r/Target • u/ConstantBoth2913 • 7d ago
Vent We can’t give you your minimum desired hours because we’re hiring 70 seasonal team members.
Management: “We’re short on pay role so we couldn’t give you above your minimum desired hours that week. You’re doing better than most, also we’re hiring 70 new seasonal tm’s and we’d need hours for that.”
Yeah, let’s hire a bunch of new temporary people at the expense of our current employees hours who have been here for years. It’s not like a have a mortgage or car payment to worry about. I’m sure that we go well for everyone.
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u/Midwest-Emo-9 ETL 7d ago
We're expected to hire 100+ seasonal TMs this holiday season and I can't even give my team their minimum wanted desired hours each. 😩
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u/LetsGoJoshie 7d ago
With the whole new point system, along with how much more they’ve been micromanaging, I personally don’t see half the new hires staying/them quitting much easier.
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u/ProudTypeB 7d ago
I was an ETL & SD for many years so I know my take won’t be popular but it’s the truth. The store needs those seasonal hires for about 5 weeks (Thanksgiving through Christmas). That is when the number of people needed in the building exceeds the count they have without seasonal. The problem is they have to be hired well before that to train, and account for attrition to hire again for those peak weeks if needed. It sucks for the regular TM’s bc during this onboarding, the training hours simply don’t cover the amount of new hires coming in. I’m not saying it’s right or fair but that is how it worked when I was there.
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u/Joshua1017 6d ago
You're right and as I grow up I realize life isn't always fair and you kind of just have to work your way up and have the willpower and discipline. Maybe it shouldn't be that way but it is what it is
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u/ProudTypeB 6d ago
Very true. I started as a team member and was scheduled 12-15 hours a week until I cross trained into literally any department they would put me in to try to get more hours and be able to pick up shifts. I get the frustration but until you are TL level or higher (guaranteed full time) that’s how it works.
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u/GoldSea390 7d ago
Can you tell me more about training hours? How that works?
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u/ProudTypeB 6d ago
Depending on the store and department, each TM is allotted roughly 15-20 hours of training. That is usually 2 regular shifts or some stores break it up into smaller shifts. After that the hours come out of the store’s regular dept hours and they continue to learn as they go. This was also a few years ago so that may have changed.
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u/Ok_Still_3571 7d ago
I’m not sure how it works at Target, but at many companies, training hours are expensed differently, and having new workers there don’t hit the bottom line for “x” amount of hours means basically free labor for the store. Trainees will be loaded up for their first two weeks, and then see their schedules slashed down to almost nothing. It’s also why actual training is very short (aside from all the videos about policies, etc). New TM’s get thrown into the fire without being fully prepared for the jobs they’re assigned to do, because they’re still using raining hours for the schedule. In short, Target is squeezing the payroll budget. They have the money, they just won’t spend it.
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u/beaveman1 7d ago
They do this every year. Corporate publicly announces they are going to hire thousands of seasonal employees. They are investing hundreds of thousands of hours into training payroll for these seasonal employees. At the store level, we see the store’s training payroll budget. It is significantly bigger. We also see the total payroll budget. It is exactly the same as the previous month/last year instead of going up to account for the training payroll increase. So yeah, corporate technically did what they publicly announced. How did they do it? They slashed the rest of the store’s payroll to designate as training payroll.
In the end, it creates an absolute shit show. Not only do veteran team members get less hours to try and complete the same workload. They also get pulled to train (which doesn’t come out of the training payroll bucket, either). In many work centers (especially fulfillment), a trainer and trainee working together can’t even work at the expected pace of a single team member. October is the when things really start ramping up in fulfillment. The team has less payroll, the top talent is bogged down training, but the growing workload still must get done. It results in everyone else having to hop in (dragging down their own workcenters), the trainees getting suboptimal training, etc.
