Hey REUBER!

[Drorain]

I vote you give the big T(wat) a big F(inger) and not show up. They deserve to fist themselves, the trouble they put you thru. I'm sure the extra money is nice though...

But I'd say f-em for the way they've treated you ;)

[Neballer]

I second this.

[reuber1]

Nah. Even though my last day is tomorrow, I'll be working alongside my immediate supervisor who has stuck up for me from day one. He's a good guy, and I'm probably second to him only in the hard worker category. It's the managers above him and the majority of the department managers below him that have caused all of the problems for me. And I loathe the policies from corporate including but not limited to:

*Taking benefits away if you don't average 32 hours/week. May sound fair, but no one is guaranteed the hours they are given, full time or not. There are weeks in March when a full timer may get 15 hours. Ironically, when this change came about in 2002, Bob Ulrich (CEO) received a 12% bonus.
*Forcing us to say "Can I Help You Find Something" verbatim to everyone, including people on the phone. I've been reprimanded several times for saying "Can I Help You Find anything" or other variants. They have secret shoppers who check to make sure we're saying it.
*Letting high schoolers leave at 10 pm every night, any time of the year (summer/winter-break included). This becomes especially unfair to college students during finals week.

My last shift will be in electronics, which many see as my department still even though I voluntarily demoted, which is cool. I feel like Liam Niessen in K-19 when Harrison Ford took over and everyone still looked up to Niessen; same here, except the new person is no Harrison Ford...hell not even a lackey who can clean the toilets. I don't want to take it out on my peers anyways by giving them one less person to work, because if I did there would be no one who would come in to work. Even though most of them get out at 10 on a regular basis, I get along with the majority of them because the current batch of high schoolers are probably the hardest working I've ever seen.

I've been there for over 5 years. I have some references I'd like to maintain. Don't get me wrong, I haven't been a fan of that place for the past three years since we remodeled. I wanted to quit, but couldn't find anything that would pay me what I was making since I've already invested so much time and received some pretty good reviews. When I started, things were great for a part-time college job. But lately, ughh...just so much "bullcrap" to deal with, everything seems less about true customer service and more about following policies and strict rules. I practically have culture shock from working this other job with all that we get away with...it's just sooo much more relaxing, so I haven't been so bummed lately that it isn't a design job (though I'm doing their website).

The last straw came from my last review. My immediate supervisor from above gave me an awesome score, but his bosses (who are all new, two of them recent grads) looked at it and pretty much made him modify it so the overall score came way down. I could tell when he gave the review to me that it wasn't really his original one anyway, and that he disagreed with a lot. There were contradictions left and right, and I wanted to say something, but I still got my raise and at that point I knew I only had a month left, so I let it go (although I'm sure they knew I was more than a little pissed).

I don't want to totally burn bridges at the big T. There are some people whom I still greatly respect there.

(Practically dead up until I started typing this, then took 3 phone calls that took forever each. So it seems I've been typing this for about an hour. I'm going for my lunch break jog now.)

[EC]

I just have to say this. The "Can I Help You Find Something" shows how stupid they are. Anybody that knows anything about retail or sales or consumer behavior knows that asking closed-ended questions gets you nowhere. It's "What can I help you find?" (and even that's the lamest of the potential effective open-ended questions) ya jerks.

Whew! That's been bugging me.

Way to hang in there reuber, some day you'll look back and laugh. :)

[Drorain]

okay so make little troubles for them...walk thru the toy aisle...and as you pass all the little teddies are 69ing the little dollies, use a nice car detail kit on a big wheel, or stand in line behind the kids trying to play xbox 360, plug in a fighting game and school 5 year olds like an arcade

[Neballer]

lol@Dro

This was always fun:
Go and find the littlest/girliest bike and see who far you can ride it with out anyone saying anything. I made it to the pharmacy once, when it used to be at the front of the store. :D

[Rocketpig]

Reuber, it's best for you to get out of there. In fact, I'm surprised that anyone would stay in retail for that long.

