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    shinada2Hamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 4:59pm

    I'm not a friendly person, but if I were paid to socialize more and work less, I'd take that job and not complain about it.

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      Flm3454shinada2
      5/07/14 5:09pm

      I would agree but then if we weren't doing anything productive then the health of the company would suffer and would either lay people off or fold all together.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendshinada2
      5/07/14 5:14pm

      You really wouldn't. It's not fun socializing it's corporate bullshit socializing with people you probably don't want to spend much, if any, time around. When I worked for Target I was pressured to do executive team building crap on my off hours and if I'd stayed with Target I am certain I would be a serious alcoholic because most of these events centered on getting shit faced, and while I enjoy a good time I generally like it with my friends and not my boss.

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    PornBuffHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 4:52pm

    is there nowhere in this country that's good to work at?

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      HubcapJennyPornBuff
      5/07/14 4:56pm

      Only for very specific values of good.

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      Hamilton NolanPornBuff
      5/07/14 5:00pm

      Gawker is p. decent.

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    ThidrekrHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 5:02pm

    Overwhelmingly the area that has the most issues is Target Canada. From the very beginning it was a bad decision, but the company had already made contractual obligations and couldn't get out of them. So they carried forth with a really bad plan and had people in charge who don't know what they are doing, making bad decisions. Very simple, elementary things in retail/supply chain are being messed up which is why the Canada opening has gone so bad. To make it worse, they are repeating all the things they did wrong in 2013 - absolutely nothing is getting better. A few execs came back to Target US from Canada and were given promotions, after a complete failure in Canada. And this is who they have in charge.

    I can tell you where they went wrong on Canada. At least in Ontario, you had a population used to shopping at Target in Detroit and Buffalo—which also happen to be two "Rust Belt" cities where the cost of living is much lower than in Ontario, and thus people's salaries are generally lower. Well, Target—like so many other retailers—probably did their research on Canada, saw higher average incomes, labelled it a "premium market" and started charging more—again, like every other retailer here. Big mistake: people here wanted U.S. pricing and selection and ended up just getting more of the same.

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      Missy PantsThidrekr
      5/07/14 5:18pm

      I knew a guy that was courted by Target. He was a manager at Starbucks, had opened stores for them, turned troubled stores around, and was very loyal to the company. Also, he'd been with Starbucks for over a decade so he had a good salary, and four weeks paid vacation a year. He went in and set up the in-store Starbucks for many of the GTA area Targets, trained the staff set up the shops, everything. Target wanted him, and they tried to woo him, basically with nothing but company lingo.

      They offered a great salary, but would only give him two weeks vacation. And they wouldn't budge on that. They kept trying to hire him for months, but nothing. Eventually they said that no one at Target gets more than two weeks vacation, not even the CEO.

      They're a weird company. I work at a university and they would just show up, en mass, in the office, to talk to various programs about hiring grads and internships. No appointment, no call, no nothing, just suddenly there's 8 super happy smiling peppy Target people in the office.

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      ThidrekrMissy Pants
      5/07/14 5:22pm

      Two weeks is fairly standard in the U.S., but pretty weak in Canada from what I can tell. They're going to have to learn that Canada is not "America, Jr." and will need to adapt to the labour market here.

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    Collapsed ConversationHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 5:03pm

    That description makes Target sound bad, but not 1/10 as bad as the employee's description of Amazon a few days ago.

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      FinancesseCollapsed Conversation
      5/07/14 6:25pm

      bad? I'm still stuck on the paid to work at half capacity and socialize thing. Sign me up!!

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      Collapsed ConversationFinancesse
      5/07/14 7:11pm

      I thought that too while reading the first half, but later in the account, the writer made Target sound like it is run by a bunch of adults who relish high-school style politics and ostracism.

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    iforgotmyotherburner2Hamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 5:00pm

    This guy or Gal is going to be fired for this. It's like signing a death warrant. I would think.

    Why am I not surprised Target is shitting the bed? I hate going there knowing they pay their hourly employees so badly, NO ONE NEEDS A RED CARD SO STOP ASKING, and Amazon is a nice alternative.

    Seriously. No one needs a red card.

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      beatrixkiddoiforgotmyotherburner2
      5/07/14 5:03pm

      The debit card that gives you 5% off? Uh, why not? I use it all the time.

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      iforgotmyotherburner2beatrixkiddo
      5/07/14 5:25pm

      Because it's not my credit card. And I don't want another credit card.

