Archived So..I'm torn on this one.

[toredandkhaki]

If this post gets long, I apologize in advance.

I am a TM in target cafe who was basically tasked with ownership of the area after my team lead left on medical and never came back. I had originally asked my ETL to be considered for bench about 6 months ago, and shortly thereafter the one GSTL informed me that they weren't developing me any more because of my attitude..flash forward to review time and the Sr. GSTL told Me that they would start developing me again and even went as far as to put in my review that I'd be a good candidate for a TL position in the future, and said to me she either saw me on bench or in a TL role within a year..suffice it to say the development since then has been lackluster or even dare I say non-existent. Im conflicted as to whether, if I went for a TL position without being on bench if I would be considered..or if this will just be a long drawn out process that leads to nowhere. Any advice? And sorry this ran long

 

[Kartman]

Attitude?

 

[toredandkhaki]

Yeah, the GSTL came over to food one time, when I had no hot dogs or hot dog buns thawed out and she didnt like my response that they were cold because they'd been frozen..I never really saw the attitude problem but team leads know best

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

In order to be a tl, you need to be stellar & one step ahead of everyone. Your honest answers maybe seen as a the attitude issue. You might say, hey, I am sorry. I thought they were defrosted. I will make the corrections now. By accepting responsibility of the error & resolving the issue, should that solve some perceptions of you.
Welcome.

 

[Retail Girl]

It seems to be, once they tell you no for development, they never really give you a second chance, no matter how much you may grow as a person and a leader. If they aren't actively developing you, I would say they really have no plans to do so.

But that could be my own bitterness.

 

[Kartman]

Crikey? Why were you out of food???

You don't run out of food!

 

[whippingboy]

If I was given a nickel for every carrot Target hands out...

 

[Spitfire]

Sorry, but if your upper leadership doesn't support your development, you can't advance. After all, the first two interview for TL are with your ETL and STL.

Yeah, the GSTL came over to food one time, when I had no hot dogs or hot dog buns thawed out and she didnt like my response that they were cold because they'd been frozen..I never really saw the attitude problem but team leads know best

It sounds like, in this particular case, you weren't fulfilling your core roles (having hot dogs and buns ready for purchase at all times) and (more importantly) that you didn't demonstrate accountability for your shortcoming.

 

[Flabbergasted]

Yeah, to be a TL you have to be on your A-game 100% of the time. It's not easy to do and is something I personally struggle with. You have to know how to resolve issues without consulting the LOD, how to manage your team and how to be a role model for others.

 

[Kartman]

I'm on my A game 100% of the time, but I don't (at this time) wanna be a TL.

 

[Flabbergasted]

I'm on my A game 100% of the time, but I don't (at this time) wanna be a TL.

Being on your A-game as a cart attendant 100% of the time is much easier than doing so as a TL. TLs really have a lot of high expectations and if you can't meet them you're screwed.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

For ex: no carts in the lot after 9pm.

 

[Kartman]

9 PM? The store still has one hour left... there better be a few carts in the lot! 😉

The last cart roundup needs to be about 10 minutes before closing. After all, guests are still coming and going at that time.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

9 PM? The store still has one hour left... there better be a few carts in the lot! 😉

The last cart roundup needs to be about 10 minutes before closing. After all, guests are still coming and going at that time.

Our cart person leaves at 9pm.

 

[Kartman]

When there is no dedicated CA, then it is up to the GSTL to find someone (even them!) to round up the carts. My store has 20 to 30 hours (and sometimes even less) a week allotted for a CA. No CA = get it done with the TM's you've got.

Our ETL's and even the STL will go out and get them.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

When there is no dedicated CA, then it is up to the GSTL to find someone (even them!) to round up the carts. My store has 20 to 30 hours (and sometimes even less) a week allotted for a CA. No CA = get it done with the TM's you've got.

Our ETL's and even the STL will go out and get them.

Salesfloor will get them, after we closed.

 

[Kartman]

Like I said... team members.

Derp?

 

[toredandkhaki]

To those who said it was my fault about the hot dog buns, I had just come in to work and had to scramble to get the cafe back to normal (they would only schedule someone 11-730 even though we opened at 8) so it was more of an overwhelmed situation than not taking accountability..

 

[Kartman]

You can heat the buns up - one minute in the microwave.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

To those who said it was my fault about the hot dog buns, I had just come in to work and had to scramble to get the cafe back to normal (they would only schedule someone 11-730 even though we opened at 8) so it was more of an overwhelmed situation than not taking accountability..

You will be ok. Hopefully, you have learn from it

 

[signingminion]

Im conflicted as to whether, if I went for a TL position without being on bench if I would be considered..or if this will just be a long drawn out process that leads to nowhere. Any advice? And sorry this ran long

I've applied without being on the bench or in development. Depending on your leadership you will either be considered or passed over quickly. Unless they were serious about developing you it will be an uphill battle to get there before someone under development or on the bench. It will get you experience interviewing with target as well as feedback about how those interviews went.

Attitude is when you reply off the cuff instead of voicing it in target speak. Learn the lingo and how to turn a negative into owning the opportunity.

