Archived Is it even worth it being a TL?

[pinkp2ie]

Let me ask y'all
Is it worth waiting another year becoming a junior in college to apply to become a ETL intern?

 

[BigEyedPhish]

This is seriously such a depressing thread. It's helped me make up my mind though. ~6mos ago my TL (who is no longer at my store) asked if I had any interest in becoming a TL & I wasn't really sure- I thought so, but felt like I needed a bit more time.

Now I feel like (in terms of work knowledge) I'd be good to start the process (although I'm currently in a horrific spot in my personal life, so it'd definitely be a bad decision to pursue it at the moment lol) but yea...reading this and realizing, like someone said, I'd be taking home roughly $100 more each month...there's no way that's worth it.


That's really unfortunate. I think I could potentially be pretty good at it, but I feel like Target is literally draining every ounce of energy out of me even just as a team member...there's no way that would let up if I moved to TL!!

And this really where the hammer falls, on Target's future. Year after year I think it becomes more obvious that they should just rename their TMs "students" instead of team members because they are doing a great job working TM's into the ground so they go and find another job at another retail competitor.

 

[LUR99]

This is so true. Granted my flow TL rules. Flow team is by far the most hated team in my store and the one I trained at.

Most of them are good people but I swear every flow team has several lazy bums who have no regard for capacities, refuse to backstock, cant read labels and leave God awful messes in the breakroom and bathroom.

Our flow team is the most hated team in the store as well. Very high turn over and they do make huge messes in the break room, they can't take their trash to the trash cans when they exit the break room. The trash cans are next to the exit 😵. BUT there are a lot of great people on the flow team as well.
Flow comes in super early, has a tight time limit to get their job done and for the most part, work hard while the flow TL barks orders at them.

 

[missionimpossible]

I worked 10+ hours more then the flow TL in the last month.

i worked about 40 more than our brtl in the past month.

 

[pinkp2ie]

I hope you all punch corrected

I would of just rang the doorbell every two seconds haha

 

[BackroomAlpha]

How I wish I had keys. I once waited in my car for a half hour with 5 other team members.

Ive waited 2 hours...negative temperature. Entire flow team left, backroom stayed. We unloaded the truck, worked A, B, G, C&D blocks. Did autofills and worked those. Backstocked all of it. Out in 8 hours. They left the rest for flow next day.

Ive waited more than a few times. That being the longest.

 

[SrTLall]

IMO BRTL isn't that bad. There is a report for everything, making it easy to figure out who needs attention/development. A vast majority of TL have no idea what they are doing, but if you know how to manage and develop people, being BRTL isn't bad. No TL position is that bad if you know how to be a leader, but most Target TLs are just overpaid TMs.

The one TL position I would NEVER take is GSTL. Not only do you have to deal with your regular responsibilities, you have to deal with absurd guests. I'd much rather hide in the back than deal with the Front End.

3$ more a week is almost $500 more a month before taxes plus a guarenteed 40hr/week, for just BRTL? Why wouldn't you take that?

FYI, I've been GSTL->FATL->HLTL->LOG SrTL

 

[callmetaylor]

Ive waited 2 hours...negative temperature. Entire flow team left, backroom stayed. We unloaded the truck, worked A, B, G, C&D blocks. Did autofills and worked those. Backstocked all of it. Out in 8 hours. They left the rest for flow next day.

Ive waited more than a few times. That being the longest.

As a former Flow/current BRTM I kind of love when I'm asked to do Flow's job and end up doing it in a fraction of the time Flow takes.

I keep thinking that if us BRTMs prove it can be done faster then they'll start cracking down on flow...but I don't get the sense that that will happen. It blows my mind. Leadership is stressed/pissed over stuff not being completed, but half our flow team takes 3min+ per box!! Or parks a pull at one end of a section of the store and walks back to the tub 5 million times instead of just pushing it around.

 

[HRZone]

The one TL position I would NEVER take is GSTL. Not only do you have to deal with your regular responsibilities, you have to deal with absurd guests. I'd much rather hide in the back than deal with the Front End.

Agreed, plus some cashiers are flat out uncoachable. We have some older cashier ladies at my store (10 plus) years of experience who totally undermine my ETL GE.

 

[missionimpossible]

As a former Flow/current BRTM I kind of love when I'm asked to do Flow's job and end up doing it in a fraction of the time Flow takes.

I keep thinking that if us BRTMs prove it can be done faster then they'll start cracking down on flow...but I don't get the sense that that will happen. It blows my mind. Leadership is stressed/pissed over stuff not being completed, but half our flow team takes 3min+ per box!! Or parks a pull at one end of a section of the store and walks back to the tub 5 million times instead of just pushing it around.

Funny, I have the same thoughts when I go into the br and get their pulls done in a fraction of the time it takes them to do it.

 

[Yetive]

That's the ETL being bad at his job.

