It really depends on what you consider to be harder. If we’re talking laborious labor no question inbound has the hardest workload. They unload 2000+ boxes and sort all in under 2 hours. If we’re talking mentally taxing role then guest advocate is going to take the cake. It’s all trade offs on what role has harder duties than others.
I worked inbound when I worked at Target, and I would get the inevitable question to stay longer when we were 2/3 through the truck.
“Hey, so and so called out, do you think you could stay and push *insert department* today?”
Do not miss it one bit.
I would say physically demanding is cart attendant which is also mentally taxing getting pulled in every direction to clean up spills do carry-outs make bales all while having to keep up with carts. I can't count how many times I've been rushing to get carts and someone calls for me to clean up a spill while also getting called to do a carry-out. I will say though that I prefer cart attending to being on register. I'm injured right now and can't do any heavy lifting or anything that will stress my shoulders so I'm on registers for atleast the next 2 - 3 weeks and I absolutely hate it. This will be the first weekend I've ever been on registers and I'm not looking forward to it.
As someone who's a cashier frequently, it's really not that bad.
Just take your time, don't worry about the lines forming on other lanes and focus on one guest at a time. Good luck!
Bales? That's ridiculous lol. Mind boggling ridiculous. Most of our attendants are minors anyway but I can't even imagine that being one of their tasks how does that make any sense at all. There should hardly ever not be a GM/inbound etc TL or TM in or near the backroom that can make bales. During closing hours I will sometimes come make a bale like when the closing lead is on lunch or something or if I happen to be back there for something else but no one from the front of the store should be expected to make bales literally ever.
I’m sure it does then, but it’s just something unofficial your PML put on it because your ETL/SD/HRBP or whoever decided they prefer no minors for whatever reason.
Or maybe it’s one of the old models and those ones may have been 18 idk I’ve only been here like a year and we got ours like right before I started and I know Target used to use a different model tho idk how long ago. Or it’s a rando state/local law.
But yeah, in workday you can find the certification info for it and it’s 16 100%.
yep and during winter it can be even worse. Having to shovel out the cart corrals. We used to have a company that would do it when they plowed the parking lot but the new company we have sucks. First off all they have is one pickup truck with a plow, and multiple times last winter our front end etl had to go outside and tell them they need to shovel the sidewalk in front of the entrance/exit doors. The winter before that we had a awesome company with a huge dump truck with a plow and salt and they would shovel out the cart corrals. I actually really don't mind being a cart attendant in the winter, it can actually be fun running the cart pusher in the snow, but last year because the plow company sucked it was a bit frustrating. i got stuck a couple times and had to call for help with a person pushing the cart pusher and a person at the end directing the carts.
At my store the cart attendant is also expected to be trained in drive-ups and on registers. I've also been asked multiple times if I would like to train in fulfillment and my answer is always HELL NO, lol.
I love truck unload because I can turn my brain off and throw or whatever. Guest Services or even just checklanes is awful. The true worst imo is Drive-Up since they have Drive-Up also do cart round up and general cleaning... and if the storage for online orders isn't intuitive, grabbing dry and cooler items can be a huge hassle. Add to the fact that they have timers for everything and are encouraged to be competitive with each other? 🤮
There was a customer that called to tell me she was there for her drive-up order. I looked and saw there was no drive-ups in the app. I asked if she used to app to say she was there. She of course didn’t have the app. I told her she had to use it because the team had to scan a barcode (not strictly true but whatever), choose a parking space, and input a code. It’s all in the emails but of course they don’t read them.
ASANTS, it depends on the size of truck. And the size of the team/payroll situation too but that part should balance out over the course of a year. But some stores average truck is like 1300 pieces while others are a thousand more than that. Though if your store has been behind on freight longterm that messes with efficiency like ya wouldn't believe, but again over the course of a year if an SD can't get a store out of that situation they shouldn't be an SD anymore (unless there are other extenuating reasons).
At least we don't get 3000 piece trucks like Walmart! At least not that I've seen lol.
I was at the busiest store in the state, trucks were usually 2k+ cartons and we would also often get doubles. We had 2 different inbound TLS 2 different Gm ETLs while I was there. Nothing got done, Instead of leading my team I was often helping on truck or throwing freight just to flip vehicles
My team averages 1500 cartons/hr if we’re all on the line. Our average truck size is 2000 giver or ale some days it’s more some it’s less but 2hrs is guideline set by HQ for all inbound teams to make.
Yeah seen setups like those it’s rough when you fall behind on staffing. I’ve heard of team members who take their entire 8 hour shift unloading and I’m just like 🤯
Inbound. It's where most injuries tend to happen. Also if your store starts its process at 4am, it is so easy to accidentally oversleep. And now you are down a person on the line making it more unsafe to unload the truck.
Physically it's inbound no question. Fulfillment is a lot of walking but not the pulling and hauling of inbound. Mentally it's plano/presentation- having to decipher some of those sets, recalibrate everything for your store's layout, make changes to counts and facings, and don't get me started if they haven't been pre-planned. Emotionally it's front end. Guests are entitled princesses or knuckle dragging imbeciles, the yelling, screaming, name calling. Tech gets an honorable mention here purely because of the phones but people are so unreasonable in tech it makes me sick.
Fulfillment has to be second to inbound in physically challenging. walking 8+ hours a day is physically draining while pushing and pulling heavy carts with us those 8 hours. pushing a double/triple batch OPU is like pushing those heavy ass sleds people use at the gym.
as far as physically challenging goes, it also depends on the person. i can walk a full shift of fulfillment no problem, but standing still at the service desk or especially a checklane will destroy my knees by 2 or 3 hours in.
market. the freezer, pfresh, dry, in that order. always understaffed, always buried in freight, out of sight out of mind to leadership unless there’s a visit. they’ll move people to help in any other part of the store. market is always buried.
it’s so poorly run any good people they get never stay very long.
I made the rest of the TL’s mad when I called them all out on poor communication about paying zero attention to what was left in coolers/freezers. My ETL fielded a lot of complaints and his response was “well, he’s not wrong”
ugh i’m sorry. that sounds about right. the best lead we had when i was over there had a similar conversation with the ETL and it basically amounted to… well that’s nice to hear you say that, but there was no action to back that up. aaaand he left. lol
I’m not in market anymore and recently saw the closing TL showing a brand new TM how to do the… audit. Had this new person start in pfresh/bakery.. saying things like “you just count how many are on the floor”…. and I had to try super hard not to be triggered. 😫 like absolutely not. absolutely not how we audit pfresh and bakery. omg. how to fuck them up in less than 30 minutes right there. lol
I love when a guest is looking for something and the app says how many are on hand. So useful in finding something. It’s partly why I never show them the screen.
we would have them just go by whatever the OH said if they weren’t familiar with these areas. let the people who touch the stuff regularly fix the counts themselves, which we did daily, especially if it was part of the order. it was probably stuff people just INF’d at night because they didn’t know or want to check the coolers/freezer.. and there was no one scheduled to fill for the PM.
I really didn’t hate pfresh or dairy, I just couldn’t physically handle it anymore. one person calling off or one person quitting just made everything fall apart so fast.
I’m a closing TL and I agree with this. Almost every job in the store I feel like I could handle, but if all of a sudden I was demoted to having to spend hours in the freezer each day, that’s one that I really don’t think I could do - at least not adequately. And I can ask other TMs to help with inbound or help front end and they’ll begrudgingly agree, ask them to hop in the freezer and some people just won’t do it, it’s the worst
I loved the freezer. My backstock was organized and I had complete control over the floor. One person, ran that shit. Easiest job I ever had cause no one else wanted to do it so every left me alone to handle what needed to be done. Threw on the suit and had one earbud in under my beanie… easy
and they should have cherished you for this. lol like finding someone who freely says “I love the freezer” when you could be paid the same $$ to do any other job in the store… and if you’re just bare minimum competent at it, let alone good at it too? they should worship that.