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    ObliteratiHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 5:08pm

    The whole country is like this. Shitty companies being run by stupid people and staffed by bored, demoralized wage slaves with nowhere else to go.

    The idea that our economy is a meritocracy - if it was ever true - is well and truly buried now.

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      gawkahObliterati
      5/07/14 8:19pm

      Yes, this email proves it. One disgruntled employee's email is definitely statistically significant.

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      Obliteratigawkah
      5/07/14 9:51pm

      Keep lickling those boots, you might even make middle management someday!

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    sarahsnafuHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 5:05pm

    Oh man, this is crazy to read. I work for Target, too - just simple management stuff at a store - and fortunately my personal experiences don't reflect this too much. We have direct/blunt people who are in managerial positions alongside the bubbly passagg people. I like Target because there's a hugely diverse culture there - it's not all an uncomfortable hive of just likeminded people, and they're also really forgiving of stuff like being late or needing sick days or straight up missing a shift. Which is all really weird, for a retail giant. I've been fired from a previous job for being sick and not calling about it within 2 hours of my shift start (because I was unconscious due to illness).

    As for pay, eh. I don't make as much as I did as a manager elsewhere, but I know it's not impossible to put in the time and make mad dollars. My direct supervisor (at my originating store) made $20/hour. His job wasn't especially taxing, either. Other people make $16. An elderly lady I know who works the service counter? She makes $12/hour. (Minimum wage where I am now is $7.25/hour, by the way.) My store also accommodates employees with disabilities in ways that shows they really went out of their way to do so. Maybe I'm drinking the kool-aid or whatever, but I hear horror stories about Wal-Mart slashing hours to avoid giving bonuses or firing people who have worked X amount of years to avoid paying them and I see how happy everyone is at my store and I'm just like yeah, this works.

    I don't doubt that corporate is a totally weird place. Most corporate offices are, and with a company like Target, yeah... I can see it being like this. The in-store employment experience isn't bad at all though, IMO.

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      Mistakes were madesarahsnafu
      5/07/14 5:19pm

      Why are we grouping "bubbly" people with passive aggressive people? When did those become one in the same. The passive aggressive people I've met are normally assholes to begin with. Sure a lot of high energy personalities have difficulty dealing with negative emotions but I've never seen that manifest itself as passive aggressiveness.

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      Ellojennsarahsnafu
      5/07/14 5:41pm

      Where do you work? My old Target store (in a really rich town) gave the minimum wage workers $8-$9 an hour.

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    ErsoHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 5:11pm

    This sounds like every job I've ever had, in that it's pretty ordinary. Except for the part where they expect you'll only be working 50% of the time. I can actually get behind that.

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      Wh4tTh3Wh4tErso
      5/07/14 5:13pm

      Just wanna say. Working 50% = more time to spend on Gawker.

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      Max CherryErso
      5/08/14 3:57am

      Just because you tolerated abuse before you were in a position to more easily do something about it doesn't mean everyone else should.

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    heartbraiderHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 4:52pm

    Target has no original ideas, they are just reacting to what other companies are doing and jumping the bandwagon. They have a culture that makes decision via consensus, so it takes FOREVER to make a decision and implement even the smallest change. That keeps them from being able to make the necessary changes, and they won't ever get there without a big change in leadership and a true vision beyond "keep the doors open".

    Sounds like Occupy Wall Street

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      Alex Cutterheartbraider
      5/07/14 5:04pm
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      lecomtedArgentalheartbraider
      5/07/14 5:05pm

      How did OWS jump on the bandwagon? From what I remember, before OWS, this county was obsessed with beating up on unions and taking down Obamacare. After OWS, we actually began to ask whether the 1% are, in fact, a divine race of super gods. Yes, in the age of Piketty it all sounds chaotic and unoriginal. You are probably too young to remember the dark days of the "Tea Party," but it was pretty awful.

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    MaximillionsHamilton Nolan
    5/07/14 4:56pm

    I work in downtown Minneapolis. You can't go a day without walking past at least 10 pairs/groups of (usually young women) from Target strolling around talking about their social lives, etc. You can tell they work for Target because they all have to wear these very visible badges. They all look like they stepped out of the same J Crew nightmare.

    I've ALWAYS wondered when these people actually worked. This article makes perfect sense.

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      exileonmystreetMaximillions
      5/07/14 5:30pm

      Also, the Target IT people take early lunches and strain all of the noodles/vegetables/good stuff out of the Au Bon Pain soup bar tureens, leaving nothing but broth.

      Fiends.

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