Archived Target Policy?

[ncc1701]

Has this ever happened to you? You do something at work, and some TL or ETL comes along and says "You can't do that, it's against Target Company Policy."
Then you find out later it's NOT a company policy. Or, the opposite...they say you HAVE to do something because its "Company Policy" and you find out later you are the ONLY store that does this.
Don't you just hate it when managers make up their own rules as they go along, hiding behind the "policy" excuse?
If something really is a company rule it should be the same at all stores instead of allowing each management team to make up their own stuff.
If they can show me the rule in the team member handbook then I will admit they are right but half of the time its not in there.

 

[GlobalTL123]

What was the policy they made up?

 

[Target Annie]

yeah - on the fly rules - gotta love them - not!

 

[dek067]

my fave is when my etl told me "best practice is what we say it is" because i questioned an hr rule they were ignoring. another time during our tl meeting i brought up best practice around the "stocking accurately" and something we were doing incorrectly that was affecting instocks and pricing drastically. "well we're still gonna continue to do it the way we have been, because that's what we do". really. and I'M THE ONE who isn't resilient and adaptable? hate it.

 

[invictustaylor]

furthermore, is there a coaching directive that states even if the point becomes moot, or the incident is a non-issue, that you must still find something to say, some little thing to coach them on? Sometimes I think there is!

 

[StaticSun]

Best practice is the best answer they can think of at the time and they want us to practice it and see how it turns out.

 

[redeye58]

They don't call it "practice" for nuthin'...

 

[Reneeisxena]

I once asked a visiting DTL about a "policy" question and later was chastised for it by my ETL who said I made him look bad because I didn't understand the policy. Problem is I had asked him to explain it and he just said "it is what it is, that's the rules" The DTL actually explained it to me and I understood the reasoning. I did apologize to my ETL and I have never asked visiting biggies questions since.


P.S. to ncc1701 I am assuming you are an original series Star Trek fan, right?

 

[nib]

This is why everyone who is HOURLY/Non-Exempt/TL and below NEEDS to UNIONIZE, to give yourself job and corrective action PROTECTION. Also keep a copy of the Employee Handbook with you at ALL times!

Has this ever happened to you? You do something at work, and some TL or ETL comes along and says "You can't do that, it's against Target Company Policy."
Then you find out later it's NOT a company policy. Or, the opposite...they say you HAVE to do something because its "Company Policy" and you find out later you are the ONLY store that does this.
Don't you just hate it when managers make up their own rules as they go along, hiding behind the "policy" excuse?
If something really is a company rule it should be the same at all stores instead of allowing each management team to make up their own stuff.
If they can show me the rule in the team member handbook then I will admit they are right but half of the time its not in there.

 

[redeye58]

P.S. to ncc1701 I am assuming you are an original series Star Trek fan, right?

...just what I was thinkin'....

 

[Red11]

Never, have I heard an exec at my store use the phrase "against company policy" its always "thats not Brand". I would guess that most of the time that is short for "I don't want it done that way" though.

 

[The Mule]

Never, have I heard an exec at my store use the phrase "against company policy" its always "thats not Brand". I would guess that most of the time that is short for "I don't want it done that way" though.

Saying it's "Brand" is actually how we are suppose to discuss Target's control of assets and implementation of it's procedures. Target likes to have their own spin on how they say and do things, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but can be confusing at times. You will find people of course who just use the phrase to make their own uninformed opinions sound better, so follow up on workbench and look it up yourself if you want the truth.

 

[greydot]

one thing you notice is that ETLs will almost always, without fail make up what they think is "brand" or "best practice" based on the notion that most TMs simple don't/won't know. there are very few whom i know who will actually take the time to actually find out what best practice is in actuality.

 

[The Mule]

one thing you notice is that ETLs will almost always, without fail make up what they think is "brand" or "best practice" based on the notion that most TMs simple don't/won't know. there are very few whom i know who will actually take the time to actually find out what best practice is in actuality.

Yeah, some will definitely try to pull that. When i got my former Signing position, since I was going to be on workbench a lot getting info and tracking orders through TIPP, I took the time every once in a while to look up "Best Practice" for different workcenters around the store. When I started standing my ground with TLs I was butting heads with and could back it up and they knew it, they all started to take me more seriously and most of them started to ask me to do something instead of telling me to. I highly recommend if you have the ability to freshen up on stuff that you do so, it does pay off.

 

[greydot]

Yeah, some will definitely try to pull that. When i got my former Signing position, since I was going to be on workbench a lot getting info and tracking orders through TIPP, I took the time every once in a while to look up "Best Practice" for different workcenters around the store. When I started standing my ground with TLs I was butting heads with and could back it up and they knew it, they all started to take me more seriously and most of them started to ask me to do something instead of telling me to. I highly recommend if you have the ability to freshen up on stuff that you do so, it does pay off.

it's funny because that's pretty much how i know most of the best practices in the store. when you are thrown into signing - if you're the type of person who likes to know your stuff - you make quick friends with workbench. being a unique position in the store you're left to have to actually look up the answers for most of your situations. and you really get a front row seat to seeing how much stuff is just entirely made up and bs'd on the fly for most workcenters.