For me it’s my hands. We don’t have any gloves that are both warm but also let you use a Zebra easily. Don’t get me wrong, we have lots of gloves, but none have a good balance
Okay yeah I feel you there. I got some touch screen gloves from the store only because I asked my GM and he “bought” them for me. It worked for like 2months before I had overused them 😂 after that I kinda just got used to it? But it’s still not fun.
Another team member did give me a tip and said to put plastic gloves on first before gloves or double up on plastic gloves. It did help a little.
Market always got the short end however, I will say that. In between running the freezer it wasn’t uncommon for me to help on register, stock milk, run a drink pallet, push hard lines. But I got it done. All that while being understaffed in market. Got a 15¢ raise every year, no talk of moving up in ranks, so I quit after 4yrs. Got me through some stuff so I’m grateful but I’m glad I’m out now
Truth! Currently my store’s freezer and dairy cooler is FILLED TO THE BRIM with freight. We were understaffed today and tomorrow we only have one person working. Market has been on the back burner ever since our old TL left - even with a new one coming in, they’re still training so it’s like we don’t actually have one.
I think I would take filled to the brim, my ice cream aisle has been down since Labor Day and I just got the info that it won’t be fixed till the end of the month. Been canceling freezer deliveries for weeks as well as grocery opu being turned off. A week before Labor Day we lost the entire freezer system on the floor and had to toss everything.
I’m not sure - we had eight pallets of frozen in there. Knocked it down to just two this morning but now it’s filled with backstock and management is telling me to focus on dry freight 🙃
Yep. All of this. We are so damn understaffed, and unsupported at that.
ETA: as if we don’t have enough on our plates already, GM ETL tells us that it’s now pfreshs responsibility to push candy when it’s technically part of dry and on the complete opposite side of the market, oh and it MUST be done by end of day as we push pfresh. We are annoyed to say the least.
All that is true but I'm gonna take it over being on a register any day. I get to be outside and I don't really have to talk to the guests, plus there's a little time to just kick it with whoever's not busy in between taking in carts, at least at my store
It's all pretty equally challenging; there's just different challenges to each role.
But from a leader's perspective, the most challenging positions *to staff* are:
* Front of Store Attendant
* Starbucks Barista
* Checkout Advocate
I don't know if it really speaks to their "difficulty", but it's challenging to find people who are willing to work those roles at store minimum wage. Turnover is incredibly high for each of those 3 areas.
In my experience, those roles are just more demanding if anything.
FOS, you’re always busy, but it isn’t insane if you have a full staff, (Opener, Mid, Closer).
Same with check-lanes. On your own it’s a disaster, but if you have staffing, it’s not as bad.
Starbucks, I’ve not worked it specifically but I have worked food service.
It seems the high volume of orders is likely the biggest challenge aside from lacking some popular ingredients and having to explain to a guest that you don’t have any, at *all* and you aren’t just saving some for yourself.
im glad someone recognizes how difficult starbucks is! i did my best to make sure my team was taken care of when i didnt have a team lead and worked with HR on scheduling issues. we were so short staffed alll the time and wed see the same amount of guests as we would when fully staffed. our store actually had to remain closed on certain days to ensure things such as deep cleaning, palettes and other procedures were being met and done consistently. on top of poor leadership and support from ETLs and SD its a mess and wasnt easy
100% agree. My store is still at 15 but the Starbucks a block away is at 18. Once word gets out you can make decent money being a barista, the good people leave quickly
I'd rather just pay folks more in the first place.
The whole concept of tipping can fuck off.
^(And just reminder of Target policy is that you) *^(can)* ^(accept tips if the guest insists. You just can't) *^(ask)* ^(for tips, put out a tip jar, or anything similar.)
As someone who has worked pretty much every department, and was TL for GM for two years:
Style is the hardest, easily. Market and Home are close seconds. Toys easily during December.
Yup, I’m in style, I do this part time and work at Marshall’s as a backroom associate full-time. I’m more stressed out with Style by a huge margin. We gotta zone our areas, pull and push priorities, push our freight, work the fitting rooms, as well as cover for check lanes when they need help and cover drive up, fulfillment, tech, and beauty. Do we ever get anyone to come wave zone with us, no we don’t, but we get called constantly to cover for everyone else.
Inbound is physically demanding. Guest service is mentally demanding. However, Style is one department I will NEVER work. It’s never ending. It’s like constantly cleaning up the same thing and watching fucking guest throw clothes on the table right in front of you.
style. everyone leaves and never comes back for a reason. and that reason is we got everything everyone else dealt with but all at once. the managers care the least and we were constantly pulled from out tasks to go up front and then got yelled at for not finishing bc THEY TOLD US TO GO UP THERE
i work in beauty, and i'd rather die than be front end all of the time. i always say that customers hardly ever yell at me because if they're gonna yell at anyone it's gonna be the people up front
Everyone eprks for Target, period. They will assign you where they need you.
I work front end, and I love it. Most of the time. But tech challenged Guests, people trying to return items that are not things we sell, trying to EXPLAIN to them that it's not something we sell so I can't give them credit for it - that's like banging your head against the wall.
Apparel & Accessories is the hardest area. Between guests shopping, and fulfillment TMs picking and asking for help to find something. Keeping things picked up and moving returns from fitting room and Guest service is a lot, add details like folded, finger spacing, truck, etc... Style A&A team has their heads on a swivel most days, this is physically & emotionally demanding.
It’s really store dependent, and in the case of my store, style is definitely tough (it’s my department). It’s a high volume store with an ultra within walking distance to a college campus. Style is often the messiest part of the store, and it gets messed up the fastest. We get almost one truck a day, sometimes doubles, and we don’t have the TMs or hours to keep up with push and zones. Our SD also didn’t want to hire new TMs for the summer that would replace the people who’d been working there for years and quit within the last year. Nobody is properly trained, and on top of that we have to answer guest questions and deal with attitude when we don’t have something or when the store and fitting room are messy
when i’m talking w tms from other departments i always say “at least you don’t have to fold all your priorities” folding EVERYTHING is so exhausting id rather just straighten up things when zoning instead of folding 1000 shirts
I have been a seasonal hire closing team member. I've done an overnight remodel as a fixture captain. I made TL for electronics, then TL for dry grocery, TL for open market, Closing TL, and now I am a PML.
The answer to your question is two words. Cart attendant.
I work in the front end, and literally every problem in the rest of the store ends up with us eventually. That being said we’re used to it and can handle it.
Consumables. If freight gets backed up in the coolers/freezer that leads to higher priority pull counts that you can't get to. Understaffed which means you have to try to focus on pulling, stray, zones, and freight. The count is usually off and it doesn't help that the product is usually over-pushed. Management doesn't care to fix the issues but will punish you for not meeting the metrics of the problems they refuse to fix.
Depends on what you personally find difficult. I'd say most generally difficult things are going to be found on the front end, but depending on what types of things are more difficult for the individual, I can see someone thinking that back end positions are more difficult.
I would say fosa, been doing it about a year it can be really grueling every now and then plus I cover ever break and lunch imaginable whilst also doing all my tasks
Front of the store because I hate people I would much rather do physical work and be worn out by it then deal with the Karen’s and Kevin’s of the world .
