Archived No leave of absences for other jobs? Lost our entire backroom...

[talan123]

Corporate, in it's infinite wisdom that has the collective IQ of a grain of sand, decided that there would be no leave of absences for other jobs.

I understand that, I really do realize that holding positions for long periods of time to an employee that may not come back is hideously unfair to the potential candidates out there. However, this is a rural area where Summer vacation doesn't mean just summer vacation, it mean's that it is time to Harvest. These guy's get paid by the amount they pick, so there is a huge incentive to be as productive as possible, which means they are the hardest workers out there and management gave them the option of either continuing to work here for their twenty or so hours a week or go work on the harvest (It can go as long as sixteen hours a day).

Guess what happened?

:facepalm:​

The majority of the backroom quit, we are down to about three employees back there that are left. I knew at least two that were doing it for their family farm's (surprisingly still in business).

Does anybody at Corporate ever think about the fact that there might need to be exceptions for this kind of thing?

 

[Lady Fitting Room]

Does anybody at Corporate ever think about the fact that there might need to be exceptions for this kind of thing?

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that Corporate doesn't think, period. Sorry your store lost so many people at once: that's got to be rough.

 

[LogisticsPeon]

Harvest? And its still important enough for people to quit their jobs?
Where in the hell are you?

Wait? What's even is in season this time of the year? Beans? Corn?

 

[Formina Sage]

Corn isn't until late August! My guess would be hay/alfalfa.

 

[RednTacky]

You've never lived in a rural state, I see.

Harvesting at the right time can be a make or time for many farmers' livelihoods. You think it's tough working at Target...

 

[TMhardlines]

Man, does corporate just come up with ways to F over low level TMs?

 

[stupid rules]

Think about it from their point of view. If you make an exception for this, you now have to make an exception for that, oh and don't forget about all of the other this and thats will come forward wanting the same exception. They make a blanket rule and sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[talan123]

Well, if a harvest fails for a valuable crop like Cherries or Peaches then it can put a serious dent in a families income, to the point that it an affect the mortgage.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

We have corn in my area right now too.

 

[buliSBI]

Years ago, I made the mistake of telling my HR I received an internship. They told me it was considered other employment and a LOA was not applicable, and I would have to transfer to a store near my internship to keep my Target employment.

 

[redeye58]

In the midwest & south, there's a lot of TMs who also work in farming communities (family farms, migrant, communal, etc). For these folks who are only getting 20 hrs/wk avg, it may be the only time of yr they'll break even. You'd think that stores in such an area could bolster their training to cover TM areas that would be affected, thus give an hrs infusion when the store is cutting payroll & not losing experienced TMs.
Sadly, Target seems to becoming more rigid in practices & less flexible in the human factor without realizing the increased cost of training new TMs will wipe out the savings of starting them out at lower wages. Even more costly if the new hires are less reliable & quit in a short period.

 

[talan123]

Well, they spent a small fortune in training those guys and they were the hardest working people here.

Look, I can understand that they don't like us taking other jobs that require us to give up our focus on Target, but that said they are just expecting too much. They asked that they put a part-time job with no chance of promotion or benefits ahead of their family well-being. They decided not give any breaks to us and so those guys left. Corporate doesn't suffer any consequences but we do.

There is nothing honorable or smart about refusing to compromise when you can get 95% of what you want without lifting a finger, it's a failure of leadership when that happens.

 

[commiecorvus]

Even if corporate wouldn't cooperate, I'm sure that the local bosses could have come up with a nod-and-a-wink workaround, if they were willing to try, but we know how that goes these days.
Management isn't willing to stick their necks out.
I'm not sure if it is fear or ingrained corporate culture, maybe both but it is sure not helping the company.

 

[Softlines Owns My Soul]

What would have stopped these TMs from taking a personal LOA, which affords a maximum time off of 120 days and just not stating they were taking other jobs and giving some other reason?

 

[JuicedSoftball1]

What would have stopped these TMs from taking a personal LOA, which affords a maximum time off of 120 days and just not stating they were taking other jobs and giving some other reason?

That is what you have to do! The less they know the better...

 

[Softlines Owns My Soul]

That is what you have to do! The less they know the better...

I mean unless they're 100 percent sure it's for another job I don't think Target can do anything about it.

