Archived What should this TM do?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
3
Let's say a team member submitted a written request at the beginning of October for time off for the entire week of Thanksgiving. They left a letter in the ETL-HR's mailbox, with all their contact info., asking for the time off. Later that same day they left the letter, they notice the letter is gone, so they figure it was received.

However, the TM, being rather timid and worried about the response they would receive, did not "follow up" with the ETL-HR, which they realize was a huge mistake.

Yesterday, the TM checks the new schedule, and they are scheduled during Thanksgiving week. The TM cannot work during this time, they will be out of state.

What to do next? Obviously the TM is going to talk to HR, but is there any hope that the situation will end up differently other than the TM losing their job? Best case scenario / worst case scenarios?

Note, the TM in question is a hard worker, has shown up on time and never missed a shift and has gotten excellent reviews from their superiors, which only makes the TM feel worse about the situation...

All advice is greatly appreciated!
 
That. If he/she didn't get any type of approval in writing he/she should have been assumed it was denied. The ETL-HR was probably waiting for the TM to follow up with him/her, and when he/she didn't, figured it wasn't important or forgot about it...especially since it wasn't in Max.
 
I tried submitting it through MAX self service, but my request was for more than 7 days, and MAX would not let me submit it, so I went the mailbox route.

In that same letter I asked about taking a leave of absence from mid-Dec to mid-Jan, because I will be out of the country visiting family. So I know it was a big mistake not to follow up, but I had a feeling they would not be happy about me missing all this holiday time. I know I should have discussed this face to face, instead I just kicked the can down the road and made the situation worse...
 
You make the decision now of deciding which matters more. Your job, or your Family. Because right now the chances of you getting time off is pretty slim, though possible, and those shifts picked up pretty low.
 
Your chances of getting fired....depends on the store...some stores have this weekend as a mandatory time for work so no excuse will work....you may end up being fired.

Or you may have be lucky enough that your HR will take you off of the Thanksgiving schedule....and all will be fine. (Don't count on it happening.)

When you submitted your time on Max did you try to do 7 days in a row, but in different payroll weeks? Because that could have been the problem.
With our store you couldn't even try any requests through Max for the BF weekend.

Badger, if you've been with Target for more than a year then you know how important this time of year is for retail.....so if you had any idea that you would be traveling for Thanksgiving then it would have been very, very helpful for you to follow-up with the HR long before the schedule was posted.

All time off is approved by your HR or your ETL in a timely matter. So when you didn't get ANY reply you should have gone to your HR to find out what happened to your request. As for a leave of absence from Mid-December to Mid-January is pretty unlikely....but if your store fires you, then there is no issue! If the HR does give you the time off for Thanksgiving you will be quite lucky.....but if you think that your store HR is going to give you all this time off and Dec/Jan without any issues you're dreaming.

Don't know if a LOA can be taken for traveling. If you do get the LOA then be ready for your TMs and perhaps your HR to give you a rough time for taking these holidays off. So, you might just do better by quitting....save everyone some headaches.

Sorry, I don't mean to be so negative, but the reality is that November through late December is the busiest time of the year for retail and for you trying to take all this time off will not settle well with anyone.

Just think this through and be ready for the "worst case scenario." Because this is more likely to happen.
 
I recently had a 'debacle' with max and my hr person ... apparently having the 'time approved' messages saved in my inbox isn't enough to prove to them that they cleared me for the time requested.
 
I recently had a 'debacle' with max and my hr person ... apparently having the 'time approved' messages saved in my inbox isn't enough to prove to them that they cleared me for the time requested.

Print it out. By highlight doc, right click for print option. Then give it to your hr as proof. Basically, cya.
 
I tried submitting it through MAX self service, but my request was for more than 7 days, and MAX would not let me submit it, so I went the mailbox route. QUOTE]
You need to submit a separate MAX request for any part of a different week you want to have off. If you want a weekend off, you submit one for Friday and Saturday and a different one for Sunday.
 
Loving how OP started third person, then switched to the first person in his replies...

You should have submitted it into MAX for as much time as possible to see if any of it would be approved, then resubmitted another one for the rest of the time. Knowing that this is probably the most important week of the year, even asking for it off would be a stretch. I asked off for Thanksgiving one year. The ETL-HR told me "That's impossible"... after he caught his breath from laughing so hard. If you are off so many days for calling in sick, you will need a doctors note to return to work. For a full week, you will probably have to fill out a LOA to keep your job. Not sure on this one. I've never seen anyone will balls big enough to call out the entire week off TG.
 
We had a TM take off a month around Q4 before. Her daughter was getting married in their home country & they were seeing family members they hadn't seen in yrs. The TM spoke with her ETL & the ETL-HR as soon as she knew the date, submitted her time-off requests & brought back lovely pictures of the wedding party.
 
