Archived Why Are No Good Seasonals Hard To Fire?

[starmaster1000]

Last year quite a few of the shitty seasonals survived the post-Christmas purge only because we were exceptionally shorthanded, but it all worked out in the end because they ended up quitting anyway. I expect it'll be the same this year too, but it's still annoying because they could always hire fewer seasonals and kick the cash they save over to me instead.

One of last year's seasonals who stayed on (a minor!) turned out to be great and I'm actually looking forward to working with him again after school lets out. He says his parents originally forced him get a job with threats to take away his PS4 if he didn't, but he realized pretty quick that getting that bread is awesome and started taking as many extra hours as the man and his school schedule would allow. Lol.

And that's how you build a hard worker!

 

[starmaster1000]

What do you mean “looking for bodies?”

It's Halloween season; gotta spruce up the haunted houses.

I think they mean they just need workers to fill payroll, regardless of whether or not they're actually worth a damn. Which is stupid bc I'd much rather have a good worker than a scarecrow in red and khaki.

 

[HRLady]

What do you mean “looking for bodies?”

It means that leaders are more focused on hiring enough people to get through the holidays as opposed to only hiring the excellent applicants. In their mind, it is NBD since they could always just get rid of the bad ones come January. It is frustrating because the work quality will be lower. However, many stores are struggling with staffing right now so if leaders continue to be too picky for seasonals, then work centers will continue to remain understaffed for the rest of 4th quarter.

(FYI, I am not necessarily agreeing with the methods. I am merely just providing information.)

 

[Tessa120]

It could also mean that somewhat productive is better than not having enough people so a shift is unfilled with zero productivity.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

I was a minor when I got hired and in my state, minors here are able to work 27 hours per week and no more than 8 hour shifts. My store closes at 11pm but minors have to leave by state law before 10pm but Target says 9:45 to leave some leeway just incase.

OP: At my store, I noticed many nonseasonal minors who attend high school end up quitting or getting fired because they realize they can't balance school and work life. I don't think our store has any seasonal minors at the moment, just college aged and older seasonal TMs! If the minors at your store aren't meeting expectations now and just talking rather than getting tasks done, when fourth quarter comes around the TLs will notice their inadequacy and might let them know they won't need them come next season.

Yes, it’s actually nationwide target policy that minors can’t work past 9:45, since so many states say 10p. Mytime won’t drop minors in any later than that. In addition, minors must take their 30s by 5th nationwide to ensure compliance with state laws.

 

[seasonaldude]

Are they standing around just being lazy or have they not been trained/told what to do? I'd prefer to always be doing something because work goes by a lot faster when you're doing something. That's not possible though as I didn't receive enough training to always know what I'm supposed to be doing on my own and our leaders seem to like just assigning everyone one task at a time. So after doing whatever I'm assigned, I often have to wait around until they decide what they want me to do next. It's silly really because as they know they haven't trained me to do everything they assume they haven't trained me to do anything at all. So, I end up waiting until someone can come over and show me when a lot of the time they could have just said "Do X over the walkie" and I'd know what to do. Or you know they could just train me sufficiently that I'd know what to do on my own and wouldn't have to ask multiple times per shift.

 

[Aredhel]

All part of the Big Plan. Spot is being raided by the c-suite and in months, maybe a year will be on the ropes, tanked, sold. Stock options/ cutting costs.

 

[Thunderbird1956]

I actually had a seasonal ask why people keep telling him what to do. It's a job, you do your job as you were trained by 3 different people, part of that job is to do what you're directed to do by leadership...

Can we fire them yet? And yes we need bodies.

 

[redeye58]

Bodies?
I got some in my walk-in
Oh, wait.....you want the living type.

 

[Tessa120]

Requisition some batteries and the robotic toys and make some organic animatronics.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Bodies?
I got some in my walk-in
Oh, wait.....you want the living type.

I’m sure Spot would like some Zombies. They wouldn’t have to be paid, don’t need benefits, could create more cheap labor with a single bite, have no minds of their own and follow their leader without question. Think of what Spot could save on kool-aid alone...😂

 

[Tessa120]

Zombies, ick, what about when they start trying to feed on us? I still think the solution is animating the bodies with robotics and programming the computers to do some basic tasks, like push and reshop and cleaning the bathrooms. Then when the holidays are over, pull the batteries so that they aren't competing with us for Q1 hours.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Zombies, ick, what about when they start trying to feed on us? I still think the solution is animating the bodies with robotics and programming the computers to do some basic tasks, like push and reshop and cleaning the bathrooms. Then when the holidays are over, pull the batteries so that they aren't competing with us for Q1 hours.

Awesome, especially the last part...😂

 

[idkwhattodo]

i was super supportive of the seasonals last year and went in with an open mind because i remembered how i read the book for 20 mins the year before to be thrown on register and how alone i felt since everyone knew eachother and what they were doing. that feeling of not fitting in/ knowing my place was hard plus not being trained well was rough.....

but dang, i showed up and did my job and asked questions and watched others. so many my year, last year, and especially this year come in assuming this will be an easy job, are arrogant, disrespectful, and don’t want to work. it’s annoying bc right now we don’t have one seasonal cashier who has shown potential to stay on.

