Archived Recognition

[topcats69]

To me hearing a nice good work and have a nice day/evening is good enough. Maybe an occasional lunch or breakfast is nice. It keeps my inner voice from saying you did not do well.

 

[redeye58]

A sincere "Thanks for all you do" goes a long way or better yet, treat me to one of those hundreds of drinks you have me make for every other TM in the store for such mundane things like remembering their name badge or not calling out on a weekend.

 

[callmetaylor]

I don't ever want to be recognized over the walkie. À sincere thankful does wonders for me.

Yes! It's so awkward! Like...do I acknowledge it? Am I actually supposed to pull my walkie out of my pocket and thank them for thanking me? Or say "yea, glad to help!" ??
I would feel so embarrassed/self-absorbed doing that. But not acknowledging it seems equally problematic. Does that make it seem like I don't appreciate them taking notice of my hard work? Or maybe they'll assume I never heard it?


My TL refuses to participate in the recognition BS, but will often go out of his way to thank TMs one-on-one and be very specific about what he's thanking them for. I find this super valuable because it's actually shown me positive things about myself/my work ethic/etc that I never noticed before- stuff I just assumed everyone did or whatever. Nothing big, but just realizing "oh...huh...I never realized I did that- it was always just second nature to me...but apparently this is something people appreciate, so I'm gonna be even more intentional about doing that now!"


And yes- that BS of thanking entire teams?!?? STOP IT. Any leader who routinely does this should be ashamed. It's SO lazy and disingenuous. I get it- sometimes POG will plow their way through a major reset, or maybe backroom purged a bunch of aisles, or Flow pushed a massive truck while being a few TMs short...fine- give recognition...but to show up to EVERY freaking huddle and say "I just want to thank everyone. You guys are doing a really good job making the store look great, educating our guests, and making sales!" that's so gross! I can't think of a single TM who feels better after hearing something like that. In all honesty, I feel worse- blanket recognition is 100x worse than no recognition.

I prefer one-on-one recognition like I described above (keeps morale up, makes me feel useful, and also helps me figure out what my strengths are) so I actually really dislike being recognized in huddle, but it's strangely deflating to be in a huddle where an ETL throws out a totally crappy blanket recognition when you spent HOURS busting your ass/going totally out of your way to help them like 2 days earlier. Because that feels like an intentional oversight- like they just don't care about your effort. It's one thing to simply not give recognition- I never give recognition in huddles (but I do tell people directly and I also make sure to tell both their ETL/TL and my ETL/TL (if we're not on the same team) because I think it's important that leadership knows when someone is going above and beyond) but it's another thing to take the time to throw out FAKE recognition when there's a lot of legit recognition to go around.


...but yea- despite typing a novel-length post about recognition, I really don't care about it. I'd rather have a leader who makes good decisions that keep all of us working efficiently than one who fawns over us all the time while setting us up for failure with their bad leadership.

 

[callmetaylor]

That said, the Target I work at is pretty nice. Everyone is nice, helpful, and thankful. Did your job? "Thanks, you did a nice job!" Show up for work? "Good morning, nice to see you here today!" The same applies to pretty much everything else. "Great job pushing A! Nice job helping out that guest! Ah, looks like you bowled this box to the wrong aisle. It's cool, mistakes happen!" If you're new and do as your told/asked, the TL buys you lunch. If you're old and help mentor others, the TL mentions it at every opportunity to his superiors. We actually have people thanking others all the time over walkies. "John really helped us out today, thanks John!" "Anne did a fantastic job!" "Flow really worked hard this morning!" "Backroom looks amazing, guys. Nice job!"

It really isn't hard, and it contributes to employees actually enjoying their time at work. Those days when a guest gets them down aren't overwhelmingly depressing because their co-workers always have their back.

Sound like the store you work in has a really healthy environment. That's awesome!

My store is similar, although we definitely have our dark/petty/melodramatic/vindictive/passive-aggressive patches (not even people- patches! Sure, there are some people who always suck to work with, but even the best of the best at my store get sucked into the insanity at times and get pretty petty! I think we all have a pretty good grasp on when it's surface level, and when it's serious though...so nothing really gets under our skin that much even if we're totally losing it on the outside!)

 

[Frontlanegirl]

I think there are circumstances where you do say Thank You for someone doing what they are paid to do. Think about cart attendants! Rain, Snow,100 degrees, -30 degrees not to even mention bathrooms.They deserve "I really appreciate you working under such awful weather conditions or cleaning up such an awful mess. Sales floor for backing up quickly when there is reshop stacking up, and pulls piling up. They deserve a Thanks for busting your butt today. It doesn't cost a damn thing to say Thank you and mean it

Whenever I have someone help me out at guest services I always thank them for their help.

 

[HRZone]

What happens when everyone goes above and beyond but not everyone gets the best score because it's not in the budget?

God knows everyone doesn't go above and beyond

And yes- that BS of thanking entire teams?!??

Lol this 100 times. So sick of our flow team getting thanked for doing their job on the closing email. Omg you guys had a big truck? It's almost like you are paid to do that...

 

[MM1MM2]

"I want to recognize the planogram team for making it through the _______ set".

