DoctorWho
SFT/PMT/PML Trainer
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2013
- Messages
- 64
Well, after about 10 years as a backroom TM (with various other roles here and there) I had pretty much decided that in the next few months, if I did not find a leadership role here that suited me that I would be moving on to other opportunities. I have grown bored of coming in and doing the exact same routine every single day and I need a change, and a challenge. I get up at around 2:45 every morning, and my wife gets home from work around 7PM most days, so I see her for about 2 hours before I'm off to bed, so that's getting old. I really don't see the point of switching to dayside and losing my shift differential, having to work closing shifts, and still doing essentially the same routine I do now: Wake up -> Go to work -> Autofills -> BR Audit -> BR SDA -> Bulk truck backstock by myself -> Eat -> Sleep -> Repeat.
My background:
I am a strong TM in my backroom and I am the person that EVERYONE goes to when they need something in the backroom, even if my TL or ETL are there in most cases. I have been told more than a few times over the years by the leadership in my building that I should be a TL, especially a BRTL. I have always brushed it off because I have other commitments in my life. Believe me, nothing would please me more than taking charge of my backroom, as our current BRTL hasn't really picked it up very well since she started. That was almost 2 years ago! Unfortunately, weekends are not really an option for me, anyway.
Rewind to 2-3 years ago:
I had recently been screwed over by my previous BRTL before her departure, with a very unfavorable merit review. Even a few ETLs that I showed it to said it was extremely unfair/inconsistent, but I never challenged it because I did not want to push the issue too much with my current ETL-LOG or ETL-HR who were close friends. They were both fired about a year later for doing shady things with hours on the schedules (go figure) but at the time I was afraid to see my hours get cut to almost nothing if I pushed it too much, so I let it go. I think my TL felt her job was at risk while I was there, because I was clearly more qualified than she was and just about everybody in the building knew it. Of course, after she straight up quit, I was picking up all of the slack in the backroom while they searched for her replacement. I declined applying for BRTL when she left for reasons already stated above.
Now, I'm a very handy person and the last 4 SFTs that I have worked with in my store quickly realized this. I always became their go-to person when they needed an extra set of hands (or a brain) for a project. Because of this, my STL and DFM (I think that was his role, it was our SFT's direct supervisor about 2-3 years ago) approached me at one point and asked if I would be interested in an SFT position. My STL had identified me as valuable talent within the store that was not being utilized. (I thought this was hilarious at the time considering my "Unsatisfactory" review I had received not 3 months prior.) I was interested, so I met with both of them about pursuing this, and the main questions I had were inquiring about the pay scale and what store I would wind up at. At the time I still felt very underpaid as a BRTM, was a little resentful about my last merit review, and I was not about to take on even more responsibility for only $1-2 more per hour. I also had no idea what store I would end up at, and with stores stretched pretty far apart in my district, not knowing either of those two factors made me a little hesitant to apply. The last thing I wanted was to wind up making even less due to a lengthy commute. They were both very vague about the whole thing, and I never heard anything else about it after that. Perhaps I should have pushed a bit more, but I had other things going on in my personal life that were much more important at the time.
Fast forward about a year later:
I FINALLY moved permanently to early morning backroom (4AM process, my BRTL had denied my multiple requests to work this shift despite clearly needing more people) and my BR team had recently lost several valuable dayside TMs (mainly because of my previous BRTL and her very unfair treatment and sheer disrespect of certain TMs such as myself.) While in between BRTLs, an ETL-LOG, and ETL-HR, the remaining ETLs and TLs in the building made some questionable hiring choices for dayside backroom, and training was NOT going smoothly. As the primary backroom team trainer I was quickly growing frustrated, and was relieved when the most promising backroom TM that I had trained in several years actually stuck around after the holiday season. Then one day he tells me that he's going to be training as an SFT in a few weeks. Apparently my STL and DFM had approached him after I had let it go, ha ha. Then barely a month after that, our current SFT is gone (pretty sure he was fired) and my talented BRTM is suddenly the SFT at my store. I have been kicking myself ever since!!
