# Does Target ever fire anyone?



## Dream Baby

I have been at Target for over five years.

In my store I have only heard of ONE TM fired for job performance. It was an ETL and that took a year and he was terrible from day one.

I am not counting seasonal employees, thieves, sexual harassers, etc.

Is this a metric Target tracks?


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## Xanatos

I’ve been with Target for 12 years and I don’t think I’ve ever see a regular team member fired for performance. It’s always attendance, theft, or some other conduct issue.


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## 60SecondsRemaining

Turnover is a metric every company tracks as it is closely related to onboard costs.


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## Planosss enraged

Essentially the only way you get fired at Target is if you really really want to get fired 🤣


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## Fluttervale

You rarely see people fired for performance, because the employee usually sees the writing on the wall and quits.  You see “big deal” firings for harassment, theft, and violence because those are zero warning firings.  You don’t get a second chance.  And don’t forget that no one is allowed to tell you that someone got fired except the person that got fired, so you might assume people quit that got fired or got the “you can quit or be fired” conversation.


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## YugTegrat

It takes a lot to fire someone for performance. Everything needs to be documented and a lot of leaders either don't know how to do that or don't want to. Or they're told not to, given so many stores have staffing issues.


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## buliSBI

Back in the day
I have seen TMs get fired for negligence/safety issues.
Habitual behavior of in a work area while on break/lunch.
Attendance issues
Walk off the job
Theft
Holding store property hostage


Coachings on job performance or metrics - Yes. 
As long as the TM was doing their job - they were safe.


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## Black Sheep 214

YugTegrat said:


> It takes a lot to fire someone for performance.


It sure does. Performance can be subjective (one leader‘s poor performer might be another’s star)and is difficult to document compared to something as concrete as attendance. At my store low performers also usually had attendance issues, so they ended up getting termed for attendance, which is more difficult to dispute.


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## Dream Baby

I am nearing 60 and have worked in manufacturing, teaching, customer service and retail.

I personally have been fired and/or laid off several times.

I come from the perspective that you should let people go quickly (i.e. three or four months) if they aren't working out.

Most employees are "at will" and losing a job isn't the end of the world though it sucks short term.

Current staffing issues preclude getting rid of poor performers BUT at the same time it might cause good workers to quit instead.


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## Tacopie

At my store they somehow get the people they want gone to quit.


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## Dream Baby

Tacopie said:


> At my store they somehow get the people they want gone to quit.


At my store a TM is getting transferred to another for a remodel.

IMHO this TM is getting played and the new store will find out how terrible he is because he will be under closer supervision.

This is probably the only co-worker that I told management to fire.


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## Tacopie

We had a lady at our store for 22 years. They wanted her gone because she hated our management and would sabotage us. Purposely mess thing up when we had a visit or sterotech. Also she made $23. More than our leaders and that didn’t sit well with them. Even her team wanted her gone. After 3 years they finally fired her for thief. There is NOWAY this woman took anything. They claim it was self checkout not ringing everything. I bet that they watch her for 3 years and once she accidentally missed an item and bam she’s gone.


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## NKG

Girl wad fired for sexually harassing tms (male and female)
Arrested for stealing 
Not following the high demand policy 
And of course no show 3 days in a row


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## Rastaman

Oh yeah.  All the damn time. I've seen it and sat in on many conversations about it. 

It takes about 2-3 months to build enough documentation to do it. Most of the time,  the person sees it coming and quits voluntarily, or they cut their hours so bad they quit. 

Usually the SD/ETL  says it's time to move someone out,  and then it's just a matter of building documentation.  It's called performance management, it happens on all levels at Target.


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## Hope4Future

There was a GSTL at my old store whom almost all front-end tm's disliked because she hid in her office and usually only left her office to ask guests for surveys. Yet, she was never fired and I think she still works there. She's been at that store for 20+ years and she was previously working in another department before she came to the front-end.

I mean it was so bad at the end that I could hardly even look at her out of disgust before I left Target.


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## Ashfromoldsite

My last sd fired 5 etls within a year. She was a bitch!


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## Dream Baby

Ashfromoldsite said:


> My last sd fired 5 etls within a year. She was a bitch!


Was she brought in to clean house?

How long was this SD at the store BEFORE the year you mentioned?


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## KarmaToBurn

In my decade place only firings I've seen we're taken out in handcuffs....


