- Joined
- Feb 25, 2017
- Messages
- 10
Hey, all. I'm new to Break Room and fairly new to the Target Community in general (having started off with the overnight flow team for seasonal, Q4 of last year), but am hoping to pick the brains of some seasoned vets, as I see many of you are. It's a loaded post, but I'll try to be as pithy as possible. But there's a lot going on at the store I work at. I am trying to make sense of it best I can, but appreciate your advice/feedback in advance.
I've gotten pretty attached to the store I work at over the 9 months that I've worked there, but a lot of what I like most about my job - the crazy 10 pm - 6 am hours, a constant 37.5, the team members and management - will be changing in about a matter of weeks. We will be shifting to the dreaded 4 am process. It's one of the main breaktime topics of conversation for the "blue doors club" and on my mind a lot. We are all given the attractive option of transferring to a busier Target about 20 minutes down the road that will be staying with the standard 10 - 6. Several team members have already jumped ship, a few others are transferring elsewhere, and yet a couple more are retiring from Target altogether.
Our LOD is particularly desperate for team members who contribute a lot during the unload, the most important 1 - 1.5 hours of the shift, as far as I'm concerned. There are, including me, only 5 who throw trucks on the team, including a high-energy TL who always seems to fill in whenever whoever is on the grid for it calls out. They are among the best at blackline and bowling for the main sections - chem and market - of Green (my LOD loves putting me there during the unload), so it is not always easy to find a balance between backroom and bowlers. Usually, a 1,500 - 2,000-piece-truck (our average) either takes 1.5 hours to unload - with the line getting backed up for minutes on at least 2 or 3 occasions - or we finish in a little over an hour with enough pallets on the floor to take us past midnight break for bowling. Either way, it is usually not until about 12:45 that we are aisles.
Now that a full remodel is underway, it has become even more chaotic, with the projects team taking away some of the key flow team members for their team. My problems are maybe best evidenced by last night, the first time I drove home from work seriously asked myself what I'm doing with my life. We took a double (adding up to about 3,400), very rare for us outside of Q4, but most common on Tuesday, where a lot of the ETL's hour budget goes. But one of the trucks was delayed, so we ended up with a nightmarish back-to-back unload that took us until 12:45 and c0mpletely wore me out, as I went from unloading a panel of the first truck to bowling to unloading the second 1,800 piece truck all without a break. I was praised for how much I got done by the re-model team, who needed a few we had to keep for the unloads for their team. It was the first time I thought that break was waay too short.
The next 5 hours were like working in a warzone, especially in the heavy lines with two trucks worth of freight, considering there was no space in the racetrack for the cages we dispose of cardboard in, remodel stuff all over place and no smartcarts to be had. I was without a MyDevice to boot, since the PDA system was down and backroom team needed them as their only means of backstocking. Some new 2nd's were just set, so I probably sent at least 2 or 3 products back that were "critically low" or empty in the 2nd. The chaos that goes with so many different teams and contractors working in a tight space will pass, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.
The store will be losing ALL of its regular unloaders - except for the TL who unloads and possibly me - not to mention some of our best presentation and backroom members, including the presentation and signing TL. I know how important strong unloaders and bowlers are for the 4 am process and my LOD has tried to talk me into staying when I expressed some doubt, citing a forum post about the change that says the main purpose of the change is to push to get the truck finished by 8, when the store opens, sending home most flow team members who won't have anything to do, clearing out P-fresh, $ spot, and miscellaneous projects notwithstanding. "I always hook you up with hours," he told me, true as I'm one of the only ones on the schedule who gets a steady 37.5. The couple others I can think of who do will not be staying. I am worried about partial shifts. He had sent me from training in the backroom - where I could have added value and possibly hours post-change - a few months ago, but gave up on that when several subpar hardlines pushers were let go. I told him I was considering transferring to the other store. He argued that there is constant repush, little team rapport, and it is aesthetically inferior, the latter being true, but a minor consideration.