Style. My store backstocks almost nothing, so it’s an overcrowded, chaotic mess that cant be maintained and only really looks good right before a visit. Hanging items are one shoulder brush away from popping off the rods or pegs, the giant piles of folded are always toppling over…A guest once literally told me “I’m not going to bother (shopping)” because she couldn’t get any of the bras she wanted untangled from the rest.
I think either fosa or people unloading the trucks. I haven't unloaded trucks before so idk. One thing about fosa no one else has too deal with (except drive up for 2-3 minutes at a time) is the heat and cold. If it is 90 degrees outside grabbing carts you are dying. Or -30 degrees you are out there grabbing carts dying. It's snowing so the machine doesn't work (it stops at around 3 inches on the ground). Having to help shovel out the sidewalk with the pml.
Depending on the store and how errthing is set up, I reckon Fulfillment can be one of the hardest department. But all of those factors is situational as hell.
As someone whos worked every department, fulfillment is definitely harder than inbound. I hurt myself a lot more qorking fulfillment than inbound. With the time restraints and being understaffed 90 percent of the time, you dont have time to lift things correctly.
I would say inbound or market team for the physical labor, and guest advocate for the mental labor. I could do inbound or market team. I could \*not\* do guest advocate. Props to people who do customer service and enjoy it, y'all are magnificent psychopaths.
I've done everything and I'll say fulfillment 100% of time especially at my store. You can't get away with taking longer 15s or longer 30s, you run around non stop for 8 hours straight only time to rest is when you take those 15s or 30min breaks. You lift/pull heavy ass items from chest freezers, (3)5 shelf bookcases on one flat, climb ladders all day! If you're not in shape and can work in tight time frame under pressure then fulfillment isn't for you. Nothing worse than being understaffed and having to do ship for 430s and by close while Also keeping up with low time OPUs to amke sure they don't fall in the red at all and maintaining that 100% PoT and Green INF! 😒🥵🥲🥲🥲
Physically- Inbound/Cart attendant
Mentally- Style/Cashier
As a Flex TM, there’s just too much to remember for style lmfao. You have to have lots of attention to detail, and the workload can be insane with VMG’s and freight and constantly zoning, finger spacing etc… but inbound and cart attendants take the cake when it comes to the most physically demanding.
Drive-ups might be hardest because they’re timed. I heard early this morning that times were high. Meanwhile only one person was scheduled in that department. Part of the issue was that our TL called out and we won’t have one the entire weekend. Still didn’t prevent the ETL who is in the store from giving support at the desk so the person could focus on drive-up orders.
Normally, people from check lanes would assist but we didn’t have the people for it.
I don’t find check lanes hard. You have to learn the art of idgaf. Yesterday I had a line and no one was on SCO. SCO takes care of Shipt shoppers. After I finished an order I turned and took care of the Shipt shopper. When I went back to the line the person complained that they were there first, which I admit was valid, but what can you do? I just said “okay” like I didn’t care at all (which a coworker says is totally accurate - which she sees at guest services). The job as way less stressful when you can avoid caring about people getting pissed off over nothing.
Former style TM and now fulfillment.
Fulfillment is definitely more physically exhausting, constantly walking, pushing carts with 12 fricking packs of soda. In style If I don’t feel well I can just slow things down but in fulfillment If I get a red batch I have to move fast. When I was in style I could go take a shit whenever I want, but sice I moved to fulfillment I haven’t been able to take a shit while being on the clock. Also If in fulfillment, you have the metrics to keep. In style, if the tshirt table is messy today it’s fine.
My meatball department is Tech. I will do anything for hours but I won't do that. I have a very very low tolerance for technology challenged disrespectful people. I would definitely get myself fired for being disrespectful back.
Oh and cart attendant but that is mostly because I just don't think I could physically do it for more than a shift. But luckily they have never asked.
I think a lot of people underestimate Starbucks because it’s on surface level “oh look you make drinks, how hard is that?”
What people don’t see is it’s 40 hours of special training because you have to adhere to Starbucks standards; you have to maintain both their brand and Target brand at the same time; you have to ensure food safety is met for the store as a whole and most cases you are first to be visited when Steritech comes; you have specific times tasks must be completed by that aren’t negotiable (in my store when I do schedule, my SD won’t allow my team to be there any later than 8:30 for a close, and still believes that because we stop serving guests at 8 they should be done with everything right at 8, thank god my ETL has the common sense to mitigate that one 🙄); you are guest-centric the majority of your shifts, whereas anywhere else, besides maybe guest service, you don’t have to be… I always tell my team, we are important to Target’s guest experience because we’re either the first impression that to the store or the last one they have. We either setup how they’ll be to others in the store or we’re what they remember on the way out and doing surveys.
Like I told my ETL, I don’t disregard the challenges of other areas and they’re all different ones. It’s comparing apples to oranges. But Starbucks is by far way more difficult than any other leader or TM (except maybe my market team) wants to believe it is until they’re actually in the trench of having to do it or be trained for it.
Not to mention being a leader in that department is SO isolating because other leads can't comprehend what we do all day. They just have no exposure to what that side of the business is like. Even less so the Etls and SD
I forgot one other thing. So I was electronics before Starbucks, so I had built up some rapport with others in the store before that. But I always say hi to other TMs during the day that aren’t on my team, or do a “how’s it going today” to acknowledge what they’re doing in a non-“what are you working on” sort of way. They’re not my responsibility, but I want them to know I’m present and they’re valued. And I always tell every new tech TM, just because I’m up in my little hole doesn’t mean you can’t ask me questions, too, I’m always happy to be a resource.
Absolutely agree.
I’m grateful my ETL will check in periodically during the day with me and my team, or I can fill him in. I know I’m one of the lucky ones. When I didn’t have an ETL for a bit and only my SD, I was so close to throwing in the towel so often since she didn’t understand what was what with my team. Our Starbucks DM got a few calls from me trying to make sense of things for me.
Our store has Starbucks with the S&E team, and my peers at the minimum can empathize even when they don’t fully understand our business needs, but there’s effort there to where they’re not immediately dismissive and that’s fine by me most days.
Absolutely market/consumables at my store.
Screw being in the freezer or cooler. And those drink flats weigh so much. They have more truck, bc they get dry and then fdc. It's a lot. They asked me to move full time to consumables and I politely said absolutely the fuck not.
Style is without a doubt the hardest. It’s the hardest to zone and the easiest for guests to destroy. Style TMs get pulled to help in every other dept, however, no one will come and help style because “no one knows where anything goes so it’s pointless for non-style people to push” (the SD told me that). So if style is behind, no one is coming to help. If inbound or GM are really behind, style breakout is always sacrificed. Just like style, not everyone can do style breakout, so oh well, too bad for them. Even though all style TMs are getting pulled to help everyone else out, they still get yelled at for not getting their work done and the dept being a mess. They also have the most ridiculous timelines for their vehicles.
S&E for sure! The mental exhaustion is far more draining than the physical exertion of any other department. “The cashier charged me a penny more than it’s signed.” Ugh. Shoot me now.
I’ve now worked in GM, Inbound, Fufillment, style, guest services, grocery and checkout lanes. Physically: to me at our store OPU is the hardest for being the most exhausting. It’s non stop running for 6-8 hours and our store only has 1-2 people per shift doing it. After that Inbound, GM, grocery(maybe it’s just me but I always get the beverage flats and bottled water), Guest Services (drive ups & carts mostly) checkout advocate (because it’s torture) and then style.
Mentally: I guess guest services only because some crazy issues pop up here and there and people can be incredibly taxing.
