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    burlivesleftnutHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 3:31pm

    As a designer, I love Target. It's like visiting some cheap but pretty wonderland. Sorry it's such a bad experience working there, but here is one customer who never complains.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendburlivesleftnut
      2/25/14 3:37pm

      You can help your local employees by writing letters/calling corporate with compliments. I got boosts in my raise, promotions and various store prizes for being complimented by customers.

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      burlivesleftnutcheerful_exgirlfriend
      2/25/14 3:40pm

      Thanks for the pro-tip. I actually did this for a cop last week who stopped to see if I was okay after being stuck in the snow, but mainly because he was so fucking hot I nearly groveled for him to hit my in the head with his "Billie stick".

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    cheerful_exgirlfriendHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 3:33pm

    Because of the pressure to get red cards the employees also sign themselves up repeatedly which hurts their credit scores, something most of them are unaware of.

    If employees are late on payments to their Target card they can be fired.

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      sizor_sistercheerful_exgirlfriend
      2/25/14 3:36pm

      That last part is crazy.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendsizor_sister
      2/25/14 3:39pm

      But true. I'm not certain how late one must be, but I know we let people go because of it. DO not get a card with your employer, it's a bad idea.

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    TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Hamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 3:31pm

    When people bray about the superiority of private enterprise to government bureaucracy, this is what I think about. Asinine standards, perverse incentives, and the general mismanagement that comes from management who spend all day worried they're going to lose their jobs if they don't find new ways to screw over their staff and their customers. I'm not saying government is any better, as they have their own fucked-up natures to deal with. I'm saying these institutions are full of people, and people, their motivations, their selfishness, their competitiveness, fuck up everything. I've made the decision to work as compassionately and humanely as I feel is reasonable, and I've lost more than one job doing so. It was my decision and I'd do it again tomorrow, even if it means I'm not "management material."

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      BlatheringTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      2/25/14 3:37pm

      I think you have a good point. Of course, the average trickle down/supply sider/Randian private industry type has about zero understanding of economics beyond some Econ 101 idea about perfect markets in a vacuum.

      I've worked mainly in the nonprofit sector in my career, because helping people seems like a valuable use of my life and the pay isn't horrifying. I couldn't imagine trying to manage to metrics that don't represent my people and their effort in the least.

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      TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Blathering
      2/25/14 3:49pm

      The best part is, since economics only works the way they like it (i.e. profit goes the smartest and more capable) if we have perfect rational actors operating according to economic rules that got disproved a century ago, they simply insist that it's true and make trillion dollar decisions about the economy accordingly. I see it as a subset of the same mentality as Santorum-esque Christian dominionism and that guy who accused liberals of constituting the "reality-based community," which remains the biggest compliment liberalism has ever received.

      I'm currently working toward an MPA with an eye toward non-profit work. Hopefully I'll find the same satisfaction you seem to.

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    BlatheringHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 3:34pm

    I used to like Target, when I lived in an area that had one, because it was cleaner than WalMart and the other customers less scary. I knew they had bad practices, but now I'm wondering if there are any companies (short of the Costco nirvana) that aren't completely dickheads. I know shareholder profits make the world go around, but the tales of retail are just really depressing.

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      sizor_sisterBlathering
      2/25/14 3:35pm

      Its a race to the bottom.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendBlathering
      2/25/14 3:45pm

      Costco, Container Store, REI, H&M and Nordstrom's are all supposed to be good, well good for retail at any rate.

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    housewifeHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 3:51pm

    I wonder if Walmart and Target have simply run their course. I used to be a major customer (more Target than Walmart, but still) and I'm just not anymore. I can think of a million reasons why I don't like them, but I'm wondering if it's just a matter of the era of the discount "everything" store being over for now. Tastes do change.

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      Blatheringhousewife
      2/25/14 4:01pm

      In my case, I still buy too much crap at the big boxes, but...I'm moving in your direction. It's not even like I've moved to bespoke suits and handmade truffles or anything. I still get stuff at the mall or TJ Maxx, etc., but I find WM quality so low it's not even worthwhile. I used to buy work clothes there because I tended to ruin them fast, but half the time things just fell apart.

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      A. Nonie Meushousewife
      2/25/14 4:19pm

      I had never thought about this, but I generally agree. I used to shop at Target and CostCo and a couple other big boxes pretty regularly, maybe 2-3 years ago, but recently I avoid them like the plague.

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    raincoasterHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 5:15pm

    Yeah, having worked in retail I have heard stories like this before. When I was with Starbucks our store manager was off sick for eight months and during that time the district manager had me calculate schedules that still came in on target, meaning 10% UNDER budget, and that was including his salary ie 35 hours a week paid at his management rate. I later found out that since he was on long term leave, his salary didn't come from the store's budget at all; she was doctoring the budgets I submitted to take his name off and show the truth: that we were running 28% under budgeted labour costs. District managers got bonuses tied directly to those budgets. She lied to me to get a bonus from management, who kept calling ME asking why the baristas at that store were so stressed and unhappy. I finally told them and that was the end of the 28% under budget phenomenon, as they pressured her to allow reasonable staffing levels.

    When you set a budget for labour, what's the fucking point of insisting that 10% under it is NORMAL?

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      raincoasterraincoaster
      2/25/14 5:17pm

      Oh yes, and the reason Target outside of the US isn't popular is that they have crap. Walmart in Canada has better, more stylish merchandise than Target. I was excited to hear a Target was opening near me. I got there. Meh. Seriously, Meh. I bought one necklace as a Christmas present (paid cash, thank god; they never got my e-details to leak) and left. The girls' section had way more stylish stuff than the women's section, and was ten times the size.