Let's say a team member submitted a written request at the beginning of October for time off for the entire week of Thanksgiving. They left a letter in the ETL-HR's mailbox, with all their contact info., asking for the time off. Later that same day they left the letter, they notice the letter is gone, so they figure it was received.

However, the TM, being rather timid and worried about the response they would receive, did not "follow up" with the ETL-HR, which they realize was a huge mistake.

Yesterday, the TM checks the new schedule, and they are scheduled during Thanksgiving week. The TM cannot work during this time, they will be out of state.

What to do next? Obviously the TM is going to talk to HR, but is there any hope that the situation will end up differently other than the TM losing their job? Best case scenario / worst case scenarios?

Note, the TM in question is a hard worker, has shown up on time and never missed a shift and has gotten excellent reviews from their superiors, which only makes the TM feel worse about the situation...

All advice is greatly appreciated!

I'm slowly getting back to normal after having my nuts handed to me by GS lady and responses on the internet, but: spiderwrap someone's testicles until they approve the time off request. ;)
 
During the holiday, never expect to get any days off. You will have to go to the STL and ETL-HR.
 
Okay, I'd really like to know why we only have to be 19 to SELL alcohol, but if a person RETURNS alcohol, why we have to be at least 21? You can probably guess I'm 20. Just so confused with Target's age limits.
 
It depends on your state for when you can sell it. And since there's a chance you might be holding an open bottle when it's returned, then you (and Target) can get into trouble for it being in your possession.
 
Okay, I'd really like to know why we only have to be 19 to SELL alcohol, but if a person RETURNS alcohol, why we have to be at least 21? You can probably guess I'm 20. Just so confused with Target's age limits.

Depending on which state you're in you could have to be 18, 19, 20, even 21 to sell alcohol. I am from California where it's 18 to sell but attend school in Arizona where you have to be 19 to sell alcohol. The return age is 21 because there is a possibility of the alcohol being opened and to handle opened containers of alcohol the federal law states you must be 21 so it isn't Targets policies, it's state and federal laws.
 
Let's say a team member submitted a written request at the beginning of October for time off for the entire week of Thanksgiving. They left a letter in the ETL-HR's mailbox, with all their contact info., asking for the time off. Later that same day they left the letter, they notice the letter is gone, so they figure it was received.

However, the TM, being rather timid and worried about the response they would receive, did not "follow up" with the ETL-HR, which they realize was a huge mistake.

Yesterday, the TM checks the new schedule, and they are scheduled during Thanksgiving week. The TM cannot work during this time, they will be out of state.

Friday and saturday are blackout dates, NO ONE in the store is allowed ask off. However, you might be able to find someone to take your hours. Sunday thru wed are not blackout dates
so you could have requested those off, although it's too late now. Im off the day before Thanksgiving because I asked for it 3 weeks ago.

What to do next? Obviously the TM is going to talk to HR, but is there any hope that the situation will end up differently other than the TM losing their job? Best case scenario / worst case scenarios?

Note, the TM in question is a hard worker, has shown up on time and never missed a shift and has gotten excellent reviews from their superiors, which only makes the TM feel worse about the situation...

All advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Depending on which state you're in you could have to be 18, 19, 20, even 21 to sell alcohol. I am from California where it's 18 to sell but attend school in Arizona where you have to be 19 to sell alcohol. The return age is 21 because there is a possibility of the alcohol being opened and to handle opened containers of alcohol the federal law states you must be 21 so it isn't Targets policies, it's state and federal laws.

Ummm... Actually federal law specifically *allows* minors working for retailers to handle alcohol. See this government article: http://alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/the_1984_national_minimum_drinking_age_act_2.html

I love it when people just make things up.

Learned about this in my HR classes at community college. I am starting to see why target requires a degree for management with all this misinformation people provide.

The only prohibition against minors working in retail from handling alcohol is at the state level. Just like breaks and lunches, no federal law mandates them (the *only* exception is for breast milk pumping... the only "break" required by federal law), but some states do. However, Target wants to be on the safe side.... so they simply require it across the board. In my HR classes, we learned that this is called the "spill over effect". Basically, when some states mandate something, employers just find it easier to implement the change in every state they do business in. This is especially true for California.... because they are such a huge economic powerhouse, when they pass some law such as mandating less of a harmful substance in a product, it can even impact business outside the US because the foreign company may want their products to go through California.
 
Last edited:
It depends on when you submit the request. At my store, no one figured that certain tm's asked for certain days off. But, they are willing to work thanksgiving & Friday. They got Tuesday & Wednesday off. No problem there for me.
 
Re: alcohol - At my store, you have to be 21+ to sell it. I was told during my training that it's a "liability issue"; a CYA move.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top