Archived Shift cut controversy

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So there's a controversy happening at my store right now and I don't know what to do. I'm among at least 4 TMs who've had shifts cut without warning this week. One said she spoke to two TLs who basically told her that they had to do it and had to have it taken care of by today, no explanation offered. As far as I know they're not allowed to just cut shifts without warning.

The other TMs are talking about calling the hotline but we're not sure if anything good will come of it. What's the likelihood of retaliation? Even if we remain anonymous they'll be able to figure out who it was. I don't want to get in trouble or get my fellow TMs in trouble. Are we better off just accepting this shit or can we actually do something about it and expect a positive outcome?

Edit: I should specify that by cut, I mean future shifts were cancelled without warning, not that we were sent home early.
 
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So there's a controversy happening at my store right now and I don't know what to do. I'm among at least 4 TMs who've had shifts cut without warning this week. One said she spoke to two TLs who basically told her that they had to do it and had to have it taken care of by today, no explanation offered. As far as I know they're not allowed to just cut shifts without warning.

The other TMs are talking about calling the hotline but we're not sure if anything good will come of it. What's the likelihood of retaliation? Even if we remain anonymous they'll be able to figure out who it was. I don't want to get in trouble or get my fellow TMs in trouble. Are we better off just accepting this shit or can we actually do something about it and expect a positive outcome?

If they have to cut hours then you will be asked to go home. Its finanical responsibility on the STL.
 
If they have to cut hours then you will be asked to go home. Its finanical responsibility on the STL.
Is this even legal to force people to go home early? My store always asks if we want to leave early, since they were short on payroll, but they always tell us that it’s totally up to us and we can definitely stay. I feel like taking hours away while already there is illegal.. but I could be totally wrong.
 
Is this even legal to force people to go home early? My store always asks if we want to leave early, since they were short on payroll, but they always tell us that it’s totally up to us and we can definitely stay. I feel like taking hours away while already there is illegal.. but I could be totally wrong.
In my state it is ILLEGAL to send you home when you are scheduled to work.
 
In my state it is ILLEGAL to send you home when you are scheduled to work.

In my state its not as long as you get paid the hours you did work. So ASANT but any job ive had you get sent home if labor cost is high and business is slow.
 
In my state it is ILLEGAL to send you home when you are scheduled to work.

Same here. We cannot be forced to leave before our scheduled time. Yeah, they ask us all the time if we want to, but we can simply say no and keep on working. And I don’t give a flying f$&! about the STL’s financial responsibilities.
 
There have been a couple times where the whole flow team has been kicked out after 3 hours even if they were scheduled 4 or more hours. And no it wasn't always an option. We weren't happy about it.
 
I believe that the handbook states you can work your scheduled shift if that's what was posted and is on the wall. I always take a picture of it in case they change it or something. However, it can get very political. It sucks that they didn't ask you but sometimes you have to pick your battles and consider if it's worth arguing over. Yes, you are in the right and could call the hotline and pursue the issue further however you could hurt/ruin relations with leadership/HR at your store. They claim it doesn't but we are all human and know it could. I would just let it go because you don't want to watch your hours go down further and further in future schedules (I've seen it happen). Just take the shortened shift and you could just use sick/vacation hours if you have any to bring you up to your average for the week
 
Aw yes, this discussion again...

It doesn't matter what your state says, IT'S A TARGET RULE they cannot cut your schedule without your permission.

There are many reasons TM's don't fight it when they get cut. They fear retaliation, or think it's apart of working at Target but your store CANNOT cut your schedule if you insist you want to work.

GOOD LEADERS: Ask you if you'd be willing to cut your hours or take a day off.
AVERAGE LEADERS: Tell you passive aggressively they need you to cut so you can save on payroll.
BAD LEADERS: Tell you, you have to clock out now and go home.

Know your rights. If they try to force you, you're probably not the only one. You can probably safely make an anonymous hotline call and they'll have no idea its you.

This is one of the situations where the Hotline actually works. Your ETL HR does not want their HRBP on their @$$ about this, trust me.
 
I believe that the handbook states you can work your scheduled shift if that's what was posted and is on the wall. I always take a picture of it in case they change it or something. However, it can get very political. It sucks that they didn't ask you but sometimes you have to pick your battles and consider if it's worth arguing over. Yes, you are in the right and could call the hotline and pursue the issue further however you could hurt/ruin relations with leadership/HR at your store. They claim it doesn't but we are all human and know it could. I would just let it go because you don't want to watch your hours go down further and further in future schedules (I've seen it happen). Just take the shortened shift and you could just use sick/vacation hours if you have any to bring you up to your average for the week

I don't like this because it enables leaders to do it again. You notice they never send their favorites home early right? or cut their hours?

TMs have to stand up for themselves, when I was an HRTM I loved hearing TMS say "No I need the hours" to ETLS and when the ETL tried to push it, saying "If you're willing to pay my bills, I'll go home."

Shut them up real quick
 
I don't like this because it enables leaders to do it again. You notice they never send their favorites home early right? or cut their hours?