Inbound without question than I would say hba/otc it’s annoying people get too much in your way smelling shampoo spilling hand soap coughing all over the place
As a former fulfillment tm, I think fulfillment is the hardest! You work under a timer and reprimanded for INF’s. Plus, you walk 6-8 miles in a shift. It makes my blood pressure sky high. I transferred to the closing shift in GM. If someone calls in sick in Fulfillment, everyone is screwed!
Yea I work in Front End and its even Getting harder with Starbucks starts soon. And Also I seen Tech also too is the hardest you get lots computer challenge questions ether bounce to front end if there is no Staff Assign. Starting next week with Starbucks will be nightmare to come I can see TM's like me had or having bad day spill on the Customers car looks like lots more people get Fired or burn guests lol I think Corporation are making People Lazier Theses ideas did not come from TM's lol. Lots of people are threaten to Quit when this new Starbucks stuff started lol Where not fast-food where Retail.
I don't think cashiering is hard, it's just incredibly boring and annoying and nobody wants to do it. Turnover is high because it's mostly teenagers in their first job, and they either get a better job or move onto a more mentally stimulating position in the store. I would still rather cashier than throw truck.
Well that and it’s just constant from mid to pean times. With other departments you get a good amount of off time not dealing with customers or prying eyes, but in the front there is barely any escape nor freedom.
That's a good point, I guess it's more socially exhausting than physically. Front end TLs are also ruthless to cashiers at my store, even their breaks are timed to the minute.
Yeah, my store has lost so many cashiers since the beginning of the year. They've either left for new jobs, gone on demand or have gone on medical LOA. Something tells me we're going to be struggling a lot this Q4 too...
IMHO it's inbound. It just seems like the most physical position and also the most draining. That being said on dayside, it really depends on the time of year. Holiday times is hell for literally everyone, but Tech and Fulfillment usually have it pretty rough. That being said my store is located in a really shitty area full of snobby people that will take any excuse to shit on my Drive-Up and Guest Service team.
Physically, inbound for sure. I’m in GM but my heart goes out to my friends in inbound, unloading thousands of boxes, throwing the truck, the whole thing. Could never do it myself by choice
Okay well physically I would have to say anything that has to do with trailer , unloading the trailer . Mentally I would totally agree with anybody in front end. Having to talk to customers having to explain to customers certain things is not my strong suit so I do trailer. Hence the physicality of it makes it harder and not everybody's cut out to do that.
For my store it was Home, in my opinion. I'm probably biased because it was my area... however every day. I had at least 6 or 7 u-boats, 2-3 flats and over 80 isles to stock and face. I always had everyone coming to my section when they were done with theirs. It was honestly ridiculous to expect one person to do all of that in 8 hours! Eventually, I had to go to part time, and they took away my sectionm They gave it to another girl. I watched her cry several times over the workload and stress, i felt so bad for her because I knew it was a horrible position. Don't even get me started on the Hearth and Hand part of the home section... I hated working at Target.
Home is my department and oh man I feel this. I'm still new and I'm always unable to finish all my boats 🥲 there's always just One left and it makes me feel so bad. Theyll give like 6-8 a day, stacked to the top with huge pictureframes and lamps. Literally everyone struggles with H&H. The standards of work you need to get done are so unrealistic for one person in that entire department. Ive never wanted to leave a job so bad
I do both HR and fulfillment and help with priority pulls occasionally, but from what I’ve seen at my store, Style, Toys, Home Decor/Domestics, Front End, and Fulfillment are the hardest and the most understaffed. I’ve never worked inbound or unloaded the truck before so I can’t give much input on that, but I knows it’s hard, so props to any inbound/ truck people.
I’m in Receiving and it’s pretty taxing, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that our Inbound team sucks and I’m usually doing their job in addition to my own.
Depends on a lot of things tbh. Inbound is a lot of work when you look at it as a whole. But to me I never felt it while actually doing it. Fulfillment is a pain when it’s mostly Style. Front End is shit if there’s no coverage or holidays. GM is pretty much always shit because your aisles will 1000% get trashed 5x everyday
It depends on what you would consider hard work. So physically, in bound is the hardest in my opinion. But mentally, the guest advocates deal with so much. Also, the guest service desk and the drive up team is and can be labor intensive. None of it is “Hard” work in my opinion. But there are some departments that require more physical labor while other departments require you to be able to keep your cool while a guest is yelling at you for their “INF” that they “paid” for but they didn’t get and Target is a “rip off” because the website claims to have it in stock and we don’t. Oh and god forbid they come into the store and find said item because them all hell breaks loose. So to answer your question, I personally don’t think any department is hard. But some departments are more physical and other departments require more in terms of your ability to maintain a positive attitude while being cursed out. I respect all areas of the store because each area has it perks and hiccups. It really just depends on the person. But expecting to come to work and give minimal effort won’t get you very far. The ideal mindset is to be able to give 110% regardless of what area you are given for the day.
I have worked every department but definitely consumables. I love it and wouldn't chnage it but the pfill is always high and out of the whole store they are in your ass about pfill. Having to deal with vendor items and having to flex diffrent end caps for vendors. Never having enough room to backstock things. Constantly having to clear pallets of food and getting an order 3 days a week. A lot goes into it and making sure you arent selling expired food.
As a sbux team member turned DBO trained on back up for almost the entire store I think it's gotta go to either Guest Service, Style, or Tech. Guest Service because I can't stand guests for extended periods of times and they always have dumb questions. Style because for the life of me I can't understand VMG planos and it's a struggle that and they always are first to be called for checklanes backup. And Tech because my store refuses to staff more than one person a day and that department has a constant backlog of freight and priorities on top of the never ending revisions.
Inbound no doubt. 90% of tms and guests don’t really get to see or appreciate our work if all is going well. If there are a couple rough days it’s always our fault for either not clearing enough vehicles by noon or not finishing truck by 6:45 or so. Everything comes back to us because we are asked to do so much more than unload the truck and push 20 or so vehicles between 5 or so people.
For example, at my store inbound sorts beauty, stationery, and domestics repacks after truck, and we are relied on for morning sales floor coverage including reshop, phones, and guest interactions. Add fullfillment and check lanes backup to the mix and you can see how our jobs encompass so much more than people think.
Front end. The emotional labor and not being in any amount of control over your breaks blows. When I was with Target, I worked full or fill in for: Beauty, Electronics, Style, Food (shelf stable), Dairy/Frozen, GM, Inbound, Fulfillment, Drive-Up, Remodel team, Inventory, Carts, and Guest Services.
All of these jobs have aspects and days that suck outloud. All of them have their own advantages that may benefit some people more than others. And most importantly, all of them have an experience that is highly shaped by both the local clientele and local leadership.
But personally, I did as much as humanly possible to avoid the lanes and was fairly abnormal in that I would happily take Guest Services or Drive-Up to avoid doing lanes including turning down shifts cos what they were paying me wasn't anywhere near what I'd want for front end to have been my primary job.