Makes me laugh every time. Meanwhile you got team members doing their team leaders jobs and no one bats a damn eye.

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

lol the one things I really agreed with on this thread is how they offer an energy drink or coffee as a reward when they stress the team being healthy...what if I only drink water? go get me a healthy snack instead of a sugary drink...oh no, that's not one of the designated rewards for recognition I suppose...

 

[Kartman]

 

[Far from newbie]

I’d like to resurrect a RECOGNITION thread. Please, I need some help.
HR tells me she has heard complaints, i’m not NICE enough to the team. Since she has told me this before, I MUST change.

Can I say - OMG - these people want blood !
I say “please and thanks” - within every sentence, I write “please and thank you” within every note. I say good job every chance I get.
I write ‘you Cards’ every day, given out candy, refreshments, treats, Starbucks gift cards, spent hundreds of my own money on numerous team lunches and celebrations.

Is there ANY point where it is the tm fault for not seeing how hard i’m Trying rather than the TL fault for not trying hard enough ?

What ‘recognition’ is required ?

One note of clarification - I have worked with hundreds of tm’s over my time and ONLY these 2 ever put in complaints. I have even bumped into long gone tm that stop to tell me I had been their best boss ever.

Do I have any leverage to request a re-assignment of said ‘trouble-making’ tm’s since we obviously CAN’T see eye to eye ?

 

[BoxCutter]

I’d like to resurrect a RECOGNITION thread. Please, I need some help.
HR tells me she has heard complaints, i’m not NICE enough to the team. Since she has told me this before, I MUST change.

Can I say - OMG - these people want blood !
I say “please and thanks” - within every sentence, I write “please and thank you” within every note. I say good job every chance I get.
I write ‘you Cards’ every day, given out candy, refreshments, treats, Starbucks gift cards, spent hundreds of my own money on numerous team lunches and celebrations.

Is there ANY point where it is the tm fault for not seeing how hard i’m Trying rather than the TL fault for not trying hard enough ?

What ‘recognition’ is required ?

One note of clarification - I have worked with hundreds of tm’s over my time and ONLY these 2 ever put in complaints. I have even bumped into long gone tm that stop to tell me I had been their best boss ever.

Do I have any leverage to request a re-assignment of said ‘trouble-making’ tm’s since we obviously CAN’T see eye to eye ?

Seems like they maybe performancing you out.

 

[Far from newbie]

Seems like they maybe performancing you out.

Again ? Sigh. I just don’t get it. Why keep the bad and get rid of the good ?

 

[Kartman]

Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[Far from newbie]

Your guess is as good as mine.

In your situation of frustration that led to your escape :
Was it more they were trying to make you leave or did you decide to flee before being provoked ?

 

[Kartman]

I'm thinking the STL didn't like me, for some reason... all the others loved me.

 

[JAShands]

@Far from newbie is it maybe less of what you say and more of how you say it? I have a few here that seem to have more complaints than the rest of the store. Whenever someone starts to complain I ask if it’s what they said or how they said it. This makes the complaining TM think about what it was that actually upset them. I’m not saying this is the case, just that it could be. Not everyone translates to others well 🤷‍♀️

 

[Far from newbie]

@Far from newbie is it maybe less of what you say and more of how you say it? I have a few here that seem to have more complaints than the rest of the store. Whenever someone starts to complain I ask if it’s what they said or how they said it. This makes the complaining TM think about what it was that actually upset them. I’m not saying this is the case, just that it could be. Not everyone translates to others well 🤷‍♀️

Yes. What I say cannot get me fired, i’m Within my rights with all of it. Never exaggerated and all true. I’m sure it is how it’s HEARD by the person who hates me to begin with. We have tried for years to get along, a complete 50-50 fault i’m Sure, just soooo tired of trying so hard. If we were married I would ask for a divorce.

Make note: no other problems with any other tm’s. I’m the teacher you only like AFTER you don’t have her anymore. Hopefully i’m Stubborn enough to outlast this one trouble maker ...... but in the meantime, i’m Miserable.

 

[Tessa120]

Ick. Sucks when two people just rub each other the wrong way. Triply sucks when it's in the workplace because there's no real choice in the circumstances forcing interaction.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Again ? Sigh. I just don’t get it. Why keep the bad and get rid of the good ?

When it comes to staff, Spot seems to want young, inexperienced, gullible and cheap kool-aid drinkers and seem more than willing to drive out good, experienced, savvy, hardworking people to make room for them. Not a good long (or short) term strategy, but corporate doesn’t seem to care as long as expenses are being cut.

 

[CrosstrainInsane]

Just want to give my two cents. I agree that recognition should be reserved for going above and beyond, or doing something without being asked, being a leader amongst your peers, etc.. But there are times when my team is doing what they are expected, and everything that can go wrong has, and they stick with it, being as positive as they can. They show resilience. And although they are only doing what is in their core roles, the commitment should be recognized. I think that goes a long way. Breaking a sweat all week when it seems there’s no point in doing what they are doing. I appreciate any Tm or leader in the store that demonstrates these qualities. These TMs snd leaders help keep me motivated.