Archived Reflecting on today

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lifewithtarget

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So today I could say that I went through a roller coaster of emotions! I laughed, I cried, I was pissed off, and everything in between. I come into work today for my shift at 4:30 till 10. So, I look at the break out and I'm assigned C & D. I walkie my LOD and she tells me to grab the re-shop first, and then get into the zone.

So I get through all the re-shop in my cart and begin my zone. I started with D38 and made my way up to the bed sheets. Now looking back, I think I spent too much time from D38 with the clearance isles, the shelf's, and then the disaster area, the candles. I got into candles and I was just trying to zone it, but I found more and more things in the wrong spot, which just halted my zone completely.

While I'm trying to fix this, I got called up for back up, and had to wait there for an extra 20 minutes for a guest to call their credit card company because it didn't go through and such. So I get back and I finished those isles and it got to be around 7:30. I went and took my 15 minute break and come back. As I'm walking back, my LOD asks where I was in the zone and I told her and basically I got the reaction I expected.

She was worried and started freaking out, while I stood there and told her it'll be fine, I'll make sure it gets done, don't worry. So she's basically trying not to flip out on me and then is just all perky and says "Okay!". So, now that she's basically on me, I knew I had to get this done asap. By this time, I had gotten back to my isle and just busted into tears (luckily no one was around) and I knew that all my stress that was piling up on me was where those tears were from. So, she started zoning C for me since I hadn't even gotten to C yet. So, I finished D, sweating like crazy and met her in the towels.

When the store closed, she had two full carts for me to take for C & D. So I came up and grabbed my re-shop and just explained what happened and that I was sorry for the slowness. She understood and when I said I'm a bit of a perfectionist, she nodded and agreed I was and said that when we're closing, you just gotta push everything to the front and go, go, go.

Once I left the store and sitting here now, I'm glad the night is over, I'm glad she was kind enough to help me with C and I'm glad the zone was completed and the re-shop was gone as well. I've been here for 8 months now and I'm mostly Sales Floor and it just bugs me that I can't get out of this perfectionist mind. It's just like I can't help, but try to make it look perfect and it's frustrating because I don't want them to think that I'm moving slow cause I'm lazy or what not, but I actually care about doing my job correctly and that I'm trying.

I realize I'm not perfect, I make mistakes, I'm not a fast zoner, but I'm trying every time I go in. I just hope that I can get out of my head and just do it. Once she was on my tail, I just sped up, it was just like BAM and I sped through the rest of the zone. So I think I just need to get into that mindset and just think "It's not gonna look perfect, no matter what you do".

Thanks for reading guys! Any tips, advice, or input is appreciated!
 
I understand you completely.
Working on planogram will take that to a whole new level.

I even do it when I'm not working. Drives my husband nuts.

I always say to myself, concentrate on what you can get done. As soon as you start digging deeper, you start digging yourself a whole.

Give yourself time limits.
Say you hit candles again and tell yourself 5 minutes for each side and you're out.

I find if I give myself a limit it helps greatly.
 
....and when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging.
Even if you zone 'perfectly', you may be followed by the guest from he11 who has to root around the shelves for something in the back & it's the end of your perfect zone. So yeh, you sometimes have to consign yourself to the fact that it won't always be perfect.
I worked with a TM with OCD. She literally freaked when I had to pull her along in order to finish, often collapsing in tears at night's end. I sat & gave her a 'big picture' talk so she wouldn't dwell on the tiny things. And there are LOTS of tiny things....
 
Thier was a time when zoning meant making sure things were in the right place. Now its just pull it forward and move on. It makes things not so good for me as guest as it seems that things are always under the wrong lable, pulled forward but not in the right spot. In paper in particular. What can you do. If your leadership has low standards and nobody is given the hours to the job right you just have to do the fast crappy job they expect. HQ will keeps its head in the sand and pretend like the do not know.
 
If I worked in the same area every night, I would super zone one or two aisles. Of course this never happens. If you're a good zoner, they'll schedule you every other night so they can schedule the lesser paid TM on your days off and you have to start over every time.
 
I understand you completely.
Working on planogram will take that to a whole new level.

I even do it when I'm not working. Drives my husband nuts.

I always say to myself, concentrate on what you can get done. As soon as you start digging deeper, you start digging yourself a whole.

Give yourself time limits.
Say you hit candles again and tell yourself 5 minutes for each side and you're out.

I find if I give myself a limit it helps greatly.

So true with planogram and with signing...making sure everything is just right and accounted for.