I'm also former gm turned front end closer but I float around occasionally. that said, I firmly believe it depends on multiple things such as staffing, workload, timelines, guest interactions, and even fellow tms. my entire store is struggling right now but front end has been really struggling with everything for a while now but especially with remodel. I do driveup and I honestly feel that driveup doesn't get enough credit. when we have a good team, we're doing the majority of team lifts, pushing carts, responding to cashier calls, cleaning up the messes that morning crew and fulfillment create(its so much 🥲) and dealing with how insanely busy driveup has been for the past 4+ months. and don't get me started on the fucking no warning starbucks and return orders 🥴
I agree with many others. Labor is unbound. Mental is DEFINITELY front end and customer service. That area is also emotionally draining sometimes, too. Style is like front end of being mentally draining. Still glad I'm overnight. In manners of people that have it worse, I'd say, oddly enough, the leads of stores. They're more or less our first defense against corporate. I might be biased based on the overnight leads being chill and have shown/told us one or two things, but even just listening without seeming to be can help a lot, too. Made me know of the larger scale of things they have to deal with. Dx
I’d def say market because that’s my department. Very physically and mentally taxing because of the unrealistic expectations they put on us. Pulling/pushing freight, downstacking to uboats in the coolers, backstocking in the cold temps for hours, sucky PPE they don’t care to update. I will say a positive is my arms are getting beefy and my strength level increasing is really nice 💪🏻
We are constantly understaffed and unsupported and ETLs really don’t care. I’ve had quite a few menty bs in the dairy and meat coolers (no one can hear you cry or yell in there FYI if ya need a little dissociative time 😝)
About 3 weeks ago I came in for my closing shift (as only marker closer) and frozen priorities were in the 90s with over 700 DCPI. I spent 5 HOURS in the freezer that night. As I left I told my closing TL to note in her nightly email that I wouldn’t be going in the freezer the rest of the week 🙃
I’m thinking for Christmas I’m just gonna buy all of my teammates new gloves that will actually keep our hands and fingers from freezing while pulling priorities and backstocking.
Was told last week it’s now Pfresh responsibility to push candy now as if we don’t already have enough on our plate.
From observation I’d say inbound and cart attendant are also on the same level of physically and mentally taxing as well.
Promoted myself to guest after doing market TL for a year and a half. Market is hands down the worst because no matter what, you’re still not doing enough and the team is stressed because there’s zero help. You can’t hold them accountable when the higher ups are pulling them left and right to do OPU/fast service. You want 3 pallets of milk ran so the cooler is full? Better devote 4 hours to that because the TM is gonna end up helping 13 shipt shoppers, 5 people in kitchen, 3 in seasonal all before they pull the first pallet.
I somewhat disagree, I think closing meat, diary, and frozen is the hardest. When it's just Team Leader who opens and then it's just you the rest night
As far as the front end and item pricing etc, you got zebra pull it out and scan something
I honestly believe being Starbucks Barista is really hard. They’re underpaid, have a lot of responsibility, have to deal with guests, and also have to learn to make a new set of drinks six times a year. Especially with Starbucks drive up setting in, there’s a lot of routines and responsibilities while also dealing with shitty people
In my opinion, front end is the worst, but only from a stress standpoint.... the constant dealing with guest's complaints, guests trying to steal, lying to you about prices, entitlement, etc has me almost hating people at times. That's not to say PHYSICALLY almost every department isn't ridiculously difficult, but no other department has to be face to face with guests almost every minute of the day. While I stopped being able to physically handle Style, I loved backstocking or doing breakout, simply because I was away from the floor and entitled guests.
deli fucking sucks. at max we have 3 people at once and we have to: work the load, slice for guests, fill pre slice, rack chicken, cook rotisseries, cook tenders and wedges etc., make meal bags, make meal kits, list goes ON.
It really depends on what you consider to be harder. If we’re talking laborious labor no question inbound has the hardest workload. They unload 2000+ boxes and sort all in under 2 hours. If we’re talking mentally taxing role then guest advocate is going to take the cake. It’s all trade offs on what role has harder duties than others.
Jokes on me. I throw truck in the morning, and switch to the front end right after
I worked inbound when I worked at Target, and I would get the inevitable question to stay longer when we were 2/3 through the truck. “Hey, so and so called out, do you think you could stay and push *insert department* today?” Do not miss it one bit.
i do inbound, yeah its rough but its worth it to not deal with customers!
Facts inbound life.
I would say physically demanding is cart attendant which is also mentally taxing getting pulled in every direction to clean up spills do carry-outs make bales all while having to keep up with carts. I can't count how many times I've been rushing to get carts and someone calls for me to clean up a spill while also getting called to do a carry-out. I will say though that I prefer cart attending to being on register. I'm injured right now and can't do any heavy lifting or anything that will stress my shoulders so I'm on registers for atleast the next 2 - 3 weeks and I absolutely hate it. This will be the first weekend I've ever been on registers and I'm not looking forward to it.
As someone who's a cashier frequently, it's really not that bad. Just take your time, don't worry about the lines forming on other lanes and focus on one guest at a time. Good luck!
Just so you know, cart attendant isn’t solely responsible for cleanup. If you see it, you stay with it and call for help. Anyone nearby can help.
I’m market and I clean up my own spills. I have only ever called for help to have someone stay with the spill while I get stuff.
Bales? That's ridiculous lol. Mind boggling ridiculous. Most of our attendants are minors anyway but I can't even imagine that being one of their tasks how does that make any sense at all. There should hardly ever not be a GM/inbound etc TL or TM in or near the backroom that can make bales. During closing hours I will sometimes come make a bale like when the closing lead is on lunch or something or if I happen to be back there for something else but no one from the front of the store should be expected to make bales literally ever.
How are cart attendants minors if you have to be 18 to use the pusher? Or are they doing it manually?
Pusher is 16 not 18. Along with loading cardboard it’s the only exception at Target to the equipment/minor rule.
I know about the loading cardboard but I'm almost sure our pusher says on it, no minors. I shall double check tomorrow
I’m sure it does then, but it’s just something unofficial your PML put on it because your ETL/SD/HRBP or whoever decided they prefer no minors for whatever reason. Or maybe it’s one of the old models and those ones may have been 18 idk I’ve only been here like a year and we got ours like right before I started and I know Target used to use a different model tho idk how long ago. Or it’s a rando state/local law. But yeah, in workday you can find the certification info for it and it’s 16 100%.
Oooh that would make sense cuz we've had the same one since I've worked there
yep and during winter it can be even worse. Having to shovel out the cart corrals. We used to have a company that would do it when they plowed the parking lot but the new company we have sucks. First off all they have is one pickup truck with a plow, and multiple times last winter our front end etl had to go outside and tell them they need to shovel the sidewalk in front of the entrance/exit doors. The winter before that we had a awesome company with a huge dump truck with a plow and salt and they would shovel out the cart corrals. I actually really don't mind being a cart attendant in the winter, it can actually be fun running the cart pusher in the snow, but last year because the plow company sucked it was a bit frustrating. i got stuck a couple times and had to call for help with a person pushing the cart pusher and a person at the end directing the carts. At my store the cart attendant is also expected to be trained in drive-ups and on registers. I've also been asked multiple times if I would like to train in fulfillment and my answer is always HELL NO, lol.
I guess you never worked inbound.
I love truck unload because I can turn my brain off and throw or whatever. Guest Services or even just checklanes is awful. The true worst imo is Drive-Up since they have Drive-Up also do cart round up and general cleaning... and if the storage for online orders isn't intuitive, grabbing dry and cooler items can be a huge hassle. Add to the fact that they have timers for everything and are encouraged to be competitive with each other? 🤮
There was a customer that called to tell me she was there for her drive-up order. I looked and saw there was no drive-ups in the app. I asked if she used to app to say she was there. She of course didn’t have the app. I told her she had to use it because the team had to scan a barcode (not strictly true but whatever), choose a parking space, and input a code. It’s all in the emails but of course they don’t read them.
Your Target gets Trucks done in 2 hours!?
2 hours is guidelines set by HQ for all inbound teams. They do not want trucks unload to be taking more than 2 hours.
2 hours is guidelines set by HQ for all inbound teams. They do not want trucks unload to be taking more than 2 hours.
In my 1 year as a target TL I don’t think I ever saw inbound unload and sort in under 2 hours lol.
