Archived Well, didn't make it past my 90 days...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Aug 15, 2013
Messages
3
I got my 90 day review earlier this week, was told that I wasn't a suitable employee for Target, and promptly fired. After going through the review, I think I pinpointed some of my mistakes. I would hate for this to come off as jaded, but I started noticing certain trends and became jaded after Day 30. So, some things I would have done differently:

#1: I wouldn't have gone up for backup as much. I think one trend I saw in my work was I took on too much at once (see further down the list for examples), and going up for backup nearly every single time the call went out was an example. Doing this slowed me down in my zoning and reflected negatively on me. There were times where I went up for backup 4-6 times a shift and times where I was on the register for as long as 30 minutes during a rush. I've zoned alongside people who never even carried a walkie, or if they did, kept it on low or just flat out refused to go for backup. In the end, those people always finished their zone a lot faster than I did.

#2: I should have done the bare minimum. I was mostly softlines/RTW and in the beginning would "superzone" clearance. I would sort by clearance amounts, clothing types (dresses on one rack, skirts and maybe shorts on another, shirts on a third, number sized jeans on a fourth, and so on). This of course slowed me down. I should have taken a cue from others who worked in RTW and just zone based on sizes.

#3: I should have vibed myself more often. When I first started, I was led to believe that vibe cards were for when you saw another team member do something "AMAZING!!!!". Only in the past couple of weeks was I told that I could write down vibe moments I personally had w/ guests. Of course my review noted that I didn't vibe w/ guests despite:
- having a guest track down a TL to tell them how helpful I was
-pushing sales in furniture even though I was mostly softlines
-answering call buttons no where near my zone
-being a personal shopper for guests w/ registry and back-to-school shopping lists (just last weekend I spend nearly 25 minutes helping on guest find almost every single item on her list and helping another guest who didn't even speak English shop for baby items).
I hate the idea of bragging, especially when, in my mind, the above isn't anything that special, but obviously I should have noted these incidents since, as a softlines TM, it was super rare for a TL to be anywhere around me so they assume these moments didn't happen.

#4: Better drugs. Okay, this one is tongue in cheek, but had I known that I would be penalized for not having a smile permaplasted on my face all day, I would have upped the dose of my Rx. Don't get me wrong, this was far from my first retail job (over 10 years experience, including in high end stores), but this was the first time where I had annoying TLs constantly deride me for not smiling and getting penalized for it. I'm sorry, but my face just sets that way and 9 times out of 10, I was actually in a good mood before someone bugged me about this. In the end, I never brought any negative emotions to the job and reacted postively w/ the guests. Apparently it wasn't enough.

#5: I should have asked for feedback. Apparently this is a major point in the 90 days review and I got knocked for not going out of my and specifically asking "can you give me any feedback on my progress?". I took feedback when given to me and adjusted how I work, asked questions nearly every day to the point where I pointed out logical flaws in some areas (e.g., other TMs folding pants incorrectly that led to them falling off the shelf). I'm not one to constantly ask "hey, am I doing good, boss ma'am?".

#6: Along the same route, I was cited for not checking in about my zone. When asked, I would tell them where I was in my zone, right down to the number of racks or tables I had left to zone. Apparently I was supposed to call it out often so they would know where I was throughout the day. Not sue if i was supposed to do so after every 10 minutes, hour, or whatever...

#7: Somehow a NCNS ended up on my record even though it never happened. Supposedly, a TM even talked to me about it (note: no one did, probably because it never happened). Maybe I should have stuck up for myself more. When I came in sick and took a small pause during my P/R to collect myself and the LOD criticized me for not hustling, maybe I I should have explained my illness and noted that, in the past hour, I had already down 3 full 3 tier carts of P/R.