Present day:
That former BRTM is still our SFT and I feel that he has really taken on the role as well as anybody could, especially with all new leadership in our building and our district.
A friend was recently hired as an SFT at another store in my district, so I have been rethinking the SFT position for the past few weeks. Then as I'm helping my SFT with a project the other day, he suddenly asks me if I would ever reconsider moving into the SFT role. He knows the whole story that I just told, and we've shared a few laughs over him "stealing my promotion" (as he jokingly puts it) He feels I would be a good candidate and he eventually lets on that he is likely leaving his position here at our store for something else in a few months, which means I might have a rare opportunity to snag the SFT role at MY store that I never should have passed up. That would eliminate one of my primary concerns (the commute), which leaves the other: I didn't feel comfortable asking him about the pay, but what increase should I expect going from BRTM to SFT?
I mentioned to my ETL-LOG that I am interested in applying, and she didn't speak much on the subject. I know she really respects me as a BRTM as I am one of the only TMs that she doesn't micromanage. She would be my direct supervisor if I took over the SFT role in our store, and I'm sure that while she probably can't afford to lose me from the 4 AM backroom team, she knows that I work well independently and would make a good candidate for SFT. She is growing frustrated with our "new" BRTL but I have made it very clear that I am not interested in that position unless it's a Monday-Friday job, and we all know that's not going to happen, ha ha!
I also spoke to my ETL-HR about applying and he seemed enthusiastic about it, asking me what store I'd prefer, and hinting that I should speak with our SFT, before I told him that I already knew about the situation, ha ha. So is there anything else I should do? I'm planning to apply for the position on eHR tomorrow, and I will select my current store as my preferred store, so I've got that covered. I have never felt that I interview very well, and I am pretty out of practice since I've settled in at Target for the last decade or so. Naturally, I am concerned that the interview process will screw up my chances to show them how awesome of an SFT I could be. Any advice in that area?
I did't mean for this to be such a long post, but thank you if you read the whole thing. I am very excited and very nervous at the same time. This could be my chance to contribute to the team while once again doing something that I enjoy. I could possibly take this experience elsewhere one day if I should decide to leave Spot for a job outside of retail, and how many workcenters at Target can say that?
Any advice or input from anyone here would be very appreciated. I am especially interested in hearing from current or previous SFTs about your transition into the role (especially if you were promoted from TM to SFT.)
Thanks!
My background:
I am a strong TM in my backroom and I am the person that EVERYONE goes to when they need something in the backroom, even if my TL or ETL are there in most cases. I have been told more than a few times over the years by the leadership in my building that I should be a TL, especially a BRTL. I have always brushed it off because I have other commitments in my life. Believe me, nothing would please me more than taking charge of my backroom, as our current BRTL hasn't really picked it up very well since she started. That was almost 2 years ago! Unfortunately, weekends are not really an option for me, anyway.
Rewind to 2-3 years ago:
I had recently been screwed over by my previous BRTL before her departure, with a very unfavorable merit review. Even a few ETLs that I showed it to said it was extremely unfair/inconsistent, but I never challenged it because I did not want to push the issue too much with my current ETL-LOG or ETL-HR who were close friends. They were both fired about a year later for doing shady things with hours on the schedules (go figure) but at the time I was afraid to see my hours get cut to almost nothing if I pushed it too much, so I let it go. I think my TL felt her job was at risk while I was there, because I was clearly more qualified than she was and just about everybody in the building knew it. Of course, after she straight up quit, I was picking up all of the slack in the backroom while they searched for her replacement. I declined applying for BRTL when she left for reasons already stated above.