 

[IWishIKnew]

as opposed to only hiring the excellent applicants.

Your store gets excellent applicants? Dayum. Jealous.

I don't think my store is so much obsessed with hiring minors so much as that's what they get, so that's what they work with. Though lately the non-minors have been fired more than the minors, so.

 

[SoCalMama]

It is actually not a Target thing. This is just how your store's schedule writer(s) wrote the schedule.

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How many hours that minors get depends on a store's location as well. Like others have mentioned, there are certain states with laws that limit minors' working hours when school is in session. For example, California limits minors to working no more than 4 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on weekends; minors will usually get shifts that only last 3.5 hours or 7.5 hours.

So, would it be correct to assume that when a MINOR TM (well known that the person is not 18 and the big M is on the schedule) gets scheduled until 11 PM or gets scheduled for 4.5 hours on a school night, that the schedule writer actually had to clear a red flag type of message and do an override to make this happen? This completely blows my mind every time it happens.

 

[REDcardJJ]

In addition, minors must take their 30s by 5th nationwide to ensure compliance with state laws.

this is state by state. i didn't have to take my 30 by the fifth hour when I was a minor.

 

[HRLady]

Your store gets excellent applicants? Dayum. Jealous.

Well, excellent according the interviewer's opinion at least. Like, they love the applicant so much that they start raving about how awesome that person is to me after the interview. The interviewer truly believes that that person will be a wonderful addition to the their team.

So, would it be correct to assume that when a MINOR TM (well known that the person is not 18 and the big M is on the schedule) gets scheduled until 11 PM or gets scheduled for 4.5 hours on a school night, that the schedule writer actually had to clear a red flag type of message and do an override to make this happen? This completely blows my mind every time it happens.

It blows my mind reading about it in your post. Yeah, your schedule writer is definitely not supposed to do those things in Cali because it violates state law.

Here are the minor scheduling limitations for Cali stores: When school is in session, they can work no more than 4 hours on any school day and 8 hours on any nonschool day (or on any day preceding a nonschool day). When school is not in session, they can work 8 hours per day but no more than 48 hours per week. State says that minors from ages 16 to 17 generally can only work from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m., except on days preceding non-school days, when they can work until 12:30 a.m. Target doesn't allow minors to work beyond 10:00 PM.

 

[Fluttervale]

Yes, and no. For payroll, an hour is an hour. If you get 1000 hours to spend, you can spend them without regard to pay rate. But, higher wages eat away at profit on the store level. STLs want to be as profitable as possible, of course, so. . . .

Very few STLs think that way. You do better by having efficient work than cheap work. It is way better to have the increased sales than the lower wages for the bonus, because with increased sales you are likely to be promoted or moved to a bigger store.

 

[Militantagnostic]

This guy has the answer to creating a subservient workforce! He's still trying to work out the kinks and get the dosage right though...

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

this is state by state. i didn't have to take my 30 by the fifth hour when I was a minor.

handbook says nationwide. So idk

 

[TM2]

I agree, but there is such a difference among 17 year olds! Some of them simply don't have the capacity to look ahead yet, while others are super responsible. Of course some will never become self reliant and self motivated because mommy takes care of everything.

Yeah, there is a metric that STLs typically care about that is determined based on the average amount that Target actually paid for an hour of labor. It's always been overshadowed by OT%, but it's there nonetheless.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

I thought that during the probationary period they could get rid of anybody for any reason. Since the period is 90 days (which is about what seasonals work) why not just get rid of them. Yes they make less but Target's return on investment for veterans is exceedingly more.

Because Spot is not smart about these things. It's very expensive to on-board new staff. But they'd rather do that than pay good, veteran workers for more hours. After seeing that happen often enough, those good workers give up on getting more hours and either find a second job or just leave entirely.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

It means that leaders are more focused on hiring enough people to get through the holidays as opposed to only hiring the excellent applicants. In their mind, it is NBD since they could always just get rid of the bad ones come January. It is frustrating because the work quality will be lower. However, many stores are struggling with staffing right now so if leaders continue to be too picky for seasonals, then work centers will continue to remain understaffed for the rest of 4th quarter.

(FYI, I am not necessarily agreeing with the methods. I am merely just providing information.)

The applicants don't have to be excellent. I'd be ok with "decent." Not sure if it's better to be understaffed or poorly staffed - they're both bad. Seasonal TMs doing things wrong, either because of poor training or because they don't care, makes more work for those of us who really do know what we're doing. And what really burns me are the seasonal TMs who put on a good show to get past the probationary period and then magically turn into slackers.

 

[can't touch this]

And what really burns me are the seasonal TMs who put on a good show to get past the probationary period and then magically turn into slackers.

lol, I kinda sorta do a low key version of this myself. I put in my effort to get through Q4, come home every day feeling like I've been hit by a bus, and once the holidays are finally, finally FINALLY over I slow it down by 9000% because I've earned it. Gotta get in some meditation for when the hours drop from 40 to 12 in one week.