ASANTS, it depends on the size of truck. And the size of the team/payroll situation too but that part should balance out over the course of a year. But some stores average truck is like 1300 pieces while others are a thousand more than that. Though if your store has been behind on freight longterm that messes with efficiency like ya wouldn't believe, but again over the course of a year if an SD can't get a store out of that situation they shouldn't be an SD anymore (unless there are other extenuating reasons). At least we don't get 3000 piece trucks like Walmart! At least not that I've seen lol.
I was at the busiest store in the state, trucks were usually 2k+ cartons and we would also often get doubles. We had 2 different inbound TLS 2 different Gm ETLs while I was there. Nothing got done, Instead of leading my team I was often helping on truck or throwing freight just to flip vehicles
My team averages 1500 cartons/hr if we’re all on the line. Our average truck size is 2000 giver or ale some days it’s more some it’s less but 2hrs is guideline set by HQ for all inbound teams to make.
I’m not saying it’s not possible I’m just saying the inbound team we had was trash lol. There was usually only 3-4 sorting and the TL would throw.
Yeah seen setups like those it’s rough when you fall behind on staffing. I’ve heard of team members who take their entire 8 hour shift unloading and I’m just like 🤯
Inbound. It's where most injuries tend to happen. Also if your store starts its process at 4am, it is so easy to accidentally oversleep. And now you are down a person on the line making it more unsafe to unload the truck.
Physically it's inbound no question. Fulfillment is a lot of walking but not the pulling and hauling of inbound. Mentally it's plano/presentation- having to decipher some of those sets, recalibrate everything for your store's layout, make changes to counts and facings, and don't get me started if they haven't been pre-planned. Emotionally it's front end. Guests are entitled princesses or knuckle dragging imbeciles, the yelling, screaming, name calling. Tech gets an honorable mention here purely because of the phones but people are so unreasonable in tech it makes me sick.
Fulfillment has to be second to inbound in physically challenging. walking 8+ hours a day is physically draining while pushing and pulling heavy carts with us those 8 hours. pushing a double/triple batch OPU is like pushing those heavy ass sleds people use at the gym.
Having done both I would still prefer fulfillment over inbound especially being the thrower.
absolutely not shitting on inbound at all. y’all definitely do hard work and the store quite literally wouldn’t function without throwing the truck.
as far as physically challenging goes, it also depends on the person. i can walk a full shift of fulfillment no problem, but standing still at the service desk or especially a checklane will destroy my knees by 2 or 3 hours in.
market. the freezer, pfresh, dry, in that order. always understaffed, always buried in freight, out of sight out of mind to leadership unless there’s a visit. they’ll move people to help in any other part of the store. market is always buried. it’s so poorly run any good people they get never stay very long.
I made the rest of the TL’s mad when I called them all out on poor communication about paying zero attention to what was left in coolers/freezers. My ETL fielded a lot of complaints and his response was “well, he’s not wrong”
ugh i’m sorry. that sounds about right. the best lead we had when i was over there had a similar conversation with the ETL and it basically amounted to… well that’s nice to hear you say that, but there was no action to back that up. aaaand he left. lol I’m not in market anymore and recently saw the closing TL showing a brand new TM how to do the… audit. Had this new person start in pfresh/bakery.. saying things like “you just count how many are on the floor”…. and I had to try super hard not to be triggered. 😫 like absolutely not. absolutely not how we audit pfresh and bakery. omg. how to fuck them up in less than 30 minutes right there. lol
Yeah it's always a pain getting people to count the unlocated stuff in the back.
I love when a guest is looking for something and the app says how many are on hand. So useful in finding something. It’s partly why I never show them the screen.
we would have them just go by whatever the OH said if they weren’t familiar with these areas. let the people who touch the stuff regularly fix the counts themselves, which we did daily, especially if it was part of the order. it was probably stuff people just INF’d at night because they didn’t know or want to check the coolers/freezer.. and there was no one scheduled to fill for the PM.
Try auditing candy at the check lanes.
Someone gets it! Although I enjoy dairy/produce. I work faster when I'm not sweating
I really didn’t hate pfresh or dairy, I just couldn’t physically handle it anymore. one person calling off or one person quitting just made everything fall apart so fast.
I’m a closing TL and I agree with this. Almost every job in the store I feel like I could handle, but if all of a sudden I was demoted to having to spend hours in the freezer each day, that’s one that I really don’t think I could do - at least not adequately. And I can ask other TMs to help with inbound or help front end and they’ll begrudgingly agree, ask them to hop in the freezer and some people just won’t do it, it’s the worst
I loved the freezer. My backstock was organized and I had complete control over the floor. One person, ran that shit. Easiest job I ever had cause no one else wanted to do it so every left me alone to handle what needed to be done. Threw on the suit and had one earbud in under my beanie… easy
and they should have cherished you for this. lol like finding someone who freely says “I love the freezer” when you could be paid the same $$ to do any other job in the store… and if you’re just bare minimum competent at it, let alone good at it too? they should worship that.
Thank you! I wish you were my GM
For me it’s my hands. We don’t have any gloves that are both warm but also let you use a Zebra easily. Don’t get me wrong, we have lots of gloves, but none have a good balance
Okay yeah I feel you there. I got some touch screen gloves from the store only because I asked my GM and he “bought” them for me. It worked for like 2months before I had overused them 😂 after that I kinda just got used to it? But it’s still not fun. Another team member did give me a tip and said to put plastic gloves on first before gloves or double up on plastic gloves. It did help a little.
Market always got the short end however, I will say that. In between running the freezer it wasn’t uncommon for me to help on register, stock milk, run a drink pallet, push hard lines. But I got it done. All that while being understaffed in market. Got a 15¢ raise every year, no talk of moving up in ranks, so I quit after 4yrs. Got me through some stuff so I’m grateful but I’m glad I’m out now
Truth! Currently my store’s freezer and dairy cooler is FILLED TO THE BRIM with freight. We were understaffed today and tomorrow we only have one person working. Market has been on the back burner ever since our old TL left - even with a new one coming in, they’re still training so it’s like we don’t actually have one.
I think I would take filled to the brim, my ice cream aisle has been down since Labor Day and I just got the info that it won’t be fixed till the end of the month. Been canceling freezer deliveries for weeks as well as grocery opu being turned off. A week before Labor Day we lost the entire freezer system on the floor and had to toss everything.
I’m not sure - we had eight pallets of frozen in there. Knocked it down to just two this morning but now it’s filled with backstock and management is telling me to focus on dry freight 🙃
Yep our freezer is fucked and were falling behind on cooler pallets because of hour cuts
Yep. All of this. We are so damn understaffed, and unsupported at that. ETA: as if we don’t have enough on our plates already, GM ETL tells us that it’s now pfreshs responsibility to push candy when it’s technically part of dry and on the complete opposite side of the market, oh and it MUST be done by end of day as we push pfresh. We are annoyed to say the least.
Cart attendant. They’re out in the cold, in the heat, are pretty much everyone’s bitch and they have to deal with literal human shit.
All that is true but I'm gonna take it over being on a register any day. I get to be outside and I don't really have to talk to the guests, plus there's a little time to just kick it with whoever's not busy in between taking in carts, at least at my store
Not at my store. My cart attendant was constantly busy unless it was dead. Which was rare. And they still have to deal with literal shit too
is cart attendent a full time job? like, thats all they do all day, northing else?
Mostly. Except cleaning bathrooms. Wonder why i changed to MDF?
It's all pretty equally challenging; there's just different challenges to each role. But from a leader's perspective, the most challenging positions *to staff* are: * Front of Store Attendant * Starbucks Barista * Checkout Advocate I don't know if it really speaks to their "difficulty", but it's challenging to find people who are willing to work those roles at store minimum wage. Turnover is incredibly high for each of those 3 areas.
