- 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.
#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.