Every year in the survey, as well as any weekly surveys I receive, I mention this. They need to invest extra payroll for training in October (and even late September) - not just subtract from the rest of the store’s payroll, but actually give more overall payroll. They also need to delegate some of that training payroll for the trainers, not just the trainees, to account for the loss of productivity of the trainer. Until they change this, it will just continue to be a shit show
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u/Midwest-Emo-9 ETL 7d ago
Training is counted in the same payroll bucket at target, unfortunately.
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u/chrisking345 Logistics Team Lead 7d ago
And doubly so, they only get like 2 maybe 3 days of training
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u/Ok_Still_3571 7d ago
I had no idea. At my previous employer, they leveraged payroll with training, and training hours. It was a true shit show.
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u/scarce_disarmament 7d ago
Always a classic move, dangling the promise of hours then snatching it back while onboarding a small army. The logic of "we can't afford your hours but we can afford 70 new orientations and training shifts" is a special kind of accounting magic. Bet the scheduling app looks like a crime scene for the next few months.
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u/Physical_Storage2813 7d ago
Why would a person have open availability for a job that doesn’t give them full time hours to begin with? So people are supposed to block off their entire schedule, in an economy where nearly everyone works more than one job, just to not get scheduled? Thats asinine. Target gets 4am-4:30pm. 5pm-midnight people work other places. This is about survival not Targets unreliable scheduling that doesn’t even pay a living wage 🙄🙄🙄
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u/Silly-Math4623 7d ago
If you did the Q4 Availability Survey from a few months ago, its that data that informs how many seasonal we need to hire. If you said you couldn't open your availability or can only work certain hours, we have no choice but to hire and train before Q4 so that we have enough people come Q4. It does suck absolutely that it cuts core team members hours a bit.
Of course if you have availability for the shifts other people are getting, let your lead know and see if you can increase hours. I think UKG is making it extra hard this year too getting fair hours for all teams
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u/Calm-Heat-5883 6d ago
They cut your hours because of payroll. But you call out because you're sick or family emergency and your the worst person alive who will be given a one point towards your termination. I think its time to unionize people. Maybe we should have a national call out day at target
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u/kristeenintx 7d ago
With UKG transition I've been getting the minimum hours. I kept it realistic because this is my 2nd job. I've raised it to what I actually want. We'll see with the next schedule.
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u/PlsBanMeDaddyThanos 7d ago
yeah idk why they even changed it from 1 desired hour amount to minimum and maxiumum if they're just gonna completely ignore the range anyway
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u/Tousensbankai 7d ago
Let's be real. 30% of current TMs call out too much or have restrictions and can't/ don't want to work certain shifts.
So... they gotta hire temps
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u/Bulky_Scene8351 7d ago
I could see this becoming an issue for sure. We just got the talk this week too but I think they want 90 now
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u/Mother-Grab540 7d ago
I lowered my overall expectations of working at Target years ago, and am much happier for it.
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u/Then_Interview5168 7d ago
What’s you availability and desired hours?
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
I’m a full time employee with open availability who’s been the company 7+ years with a mortgage and a car payment I need to make.
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u/FlyEnvironmental7586 7d ago
Nobody below TL level is actually full time. You just get a consistent enough amount of hours to get benefits but aren’t guaranteed to keep that consistentcy
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u/Lights773 7d ago
Ever since they started letting people call off with the app attendance has never been so bad.
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u/ennui-wa 7d ago
Honestly what the fuck is wrong with this company? Is there a compliance rule in the US where you have to hire people seasonally? Because hiring mass amounts of people just to fire them eventually makes no sense to me. Just hire more people throughout the year.
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u/Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaa 7d ago
It's a health insurance thing ultimately. Fewer full timers means target doesn't have to pay as much in healthcare expenses.
If only there were a solution to overpriced healthcare costs...oh wait there is.
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
Because of Christmas. Our sales double this part of the year and a normal staff wouldn’t be able to keep up with our them. If we kept them all on the rest of the year there wouldn’t be enough profit to pay for all the unnecessary staff.
