Resigning after Two Weeks of Work at Target

Joined
May 31, 2021
Messages
3
Hello,

I guess I need to give some back story to begin. Before working at target, I had three jobs, a construction worker, food service, and a swim teacher. During the summer of 2019 and 2020, I worked in construction making a lot of money. Although, I didn’t want to go back the summer of 2021 because of mental health and having a social/love life again. I was trying to find an internship through college, but covid made it real difficult this summer.(As restrictions weren’t lifted until now— I was trying to apply during fall of 2020.) I used the money made from construction to pay for college, help my family during the winter, bills, insurance, and now I’m paying for my own apartment with my significant other. I have enough in scholarships to pay for school, but having money in savings is lacking. It’s making me physically panic, about the what if’s, and not having the money if something were to happen in my new apartment or within my family. Anything. I live in Minnesota, and black ice is a scary thing. I worry about my car, and honestly, having money can keep the worry away about maintenance, college, and just living life. Moving forward, I than decided to apply to the online Target application. I got an online interview the next day, and I was very happy about it. Everything went by smoothly, and I applied to work 40 hours a week.

I started working at target on May 17th, 2021 starting off with orientation and then that following weekend I worked. Instantly, my hours were cut in half. Going from 32 to 16 hours this last week. I work the in the tech department, and honestly, it’s very fun and my coworkers are lovely. The only thing I really don’t know in the tech area is the target consumer cellular. Other than that, I really do like it. But as I said, money is important to keep my family stable, food on the table, bills paid, education covered, and now my apartment payments in check. I’ve only worked for a couple of weeks, and I am planning on going back to my construction job before the school year starts. I don’t want to burn my bridges with target, as maybe I want to go back part-time during the school year. I also struggle with the fact that I applied for full-time and I have not once had 40 hours on my schedule. I’ve had part time hours, for the next two weeks.

I honestly don’t know what to do, should I put my two weeks in through workday? Should I just talk to my head HR? Any recommendations would help.
 
Last edited:
Talk to your Leader and HR about getting cross trained. If you're cross trained, they will put you in other departments and give you as close to full time as they can if you ask.
 
Full transparency if you quit after 2 weeks, my store would never hire you back. Alot of money, time, and resources go into onboarding/training (hours that could go to current team). Tech is dropping about 60 hrs week for payroll at the moment there is no way you will get 40 of them, I'd suggest asking to be cross trained into fulfillment, gm, or mkt.
 
If your hours are low this week with Memorial Day I think you are not working up to their standards. People with low hours are the ones not putting their all in.
 
Welcome! Hours were cut this week. Spot wants part timers. There is training on workday.
Phone info.
For those unsure of how to help your guests with phones, or even those stores that do carry Consumer cellular but do not set them up because there is no mobile kiosk at all (Seriously why are these in existence? Poor Consumer cellular guests.)

The are 90% of our cell sales so focusing on how to deal with them efficiently, and effectively, is important.

A normal conversation in my store would go something like this.

Me: Shopping for a phone today? (Remember we don't say 'can I help you' anymore)

Guest: Yes, I've heard about that...cellular one? (They are mostly elderly and don't remember the name correctly, let's guess for them mm?)

Me: Oh, you mean consumer cellular? Sure! (Friendly, be their friend.)
*lead them over to the Consumer cellular spot*
Me: Who are you with currently? (Establish the information YOU will need)

Guest: <Insert random major company>

Me: Alright, cool, well how much are you paying for your bill right now? (Let's wow them with some information and hook them for the sale)

Guest: <Insert Number 80-160!>

Me: Oh wow, well I can cut that in half or more today for sure with Consumer cellular, what do you use your phone currently? (Got em.)

If Guest says: I just text and make calls

Me: Alright, well let's get you something that can do just that, don't want to overpay for stuff we aren't going to be using right? (Flip phone) (If you offer your guest a smart phone, and they don't need one, they ARE going to return it because they don't understand it. Remember our age group here. Some do enjoy their smart phones but not all, so establish EXACTLY what they need. You are not paid commission, do not oversell.)

If Guest says: I like to talk to my family on facebook <Or insert anything other than text/calling>

Me: Well I have these smart phones here, I reccomend this one, and this one <Insert the ones you sell that you consider good. This also can vary based on their price range. There are some to steer away from if you can like the Avid 556/559?> (After working on these phones for the months that we have, I know from setting them up which phones are bad and good and which ones they would have more or less problems with.)

OR

The guest would like to bring their phone, we then lead this conversation into making sure it's unlocked. (DO THIS FIRST, DO NOT START AN ACTIVATION WITHOUT MAKING SURE!!! You will spend an hour after trying to get this phone to work if you mess this step up.)

After this we start making sure if they want to keep their number they have their account or pin. (75% of the time it's two people that are visiting together, so one can begin calling for this info while you begin the check out)

We take the phone to the counter and get it purchased real quick for the sake of time (Remember, we also have work to do today, you can wait for the print-out but it's more time consuming.) and purchase it. Remember to push your Insurance plan because sometimes they really are pretty cheap here, though occasionally it's half the cost of the phone..

