(no subject)
This week begins my third at Target. I can't believe it! Crazy.
I have to admit that at first I was really discouraged, coming in to a situation where I have a really distracted/disorganized trainer who is also training another ETL-IT who is an internal promotion with the company and had been there two weeks longer. It was really daunting, having to be compared to someone who had already worked at Target forever and knew all the terminologies and how to work the registers, etc. Fortunately, I've more or less been able to get over that. I'm still being compared to Matt, but I've been able to get to know people and it's been a lot more fun. I wouldn't say that I look forward to coming to work, but I don't dread it either.
Let me just say that I really hate the commute. An hour-long drive every morning and evening really sucks up my day, and I get really bored halfway through it. I was thinking about getting some books on tape, but I've never done that and I'm not sure I'd like it. Something about someone reading to me seems like cheating. That's probably my inner English major talking. But anyway, commuting sucks. It really does. I often have very little time after I come home to eat and then go to bed. Plus, retail is just so exhausting, and even more so when I'm expected to learn and retain a million things every day.
I laugh when I think back to my predictions coming in to the job. I thought it was really going to be a breeze, because how difficult can Target be, and certainly they would never put someone in charge who has practically no retail experience. And yet here I am, consumed with information, binders, online courses, learning plans, calendars, to-do lists, terminology, and processes to last me the rest of my life! I thought that eight weeks of training was way too much, but I constantly feel like I'm behind. I need to know all of everything, EVERYTHING...and I need to know it so I can 1) teach it, and 2) troubleshoot problems in relation to it. And let me tell you, Target likes to complicate EVERYTHING with speed reports, accuracy checks, and other nasty little data markers that record what you're doing and spit it out to your boss, your boss's boss, indeed every executive in the Sacramento market, plus give you a friendly little score telling you (and everyone else) your ranking in the entire company weekly, monthly, yearly. Yikes.
Example. I decided on Friday that it was time to learn how to cashier, and how hard could it be? (have you seen some of the people that work at Target? Okay then.) So I checked in with Evelyn, one of the GSTLs here (Guest Service Team Lead - the people who the ETL-GE (i.e. me) directly supervises) and asked to get on a register. I had already watched someone cashier and it didn't look too bad, and I was doing ok, actually surprisingly well. Cashiers get a speed score after each transaction that is determined by the number, quantity, and type of item scanned and the type of payment tendered. If the cashier is fast enough, they get a "Green" score, and if they're too slow, it's a "Yellow" or a "Red." I finished the day with a fair amount of Greens (when I knew what to do) and Reds (when I had to call for help). Thus, I concluded that I was a "Yellow" cashier - which would still warrant a conversation with the GSTL or ETL-GE, but hey, I thought it wasn't bad for my first day.
Apparently my score was a Red, and I heard this from Michelle (the ETL-GE at my training store), who (I heard) was cursing to high heaven about her cashier speed scores from that day. I had brought down average speed score for the entire day/week/month! There's no way to mark that I was in training - instead, this score was broadcast with the rest of the report across the district! After telling me this, she said, "Stay off my registers!" I assumed this was a joke.
Later that evening, she pulled me aside and asked about my training, how I was liking the company, etc, and I told her that I (obviously) needed to work on my speed score, and apologized. She let me on the register today and I think hopefully I pulled up my score today - I know that I was a Green cashier for awhile! So things are looking up in that area.
Just remember: next time you visit Target, be quick with your cash/card, and don't forget that Debit cards prompt you three (3) times (your pin, cashback, confirm total)! And PLEASE don't pay with a check, don't you know it takes too long?? You asshole.
I have to admit that at first I was really discouraged, coming in to a situation where I have a really distracted/disorganized trainer who is also training another ETL-IT who is an internal promotion with the company and had been there two weeks longer. It was really daunting, having to be compared to someone who had already worked at Target forever and knew all the terminologies and how to work the registers, etc. Fortunately, I've more or less been able to get over that. I'm still being compared to Matt, but I've been able to get to know people and it's been a lot more fun. I wouldn't say that I look forward to coming to work, but I don't dread it either.
Let me just say that I really hate the commute. An hour-long drive every morning and evening really sucks up my day, and I get really bored halfway through it. I was thinking about getting some books on tape, but I've never done that and I'm not sure I'd like it. Something about someone reading to me seems like cheating. That's probably my inner English major talking. But anyway, commuting sucks. It really does. I often have very little time after I come home to eat and then go to bed. Plus, retail is just so exhausting, and even more so when I'm expected to learn and retain a million things every day.
I laugh when I think back to my predictions coming in to the job. I thought it was really going to be a breeze, because how difficult can Target be, and certainly they would never put someone in charge who has practically no retail experience. And yet here I am, consumed with information, binders, online courses, learning plans, calendars, to-do lists, terminology, and processes to last me the rest of my life! I thought that eight weeks of training was way too much, but I constantly feel like I'm behind. I need to know all of everything, EVERYTHING...and I need to know it so I can 1) teach it, and 2) troubleshoot problems in relation to it. And let me tell you, Target likes to complicate EVERYTHING with speed reports, accuracy checks, and other nasty little data markers that record what you're doing and spit it out to your boss, your boss's boss, indeed every executive in the Sacramento market, plus give you a friendly little score telling you (and everyone else) your ranking in the entire company weekly, monthly, yearly. Yikes.
Example. I decided on Friday that it was time to learn how to cashier, and how hard could it be? (have you seen some of the people that work at Target? Okay then.) So I checked in with Evelyn, one of the GSTLs here (Guest Service Team Lead - the people who the ETL-GE (i.e. me) directly supervises) and asked to get on a register. I had already watched someone cashier and it didn't look too bad, and I was doing ok, actually surprisingly well. Cashiers get a speed score after each transaction that is determined by the number, quantity, and type of item scanned and the type of payment tendered. If the cashier is fast enough, they get a "Green" score, and if they're too slow, it's a "Yellow" or a "Red." I finished the day with a fair amount of Greens (when I knew what to do) and Reds (when I had to call for help). Thus, I concluded that I was a "Yellow" cashier - which would still warrant a conversation with the GSTL or ETL-GE, but hey, I thought it wasn't bad for my first day.
Apparently my score was a Red, and I heard this from Michelle (the ETL-GE at my training store), who (I heard) was cursing to high heaven about her cashier speed scores from that day. I had brought down average speed score for the entire day/week/month! There's no way to mark that I was in training - instead, this score was broadcast with the rest of the report across the district! After telling me this, she said, "Stay off my registers!" I assumed this was a joke.
Later that evening, she pulled me aside and asked about my training, how I was liking the company, etc, and I told her that I (obviously) needed to work on my speed score, and apologized. She let me on the register today and I think hopefully I pulled up my score today - I know that I was a Green cashier for awhile! So things are looking up in that area.
Just remember: next time you visit Target, be quick with your cash/card, and don't forget that Debit cards prompt you three (3) times (your pin, cashback, confirm total)! And PLEASE don't pay with a check, don't you know it takes too long?? You asshole.