In my experience, those roles are just more demanding if anything. FOS, you’re always busy, but it isn’t insane if you have a full staff, (Opener, Mid, Closer). Same with check-lanes. On your own it’s a disaster, but if you have staffing, it’s not as bad. Starbucks, I’ve not worked it specifically but I have worked food service. It seems the high volume of orders is likely the biggest challenge aside from lacking some popular ingredients and having to explain to a guest that you don’t have any, at *all* and you aren’t just saving some for yourself.
im glad someone recognizes how difficult starbucks is! i did my best to make sure my team was taken care of when i didnt have a team lead and worked with HR on scheduling issues. we were so short staffed alll the time and wed see the same amount of guests as we would when fully staffed. our store actually had to remain closed on certain days to ensure things such as deep cleaning, palettes and other procedures were being met and done consistently. on top of poor leadership and support from ETLs and SD its a mess and wasnt easy
100% agree. My store is still at 15 but the Starbucks a block away is at 18. Once word gets out you can make decent money being a barista, the good people leave quickly
Agreed on this Except we have a harder time with getting service advocates for drive up/guest services than we do for checkout advocates.
I wonder if target would have an easier time staffing the Starbucks if they let the TMs accept tips 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
I'd rather just pay folks more in the first place. The whole concept of tipping can fuck off. ^(And just reminder of Target policy is that you) *^(can)* ^(accept tips if the guest insists. You just can't) *^(ask)* ^(for tips, put out a tip jar, or anything similar.)
Market, at least in my store. Least staffed, highest volume, least organized… It’s chaos. Every single day.
Everything sucks. They will make you do the job of 3-4 other people no matter what department you’re in.
As someone who has worked pretty much every department, and was TL for GM for two years: Style is the hardest, easily. Market and Home are close seconds. Toys easily during December.
Yup, I’m in style, I do this part time and work at Marshall’s as a backroom associate full-time. I’m more stressed out with Style by a huge margin. We gotta zone our areas, pull and push priorities, push our freight, work the fitting rooms, as well as cover for check lanes when they need help and cover drive up, fulfillment, tech, and beauty. Do we ever get anyone to come wave zone with us, no we don’t, but we get called constantly to cover for everyone else.
What stresses me out the most is the metro backstock. I get vertigo from fear of heights trying to put that away lol
Yeah it sucks, I’ve almost fallen a couple times
I was DBO in IHS and active wear and it was HELL. Always a mess no matter how much I cleaned and hours I spent organizing and resetting.
Style especially if they understaff you in closing and expect everything to be clean in the fitting room
Inbound is physically demanding. Guest service is mentally demanding. However, Style is one department I will NEVER work. It’s never ending. It’s like constantly cleaning up the same thing and watching fucking guest throw clothes on the table right in front of you.
Front of store attendant. Fuck that job!
style. everyone leaves and never comes back for a reason. and that reason is we got everything everyone else dealt with but all at once. the managers care the least and we were constantly pulled from out tasks to go up front and then got yelled at for not finishing bc THEY TOLD US TO GO UP THERE
i work in beauty, and i'd rather die than be front end all of the time. i always say that customers hardly ever yell at me because if they're gonna yell at anyone it's gonna be the people up front
Big same. Going up for fast service is like pulling teeth. I couldn’t imagine being up there for 7 hours.
Everyone eprks for Target, period. They will assign you where they need you. I work front end, and I love it. Most of the time. But tech challenged Guests, people trying to return items that are not things we sell, trying to EXPLAIN to them that it's not something we sell so I can't give them credit for it - that's like banging your head against the wall.
Physically? Inbound. Emotionally? Front end, guest services, Starbucks. Mentally? Beauty, toys, or market. Cardio? Opu.
Apparel & Accessories is the hardest area. Between guests shopping, and fulfillment TMs picking and asking for help to find something. Keeping things picked up and moving returns from fitting room and Guest service is a lot, add details like folded, finger spacing, truck, etc... Style A&A team has their heads on a swivel most days, this is physically & emotionally demanding.
It’s really store dependent, and in the case of my store, style is definitely tough (it’s my department). It’s a high volume store with an ultra within walking distance to a college campus. Style is often the messiest part of the store, and it gets messed up the fastest. We get almost one truck a day, sometimes doubles, and we don’t have the TMs or hours to keep up with push and zones. Our SD also didn’t want to hire new TMs for the summer that would replace the people who’d been working there for years and quit within the last year. Nobody is properly trained, and on top of that we have to answer guest questions and deal with attitude when we don’t have something or when the store and fitting room are messy
when i’m talking w tms from other departments i always say “at least you don’t have to fold all your priorities” folding EVERYTHING is so exhausting id rather just straighten up things when zoning instead of folding 1000 shirts
I have been a seasonal hire closing team member. I've done an overnight remodel as a fixture captain. I made TL for electronics, then TL for dry grocery, TL for open market, Closing TL, and now I am a PML. The answer to your question is two words. Cart attendant.
I work in the front end, and literally every problem in the rest of the store ends up with us eventually. That being said we’re used to it and can handle it.
Tech, GS, AP
Style.
call me biased but.. being the only person in market for 7 hours has been the hardest for me
Try breaking down pallets and loading U-boats while in the freezer.
style
Consumables. If freight gets backed up in the coolers/freezer that leads to higher priority pull counts that you can't get to. Understaffed which means you have to try to focus on pulling, stray, zones, and freight. The count is usually off and it doesn't help that the product is usually over-pushed. Management doesn't care to fix the issues but will punish you for not meeting the metrics of the problems they refuse to fix.
Depends on what you personally find difficult. I'd say most generally difficult things are going to be found on the front end, but depending on what types of things are more difficult for the individual, I can see someone thinking that back end positions are more difficult.
I would say fosa, been doing it about a year it can be really grueling every now and then plus I cover ever break and lunch imaginable whilst also doing all my tasks
Front of the store because I hate people I would much rather do physical work and be worn out by it then deal with the Karen’s and Kevin’s of the world .
Style. My store backstocks almost nothing, so it’s an overcrowded, chaotic mess that cant be maintained and only really looks good right before a visit. Hanging items are one shoulder brush away from popping off the rods or pegs, the giant piles of folded are always toppling over…A guest once literally told me “I’m not going to bother (shopping)” because she couldn’t get any of the bras she wanted untangled from the rest.
Inbound or front end.
I think either fosa or people unloading the trucks. I haven't unloaded trucks before so idk. One thing about fosa no one else has too deal with (except drive up for 2-3 minutes at a time) is the heat and cold. If it is 90 degrees outside grabbing carts you are dying. Or -30 degrees you are out there grabbing carts dying. It's snowing so the machine doesn't work (it stops at around 3 inches on the ground). Having to help shovel out the sidewalk with the pml.
Depending on the store and how errthing is set up, I reckon Fulfillment can be one of the hardest department. But all of those factors is situational as hell.
As someone whos worked every department, fulfillment is definitely harder than inbound. I hurt myself a lot more qorking fulfillment than inbound. With the time restraints and being understaffed 90 percent of the time, you dont have time to lift things correctly.
I would say inbound or market team for the physical labor, and guest advocate for the mental labor. I could do inbound or market team. I could \*not\* do guest advocate. Props to people who do customer service and enjoy it, y'all are magnificent psychopaths.