Dtl: I see there are a lot of outs in market, especially bakery. Can you explain?
Pa: Well the truck came late today, but the rest of the team is bringing out the bakery and meat we have to fill in holes while I work on flexing in produce (brandishes mydevice and printer loaded with shelf label roll) and researching any outs left.
Fail answer : we don't have any of it because it's oos at the warehouse. And I'm just out here to vibe with guests (not to zone or fill).

 

[RetailWorld]

Dtl: I see there are a lot of outs in market, especially bakery. Can you explain?
Pa: Well the truck came late today, but the rest of the team is bringing out the bakery and meat we have to fill in holes while I work on flexing in produce (brandishes mydevice and printer loaded with shelf label roll) and researching any outs left.

Don't mention the truck is late. You're fishing for excuses. And you didn't really answer the question. The question was explaining WHY there are outs in market. You answered with what you were going to do to temporarily fix the problem. Imagine if your DTL was walking the store and was wondering why 4x4 walks weren't being done. The appropriate response wouldn't be "Oh, I'll get on that right now *4x4's an aisle*". The appropriate response would be to have an action plan in place to get back on best practice and set goal times to achieve the plan.

So, here's your problem. You're low in stock before a truck. You have 2 avenues of addressing the problem

1. Low inventory levels. You don't have enough product to actually flex. Create a plan to get more inventory in the store.

2. Flexing is not happening aggressively enough the night before a truck. Retrain closing teams to aggressively flex even when there is no product left.

Better response - After tracking trends and noticing the same items consistently being out, I've submitted a mysupport for an increase in OTL's. The response I got back was that they see that our current inventory levels are not where they need to be meet guest needs and after a nightly item maintenance, we should see an increase in what HQ is ordering. While we're pulling product out right now, that is not addressing the fact that we are low in stock the night before a truck/morning of a truck. But after we get our OTL's increased, we shouldn't see this level of outs anymore. If we do not see an improvement after this, I plan on reaching out to my ETL-LOG to contact the FDC/DSD to see if we can manually replenish product.

Also sprinkle in that you've been utilizing the LOD sales walk to keep the ETL's informed of the issue, that you're keeping your CTL in the loop, and other avenues of strageizing you've taken to address the opportunity(Purging D-Code, researching daily, purging the coolers/freezers etc). During the interview you want to prove that you can take an opportunity, and take all the correct steps to solve the opportunity, while taking the appropriate partners. Not just "see a problem, fix a problem"....prove that you can "see a problem, find source of problem, address source of problem so that it doesn't happen again"

 

[signingminion]

Don't mention the truck is late. You're fishing for excuses. And you didn't really answer the question. The question was explaining WHY there are outs in market. You answered with what you were going to do to temporarily fix the problem. Imagine if your DTL was walking the store and was wondering why 4x4 walks weren't being done. The appropriate response wouldn't be "Oh, I'll get on that right now *4x4's an aisle*". The appropriate response would be to have an action plan in place to get back on best practice and set goal times to achieve the plan.

So, here's your problem. You're low in stock before a truck. You have 2 avenues of addressing the problem

1. Low inventory levels. You don't have enough product to actually flex. Create a plan to get more inventory in the store.

2. Flexing is not happening aggressively enough the night before a truck. Retrain closing teams to aggressively flex even when there is no product left.

Better response - After tracking trends and noticing the same items consistently being out, I've submitted a mysupport for an increase in OTL's. The response I got back was that they see that our current inventory levels are not where they need to be meet guest needs and after a nightly item maintenance, we should see an increase in what HQ is ordering. While we're pulling product out right now, that is not addressing the fact that we are low in stock the night before a truck/morning of a truck. But after we get our OTL's increased, we shouldn't see this level of outs anymore. If we do not see an improvement after this, I plan on reaching out to my ETL-LOG to contact the FDC/DSD to see if we can manually replenish product.

Also sprinkle in that you've been utilizing the LOD sales walk to keep the ETL's informed of the issue, that you're keeping your CTL in the loop, and other avenues of strageizing you've taken to address the opportunity(Purging D-Code, researching daily, purging the coolers/freezers etc). During the interview you want to prove that you can take an opportunity, and take all the correct steps to solve the opportunity, while taking the appropriate partners. Not just "see a problem, fix a problem"....prove that you can "see a problem, find source of problem, address source of problem so that it doesn't happen again"

Fortunately it wasn't me that got to try to speak to the opportunities. But coaching the other guy to give this answer was better than the usual crapping himself and "um, um, it was filled this morning" he normally gives as a flat out lie.

But you can't give an answer such as yours if you've never done any of those, let alone know how to....his method is to wait to get work done til the last second and hope he doesn't get caught slacking. I will track down answers to the end of the earth (well the end of the forum at least) and have a dozen things I've utilized to try and fix what is happening. My DTL may or may not recognize me by name, but he does by face and is used to seeing me doing things above, beyond, and before the CTL/ETL can even notice a problem happened.

 

[Guest]

This song should help you out.

 

[Patty]

Kartman.if the ca leaves at 9,why can't he or she make sure they are all brought in before they leave? Tms put away carts that are left after ca leaves. A cart in pl is no good to anyone. Better step it up!