While walking to your kiosk thigns to ask for them to pull out: Drivers Liscense and AARP card. You'll need these in about 90 seconds so once again, streamline your work.

When you are activating their phone, occasionally it will ask you to put a SIM 2 in their phone (T-mobile....is this different for others? I don't think so.) I'm going to tell you now, there's something you probably should not do here, and Consumer Cellular has actually made this more difficult for us to do on purpose. If you have noticed that people are coming back often because of the t-mobile sim, STOP PUTTING IT IN. You can bypass by saying 'I'm out of stock' and CC can just deal with that, because you are mistreating your guests by giving them bad service. In our area, T-mobile is absolutely garbage outside of the main cities but the system thinks it's good coverage (I also have this theory that it's to force the guest to come back into Target....maybe I'm a bad employee here but I care about them being happy with their service so they don't come back and want to return it in frustration.) 75% of the time ATT is the better sim choice, so bypass it whenever possible.


At the end of the entire transaction we turn the phone one, we make a call TO the phone, and FROM the phone, you can use your kiosk phone to call the new cell, and use the store number to call out form the Cell if you desire. Set the phone up ENTIRELY. Start it up, get them an apple/google ID, use Switch Mobile Transfer when applicable. DO NOT USE GOOGLE/SAMSUNG/APPLE BACK UP IF THEY HAVE A WORKING PHONE THEY ARE TRANSFERING FROM. IT'S NOT AS GOOD YOU LAZY PRICKS. If their phone is a fliphone, connect via bluetooth and send via namecard. If not able, pull out the sim in the new phone, and put it in the old phone and backup contacts to the sim card. If the size is different, pull out one of your CC sim cards and use it as a dummy switch (since it's a 3 sizes in 1).

The rest is pretty smooth, if all the information is correct the entire activation is VERY quick, and sometimes I wonder why my old Marketsource rep would take up to an hour with -every- activation.


Almost all my guests leave extremely happy and think I'm the smartest person in the store at that moment and demand they are going to see me and me only, (in which I remind them there are 5-6 others just as capable as I am).
Thanks
@AngryElec
 
Last edited:
If your hours are low this week with Memorial Day I think you are not working up to their standards. People with low hours are the ones not putting their all in.
The reason that HR told me, was that hours needed to be cut and they cut my training managers hours as well. That’s why they sent me home, can’t train me if no one was working in tech that day.
 
I did not read your thread beyond your initial post. This is what I gleaned.

"I want consistent hours to ensure consistent earning ability."

Retail is not for you. It has never been nor will it ever be consistent. This is not a slight at you, it's the reality. There are no full time workers besides management, there are no guarantees. It will never ever change. If you want consistent hours retail is not for you.
 
They might say they will give 40 hours but that's the lie they tell you to hook you in. They bunch of fucking liars. They did that to me. The leader I will call her shitty told me hey you want pick up some shifts at shit Avenue it will be only two days a week and you will still be in grocery and don't have close shit Avenue hours increased too. All fucking lies. Your better of going elsewhere instead working for these fucking liars.
 
They might say they will give 40 hours but that's the lie they tell you to hook you in. They bunch of fucking liars. They did that to me. The leader I will call her shitty told me hey you want pick up some shifts at shit Avenue it will be only two days a week and you will still be in grocery and don't have close shit Avenue hours increased too. All fucking lies. Your better of going elsewhere instead working for these fucking liars.

Man it's been like 2 years and you're still hella angry. That ain't healthy fam.
 
Man it's been like 2 years and you're still hella angry. That ain't healthy fam.
It's actually longer than that. I guess I don't like being deceived. I have trust issues because of this and therefore makes me bitter. I have add this to list of things you don't mess with such as people's trust,money,home,car and the people we care about most of all.
 
I did not read your thread beyond your initial post. This is what I gleaned.

"I want consistent hours to ensure consistent earning ability."

Retail is not for you. It has never been nor will it ever be consistent. This is not a slight at you, it's the reality. There are no full time workers besides management, there are no guarantees. It will never ever change. If you want consistent hours retail is not for you.
Thank you for your honest answer, and I was honestly leaning towards leaving. As you said, I need consistent work and the job is not that.
 
If your hours are low this week with Memorial Day I think you are not working up to their standards. People with low hours are the ones not putting their all in.
They just started, how could they not be working up to standards? Hours are shitty because that's what Target does. They will tell you during your interview that they can get you 40 hours and then give you 20 if you're lucky.
 
Hours are incredibly low. It's truly as if Q1 never ended. As they stated above, cross-train. If you do this you can pick up hours anywhere and get your 40, especially if you're good with working up front during the weekends. The bulk of our store's hours are going to the front end.
 
Thank you for your honest answer, and I was honestly leaning towards leaving. As you said, I need consistent work and the job is not that.
Given your diverse background, you can probably find something full-time in a few different places.

If there are any Military bases near you - they generally are looking for lifeguards.

Depending on the type of construction work you did, your state or local government may have openings.
 
