This post is all over the place. You lead with mental health but then say almost nothing about it at all. Maybe you were just trying to be insulting, but failed? You seem to have zero regard for the TL's mental health in your post. Are we robots to you?
Your solution of "put the shift up for 2 days and then the TM has no responsibility" is absurd. If a TM tells me in advance that they definitely cannot make it in on that day, and their reason makes sense and is legitimately a day they have to miss, that is a different story than the typical version of what I'm talking about. But you're putting your whole case on the TM being an infallible, besieged victim of their schedules and follies. And that shit ain't true. Or I can sell you a bridge.
I want to act human too. Can I tell a guest off? Can I ask out my TMs? I'm just human, bruh, and stuff.
You act as if it's trivial to get people to cover shifts. Your general point of view seems to be that leaders are not important and can suck it to the hilt for a few extra dollars an hour while working three times as hard, while even the most truant of TMs are flawless angels. Way out of balance and the attitude would be insulting if it made any sense.
So you're one of those leaders who likes the position because being a manager at Target makes you feel like you're powerful? Why do YOU hold the ultimate authority on whether or not someone's reasoning is valid or not? At this point, Target does indeed want us to take them at their word. If a team member doesn't want to work there, then they'll leave on their own 9/10 before we can get the corrective process going forward to do anything. Further, if they are not working any of their shifts and put them all up on the swap shift board, then why are you still scheduling them? Why haven't you had a discussion with them about why they aren't working any of their shifts?
If people are doing this same exact thing to the point where it's a consistent problem, then perhaps your leadership is just terribly poor and they don't respect you enough to be honest with you and not leave you stranded. Also, come on. You want to argue that leaders ARE important when Target has eliminated so many leadership positions in the past few years? Clearly they aren't important beyond a point, and that point is the financial whims of the board. They will cut your ass immediately if it makes their income statement look better. My store has 15 leaders. Of those, only 2 of them are actually doing LEADERSHIP work, while the rest of the leaders are just doing TM work for a higher price. Are you really working three times as hard as any team member? Or are you overwhelmed by your role and grasping for exaggerations to explain it away?
What is so stressful about taking a look at a schedule grid and pulling up your list of TM's and trying to find coverage for a role in your work center? You can do that with a series of calls in about 10 minutes. If a TL is having a mental health event because they have to handle the scheduling in their area, then they probably shouldn't have gotten a TL position.
My work center has great metrics because it is adequately staffed because filling a shift that a TM has raised in advance isn't a monumental task. As an addition, your TM's are also more likely to come to you with scheduling issues because they know you actually take care of it, rather than put all of the work on them. Less surprise call outs, less non-covered shifts, means less angry guests and less rollover day to day.
Sure, you can tell a guest off. You can ask your TM's out. You'll face consequences for it though because your role expects you to not curse out guests or hit on TM's. In fact, if you can't de-escalate a situation and have to resort to cursing out a guest then you shouldn't be a leader anyway. Or if you're willing to use your position to try to get in your TM's pants.
If someone doesn't post their shift, tells everyone they won't be in, and NCNS on the day of, then yeah, have a conversation with them. They're not doing their part. But if someone says they can't work a shift, posts it on the board, makes attempts to fill it, and that shift is still not filled when the time comes, then tell me where exactly the TM failed there? They did their part. Ultimately, YOU are responsible for the area's schedule. Trying to write up a TM for calling out on a shift they made attempts to cover is just shifting the failure from yourself to them.