Okay, so that did come off as a bit bitter. Yeah, I'm a bit bitter that whenever a cashier got a red card, it was celebrated on the walkies, but when someone on the sales floor really vibed w/ the guest, it was rarely acknowledged, especially if it didn't happen right in front of a TL/LOD. I'm bitter b/c I worked along side people who did less work than I did but since they weren't on probation, they weren't look at as hard (again, I worked w/ people who just flat out ignored calls for backup to the point of turning off their walkie!!). I'm bitter b/c this wasn't my first retail job; as mentioned, I've been working retail for over a decade, including working at a high end grocery store, a high end gift shop, and being a supervisor at a major clothing retailer (and nearly all of these jobs paid more than minimum wage; one paid 2x as much to start!). And yet despite that, I had to start back from square one as a TM making minimum wage. Oh, and about that, did I mention that this was my first job post graduating COLLEGE??!??!? I'm not going to lie, I may have gone into this job a bit jaded at the idea of, after 4 years in college and substantial experience in teaching, tutoring, and some admin work, I was working minimum wage at Target. Still, at the time I was happy to have the job b/c I did really like Target as a store. Heck, I still do and am not too torn up over being fired (I was already planning on joining the Peace Corps and possibly quitting before the holiday season started), but I just never worked in such a backwards environment where you're more likely to be criticized for doing too much than you are for doing too little.

Okay, getting off the soapbox, hopefully someone coming up at the end of their 90 days will take heed of this post and make sure they are check-marking all those invisible boxes.
 
EVERYONE makes it passed their 90 days at my store.

If you are completely slow and incompetent, no problem. If you are a fast and hard worker, you are just as equal to the slow and incompetent. If you can only work 2 days out of the week, you still get to keep your job. Some people even have no call no shows during their 90 days and it's all forgiven.

Might be just my store because they mass hire so no one has much more than 12 hours a week now. And they lost all of the high paying members who have been there for 6+ years, so they are probably just desperate.

Never seen anyone not make it passed their 90 days in my store, except for that one guy that came in and said, "I don't think I'm going anywhere here." And then promptly walked out and left.
 
Sorry to hear that you were fired.

I have been working at Target for a few weeks and I very much appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I haven't really considered that I could be in danger of losing my job. I work in Hardlines, but like you, I also go up front as a backup cashier several times during an average shift. So far it hasn't caused me to get behind on pushing very much, but I still feel like I need to step up my game, as well as try to communicate with my TLs more.
 
Is it true you can collect unemployment if you don't make it past 90?
 
Sorry to hear about your experience, SomewhatStarving....

Even when you come from a background of other customer service or retail type environments it can be hard to suss out what is really truly expected of you and how it is in your best interest to work, speak, behave, etc...especially when you factor in different corporate cultures, moving from one region of the country to another perhaps, to say nothing of the individual idiosyncracies of the people you work for, with, and around...

Though it won't help you pay your bills ( or buy any new art supplies ), hopefully at least you might have learned something that can be of value to your life from all of this, although what exactly that might be may seem of dubious value right now-or its true value may not be clear for years.

Oh, and as to #4 on your list...

As someone who apparently suffers from CBFS ( Chronic B!#(hface Syndrome ), I too have gotten the "smile when your heart is breaking" speech...might have been nice if it didn't happen at the exact same time when I was fearing being put out of my living space due to being severely behind on payments, largely due to my lack of hours/lack of pay, but that's ok, I plastered on my big fake smile and went on with my day...made everyone else feel better, apparently...still waiting for the happy to rub off on me...
 
You seem like a great candidate for planogram tm since your so meticulous in your work or softline brand tm. Are you sure it wasn't just #7 that got you fired/let go? I thought that was like a big no-no during 90 day probation.
 
If you had no idea that were not being kept beyond your 90 days then it reflects very poorly on your stores leadership. That should never be a suprise, they should coaching and touching base with you on your progress often. You should have been sat and told these are things you need to fix if you want stay on beyond your 90 days and then that should have been followed up with by them. That is the new Target poor training and no follow up.
 
Sounds like one of those 'the ETLs have been reading too many cutthroat management books" stores.
Youngs smegheads with a lot to prove or older managers desperate to keep their jobs usually fall for that crap.
You were too well educated, not going to stick around, not drinking the kool-aid and trying way too hard to do your job with pride.
So they set you up.
I'm sorry, wish I had something more positive to say but I think you did the right thing and didn't deserve what happened.
 