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## NotCynicalYet

Heh, the documentation barrier is pretty big at my store. You have to have lots of performance conversations documented, then they basically get a couple of "resets" if it gets to CA, as in you have to give time and build up more documentation. Which means lots more conversations. The TM will no doubt see it coming and wonder why they haven't been let go yet. To get performanced out can take years if the TM is smart and shows improvement for a couple months. A part of me kind of likes it that way, as we don't give up on people.


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## DC Diva

Not nearly as often as they should.  There is one person my team that has taken at least 3 COVID leaves, posted vacation pix from each one, and they are still employed.  Each time, they were on backup list, but the calendar was full.  Yet no one, Managers or HR, has the balls to challenge them on it, because they provided a negative test result at the end of their little vaca.  That gave them twice the paid time off in 20-21 than anyone else on the team.


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## Dream Baby

DC Diva said:


> Not nearly as often as they should.  There is one person my team that has taken at least 3 COVID leaves, posted vacation pix from each one, and they are still employed.  Each time, they were on backup list, but the calendar was full.  Yet no one, Managers or HR, has the balls to challenge them on it, because they provided a negative test result at the end of their little vaca.  That gave them twice the paid time off in 20-21 than anyone else on the team.


Wouldn't they have had to show a positive test to get paid leave?


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## MrT

Weve fired a bunch of people but it takes a long time.  Performance is the hardest to get rid of someone for it takes a lot pf paper trail.  Usually someone will see it coming and quit or theyll have other problems like attendance that are easier to fire for first.


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## Ashfromoldsite

Dream Baby said:


> Was she brought in to clean house?
> 
> How long was this SD at the store BEFORE the year you mentioned?


Maybe 3 years. But each of the first 3 she got 1 etl transferred out each year.


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## DC Diva

Dream Baby said:


> Wouldn't they have had to show a positive test to get paid leave?


No. All they have to do is claim symptoms and one of the leaves will give them 5-7 days for pending test results.  total bullshit.


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## Greenandred

There was a coworker that spent a ton of time talking and refusing to do work. It took time but once a new ETL came aboard, he was let go shortly after. Firing people takes time but it will happen eventually. An indication about whether someone is fired is if you ask your team leader about where the person is and you quickly get rubbed off.


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## Dream Baby

I have been at Target for over five years.

In my store I have only heard of ONE TM fired for job performance. It was an ETL and that took a year and he was terrible from day one.

I am not counting seasonal employees, thieves, sexual harassers, etc.

Is this a metric Target tracks?


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## Dream Baby

DC Diva said:


> No. All they have to do is claim symptoms and one of the leaves will give them 5-7 days for pending test results.  total bullshit.


I didn't think that was the Target policy.

Is this TM getting short term disability for this time off?


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## Dream Baby

Greenandred said:


> There was a coworker that spent a ton of time talking and refusing to do work. It took time but once a new ETL came aboard, he was let go shortly after. Firing people takes time but it will happen eventually. An indication about whether someone is fired is if you ask your team leader about where the person is and you quickly get rubbed off.


Or they mysteriously disappear from the schedule!


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## ManMythMachine

Greenandred said:


> There was a coworker that spent a ton of time talking and refusing to do work. It took time but once a new ETL came aboard, he was let go shortly after. Firing people takes time but it will happen eventually. An indication about whether someone is fired is if you ask your team leader about where the person is and you quickly get rubbed off.


They left to pursue other opportunities, is Target code for TERMED.

@Hal can probably speak to this as an OM.


At the DC people in their first 90 days can be let go for performance.  Once they hit 90 days the OM has a tougher time because it's beyond the probationary period.  The trainer check in discusses each new hire between the trainers, the Training SOM and the OM.


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## Hal

ManMythMachine said:


> They left to pursue other opportunities, is Target code for TERMED.
> 
> @Hal can probably speak to this as an OM.
> 
> 
> At the DC people in their first 90 days can be let go for performance.  Once they hit 90 days the OM has a tougher time because it's beyond the probationary period.  The trainer check in discusses each new hire between the trainers, the Training SOM and the OM.


100%. 

If someone quit, I can just say they quit. If I term someone my answer is "so and so is no longer with Target." Its a weird legal/hr policy thing.

There's a lot of people who worked for me who are "no longer with Target."


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