks when no one showed up, etc etc. It was like mommy and daddy were fighting and each had something different to say, but no one would talk to each other. During visits they'd talk and it'd always turn into "Just do what you can to help."
One of the major issues was when my ETL-LOG called me a Mother Fu****. They didn't know I was listening and I and confronted them. I talked with HR about it and absolutely nothing happened. I found that out later on this year when another ETL new to the store told a friend that they heard "That never happened". The HR at that time has since left the company.
I demoted. I tried to keep the peace. Not start any drama. I just want to go to work man. I demoted to Target Cafe as the Food Assistant, a job I was the team lead for in the past, before SFT and GSTL. After the demotion, the TL over Target Cafe actually demoted as well. This left my new department with no leader, and the other TM who worked in there had put in their two weeks. Soon, I was literally the only person working in Target Cafe. I rearranged my schedule so I could open and close at decent times throughout the weeks. I came in on my days off to pan the pizza dough. I made sure the orders were placed. I did this for an entire month all alone.
When we finally did get some new TMs I trained them and made the schedule since no one was doing it. I no longer had access to the system, so I typed it up in word and turned it into HR. I made the Black Friday plan and ensured that it went well. All of this is pretty basic stuff as far as I'm concerned. I had no problem doing it. I've always been a worker. That's how I was promoted to TL and SFT in the first place. The big problem -
My review came last year. They hired a new GSTL and told us that from now on Food Ave no longer has TLs and that it's suppose to fall to the GSTL (I'm not really sold that this was the truth). I got my annual review and it was insane. It was IE in every single category. All the way down the board.
I wouldn't have mind if SOME of the category were IE. I use to write these reviews. I understand there's always room for improvement. The review covered the 7 months I was SFT and the rest FA. I was told,
"I need to be available to train team members."
I said, "I've trained everyone who works in the department..."
No one literally had a response. I mean...my face is literally on the board in the training room!
I was told I need to work on my attendance. I wasn't late at all during my time as SFT or FA, in fact I changed my entire schedule to be at FA when their was nobody but me. I asked them to check this.
I was told I need to be available to work in other departments. I said, "I cover Starbucks breaks and lunches everyday while we shut down my area." even though that particular TL giving my review was trained in Starbucks but refused to ever go cover. The weirdest part was -
Nothing about SFT was on there at all.
They told me that I could talk with the STL about it. So I did. Beforehand I talked with my ETL (over the sales floor) who had told me since the HR-ETL was on vacation and never really got to look the reviews that it was probably messed up. They said that the score was reflecting from SFT and not actually FA. I told them, "Okay well right there. This should be changed based on that alone." he told me to talk to STL.
I basically told the STL everything I just typed. They said that it was because I struggled as SFT. I said, "Yeah because I was opening Starbucks and GSTL and what have you." the STL said, "Those are things that need to be done in retail to which I replied, "Okay, but since they are, and the FMBP didn't do the review......I should have been the BEST SFT you ever had then!"
The STL was not saying I struggled because they went in and look at work orders, or store costs, etc etc. It was because I would be like, "Hey I really can't hang a picture on your wall right now I'm in the middle of a pest inspection." and stuff. If opening Starbucks and stuff are things we need to do in retail, and I do them, how is it struggling from that POV?
The STL said, "Okay. What do you want?" I said I didn't need a raise or anything. I just didn't want it to say IE in every single category. I was told it was impossible to change. I said that when I was GSTL I was pretty sure that we got another team member's changed once.... again I was told that it was impossible, but I could talk to the HR-BP about it. Okay. So I did.
We talked on the phone. Immediately they asked me if I wanted to transfer. I said no, and they pestered me about it a bit more. Talking about the review I was told again that it was impossible to change, but how I could get ready for next year. They said that I shouldn't have done all the store-side stuff and followed what the SFT was suppose to do. I didn't think to say it at the time but seriously? I was just told by the STL the opposite. I said the current SFT doesn't have to open Starbucks. In fact the current SFT told me that the FM-BP has said, "I am going to not worry about anyone else from now on and focus solely on FM", that's great but I needed that. The HR-BP said that the current one doesn't have to do that now because they have an ETL-LOG who has their back and use to be an SFT. I said that was the problem in the first pace. I mentioned being called a Mother-Fu****, which is when I heard that it "never happened" -
I would also like to state here that.... you just don't start drama. Hopefully some of you who are leaders will understand this. While I told HR when I was called the name, and apparently nothing never happened about it. Calling the hot line, or say, bringing it up to the HR BP in the current conversation, felt really risky. I have seen other TLs call on this particular ETL and were transferred out of the store. As crappy as it was, I didn't want to be transferred, or at least make everyday in my store worse than what it already was. There's a line that is crossed, even if you're right.
- Anyways, they didn't say anything about that. They told me they would at least check into why it said what it said about my attendance and training team members, and that they would call me back on Tuesday. That was months ago. At that point I was pretty defeated. I never heard back from the HR-BP. I tried to just go on about my job.
Our GSTL wasn't even trained to work in Food Ave, so I still did all the work, save the schedule. Eventually they had the Starbucks TL become our new TL. It's a bit better since at least it's someone who is close and listens when I try to explain WHY things are the way they are, or how something is suppose to work. However this past Sunday I came in to the Food Ave opener on a check lane, and I had to try and open the place up at noon while people were in line wanting pizza that wasn't even ready.
I mention these kind of things and no one cares. In fact most of the time they seem annoyed with me for doing so. I don't get it. I understand the needs of the store. I've been told, "what is more important to the overall success of the store." and I understand that too. However I believe that if we are having to constantly shut a department down than we have some bigger problems. Not to mention it makes the work load on the next person insane. Couldn't they have just pulled the opener after I came in? We have a new DTL now, but the one before was quoted as saying, "If I come in here one more time and Food Ave is shut someone is getting fired."
I told the LOD that night "Hey I'm going to be here pretty late..." and the look on their face was shocked, "Doing what?" they said. They don't understand that it's more than just serving bags of popcorn. It's a food production department. No one cares until the moment Steritech shows up (whom I walked the same person as a GSTL, SFT and now FA.) I'm always ready. My thinking is if we do these things then we will always be ready for a visit because we are doing things the correct way. When a visit comes we don't have to scramble and literally run around like chickens to sign the past months of cleaning logs.
I mentioned the review to ETL-HR a few months after the review (and they were back from vacation). I thought they knew about it. Apparently they didn't know much. Even just the other day they saw my picture with the other trainers for the board and made a comment about it and I said, "How can you guys say I didn't train any one on my review?!" somewhat in jest. They said, "If it happened this year he would defend me on it."
In conclusion. Yesterday marked my 5th year with the company. But I really don't feel like I can continue on. It's hard outputting so much effort, and actually trying to care about the work you do, when it seems constantly useless. Maybe there is no advice anyone here can give. Maybe it is time to move on to another job, though I really don't want to. Maybe I'm just venting. I don't know....
The WarCraft trailer comes out on Friday, so that's pretty neat....
lol. 