TMs have to stand up for themselves, when I was an HRTM I loved hearing TMS say "No I need the hours" to ETLS and when the ETL tried to push it, saying "If you're willing to pay my bills, I'll go home."

Shut them up real quick
Like I said, pick your battles. If it's one time then I would let it go. If it becomes a pattern then I would speak up and say no/go further.

They're cutting at my store too. I don't know why they spend flex hours that aren't guaranteed yet. I gave up my closing shift this week lol, anything I can do to help the store ;)
 
If it were my store, I'd feel comfortable asking one of a few ETLs what's up with the cutting schedules thing, so if you have an ETL you have a good rapport with you can try asking "so, what's the deal with a bunch of us having our schedules cut?" or if there's someone among the group with hours cut (or even someone whose hours aren't getting cut) who could ask, that may be informative.

But if your leadership sucks and asking questions of your ETLs is likely to result in retaliation, then I would suggest the hotline. If your leadership sucks so much that a) they cut hours like this and b) nobody even feels like they can ask what's going on, that seems to indicate a larger problem with the store that whoever monitors the hotline might want to be aware of.
 
Hmmmm. I received a call from Spot today (my day off) and they always leave a message when they want me to come in.

This time it was just a call, no message.

aaf_shifty.gif
 
The only time I seen an ETL tell someone to go home, if they were about to hit OT.

ETLs usually ask us TLs first if we wanna go home early or take a day off
 
I've heard if you call the hotline, HR may start grilling people to figure out who did it. What do we do then? Are we allowed to lie? If they ask us if we know who called, do we have to tell them? @HRZone
 
AFAIK, unless you have a contract with your employer that guarantees certain hours, an employer can cut future shifts to meet their business needs.

Why are people so quick to call the hotline? Why don't you go get your adult on and go talk to HR and express your concerns?
 
AFAIK, unless you have a contract with your employer that guarantees certain hours, an employer can cut future shifts to meet their business needs.

Why are people so quick to call the hotline? Why don't you go get your adult on and go talk to HR and express your concerns?

You have to have an HR team that is honest to be able to talk to them, in my store we don't have that. So when you don't have a leadership team in place you can trust the Hotline is there to keep them honest. And you can't just cut already written schedules without the employees permission, even spot says that.. You can ask, but when my schedule is already down 10+hrs you can't cut more off without asking.. And that answer will be no..

Example of why I call the hotline over talking my ETLHR:

We had the Flow TL not show up and open the store at 4am, ETL HR said those people who waited including myself would not be paid and could make the time we wanted to paid for some other time. I was told that to my face by this liar, what makes you think I would want to talk to her about this? Zero chance Hotline from now on..
 
You have to have an HR team that is honest to be able to talk to them, in my store we don't have that. So when you don't have a leadership team in place you can trust the Hotline is there to keep them honest. And you can't just cut already written schedules without the employees permission, even spot says that.. You can ask, but when my schedule is already down 10+hrs you can't cut more off without asking.. And that answer will be no..

Example of why I call the hotline over talking my ETLHR:

We had the Flow TL not show up and open the store at 4am, ETL HR said those people who waited including myself would not be paid and could make the time we wanted to paid for some other time. I was told that to my face by this liar, what makes you think I would want to talk to her about this? Zero chance Hotline from now on..
1. It's quite possible that it's written in best practice somewhere that future shifts cannot deleted. I've never seen it and I would and I assume Target would never set that precedent in a best practice considering all moves need to be made to support business needs.

2. The OP did not say anything about interacting with HR, they are considering going straight to the hotline. That differs greatly from your experience of having the ETL-HR say directly that you are not getting paid. Bad TLs say stupid shit all the time, a chat with HR could go a long way to resolving the issue.

3. Your ETL-HR made a mistake, the hotline was called and the situation was resolved. So because of that one mistake, you're now going straight to the hotline every time. People cry bloody murder on here all the time about retaliation, yet it seems like you're doing just that.
 
I've heard if you call the hotline, HR may start grilling people to figure out who did it. What do we do then? Are we allowed to lie? If they ask us if we know who called, do we have to tell them? @HRZone

"Gee, I have no idea."

Retaliation or intimidation for calling the hotline is a fireable offense. If you call and don't tell anyone you won't have any problems.

Stores love to try to figure out who called but even ULV volume stores have 80 tms. Good luck figuring that out.

AFAIK, unless you have a contract with your employer that guarantees certain hours, an employer can cut future shifts to meet their business needs.

To be fair we're not talking about state laws. We are talking about Target best practices.

Why are people so quick to call the hotline? Why don't you go get your adult on and go talk to HR and express your concerns?

You've been in leadership a long time and so you know an etl hrs biggest fear is missing payroll.

I think it was made clear in this thread to let your leadership know you would prefer not to cut your shift. If your leadership doesn't respect that it's not a bad idea to call the hotline once you've exhausted all other options.
 
"Gee, I have no idea."

Retaliation or intimidation for calling the hotline is a fireable offense. If you call and don't tell anyone you won't have any problems.

Stores love to try to figure out who called but even ULV volume stores have 80 tms. Good luck figuring that out.
Are the calls recorded and/or played back to the STL?
 
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