Archived More hours cut

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Often times we forget that Spot, like every other company exist purely to make a profit. They answer to the investors, not their employees. Corporate conscious and responsibilities are often times neglected. And as such, from a business perspective its understandable management would try to cut cost, with labor being one of the prime numbers, especially in mature companies such as Spot.

One can argue that paying a better wage to those working at the lower levels would lead to better moral, services and in general a much more friendlier environment which in the long run would boost sales and revenue/profits, but then we have to consider factors that really pushes against it. First, its the investors again; increasing wages, benefits and all that good stuff would stick out on any earnings report while the boost in sales/revenues/profits take time to manifest. Investors aren't known to be the most patient, and it'll be hard to convince them otherwise without the stock of spot taking a major hit and affecting a sizable dividend that Spot pays out.

The perception of retail work is another wind hard to sail against, because the prevailing argument is that retail work should only serve as a temporary job, transition job or a supplementary job. As such, a company cannot commit too much resources to a workforce that is expected to have high turn-over, that wouldn't be efficient and very costly.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but its just my two-cents on the whole hours, benefits and pay stuff. Do I believe they can afford to pay more, even though its retail? Absolutely, companies like Costco pays very well across the boards for their employees, but unfortunately Spot operates differently, and Spot's investors have their own expectations/agenda on how the company should be operated and how their capital should be invested.

Well clearly the uber wealthy, supposedly skilled investors are idiots too. Because assessments of other companies that invest more in their employees always show a near 3 to 1 improvement over undervalued employees. Regardless to what society says about it being a temporary job, its got to be done and some like what they do even if its bottom rung (like a 10 year maintenance tm who has refused advancement several times). A valued employee will reduce turnover, something that if a company targets size could reduce 50% would cut millions of dollars in cost. Likewise, profits rise at the same time as they're more likely to go out of their way to help.

You want to cut costs as much as possible to earn a buck? That will work temporarily, until you start getting what you pay for. I wonder how patient stockholders will be when stock performs bad due to bad decisions.
 
companies like Costco pays very well across the boards for their employees, but unfortunately Spot operates differently, and Spot's investors have their own expectations/agenda on how the company should be operated and how their capital should be invested.

Costco does pay better salaries on average but I think it's harder to get a job there as opposed to Target. I tried applying to Costco twice and was rejected both times. For all I know they had better applicants but I don't think it requires much in the way of skill sets to perform a stock position. Plus, I've read reviews via Glassdoor that suggested a lot of new hires have a hard time getting full-time hours. I'll take these reviews with a grain of salt but I'm thinking it can't be all puppies and unicorns at Costco. Costco can afford better wages/benefits because of their business model as a bulk goods retailer. They don't make much profit from the sale of goods but make a butt-load via their membership services.
 
The largest investors, like institutions and fund managers will know when to get out of the company before the value of the company drops. They have no personal attachment to the company. As long as it's making money, they'll stay in the game. Once the company starts to show signs of weakness, they'll move on to the next company to invest their money on. It doesn't make them idiots, just means every one has their own agenda.

I perfectly agree, short term cost cuts will definitely have sustainability issues in the long run, but if management decides they want to please investors and shareholders first, then that's the fate they have sealed for the company.

No public company is perfect, they all have the same dilemma between whats good for the company in the long run, vs. the gains shareholders want to see in the short term, just depends who has the louder voice in decision making. I still have hope though, Spot can still turn it around and reinvent itself as long as they have decent leadership and a unified vision.
 
You want to cut costs as much as possible to earn a buck? That will work temporarily, until you start getting what you pay for.
This is how CEOs these days run things. Investors get pissy because things are stagnant, so they hire a new CEO who cuts expenses like mad for a few years and says "look I made the profits go up! Can I have my bonus now?" Then they move on to the next company.
 
Yep, getting tired of hearing "We need every one on checklanes!!!" every 15min.. And when you don't come up you get called out.. I am getting sick of being the only person on the floor with several guests in my face and being yelled at cause I can't be in two places at once.. I have started saying "So you want me to tell the guest I am helping to go pull that out of the back yourself so I can come up and ring?" It has worked.. But I am waiting for them to tell me otherwise.

Just say you are with a guest and will come up as soon as you can????
 
Then, the cashiers call off 10 minutes before their shift starts. Stop complaining about no hours!

No. I have every right to bitch. I get to hear why my work isn't done, why call boxes don't get answered. You get to hear about no hours. And if your cashiers call out all the time, write them up.
 
