It leaves it really hard though, to justify why your work isn't done because you are covering a break for someone who should have been back a half hour ago, without mentioning that you've spent all your time covering for the other one. The only one who will get noticed is the one who doesn't get their work done...not the one who was off on the long break allowing you to continue to put away their strays.
In that case, I would just say that due to me covering a break, I was unable to finish. Management is not completely brain dead... eventually it'll ding in their head that "hmm, a break is not supposed to take but 15 minutes," and further investigate. And if things really heat up I'd just tell them to check the cameras and see how long I was there and how I was working on whatever I could while still covering a break.
No... Just no.
If someone is doing any of those things there is really no reason why you shouldn't say anything to management. We are expected to act with integrity. We are also EXPECTED to report theft, TM or otherwise. If the LOD asked me why xyz wasn't done and its because my team was taking 45 minute breaks, you're damn well right that I'll say that my team/that person has problems returning from break on time making it difficult. GSA is responsible for making sure a lot of other TMs have the support they need to do their jobs well, and if something goes wrong, thats on the GSA.
Don't come around here tell our members that they are in the wrong because they are using integrity! Also, there are no repercussions for reporting breaches in integrity to the LOD/HR... If there were, the offending member of management would be guilty of retaliation and in deep ****.
Rgirl, keep doing a good job! Hold your team accountable!
I think your position is a little different, seeing as, you, a (former) GSA have to know where your cashiers are and are their supervisor, then of course
you need to keep an eye out for when they return from breaks. And if you didn't see, I clearly said I wouldn't ever cover for someone if it's going to mean I'm on the line as well. So that takes care of that there. And I don't believe I EVER told Retailgirl she was in the wrong for doing so. In fact, I clearly believe in the first post that I wrote regarding her situation that I used a lot of "I don't agree," "personally I would have..." and then explained the reason why I, a salesfloor TM wouldn't do what she did.
And I'm sorry, I don't want to have to be "that" person, but do you seriously think management can't find a way to kick you out if they really wanted to because of a controversy you may have part in under the guise of something else? Weren't you the person who quit because management was squeezing you out for no apparent or for shallow reasons? Tell me more about how being morally correct 100% of the time and having all that integrity made them partial enough to you to not start performancing you out whenever they damn well pleased.
Well aren't you just a ****ing superstar! You alone turned around softlines, you alone do quadruple the work of everyone else, you alone can claim to set the Target standard of a brand team member!
View it how you want, and I'm sure nothing I say will change your mind but here are some of the consequences that do hurt you and your team. If they take longer breaks then they do less work. If they do less work then others have to pick up the slack by working harder and/or longer. If others have to work harder and/or longer then the morale goes down, available payroll hours go down. If payroll and morale go down then performance and execution suffers, etc. All because someone is taking 45 minute 15's and you didn't report it. Say what you want but everyone here knows it pisses them off if this happens to them.
Stealing food, shortage, do I need to go on? Yeah, I restate that I wouldn't want to work with someone like you
Wow, you really need to learn to read. I don't think I ever said I turned the entirety of softlines around by myself. That's silly and impossible. I do believe I said I turned around our most troubled dept, which you can choose to believe or not, does not really matter to me.
I can't believe you are really trying to pin low morale, lack of payroll, and performance on someone taking long 15 minute breaks. If that isn't trying to pinpoint a frivolous reason out of all the serious ones that are responsible for this then, I don't even know. You want to know what causes those things?
-Low morale: Happens when your supervisors don't do their job and supervise the team and get rid of dead weight. Thankfully, my supervisors are very good at this and pick up on dead weight rights away. How? Because, they do not force us to intertwine our work to get it done. They set goals for each TM: "A does this, this, and that. B does that, that and that." Then everyone answers for themselves why the work is or isn't complete in a timely manner. If you have some valid excuse, then management can look further into it.
-No Payroll: Target is a greedy company. That's it. No matter what tale they try to spin you, I think we are all smart enough to know they just want to pinch pennies in every conceivable way to keep for themselves.
-Bad performance: From what I've seen, usually happens when your boss isn't fit to be a boss and the workers beneath them don't want to strive to do the work for them because they've been wronged in some way and they no longer give a damn. In my store and dept, even though my supervisors for the most part are decent (ETL is fresh out of college and lacking a back bone at times and naive/unrealistic expectations sometimes, while SR. TL is amazing in every possible way and should be the one in charge) my ETL has a tendency to take on to much workload from other teams for SL to do when we are already drowning in our own work, or have unrealistic expectations oh how much it is possible to get done. That creates a feeling of "it's impossible!" and "she doesn't understand us because she doesn't work with us!." Thankfully, a quick talk with my TL about it will get him to get her to ease up a bit. (She's very fickle and can't stick to any of her plans.)
If I as working under my ETL alone, I might not be as hard a worker, because she has serious flaws as a leader and she doesn't inspire me to work and strive for my best for the simple purpose of feeling good about what I've accomplished for myself. My TL, on the other hand, I will bust my ass for. It all starts with leadership.
All in all, Target TMs are usually not people who abuse the system and slack off just for funsies. Most of them started off as (at the very least) okay workers and were then disappointed with leadership, payroll, etc, and figured, "why bother, they don't care about me."
You can't point at one thing that TMs do and say, this is the cause of all of Target's problems! Look at the reasons WHY a TM would feel it's okay to do this and you've got the real reasons people slack off or burn out.
And lastly, I have never advocated for a supervisor to not supervise their team (didn't realize RG is now a GSA? I thought she was still GS/SF who they were only dangling the promotion carrot in front of). However, I still stand by what I said: As a SF TM, I am going to do MY work and do MY work well and that's all that I need to worry about. My managers can deal with the rest, as it is THEIR jobs.
