Too many to list, but I'll try....
-The hard part about writing this review is how hard all of the ETLs try to like their jobs, as I am writing this I feel like I just got out of an abusive relationship where I constantly tried to make excuses for why I would constantly get beaten up.
-From the start, Target sends you to Training- called business college. This is 6 Weeks of training at another store with someone who is considered the District Trainer. Unfortunately for my district my trainer himself had only been in position for 5 months and barely knew what he was doing; plus the geniuses put me to train at a store that sold 15 million yet my home store would be a top volume store making 80+ million, talk about a shockingly different environment. When my DTL told me what store I was chosen to go to, he prefaced his comments with “don’t be alarmed” which should have let me know I was going to a bad situation. I went into the store which had the Highest turnover rate in the region, and the worst metrics in the company. Lets just say they should new send a new ETL into this kind of a situation.
-Within my first week at the store, I had received threats to beat me up in the parking lot by both Team members and customers. Half of my team called out on me on a busy weekend, and most came late on a repeated basis. If I tried to hold them accountable the HR BP would come in and say that we had to watch the culture in the store because their were “union” talks at this store previously, so the Team members called the shots.
- Slowly our team turned it around and improved the store significantly, and that’s when two ETLs were promoted. Many of us felt like we achieved something especially at a store where over 65 ETLs had quit within 10 years. Every now and again our DTL,GTL and BPs Would come in and “dangle carrots” claiming that if we reached some milestone or metrics we would all get promoted and do great things with the company. All of which was so untrue and just caused the ETLs to burnout and get so frustrated that on many occasions they left the store in tears. The store visits just kept on increasing and increasing within a month we had over 12 store visits from all levels of the company and you felt the pressure to consistently be perfect or improve, making the work weeks stretch from 55 hours to 65-70 hours. On many occasions ETLs took nap breaks in offices while preparing for visits. It was just an absolute nightmare, and yet after every visit the visitors would always tell the Executive team that the store was still not “green.” Every single month an ETL or TL would quit at my store usually increasing all of our workload, and every single month our DTL found some excuse to blame everyone quitting on us or the STL not helping them, not seeing that the reason most people quit was because of his ridiculous expectations.
-Recently the metrics and the expectations have taken an even crazier turn for the worse, our District Manager expects us to be in the top 5 in our group in all Operational Metrics or we will be held accountable. TLs, ETL, STLs , DTL etc are cheating all sorts of metrics and doing countless amounts of unethical things for fear of being fired or written up for performance. Target has added a crazy amount of additional paperwork, PCCIs, statuses, goal plans, talent profiles, vibe walks Etc. which only add more workload to the stressed and burnt out ETLs. Sales are completely down the drain and many of their designer launches flopped. All of the corporate resources have been shifted to Canada while Target has left the U.S. stores to basically crumble and completely lose its brand reputation. Stores cannot replace broken equipment, roofs are leaking, payroll is cut and HQ has sent emails regarding limiting expenses, which has given the impression that the company is on shaky ground.
-Many high level managers have “resigned” but the rumors are that Target is cleaning house. Bonuses we’re eliminated at a large number of stores, and its being rumored that they will reduce the headcount of TLs and ETLs this upcoming year. I for one did not wait till the day where I was forced to “resign” so I walked away with my dignity. Its quite sad to see this company head down this road as it was once one of the most respected retailers and was a forerunner in innovation yet the stores are falling apart, the stores don’t have payroll to accurately staff a store, the shelves are empty because store teams have to cheat metrics, and all of the employees are generally unhappy! Sad place!