Or why not scale back your availability to where they can't shift you for flow (I'm guessing you didn't mean backroom day) and have them work like one day on the weekend for like four hours to keep them on the payroll roster? There were creative ways around this although any way would have meant finding seasonal employees to work flow.

 

[HR King]

what? This is a corporate decision? I haven't heard anything about it.

 

[JuicedSoftball1]

what? This is a corporate decision? I haven't heard anything about it.

Yeah you cant take personal LOA's to go try out another job. I cant say I blame target. You shouldnt be able to go on a LOA from Target to go try out another job to see if you like it or not. If you want to get a new job you have to quit or you need to work some kind of shift at target while at this new job.

I have worked for target for some time so Id love to be able to try out a new job while keeping my old job and pay on hold for me to comeback to if the other one does not work out. Its really not fair to target!

 

[theissueoftissue]

Yeah you cant take personal LOA's to go try out another job. I cant say I blame target. You shouldnt be able to go on a LOA from Target to go try out another job to see if you like it or not. If you want to get a new job you have to quit or you need to work some kind of shift at target while at this new job.

I have worked for target for some time so Id love to be able to try out a new job while keeping my old job and pay on hold for me to comeback to if the other one does not work out. Its really not fair to target!

What would be fair is if Target paid better wages, negating the need for a second job for some.

We all knew what we were getting when we signed on though.

 

[talan123]

Yeah you cant take personal LOA's to go try out another job. I cant say I blame target. You shouldnt be able to go on a LOA from Target to go try out another job to see if you like it or not. If you want to get a new job you have to quit or you need to work some kind of shift at target while at this new job.

I have worked for target for some time so Id love to be able to try out a new job while keeping my old job and pay on hold for me to comeback to if the other one does not work out. Its really not fair to target!

While I would normally agree, these are very short term jobs becauze the grosing season only happens once a year. They left to work 14 hour jobs that pay $20 an hour and to work for their families. It is simply part of the culture around here.

 

[Miguel]

you can take a personal leave of absence, and while you are on that leave of absence, you could theorhetically look for another job during that leave, but I don't think I would mention that as your reason to take a personal leave!

 

[Rarejem]

In the midwest & south, there's a lot of TMs who also work in farming communities (family farms, migrant, communal, etc). For these folks who are only getting 20 hrs/wk avg, it may be the only time of yr they'll break even. You'd think that stores in such an area could bolster their training to cover TM areas that would be affected, thus give an hrs infusion when the store is cutting payroll & not losing experienced TMs.
Sadly, Target seems to becoming more rigid in practices & less flexible in the human factor without realizing the increased cost of training new TMs will wipe out the savings of starting them out at lower wages. Even more costly if the new hires are less reliable & quit in a short period.

"At Target, diversity is much more than a goal or campaign. It’s a core value we integrate into every area of our business — from our suppliers, to our teams, to the shopping experience in our stores. We foster an inclusive culture that allows our high-performing and diverse team to drive innovation. "
Gregg Steinhafel
Chairman, President and CEO, Target

uh huh.

 

[invictustaylor]

"At Target, diversity is much more than a goal or campaign. It’s a core value we integrate into every area of our business — from our suppliers, to our teams, to the shopping experience in our stores. We foster an inclusive culture that allows our high-performing and diverse team to drive innovation. "
Gregg Steinhafel
Chairman, President and CEO, Target

uh huh.

As far as target is really concerned, diversity is an old wooden ship used in the dutch colonial period.

I love the freudian slips that come from our etl's mouth..."team, every month WE HAVE TO have something planned for diversity celebration (we have to do it but believe us we don't want to...), so tomorrow we are having Mi Ranchitos catered in for hispanic appreciation week." Oh nice, how thoughtful mexican food to show the mexicans we appreciate taking advantage of them in the backroom.

 

[redeye58]

"At Target, diversity is much more than a goal or campaign. It’s a core value we integrate into every area of our business — from our suppliers, to our teams, to the shopping experience in our stores. We foster an inclusive culture that allows our high-performing and diverse team to drive innovation. "
Gregg Steinhafel
Chairman, President and CEO, Target

uh huh.

Contrast that with our mission statement: One team; one dream.

 

[invictustaylor]

Contrast that with our mission statement: One team; one dream.

Also contrast and compare to their ETL hiring model. They are all exactly the same type of glee club person. How is that diverse?