Hello,

I guess I need to give some back story to begin. Before working at target, I had three jobs, a construction worker, food service, and a swim teacher. During the summer of 2019 and 2020, I worked in construction making a lot of money. Although, I didn’t want to go back the summer of 2021 because of mental health and having a social/love life again. I was trying to find an internship through college, but covid made it real difficult this summer.(As restrictions weren’t lifted until now— I was trying to apply during fall of 2020.) I used the money made from construction to pay for college, help my family during the winter, bills, insurance, and now I’m paying for my own apartment with my significant other. I have enough in scholarships to pay for school, but having money in savings is lacking. It’s making me physically panic, about the what if’s, and not having the money if something were to happen in my new apartment or within my family. Anything. I live in Minnesota, and black ice is a scary thing. I worry about my car, and honestly, having money can keep the worry away about maintenance, college, and just living life. Moving forward, I than decided to apply to the online Target application. I got an online interview the next day, and I was very happy about it. Everything went by smoothly, and I applied to work 40 hours a week.

I started working at target on May 17th, 2021 starting off with orientation and then that following weekend I worked. Instantly, my hours were cut in half. Going from 32 to 16 hours this last week. I work the in the tech department, and honestly, it’s very fun and my coworkers are lovely. The only thing I really don’t know in the tech area is the target consumer cellular. Other than that, I really do like it. But as I said, money is important to keep my family stable, food on the table, bills paid, education covered, and now my apartment payments in check. I’ve only worked for a couple of weeks, and I am planning on going back to my construction job before the school year starts. I don’t want to burn my bridges with target, as maybe I want to go back part-time during the school year. I also struggle with the fact that I applied for full-time and I have not once had 40 hours on my schedule. I’ve had part time hours, for the next two weeks.

I honestly don’t know what to do, should I put my two weeks in through workday? Should I just talk to my head HR? Any recommendations would help.
I have been with Target for almost 10 years and I have never had a 40 hour week. Not sure even if I needed it they would give it to me.
 
I did not read your thread beyond your initial post. This is what I gleaned.

"I want consistent hours to ensure consistent earning ability."

Retail is not for you. It has never been nor will it ever be consistent. This is not a slight at you, it's the reality. There are no full time workers besides management, there are no guarantees. It will never ever change. If you want consistent hours retail is not for you.
This isn't fully correct. The gist is right, no one except TL's are "full time" in the sense that they're contractually guaranteed 40 hours, but some TM's get full time hours. That said, 'some', does not mean most, or even anything close to most. I average 41 hours a week, they schedule me 40, but I get overtime every week due to them scheduling me 1:30-10:00 daily - I never leave at 10:00.

My front end team consists of roughly 45-55 team members (can think of 46 off the top of my head, but I am sure I am forgetting some of the ones that get few hours), 6 of them get 40 hours most weeks. That's barely 10% for our front end, and lots of workcenters are probably under 10% chance for 40 hours.

Also worth noting, 3 of those 6 are former GSA's. The other 3 are scheduled strictly as a service advocate, not a single regular checkout advocate gets 40 hours basically ever.

I've worked at my store for 5-6 years, 3 of the people getting 40 most weeks have 20+ years at Target, the last two have worked at the store 3-5 years.
 
Last edited:
Talk to your Leader and HR about getting cross trained. If you're cross trained, they will put you in other departments and give you as close to full time as they can if you ask.
Hey what if they don't even want to cross train you at all? I'm in fulfillment, and they don't even want me to crosstrain
 
Not unusual, my store seems fairly resistant to cross-train most people a lot of the time.
 
I get 40 hours a week. 40 and have for years. The hard workers that show up get 36 to 40.
Maybe in your store. Probably depends on the area too. No one in Style is getting even 30 hours except the Specialty Sales Lead. And very few TMs in other areas get 30 or more.
 
This isn't fully correct. The gist is right, no one except TL's are "full time" in the sense that they're contractually guaranteed 40 hours, but some TM's get full time hours. That said, 'some', does not mean most, or even anything close to most. I average 41 hours a week, they schedule me 40, but I get overtime every week due to them scheduling me 1:30-10:00 daily - I never leave at 10:00.

My front end team consists of roughly 45-55 team members (can think of 46 off the top of my head, but I am sure I am forgetting some of the ones that get few hours), 6 of them get 40 hours most weeks. That's barely 10% for our front end, and lots of workcenters are probably under 10% chance for 40 hours.

Also worth noting, 3 of those 6 are former GSA's. The other 3 are scheduled strictly as a service advocate, not a single regular checkout advocate gets 40 hours basically ever.

I've worked at my store for 5-6 years, 3 of the people getting 40 most weeks have 20+ years at Target, the last two have worked at the store 3-5 years.

TLs are not contractually guaranteed 40 hours, they're guaranteed "full time" which target defines as an average of 32 hours per week over a rolling period (used to be 6 months, not sure if that has changed)

Very very few TMs are going to get full time work because then Target is legally required to carry benefits for them. This is costly, and the primary reason why there are almost no FT TMs.
 
This has changed somewhat. There are more team members getting 30+ hours since Covid hit.
 
Back
Top