Archived I got "talked to" today because I'm not moving fast enough

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graciebarra81

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Jun 14, 2019
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So, this is my second week at Target. My first day of work was last Wednesday. I applied for general merchandise expert, they've had me training in various areas. On Saturday, I started learning how to "push" the various items to the sales floor. Being that it's a new experience, I've had to ask a lot of questions during the process because I don't know the layout of the store and sometimes the labels are confusing. I've pushed probably 5 item carts now, and It has been taking me about an hour and 20 minutes to push each individual one out. I got pulled to the side by my team lead this morning, and he told me that I am going too slow on my pushes, and that each one should take no more than 30 minutes. I explained that today was only my third day and I'm still learning proper procedures for pushing and where everything is at, and that I would get faster the more that I do it. My feeling was that it isn't realistic to expect someone on their third day to be pushing as quickly as people who have worked there for years. To be honest, taking a full cart of boxes to a department, determining where they go, determining what is back stock and what isn't, and finishing the whole thing within 30 minutes just seems nearly impossible to me right now. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
 
I'd talk to your TL and ask for advice on how I could improve my time / speed. It also never hurts to ask questions. Did you or are you shadowing another HLTM? It sounds like asking for additional training would help you.
 
If you are taking twice as long as other tms to do the work that could well be in the really slow category. Work on counting the shelf location as you walk up to the shelf and make sure you have a good box cutter. Don’t walk up and down a whole aisle but bring the uboat with you and work the aisle from one end to another.

We don’t have a lot of time to train up slower folks anymore, so work with them to improve your speed.
 
Fluttervale said:
We don’t have a lot of time to train up slower folks anymore, so work with them to improve your speed.
Click to expand...

That's a lousy company attitude. So if someone doesn't come in right away kicking ass at something they've never done before, tell them they suck at it and dont take any responsibility for their progress because "we dont have a lot of time to train up slower folks." Stupid.
 
When I first started, it took me forever to clear a cart of reshop, and I have decades of retail experience. It takes time to get to know where everything is, plus softlines was jacked up and had things in the wrong spots. I agree with you that it's ridiculous for them to expect you to clear a cart as fast as other team members.Try asking your fellow TMs for any tips, tricks, or shortcuts they may use. Good luck to you!
 
And when this person walks out without notice they will wonder what his/her problem was. Cause it is never target's problem. I mean with almost no training and impossible standards that change every five minutes what could go wrong?
 
Target love to set unachievable goals bc they think it will force Team members to stay busy. Nobody makes the 30 minute goal (if they're stocking correctly). Try to find out what parts of the job are most important to your Leader and focus on that
 
welcome to big retail.

home of limited training, unrealistic starting expectations, and more!

I just got a job at a place that's essentially retail on steroids and was told I need to finish a rack in fifteen minutes. It's a Bakery Department I'm in and I box and wrap all of the cooked goodies. I said the same thing "yeah, I know I felt like I was going slow, I'm sorry, it's literally like my third day doing this." and while it wasn't a performance coaching it was more of an "informative discretion" that those are the expectations of everyone. It sucks, yeah, you're gonna get picked on a majority of the time, but you'll get there eventually. Just need to maintain that faith and show you do care.

EDIT: Another story from my new job. We have to print out labels for every container and my manager was struggling to find the item number so she said "Just wait for me don't do anything" while she went off to find a PLU code or Item #. Lo' and Behold, I didn't wait for her. I searched up the item we wanted, found it, printed out 34 labels. She comes back and says "I TOLD YOU TO WAIT." and I said "no I found it I swear to God." and she checks item numbers and asks me "Is this the item number you said was on the box?" and dishearteningly I said "...no."

so, feelings of remorse and guilt flooded over me. BUT WAIT. My manager looks in a binder that has pictures and processes and she checks the label item number to the one in the book... IT FUCKING MATCHED. Sometimes intuition can trump tradition but in most cases just don't do what I did. Just do whatever your team leader says, take his advice, try to implement it, and just improve yourself continually.
 
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What area are you stocking? Home decor is very different from HBA, Plastics, Paper or Toys. aka A giant box of Plastics or Bed Pillows is way faster than something in Home Decor that has all the foam and extra wrap.

"5 Item carts" - 5 metal U-boats? 5 Flats? How many cases? are you doing Repacks or Cases?
 
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graciebarra81 said:
That's a lousy company attitude. So if someone doesn't come in right away kicking ass at something they've never done before, tell them they suck at it and dont take any responsibility for their progress because "we dont have a lot of time to train up slower folks." Stupid.
Click to expand...

That's taken out of context.

The responsibility is on you to move faster, not on your leader to tolerate your speed. Your leader is giving you important feedback. Work with them and your peers to learn how to go faster. A leader doesn't have time to spend hours with you teaching, because the job is really just put shit on shelves in the right spot.

It might (probably is) stupid to not give people a ton of training and expect them to do well, but (a) welcome to retail and (b) your job is to put stuff on shelves and if you need a lot of training to do that well you need to find a different job.
 
Fluttervale said:
That's taken out of context.

The responsibility is on you to move faster, not on your leader to tolerate your speed. Your leader is giving you important feedback. Work with them and your peers to learn how to go faster. A leader doesn't have time to spend hours with you teaching, because the job is really just put shit on shelves in the right spot.

It might (probably is) stupid to not give people a ton of training and expect them to do well, but (a) welcome to retail and (b) your job is to put stuff on shelves and if you need a lot of training to do that well you need to find a different job.
Click to expand...

You're kidding, right?

or trolling. I can't tell which.
 
Just throw the shit anywhere then. It's just retail. Either it's done right or not done at some point. They can say .... get this uboat done in 2 seconds!!!!!! Not happening if you want it done right. Or, I can tip the whole damn thing over, watch the boxes and on a whole aisle of shelves and say ..... Ta Da! Done!
 
dont-look-for-shortcuts-to-success-work-harder-than-anyone-37589678.png
 
Fluttervale said:
That's taken out of context.

The responsibility is on you to move faster, not on your leader to tolerate your speed. Your leader is giving you important feedback. Work with them and your peers to learn how to go faster. A leader doesn't have time to spend hours with you teaching, because the job is really just put shit on shelves in the right spot.

It might (probably is) stupid to not give people a ton of training and expect them to do well, but (a) welcome to retail and (b) your job is to put stuff on shelves and if you need a lot of training to do that well you need to find a different job.
Click to expand...
3 days, and you think that someone should be able to find the right spots for the product at the same pace as the long term folks? 3 days. Not 3 months, not 3 weeks, but 3 days.

I really hope that your next workplace, your boss tells you after only 3 days that you are failing miserably because you don't have it all down pat.
 
Tessa120 said:
3 days, and you think that someone should be able to find the right spots for the product at the same pace as the long term folks? 3 days. Not 3 months, not 3 weeks, but 3 days.

I really hope that your next workplace, your boss tells you after only 3 days that you are failing miserably because you don't have it all down pat.
Click to expand...

I did not say that. I said that this person is clearly on the slower end if they take almost 3 times as long as a trained team member, and they need to work with their leader and peers to improve.
 
It’s hard to say without being there.

If you have a genuine look of confusion on your face trying to find things, that’s clearly inexperience.

If you’re walking slowly and putting stuff on the shelf slowly, that’s not an experience issue... you’re lazy.

A good team leader should be able to determine what your issue is pretty quickly.

Ultimately, none of us can know because you are only able to provide he said she said.... not video/real time objective truth.
 
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