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      rmric0.wedding.photographerraincoaster
      2/25/14 6:59pm

      That's because companies want to find the precise tipping point between labor costs and profits. Plus, it probably takes a while for the problems with understaffing to hit the bottom line because they're more ephemeral.

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    sizor_sisterHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 3:32pm

    Automatically firing people for not making some credit card sign up goal or someone automatically getting fired because the store isn't "perfect" just seems a little... ridiculous

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      thehoopoe3sizor_sister
      2/25/14 3:43pm

      It's not just the cards, it's also about keeping people on their toes.

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    Dr_ZoidbergHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 4:09pm

    Close to twenty years ago now I started working at a Barnes & Noble as a cashier/clerk. I moved up through the ranks to department manager, stockroom manager, and then assistant manager. At the rate I was going I would have gotten my own store pretty soon. I loved working at B&N for the most part, because it was a bookstore (I've only ever worked in libraries and bookstores) and my manager valued employee appreciation and good customer service above all else. Then, we began to change; our store (the only B&N in that city) started adding toys, DVDs, impulse-buy gifts, etc. We also got the dreaded 'Reward Card', which we had to push on every living soul that came in the door. Then we got a new 'operating system' thingy which, no exaggeration, put customer service dead last over everything else and implemented a lot of micro-management nonsense that slowed productivity down. The Almighty Dollar became our new god, and nothing else mattered, not even keeping long-term customers. In mid-2001 I was seriously burnt out on retail, and was debating whether it was time to make a move to something else, even though I was surrounded by books, my all-time love.

    Then, 9/11 happened. We closed early that day. Sales were, understandably, off the rest of that week as everyone dealt with this new and frightening reality. The next week our district manager sent us our sales report with a note that the sales from the previous week were disappointing and this would be held against the managers during our evaluations.

    I gave my two-week notice that day. I now live in another state and manage a university branch library. I've never been happier.

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      GregorMendelDr_Zoidberg
      2/25/14 5:24pm

      "The next week our district manager sent us our sales report with a note that the sales from the previous week were disappointing and this would be held against the managers during our evaluations." Holy shit. I do remember stuff like that from my brief stint in retail.

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      joy2blifehackerGregorMendel
      2/26/14 1:24pm

      You had a good manager then. Good ones understand how to defend their people from corporate expectations when that's the right thing to do, and when to let the #### roll down hill. Of course, a lot of people were burnt out and angry after 9/11, and it's easier to make this kind of mistake when you're in that mood.

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    meontheweedHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 3:47pm

    Anyone who works in retail knows that store leadership visits are a joke. Actually a dog and pony show, the store usually looks like crap leading up the visit, and then the calvary gets called in 24hrs prior to the district manager showing up. The reason is due to limited payroll and if the district manager doesn't see perfection expect someone to lose their job.

    Worked at McDonalds for years. I "fondly" remember visits by senior managers. Store managers made you work like crazy for 10-15 hours before the visit to ensure everything was right. Once they (senior managers left) they'd come crashing down on other managers or you (if your 'area' was pointed out).

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      Blatheringmeontheweed
      2/25/14 3:56pm

      Guy I work with loves to tell the story of how one of his first jobs at McD's was to wash the already passed expiration dates off the packages of buns before higher ups/health inspectors visited.

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      meontheweedBlathering
      2/25/14 4:00pm

      I've seen that happen. Food kept in the bin for more than 10-minutes, though now I see that they don't do it that way anymore. Head managers hated waste and would do whatever they could to not have any. We were frequently told to look the other way when it came to expired dates were told "it's usually for for a few days more"... yeech.

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    JediMasterCommenterHamilton Nolan
    2/25/14 5:06pm

    Man seems like Murica really sucks. But my serious question is this: what percentage of working circumstances are covered by these stories and similar untold ones, as well as what percentage of workers really feel like they are treated like shit/their company is an amoral devil construct. We are talking about massive companies that employ hundreds of thousands if not millions of employees, so there are bound to be horror stories and employees who hate their boss/job/company. But is it like half a percent (which is still thousands of people) - or 10%, 50%? Is there any honest way to figure it out? I believe this is important with respect to the idea that no job, no company is perfect, so you have to find a comfortable space short of being perfect (b/c that's impossible) but way better than "everyone at this company is treated like shit slave workers and they all fucking hate their lives". These anecdotes make for good reading (though not uplifting "good"), but I can't tell if they are a tiny drop in the pan or what a critical mass of employees at said companies feel. And even "critical mass" seems undefined in terms of whether a company is doing it right...

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      schneakersJediMasterCommenter
      2/26/14 3:14am

      No one likes their job. Every one I know, from doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, bank managers, real estate agents, computer programmers, network administrators, military types, retail types, nurses, waiters, contractors (all of whom I know) complain about there jobs, and rightfully so. Everyone's job sucks for some reason or another and everyone has the right to complain about it.

      Also every one of these groups does this too:

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      jfwlucyJediMasterCommenter
      2/26/14 10:09am

      I get what you are saying — but what the people who do write are describing are company _policies_ that affect everyone, not just "so-and-so was a bitch manager to me," which could very easily be just a random disgruntled employee. Also, in any given population, only a few individuals will be both articulate and self-confident enough to voice their issues. The rest are silent due to desperation, poor education, and fear of losing their jobs.

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