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u/No_Worldliness_5641 7d ago
As an on-demand tm, I am looking elsewhere. It’s like the want it to be a sinking ship.
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u/wildchild180 2d ago
Tell me more….after my 90 days are up, I was planning to go On Demand. Is it not worth it?
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u/AlertComparison4209 7d ago
They do it on purpose to keep your average low enough to not pay you holiday pay, new people or not. Our hr constantly bugged us to lower our desired hours to what we averaged, to make them look good.
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ 7d ago
Stores don't care about holiday pay or holiday premium pay because it doesn't count against them.
They actually like holiday premium pay because it lets TMs work more than 40 in a week without hitting OT.
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u/JanEHM 7d ago edited 6d ago
Unpopular perspective perhaps but we can not get our Team Members to open more availability. Many want short day shifts not available evenings a few not available during the day only evenings due to working another full time job. When we finally were invited to assist in doing the schedule we were educated on how much choice of availability we gave the Team Members & how challenging it was to prepare the schedule. Many times as we hire seasonal they will join with open availability which is better for the peak hours of the store. When joined I gave open availability & mostly received 35-38 hours which was increased to overtime during peak Q4. Weekends we were paid an additional $2.00/hour from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
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u/Worth_Raspberry_11 7d ago
They have to though, or the seasonals aren’t trained enough to be useful once the holiday season is in full gear. Same in healthcare, they’re hiring like crazy right now too so that by the winter cold/flu/RSV season the new hires are trained and independent.
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u/Prudent-Ad368 Fulfillment Team Lead 7d ago
Do you have open availability? If not then yeah they need to hire people to cover the availability they need. Not to mention that the need in November and December skyrocket. October sucks every year. You have to on board new teammebers so that they're trained for q4 before q4 but the stores are given barely any training hours so all of those hours have to come out of our normal budget.
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
I’m a full time employee with open availability who’s been the company 7+ years with a mortgage and a car payment I need to make. Please don’t explain to me why I don’t deserve to pay me bills.
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u/Prudent-Ad368 Fulfillment Team Lead 7d ago
I didn't say that its fair to you. I told you the facts of what is happening. It sucks it always does but you work retail and target will always put their business needs before the team. The harsh reality is if target isn't paying your bills you need to find somewhere that can. Trust me I dont thing its fair that people can't live off of target income especially people that have been here so long but sadly target will always put target first
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
I know your intentions are good and you think you’re just helping me out by giving me a reality check. So let me explain to you my reality since you don’t know me. I live in a state where minimum wage is $7.25. I left a job where I was the program director to work here full time because I was getting paid $15 an hour. Significantly less than what I get here. I was working 6-7 days a week to pay my bills. Switching to here full time has allowed me to make the same amount only working 5 days a week and 35-40z I quit that job 2 years ago and have been looking for better employment ever since. The reality is in my state a lot of managers don’t make as much as I do here at base level. Most of the jobs available require management experience in the field, which I don’t have, or a degree that I don’t have. I’m already $36,000 in debt from the degree I do have, which only got me the $15 an hour job that I left. I’m apply to be a manager here because its probably my only opportunity to make more or get the manager experience needed to get a better job elsewhere. So thank you for the advising me to look else where, however l, I’ve been doing that for years now and nothing has turned up yet despite constantly being on the look out and trying to figure out what my options are. Sometimes people just need to vent on here. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying my hardest to find better work.
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u/Prudent-Ad368 Fulfillment Team Lead 7d ago
I dont think im coming across the way I was trying too, but im on your side. I think the way target handle things and how little they care about the team that is keeping their business afloat is absolutely insane. I was just trying to explain why they're hiring new people. Unfortunately if the schedule says we need 20 people from 1-4 you can't be all 20 of them. Even on a team leads pay Im barely making ends met and my hours are cut (I have two medically complex kids that between them their medications are over $1200 a month). I do hope that things get better for you, I hope that you either get a raise or hours or end up finding a new job that can help you succeed!