What should I do? I have to decide soon. I will either be losing some friends and most likely hours or leaving the store where I broke into everything, one I have grown pretty fond of and I have an increasingly major role at. Neither sounds like that attractive of an option, but I have to pick my poison sooner than later.
I've gotten pretty attached to the store I work at over the 9 months that I've worked there, but a lot of what I like most about my job - the crazy 10 pm - 6 am hours, a constant 37.5, the team members and management - will be changing in about a matter of weeks. We will be shifting to the dreaded 4 am process. It's one of the main breaktime topics of conversation for the "blue doors club" and on my mind a lot. We are all given the attractive option of transferring to a busier Target about 20 minutes down the road that will be staying with the standard 10 - 6. Several team members have already jumped ship, a few others are transferring elsewhere, and yet a couple more are retiring from Target altogether.
Our LOD is particularly desperate for team members who contribute a lot during the unload, the most important 1 - 1.5 hours of the shift, as far as I'm concerned. There are, including me, only 5 who throw trucks on the team, including a high-energy TL who always seems to fill in whenever whoever is on the grid for it calls out. They are among the best at blackline and bowling for the main sections - chem and market - of Green (my LOD loves putting me there during the unload), so it is not always easy to find a balance between backroom and bowlers. Usually, a 1,500 - 2,000-piece-truck (our average) either takes 1.5 hours to unload - with the line getting backed up for minutes on at least 2 or 3 occasions - or we finish in a little over an hour with enough pallets on the floor to take us past midnight break for bowling. Either way, it is usually not until about 12:45 that we are aisles.
Now that a full remodel is underway, it has become even more chaotic, with the projects team taking away some of the key flow team members for their team. My problems are maybe best evidenced by last night, the first time I drove home from work seriously asked myself what I'm doing with my life. We took a double (adding up to about 3,400), very rare for us outside of Q4, but most common on Tuesday, where a lot of the ETL's hour budget goes. But one of the trucks was delayed, so we ended up with a nightmarish back-to-back unload that took us until 12:45 and c0mpletely wore me out, as I went from unloading a panel of the first truck to bowling to unloading the second 1,800 piece truck all without a break. I was praised for how much I got done by the re-model team, who needed a few we had to keep for the unloads for their team. It was the first time I thought that break was waay too short.
The next 5 hours were like working in a warzone, especially in the heavy lines with two trucks worth of freight, considering there was no space in the racetrack for the cages we dispose of cardboard in, remodel stuff all over place and no smartcarts to be had. I was without a MyDevice to boot, since the PDA system was down and backroom team needed them as their only means of backstocking. Some new 2nd's were just set, so I probably sent at least 2 or 3 products back that were "critically low" or empty in the 2nd. The chaos that goes with so many different teams and contractors working in a tight space will pass, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.
The store will be losing ALL of its regular unloaders - except for the TL who unloads and possibly me - not to mention some of our best presentation and backroom members, including the presentation and signing TL. I know how important strong unloaders and bowlers are for the 4 am process and my LOD has tried to talk me into staying when I expressed some doubt, citing a forum post about the change that says the main purpose of the change is to push to get the truck finished by 8, when the store opens, sending home most flow team members who won't have anything to do, clearing out P-fresh, $ spot, and miscellaneous projects notwithstanding. "I always hook you up with hours," he told me, true as I'm one of the only ones on the schedule who gets a steady 37.5. The couple others I can think of who do will not be staying. I am worried about partial shifts. He had sent me from training in the backroom - where I could have added value and possibly hours post-change - a few months ago, but gave up on that when several subpar hardlines pushers were let go. I told him I was considering transferring to the other store. He argued that there is constant repush, little team rapport, and it is aesthetically inferior, the latter being true, but a minor consideration.
What should I do? I have to decide soon. I will either be losing some friends and most likely hours or leaving the store where I broke into everything, one I have grown pretty fond of and I have an increasingly major role at. Neither sounds like that attractive of an option, but I have to pick my poison sooner than later.