Now, I'm a very handy person and the last 4 SFTs that I have worked with in my store quickly realized this. I always became their go-to person when they needed an extra set of hands (or a brain) for a project. Because of this, my STL and DFM (I think that was his role, it was our SFT's direct supervisor about 2-3 years ago) approached me at one point and asked if I would be interested in an SFT position. My STL had identified me as valuable talent within the store that was not being utilized. (I thought this was hilarious at the time considering my "Unsatisfactory" review I had received not 3 months prior.) I was interested, so I met with both of them about pursuing this, and the main questions I had were inquiring about the pay scale and what store I would wind up at. At the time I still felt very underpaid as a BRTM, was a little resentful about my last merit review, and I was not about to take on even more responsibility for only $1-2 more per hour. I also had no idea what store I would end up at, and with stores stretched pretty far apart in my district, not knowing either of those two factors made me a little hesitant to apply. The last thing I wanted was to wind up making even less due to a lengthy commute. They were both very vague about the whole thing, and I never heard anything else about it after that. Perhaps I should have pushed a bit more, but I had other things going on in my personal life that were much more important at the time.
Fast forward about a year later:
I FINALLY moved permanently to early morning backroom (4AM process, my BRTL had denied my multiple requests to work this shift despite clearly needing more people) and my BR team had recently lost several valuable dayside TMs (mainly because of my previous BRTL and her very unfair treatment and sheer disrespect of certain TMs such as myself.) While in between BRTLs, an ETL-LOG, and ETL-HR, the remaining ETLs and TLs in the building made some questionable hiring choices for dayside backroom, and training was NOT going smoothly. As the primary backroom team trainer I was quickly growing frustrated, and was relieved when the most promising backroom TM that I had trained in several years actually stuck around after the holiday season. Then one day he tells me that he's going to be training as an SFT in a few weeks. Apparently my STL and DFM had approached him after I had let it go, ha ha. Then barely a month after that, our current SFT is gone (pretty sure he was fired) and my talented BRTM is suddenly the SFT at my store. I have been kicking myself ever since!!
Present day:
That former BRTM is still our SFT and I feel that he has really taken on the role as well as anybody could, especially with all new leadership in our building and our district.
A friend was recently hired as an SFT at another store in my district, so I have been rethinking the SFT position for the past few weeks. Then as I'm helping my SFT with a project the other day, he suddenly asks me if I would ever reconsider moving into the SFT role. He knows the whole story that I just told, and we've shared a few laughs over him "stealing my promotion" (as he jokingly puts it) He feels I would be a good candidate and he eventually lets on that he is likely leaving his position here at our store for something else in a few months, which means I might have a rare opportunity to snag the SFT role at MY store that I never should have passed up. That would eliminate one of my primary concerns (the commute), which leaves the other: I didn't feel comfortable asking him about the pay, but what increase should I expect going from BRTM to SFT?
I mentioned to my ETL-LOG that I am interested in applying, and she didn't speak much on the subject. I know she really respects me as a BRTM as I am one of the only TMs that she doesn't micromanage. She would be my direct supervisor if I took over the SFT role in our store, and I'm sure that while she probably can't afford to lose me from the 4 AM backroom team, she knows that I work well independently and would make a good candidate for SFT. She is growing frustrated with our "new" BRTL but I have made it very clear that I am not interested in that position unless it's a Monday-Friday job, and we all know that's not going to happen, ha ha!
I also spoke to my ETL-HR about applying and he seemed enthusiastic about it, asking me what store I'd prefer, and hinting that I should speak with our SFT, before I told him that I already knew about the situation, ha ha. So is there anything else I should do? I'm planning to apply for the position on eHR tomorrow, and I will select my current store as my preferred store, so I've got that covered. I have never felt that I interview very well, and I am pretty out of practice since I've settled in at Target for the last decade or so. Naturally, I am concerned that the interview process will screw up my chances to show them how awesome of an SFT I could be. Any advice in that area?
I did't mean for this to be such a long post, but thank you if you read the whole thing. I am very excited and very nervous at the same time. This could be my chance to contribute to the team while once again doing something that I enjoy. I could possibly take this experience elsewhere one day if I should decide to leave Spot for a job outside of retail, and how many workcenters at Target can say that?
Any advice or input from anyone here would be very appreciated. I am especially interested in hearing from current or previous SFTs about your transition into the role (especially if you were promoted from TM to SFT.)
Thanks!
) that I won't get into details about.