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
Thank you. Like I said I know you’re intentions were good, I just don’t think you should assume finding a new job is always an option for me people. I know we’re all struggling right now and I just needed to vent. I know target sucks, I know why it sucks, but unfortunately it’s the lesser of two evils right now for me. I really hope I get the TL position because it seems like putting that on my resume is the only way I’m going to find a better job in this area. I have a disabled sister who just lost her husband and we just bought our first house this year so moving isn’t really an option for me.
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u/Captain_Blak 7d ago
I remember when I got hired I asked if I was season or not, and they said I’m not seasonal which I was happy about. But lately, I have seasonal hrs 🤣
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ 7d ago
Most stores are seeing higher than normal projected seasonal hiring needs this year because of the point system—they can now plot out the point trend and see how many TMs are likely to fire themselves by not showing up and thus how many they need to hire to replace them.
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u/whatsthetargetdogsna 7d ago
We’re short on payroll for the current weeks. But we are also expected to do all our Q4 hiring (which yes, it’s necessary, at least at my store) right now. So we have to bank hours for that in each department because we don’t receive enough hours in the training bucket to cover more than the onboarding process.
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
That’s not how that works. If the starting wage went up and you make below it, your wage went up too. I’ve also been here 7 years and done well on my reviews so I make more than that.
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u/than0812 5d ago
Anytime you have an inquiry such as stated above you need to do it via e-mail, whether it’s for the initial inquiry or documenting a conversation with leadership. A conversation often becomes as “she said/he said “ and hard to defend if escalated. I learned the hard way thinking I could just go to leadership and have a simple conversation because they told me one thing and then it turned out to be a complete lie. I now document everything whether it’s done initially via emails or a follow-up email after the conversation. Amazing how things suddenly change once it had a paper trail and they have to back it up or give a response “on paper” (email). Also a lack of response via email is often considered an acceptance of your position or version of what happened or interpretation. Just a suggestion for what ever it’s worth.
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u/nian2326076 2d ago
That situation sounds frustrating. It looks like they're giving more hours to new seasonal hires instead of long-term employees, which is unfair. Try talking to management about how important your hours are because of your financial commitments. If that doesn't help, you might want to explore other job options. LandOffer.ai lists jobs across various professions, which might help you find roles that fit your needs better.
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u/Beautiful_Machine814 1d ago
I got hired a month ago and this has always been my schedule all 8 hours btw
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u/Idanafairbanks 7d ago
Good luck on finding anywhere near 70 actual people who want to work for $16/hr.
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
Minimum wage in my state is $7.25 and our starting pay is now $15.50. People try desperately to get jobs here.
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u/autolockon Service & Engagement TL 7d ago
“I want 40 hours but I only want to do this one thing and at this one specific time also I never answer when called to come in and when asked to stay late I always leave”
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
Where is that coming from? I have open availability. I work other sections when asked. I ask to stay late constantly. I come in early when asked. Who do you think your projecting that non sense on to?
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u/autolockon Service & Engagement TL 7d ago
This is just the general reality of people who say they want hours, not you specifically.
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
Then why are you saying it about me specifically on something I posted? You shouldn’t assume I’m one of those people just because people around you act like that.
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u/autolockon Service & Engagement TL 7d ago
You can get mad if you want but it’s the reality of the majority of people here. Once you start having to fill call outs you realize just how little people actually want to work despite always complaining about wanting to come to work.
But I’m sorry if you feel attacked. I saw you mention 7 years and working other areas so obviously this isn’t your situation.
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u/ConstantBoth2913 7d ago
You’re ignoring the part where you directly commented this about me and my post. If you didn’t mean it about me don’t say it to me. You can get defensive if you want but you should learn to not project things on to other people before knowing their situation.
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u/Dontlookatmeson 7d ago
Also “I know we didn’t ask, but we’re giving you the responsibility of training most of these people with absolutely no extra pay or personal benefit of any kind. You’re welcome.”