Last edited:
Yeah RedDog, there was only one point where anyone sat down with me and that was when I had to call out for 3 days b/c I got some food poisoning. They just basically reminded me about that rule where if you get food poisoning, you have to notify someone about it. Other than that, there were only a couple of times when they pulled me aside during my zone to correct something I was doing. Honestly, I completely forgot about the 90 days review-I don't think they ever brought it up outside of orientation.
 
Yeah RedDog, there was only one point where anyone sat down with me and that was when I had to call out for 3 days b/c I got some food poisoning. They just basically reminded me about that rule where if you get food poisoning, you have to notify someone about it. Other than that, there were only a couple of times when they pulled me aside during my zone to correct something I was doing. Honestly, I completely forgot about the 90 days review-I don't think they ever brought it up outside of orientation.


When that Team Member sat down with you and basically reminded you about the rule where you have to notify someone, that was the NCNS that showed up on your record. If you didn't call in for three days because you had food poisoning or for any reason, that's basically a voluntary termination at my store. You wouldn't have seen the light of the 90th day.
 
My, mrxbook, you are assuming a lot. The supposed NCNS happened nearly a month BEFORE and I not only was excused for all three of my days off (I called in the first and second day and was told I was covered for the 3rd and didn't have to call again), but even had a doctor's note to cover my bases. According to them, the NCNS happened around early June, but I never missed a day until a bit after the 4th of July when I got sick. I was basically reminded that, b/c it was a food poisoning case, I had to let them know, I guess in case it was connected to the store.

The NCNS was bunk, never happened and I have proof it didn't happen, but I wasn't going to bust my butt explaining this to them, especially when they had so many other "faults" against me.
When that Team Member sat down with you and basically reminded you about the rule where you have to notify someone, that was the NCNS that showed up on your record. If you didn't call in for three days because you had food poisoning or for any reason, that's basically a voluntary termination at my store. You wouldn't have seen the light of the 90th day.[/QUOTE]
 
It sucks. I did do a NCNS but I just didn't have the means to call as my phone didn't work. There are no pay phones around either in my area... I believe they did away with those years ago.
So I was fired even though I needed the job and did good work. Now I have nothing and going to be losing my apartment in a few months literally thrown to the streets.

I guess you can feel a little better understanding that there are people like me who are much worse off. No one has responded to any of my applications since. Not even mcdonalds.
A few homeless people sleep around the target I used to work at. I guess if they can live on the streets so can I. I wish I wasn't born.
 
Check your local unemployment office.
 
When you are hired in at a company that has a 90 day probationary period and you are not kept, then it is not being fired....because technically you weren't hired. A probationary period lets a company "try you out" and they can choose not to keep you for any reason they choose.

If you are at a company that does not have a probationary period, then you are hired in....then to let you go a company needs to be able to document why they are firing you.

The advantage of the 90 days for a company is that they have the chance to use you and then let you go. They win....you lose.
 
My, mrxbook, you are assuming a lot. The supposed NCNS happened nearly a month BEFORE and I not only was excused for all three of my days off (I called in the first and second day and was told I was covered for the 3rd and didn't have to call again), but even had a doctor's note to cover my bases. According to them, the NCNS happened around early June, but I never missed a day until a bit after the 4th of July when I got sick. I was basically reminded that, b/c it was a food poisoning case, I had to let them know, I guess in case it was connected to the store.

The NCNS was bunk, never happened and I have proof it didn't happen, but I wasn't going to bust my butt explaining this to them, especially when they had so many other "faults" against me.
When that Team Member sat down with you and basically reminded you about the rule where you have to notify someone, that was the NCNS that showed up on your record. If you didn't call in for three days because you had food poisoning or for any reason, that's basically a voluntary termination at my store. You wouldn't have seen the light of the 90th day.
[/QUOTE]

I assumed nothing. I merely read what you wrote. Thanks for the clarification, though.
 
well, thats very odd, because I have been in retail for about 6 years all in all, and at no place I've been have I met anybody who tried to call in for 3+ shifts within their first 90 days and expect to stay on. To be perfectly honest most of spots terminations are due to attendance, and I suspect that your 90 day review was effectively because of attendance. The only person within their first 90 days who I saw terminated for work performance reasons was after somebody spent 6 hours pushing a cereal autofill... not all of GRC2, just cereal.... yeah. but for the most part its just based on attendance.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top