Archived Sword of Damocles

[OyeShopgirl]

Hello, all, hope your Spring is going better than mine so far....

OK, I'm going to try to keep this brief and fill in the details later or answer questions later, since this is my umteenth time trying to post and either my computer is defective or I am simply rambling on waaaay tooo loooonnnggg...

Put quite bluntly, I'm about to get termed. About eight months ago i had a NCNS, and just had one yesterday. Since I already feel like a failure and a fool for getting myself into this, but I figure I can always go make ugly cry faces and drown my sorrows in hot chocolate later, right now I need to know, if ANYONE can please help answer:

1.) Are there any chances of me being able to get unemployemment if I push and fight for it? Or is it so ridiculously remote under the circumstances that, instead...

2.) Should I walk into my next shift, tell 'em thanks for giving me a chance at Spot but I quit, so at least THAT way if I have to be jobless, pathetic, and broke, at least I don't have to tell prospective employers I actually got termed from Spot?

Help or advice espcially appreciated from those who have experience in unemployment battles or are in Southern "right-to-work" states!

Thanks again in advance...

 

[commiecorvus]

Hang tight.
If you are a decent worker, your ETLs and TLs aren't smegheads, and you don't screw up again, you should be OK.
I don't know about your store but at ours I've seen people get by on a lot worse.
Don't give up, if the job is important to you, fight for it.
If there are better ones out there, go get one of those.

 

[OyeShopgirl]

Thank you so much, commie!
IMHO, I am even better than a decent worker, although much of the nature of Cashiering makes people assume even the Walking Dead could do it ( hate to say it, but I think I HAVE seen the Walking Dead do it, actually... ); generally I feel valued and appreciated, and I don't mind finding stuff to do ( zoning, cleaning, corralling carts even )at all, or being polite and pleasant to people I'd rather...well, let's say that I'd rather not be pleasant and polite to and leave it at that lol...

And I've actually seen people get by on worse at my store, too, TBH. What scares me is that even though I feel valued I am aware that I'm not exactly the most popular kid in school, so to speak. What is much scarier is that at least once a week I am casually threatened with a written corrective action if I don't get more RedCards, and within the past couple months have already had two verbal coachings about it; it is starting to make me really nrvous and upset 'cause I really DO NEED the job, but at least if I got termed behind these silly RedCards I'd have a better chance of unemployment benefits...
I'm gonna hang in and fight for the job; as long as I've been looking for a supplemental and/or alternative gig, I know enough to know I am lucky to have a job there at all in many ways ( plus I have the shortest, cheapest, and easiest commute of anyone I know lol ).

have a great night!

 

[CIHYVS]

There is a recent thread on coaching and CAs for Red Cards that may clear some worries up. I am waiting for someone to get termed for that as I have some Law School buddies who would love to talk to them.

Commie is right. Do well and don't screw up more than 3-5 times in a 30 day period and you will go back under the radar. It does take a lot to term someone for performance.

Forget unemployment. Depending on your specific state laws, you may have a shot but I have witnessed first had how viciously efficient our locally retained legal docheballoon can be. Basically, unless they let you go through a downsizing or structure re-alignment, they don't pay. If you ever see any of the paperwork on decreasing headcount strategies in the last few years, one phrase always comes up - "Headcounts must be through attrition and never though termination." Translation = Spot will not "fire" you to reduce headcount but will make life hell for you to either make you voluntarily quit (attrition) or term you for performance, Co policy violation, behavior, etc. and not have to pay you unemployment either way.

I would also NOT recommend a reenactment of of they guy quitting from Half Baked (F*** you, F*** you, your cool, F*** you, I'm out!). If you don't give a 2 weeks notice (in writing) or before they post the schedule for the time you want to leave, they still term you! Not giving them 2 weeks notice gets you a not nice code on your term file that bans you from rehire in most cases. Just a consideration.

 

[OyeShopgirl]

Interesting....

Thanks for all the input; yeah, I was doing research about certain companies' tactics to try to basically get you to get rid of yourself, as it pertains to the 'attrition' thing you were talking about-I think I read some legal term for it like "constructive termination" ( some nerve, huh? ), or something like that. ( That was during a period of time when I was getting ten hours a week if I was lucky with open availability, then one day I came in to find my name nowhere to be found at all on the following weeks' schedule....of course I had no real way to prove I was being singled out. When I brought it to the attention of leadership they all seemed quite bewildered and I magically reappeared on the schedule after that, so....didn't know exactly what to think there... ).

OK, I'll be good from here on out-and I won't reenact any scenes from "Office Space" or "Clerks", either....

 

[YepanSTL]

Some potentially good news is that, unless you were put on a Final Warning, you would not be fired for this offense. In addition, Target has recently started looking at changing the policy for attendance. When I say recently, I mean within the last few weeks. Essentially, is should become less common for tms to get fired strictly for attendance. It is supposed to be tied to other performance related issues. There have been a lot of issues in the past for terming strictly for attendance, and it actually pretty easy to get unemployment if that is why you were fired. I would say show up for your shift and put the ball in their court. Work hard, stay focused on being a great cashier, and you should be able to keep your job.

 

[CIHYVS]

Can you PM me on where you heard this? I am very active in protecting TMs from Corp and would love a jumping off point to research this further. I usually get a lot of direct HR stuff from someone at Corp but I haven't heard this one roll out yet. It would be a great benefit to me and many others if you could direct me to any new info on changes to attendance policy.

 

[YepanSTL]

Can you PM me on where you heard this? I am very active in protecting TMs from Corp and would love a jumping off point to research this further. I usually get a lot of direct HR stuff from someone at Corp but I haven't heard this one roll out yet. It would be a great benefit to me and many others if you could direct me to any new info on changes to attendance policy.

Just sent you the pm. I will do some more research and see if I can get more info as well for you...like maybe something in writing