I agree with what Dyskrasia said about the time limits. I learned that when I was trained for salesfloor and instocks. Rule of thumb is if you have to spend more than 5 minutes fixing something, then you need to let the LOD know. We finally made a binder where we can report problem areas in the scans on a daily basis, and give that feedback to the leadership team.

This is where you can use this as an opportunity to show "Collaborates with Others". Identify areas that need extra attention and see if the T/LOD wants you to fix it. They may already have a plan in place to fix it at a later date.
 
OP: I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when I zone too. HBA and Toys are my worst areas (Seasonal would be too if we had enough TMs to zone it at night).

If you come across an item that is WAY out of place and it would take too much time to put it where it's supposed to go, just throw it in your cart and you can re-shop it later (or if it's in another section, then Guest Service will sort it). With the way hours are, your leadership shouldn't expect you to superzone. One thing that I do when I push re-shop is face the shelf where one of my items goes. If those shelves don't get shopped before you start zoning, then you won't have to zone them later.
 
I got into candles and I was just trying to zone it, but I found more and more things in the wrong spot, which just halted my zone completely.

...my LOD asks where I was in the zone and I told her and basically I got the reaction I expected.

She was worried and started freaking out, while I stood there and told her it'll be fine, I'll make sure it gets done, don't worry... ...she started zoning C for me since I hadn't even gotten to C yet. So, I finished D, sweating like crazy and met her in the towels.

...So I think I just need to get into that mindset and just think "It's not gonna look perfect, no matter what you do".


When I started nearly 4 years ago at my store (ULV) I had the same issue. I used to nearly give my ETL's heart attacks at night because they would see cart after cart of reshop pile up and would say "When is this getting worked?"

I have gotten faster because I don't try to super-zone everything. I do however, have a plan when I zone. my cart set-up: child seat open foreign (not from my valley) goes in it, stuff from my zone but not this aisle goes in the basket, any obvious overstock goes underneath til the end of the night and then pushed to the backroom on a 3-tier or tub for backstock.

I keep one basket in my zone for foreign. Everytime I fill a cart, I swap to a new one. I empty the foreign to its own cart at that point. Once an hour, I take the foreign cart up to Guest Services.

Generally, I work in Electronics and when I close I line the reshop carts on the back of entertainment. When I finish my zone, I usually have 45-60 minutes til the store closes plus an hour after closing or until the rest of the team is near done. I am usually sweating by the time my reshop is finished. If I am done before the rest of the team, I help in Hardlines.

I make sure after I work all applicable reshop to the floor I take the backstock to the backroom and put a clip on it. I am also a GSA at my store so I have email and I make sure to send an email to the TL of the area I was in. I CC the ETL: HL/Salesfloor and the Closing LOD, the Opening LOD for the next day and the Backroom TL. I want them to be aware of backstock and what may need super-zoning in the daytime. I had to learn, I don't own the area myself. WE are a team and everyone needs to do their part.

If you don't have email you can write notes out for the opening team and LOD. Or give your feedback to the closing LOD and ask them to include it in the nightly recap email they send to the leadership team nightly.


Lastly, as someone else pointed out; if you find something that you think is a disaster, ask the LOD or TLOD to swing by and take a look when they are available and advise what you should do. Skip the disaster and keep zoning being sure to come back if you have the time or better advisement by leadership.

Remember, my way may not be the best way and as a Team Trainer I stress to everyone "This is how I do things to accomplish the tasks at hand, but you might find another way that works better for you. Whatever, it takes is fine as long as the store looks brand at the end of the night and you are being a team player to the needs of the store."
 
Thanks guys for the advice, I appreciate it!

So lets say when I get to work, I'm assigned to zone C and D, so I grab whatever reshop is at the front. Is it better to do the reshop first then zone, or as I'm zoning, put the reshop away when I get to that certain isle where it's located?
 
Yes, that is correct. Then find an area that's needs your help in to pog & FIFO. It maybe, a 4 to 8 ft section to zone exactly, just do when you are zoning that area.
 
Thanks guys for the advice, I appreciate it!

So lets say when I get to work, I'm assigned to zone C and D, so I grab whatever reshop is at the front. Is it better to do the reshop first then zone, or as I'm zoning, put the reshop away when I get to that certain isle where it's located?

It varies by TL. Some TLs want you to make your zone a priority; others want all the re-shop done by the end of the night. At my store, we work on our zones until a certain amount of time before closing, at which point the TL or LOD will walkie us all to start our re-shop.
 
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