 

[Lazy]

i worked about 40 more than our brtl in the past month.

I meant to put weekly.

I would of just rang the doorbell every two seconds haha

Wouldn't have helped. There was no one in the building

 

[Backroom88]

You consider RFID a workcenter? Its part of the instocks process. Ship from store is part of the Flexible Fulfillment workcenter.

At my store, Flow TL owns instocks. If we get transition, our PPTL and her ONE regular team member are in there breaking down the pallets and sorting them. idk, my store kinda babies the backroom. Its 1 o'clock. All leadership is helping pull the batches so they're really never in danger of being late. Hours get funneled into AM BR so they can come clean every day. Its nice having a clean backroom every day but it sucks up hours. Are we over hours and need to cut TMs? Those hours sure as hell aren't coming from BR.

idk, I don't think BR TL at my store would be too difficult. And I think it comes down to how your store supports each workcenter that determines how difficult it is. Our PPTL has one team member. Occasionally she'll get a BR TM dedicated to pulling batches for her but 2 people to do entire sets is absolutely insane. I wouldn't want to be in her position.

Its not a full workcenter but its one extra thing that didnt have to be done before. Same with ship from store. And at my store nobody helps the backroom. They do everything and they would be lost without my help throughout the day. I dont see why target cant make another TL position combining receiving, flex, and ship from store. They are jobs that are demanding and highly need attention but i know its a big LOL to even bring it up.

 

[anathema]

I mean, it's a small thing that should be pretty autonomous in your routines.

- Backroom
- Instocks
- Receiving
- Ship From Store

are the workcenters. FAs can be done by BR or SFS, RFID is owned by instocks and should only take a couple hours. Your store culture hinders you, but you're able to change it with help from ETL-LOG and STL. I'm not fortunate to have that STL support, but you can still make things better than what they are. It's up to you if it's worth the battles you'll have to fight.

 

[glo]

Its not a full workcenter but its one extra thing that didnt have to be done before. Same with ship from store. And at my store nobody helps the backroom. They do everything and they would be lost without my help throughout the day. I dont see why target cant make another TL position combining receiving, flex, and ship from store. They are jobs that are demanding and highly need attention but i know its a big LOL to even bring it up.

RFID isn't an extra thing. Instocks doesn't have to adhere to large daily scans throughout entire departments anymore and instead rely on RIGs and standalone research. RFID is a tool to help instocks do their job in a more efficient and accurate manner. Whether it's fully fleshed out and working right now, we could argue. I heard RFID is being put on hold right now but I don't run Instocks so I could be wrong.

idk, good team members in each of those areas means that they pretty much take care of themselves. We have two TMs that captain flex and our receiver has been around forever. Besides. what would a TL looking over those areas do during the day? Pick, pack, and ship? Help receive product? At that point aren't they just an overpaid TM? I do wish that TMs captaining areas were compensated as such.


Anyways, on the topic, I think that TL is a good experience to have. You lead a team, see the store in an operational sense, and just plain do a lot of things you wouldn't otherwise. I don't believe that it'll land you that kush 100k job, but I think it'll be a good thing to have on your resume in the future. I obviously can't speak to what doors it'll open but I'm sure they'll be open when I get there.

 

[Sanzano]

Agreed, plus some cashiers are flat out uncoachable. We have some older cashier ladies at my store (10 plus) years of experience who totally undermine my ETL GE.

Most of my cashiers are my senior, and I've delivered corrective to the veterans too. If you're serious enough nobody is uncoachable - but it can be a struggle.

Funny enough I'd rather deal with absurd guests than absurd workload. Dealing with people has always been easier for me.

 

[BackroomAlpha]

@callmetaylor right on. Whenever backroom works any product at our store its stocked correctly and produces very little backstock. Ive tried to propose the idea that backroom works all of the pipos. 80% of recieving backstock is from the pipos and numerous times Ive checked them when they produce a lot of backstock and the flow TM just isnt working them correctly. Hel bring us back entire pallets of toilet paper with a few taken off but nearly the whole thing should go out.

If i feel susipsous of backstock I will almost always give it a second glance on the floor to be certain. Thats how stockrooms get over stuffed and unorganized. Flow team not doing thier jobs properly, rarely does it ever come from the backroom stowing incorrectly.

Was only a couple weeks ago toys got slammed with 12 pallets of freight TBW on the floor, some isles completly empty. We got nearly 10 flats worth of backstock from flow after it was worked, notified the ETL-log and she got it double checked by POG before we wasted time to backstock it. Pog TL brought back 2 flats out of the 10 when they were done...now think if we had backstocked all of that which wasnt true backstock but meant for the floor...our stockroom would have erupted, 2 hours wasted approximately backstocking it, more time wasted pulling it in research or autofills next day...Its a rediculous mess when flow team isnt good.