Sounds rough being an actual TL. I've been given TL duties in the past and have been told I have leadership qualities in me, which made me excited about being a TL sometime in the future, but, I don't think I want it. Especially after seeing what some of you either went through or are currently going through. The TL I told you all about has left the store. I got to talk and hang with her before she left. She was in a rough place. She was really beating herself up. She blamed her team here and there but, I can tell that it was just the frustration talking because, she told me how much she cared for them all, but, how she kept failing to drive them to their full potential. Every problem she brought up began with "I" or "me". At some point, I actually wanted to hug her and tell her that she wasn't the problem, but, she probably wouldn't have listened if I did. Before she left, she said that she hopes that the next person who leads them treats them with respect and has the drive to push the team to their best.
I didn't know a job could do that to you. It made her feel like she wasn't worth anything and convinced her that she was the problem. I felt so goddamn bad when we spoke. I'm actually angry for her. I want to go up to her team and tell them that they suck so fucking much that the hardest working part of their team called it quits. That's scary, leadership, at least at Target, sounds like a real drag.
This is burn-out. As in the actual moment of burning out. The lead up of high stress, probably call outs, and giving up publically are the key indicators.
Target culture uses words like "coach" and "accountability" because they want it to be a positive system. It isn't. From the top all the way down to the SD the actual culture pushed is "Coach them out". Rarely ever do ETL/SDs coach you as a TL and give you any advice or help you to succeed. The conversation is "you need to do better". Most of them have no clue how you can do that, but red metrics = bad. Thats what it boils down to.
Here's a personal example.
I was a Sr.TL in a medium volume store. Originally I had backroom, instocks, plano. Great - no issues. Clean backroom, excellent brla (solid green for a year), strong transition process (sorted by aisle and palletized). Rev log top in the region.
We picked up a new SD who had some issues recognizing that best practice is more of a guideline...and forced us to adhere strictly to some things that had been changed. We had a separate flow tl and ran one down on headcount for plano in order to do that. The process worked incredibly well.
She booted the flow tl, added that to my plate, and pushed us towards some bastardized version of modernization which completely shit the bed. You can read my previous posts if you want more info. Her final quote to me was "I dont need to know how the process works to manage it". She took my leadership status forms and tried to turn them into coachings, the HR ETL wouldn't sign them. Every attempt I made to ask for advice or ideas was met with "You need to figure it out"
I went through the various stages of burn out before eventually deciding I wasn't going to let her fuck me like that, so I coordinated with the HR ETL (who also hated her). The HR ETL transferred out, price and plano TL retired. Then I just called out every truck day leaving her to hold the bag while I found a new job.
Your TL hit burnout and gave up. Once you get there, theres no coming back. Now she may have been a shit leader, we'll never know. But I would bet your store leadership didn't do her any favors as she was sinking.
My last day I was LOD and the RVP (f you Lydia) showed up. Turned my keys in and left when she walked though the door. SD was fired 3 weeks later.