Without an education, it's pretty much a dead-end street.

Now polish up your design skills and GET TO WORK!

No offense to you, but my sister is one of those dreaded store managers for Target that you so despise. I've talked to her about it several times and she has a valid point: She can teach someone to cashier in about 4 hours, sometimes less if the person is a fast learner. But people still complain when they hit Target's max pay for that position.

Why should people continue to get paid more and more when the skillset they use can be learned in a few hours or days? Learning how to design well takes years of concentrated effort and we never stop learning, yet it still pisses me off when I hear of a waitress that makes as much or more than I do. It makes me work harder.

I know waitressing and retail are physically demanding jobs, but they're still unskilled labor. And unskilled labor does not deserve to be highly paid nor does it deserve a great benefits package. The idea is not to reward unskilled labor, the idea is to make people want to get out of it and start a career.

With that said, end rant.

Good luck and stick around. You'll find something in the design field sooner or later (if that's what you're looking for) and it will be all the more rewarding when you do.

PS. Hopefully the waiters and waitresses of the world didn't find this post too offensive, but it is the way I feel about it.

[reuber1]

I wholeheartedly agree Rocket (except for those of us who have to deal with you people on your cell phones :p ). It's not hard to learn the task at hand, though there is a lot to pick up on. The person that was replacing me, I had to give her three tiers of training because they are so clueless: I had to give her salesfloor training first, then electronics training second, and then I had to train her on the specialist duties. I had to do that in a 6 hour shift on a Saturday (aka. "busy") afternoon. But then again she's an idiot. Everyone I have trained for salesfloor and electronics (not using their official training policy, but my own brand of reuber training) has been awesome and has stuck around.

One thing that I will miss is the fact that it is physical labor. That job, coupled with my exercise, was great for getting me back in shape. Lately I've been feeling it has been harder to keep up with my routine because I'm sitting down for 8 hours.

[Rocketpig]

I wholeheartedly agree Rocket (except for those of us who have to deal with you people on your cell phones :p )

*rubs cell phone*

My preeeeeeeciousssssss...

[~ZenMaster~]

I personally hate it when I go shopping, and get bugged by people comming up to me 2 maybye even 3 TIMES!!! asking what I want. Makes me feel unwelcome and that they just wanna get me out of the store whille I browse. If I want something, I wont hesitate to ask.

On the other hand, I dont mind it if im asked "Is there anything else you need, today?" once im at the checkout, that:

a: promotes further sales
b: gives a nice way to end the sale, on a positive note (being that the person is still willing to help, rather than shove you out of the store)

just my 2c.

[reuber1]

I do want to get into design. Always have. I love the idea of something so rewarding. It's either that, or writing. I can't stand the idea of doing anything else for that long. Went to college for digital media degree that didn't teach design principles of any kind whatsoever; had I have known what I needed to know, I would have gone elsewhere or just dug into finding work and getting experience. I've been teaching myself for the past two years with books, mooching off of my friends copy of CS2, and by perusing this site and absorbing everyone's info.

Thanks, for the input Liam.

[Drorain]

Thanks, for the input Liam.
:D :D :D :D

[reuber1]

No offense to you, but my sister is one of those dreaded store managers for Target that you so despise. Actually my dad is one of those managers (at a different store: has done it at the Hardlines, Softlines, and Logistics levels), and he is one of the best, and I don't say that just because he's my father. He's good at what he does, and his employees like working with him. I don't despise them all. There are a few that I've worked under that have been cool, especially when I started. It's the one's that we've had lately that have sucked. It's like the corporate training program went down the sh!tter in 2002. Seriously, the majority of these newbies have been just so FAKE it makes me puke.

What I find upsetting is that because my father doesn't have a college education, he cannot be a store manager, yet these newbies with just a few years experience can make it.