I was referring to the cashiers who complain about not getting hours & then calling off. Sorry for the confusion.

@Hardlinesmaster We Cool :) Ok, makes more sense.. Cause we only hear the "No hours" thing from the ones who call off all the time.. Or the reason you only get 4hrs a shift is cause you call out at least once of your two weekend shifts(and they only work weekends). But the core cashiers - they are pushing 40hr or their limit of hours. But even that they are short bodies.
 
I shop quite often at my old employer and see fewer and fewer of my former team members every visit. Those that remained and those that have recently joined are all looking for something new. It's so sad to see such a lack of loyalty from an employer. My current employer (Lowes) seems to operate differently and although achieving a full time position is difficult, part time employees are also offered benefits.
 
Already lost 2-3 TMs just in this quarter alone due to hour cuts.
up to the double digits now. A bunch of people suddenly quit within the past few weeks. We have so many new people now that my last shift was worked with all new SLTMs. It was a crazy night.
 
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I shop quite often at my old employer and see fewer and fewer of my former team members every visit. Those that remained and those that have recently joined are all looking for something new. It's so sad to see such a lack of loyalty from an employer. My current employer (Lowes) seems to operate differently and although achieving a full time position is difficult, part time employees are also offered benefits.

what's the starting pay @ Lowe's? Do they do overnights? How many hours are deemed part-time in order to get benefits? Is there a min or maximum number of hours needed to work?
 
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what's the starting pay @ Lowe's? Do they do overnights? How many hours are deemed part-time in order to get benefits? Is there a min or maximum number of hours needed to work?
ASANTS. A buddy of mine left spot to got to lowes the next town over he usually gets 25-30 hours a week mostly closing. He got started at 12. I went to an interview at lowed about 2 years ago was offered only 12 and they told me the max I would get was 20 hours. Mind you we both would have been working the same position. The only thing I don't like about lowes and I know about this since I have two family embers who are managers is that if sales are down they will delete your shifts to save payroll and they don't have to ask. You will just come in and find out you were taken off or be told that hey your next shift we cut hours
 
I shop quite often at my old employer and see fewer and fewer of my former team members every visit. Those that remained and those that have recently joined are all looking for something new. It's so sad to see such a lack of loyalty from an employer. My current employer (Lowes) seems to operate differently and although achieving a full time position is difficult, part time employees are also offered benefits.

This is exactly my story. Hey there fellow Lowe's associate! I'm part-time as well but agree it's worth it compared to the Target hellhole. I barely recognize anyone at my old store and it hasn't even been a year since I quit.
 
up to the double digits now. A bunch of people suddenly quit within the past few weeks. We have so many new people now that my last shift was worked with all new SLTMs. It was a crazy night.

We lost our ETL LOG and 3 BR TMS in the past couple weeks.
 
I know alot of people at my store mostly front end, they get around 5- 15 hours per week and they arent new. . .
 
I know alot of people at my store mostly front end, they get around 5- 15 hours per week and they arent new. . .

The "best" part of this is that while there are many team members getting 15 hours or less, there's a "We're Hiring" cling by the front entrance! That's just a JOY to walk by when you're coming in to work a 4 hour shift during a week when you have 20 hours or less.
 
Since I've come back to spot several long-timers I've know are floating close to the cut-off level.
They're discouraged from picking up shifts; any time they're cutting hours, theirs are cut first; during closing shifts, they're sent home before the kids.
We also had an atty come thru recently to ask certain TMs if they thought spot was biased against older workers; apparently there's a lawsuit brewing.
Well, almost every position at target is based off of speed. I'm not quick to think it has anything to do with them being biased against older workers as much as it is just slow TMs slowing down the processes and not performing to the industry standard here. We've got quite a few younger people who are slow and their hours are cut drastically when payroll is scarce. We've also got a couple older veterans (one that has been here 22 years, 56 years old) that is in great shape and keeps up unloading the line and gets his stuff done very fast who is always around for almost 8 hour shifts 5 days a week. I dont think it has anything to do with age, just performance.
 
That's just what happens though, when we get older. We can't keep up like we used to. Target isn't a job fit for older folks who don't move very fast. It's sad, yeah but that's business and that's life. :(
 
Then, the cashiers call off 10 minutes before their shift starts. Stop complaining about no hours!
We have this same issue in the back. 2 of our people call off at least twice every two weeks. I always hear them complain they don't get any hours. Really strikes me the wrong way when they talk bad about the company.
 
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