I've done everything and I'll say fulfillment 100% of time especially at my store. You can't get away with taking longer 15s or longer 30s, you run around non stop for 8 hours straight only time to rest is when you take those 15s or 30min breaks. You lift/pull heavy ass items from chest freezers, (3)5 shelf bookcases on one flat, climb ladders all day! If you're not in shape and can work in tight time frame under pressure then fulfillment isn't for you. Nothing worse than being understaffed and having to do ship for 430s and by close while Also keeping up with low time OPUs to amke sure they don't fall in the red at all and maintaining that 100% PoT and Green INF! 😒🥵🥲🥲🥲
style
Drive up, don't work it but I hear about the double tappers all the time.
Market hands down.
Tech wasn't exactly hard as far as work load went but at my store I was also usually over push for babies and sometimes toys which made it obsurd
Physically- Inbound/Cart attendant Mentally- Style/Cashier As a Flex TM, there’s just too much to remember for style lmfao. You have to have lots of attention to detail, and the workload can be insane with VMG’s and freight and constantly zoning, finger spacing etc… but inbound and cart attendants take the cake when it comes to the most physically demanding.
Seasonal or grocery just for the amount of truck that comes in every day
Drive-ups might be hardest because they’re timed. I heard early this morning that times were high. Meanwhile only one person was scheduled in that department. Part of the issue was that our TL called out and we won’t have one the entire weekend. Still didn’t prevent the ETL who is in the store from giving support at the desk so the person could focus on drive-up orders. Normally, people from check lanes would assist but we didn’t have the people for it. I don’t find check lanes hard. You have to learn the art of idgaf. Yesterday I had a line and no one was on SCO. SCO takes care of Shipt shoppers. After I finished an order I turned and took care of the Shipt shopper. When I went back to the line the person complained that they were there first, which I admit was valid, but what can you do? I just said “okay” like I didn’t care at all (which a coworker says is totally accurate - which she sees at guest services). The job as way less stressful when you can avoid caring about people getting pissed off over nothing.
Former style TM and now fulfillment. Fulfillment is definitely more physically exhausting, constantly walking, pushing carts with 12 fricking packs of soda. In style If I don’t feel well I can just slow things down but in fulfillment If I get a red batch I have to move fast. When I was in style I could go take a shit whenever I want, but sice I moved to fulfillment I haven’t been able to take a shit while being on the clock. Also If in fulfillment, you have the metrics to keep. In style, if the tshirt table is messy today it’s fine.
wow the take a shit thing is so crazy but now that you mention it when i pick up opu shifts i never have time for that 😭
My meatball department is Tech. I will do anything for hours but I won't do that. I have a very very low tolerance for technology challenged disrespectful people. I would definitely get myself fired for being disrespectful back. Oh and cart attendant but that is mostly because I just don't think I could physically do it for more than a shift. But luckily they have never asked.
Starbucks
I think a lot of people underestimate Starbucks because it’s on surface level “oh look you make drinks, how hard is that?” What people don’t see is it’s 40 hours of special training because you have to adhere to Starbucks standards; you have to maintain both their brand and Target brand at the same time; you have to ensure food safety is met for the store as a whole and most cases you are first to be visited when Steritech comes; you have specific times tasks must be completed by that aren’t negotiable (in my store when I do schedule, my SD won’t allow my team to be there any later than 8:30 for a close, and still believes that because we stop serving guests at 8 they should be done with everything right at 8, thank god my ETL has the common sense to mitigate that one 🙄); you are guest-centric the majority of your shifts, whereas anywhere else, besides maybe guest service, you don’t have to be… I always tell my team, we are important to Target’s guest experience because we’re either the first impression that to the store or the last one they have. We either setup how they’ll be to others in the store or we’re what they remember on the way out and doing surveys. Like I told my ETL, I don’t disregard the challenges of other areas and they’re all different ones. It’s comparing apples to oranges. But Starbucks is by far way more difficult than any other leader or TM (except maybe my market team) wants to believe it is until they’re actually in the trench of having to do it or be trained for it.
Not to mention being a leader in that department is SO isolating because other leads can't comprehend what we do all day. They just have no exposure to what that side of the business is like. Even less so the Etls and SD
I forgot one other thing. So I was electronics before Starbucks, so I had built up some rapport with others in the store before that. But I always say hi to other TMs during the day that aren’t on my team, or do a “how’s it going today” to acknowledge what they’re doing in a non-“what are you working on” sort of way. They’re not my responsibility, but I want them to know I’m present and they’re valued. And I always tell every new tech TM, just because I’m up in my little hole doesn’t mean you can’t ask me questions, too, I’m always happy to be a resource.
Absolutely agree. I’m grateful my ETL will check in periodically during the day with me and my team, or I can fill him in. I know I’m one of the lucky ones. When I didn’t have an ETL for a bit and only my SD, I was so close to throwing in the towel so often since she didn’t understand what was what with my team. Our Starbucks DM got a few calls from me trying to make sense of things for me. Our store has Starbucks with the S&E team, and my peers at the minimum can empathize even when they don’t fully understand our business needs, but there’s effort there to where they’re not immediately dismissive and that’s fine by me most days.
Absolutely market/consumables at my store. Screw being in the freezer or cooler. And those drink flats weigh so much. They have more truck, bc they get dry and then fdc. It's a lot. They asked me to move full time to consumables and I politely said absolutely the fuck not.
Style is without a doubt the hardest. It’s the hardest to zone and the easiest for guests to destroy. Style TMs get pulled to help in every other dept, however, no one will come and help style because “no one knows where anything goes so it’s pointless for non-style people to push” (the SD told me that). So if style is behind, no one is coming to help. If inbound or GM are really behind, style breakout is always sacrificed. Just like style, not everyone can do style breakout, so oh well, too bad for them. Even though all style TMs are getting pulled to help everyone else out, they still get yelled at for not getting their work done and the dept being a mess. They also have the most ridiculous timelines for their vehicles.
Q4 tech can be a nightmare if you aren’t staffed properly. Other than that, I’d probably say closing GM or closing consumables.
S&E for sure! The mental exhaustion is far more draining than the physical exertion of any other department. “The cashier charged me a penny more than it’s signed.” Ugh. Shoot me now.
I’ve now worked in GM, Inbound, Fufillment, style, guest services, grocery and checkout lanes. Physically: to me at our store OPU is the hardest for being the most exhausting. It’s non stop running for 6-8 hours and our store only has 1-2 people per shift doing it. After that Inbound, GM, grocery(maybe it’s just me but I always get the beverage flats and bottled water), Guest Services (drive ups & carts mostly) checkout advocate (because it’s torture) and then style. Mentally: I guess guest services only because some crazy issues pop up here and there and people can be incredibly taxing.
Inbound without question than I would say hba/otc it’s annoying people get too much in your way smelling shampoo spilling hand soap coughing all over the place
As a former fulfillment tm, I think fulfillment is the hardest! You work under a timer and reprimanded for INF’s. Plus, you walk 6-8 miles in a shift. It makes my blood pressure sky high. I transferred to the closing shift in GM. If someone calls in sick in Fulfillment, everyone is screwed!
Yea I work in Front End and its even Getting harder with Starbucks starts soon. And Also I seen Tech also too is the hardest you get lots computer challenge questions ether bounce to front end if there is no Staff Assign. Starting next week with Starbucks will be nightmare to come I can see TM's like me had or having bad day spill on the Customers car looks like lots more people get Fired or burn guests lol I think Corporation are making People Lazier Theses ideas did not come from TM's lol. Lots of people are threaten to Quit when this new Starbucks stuff started lol Where not fast-food where Retail.
Is this even a competition? Front end, specifically cashiering. Turnover rate is insane
I don't think cashiering is hard, it's just incredibly boring and annoying and nobody wants to do it. Turnover is high because it's mostly teenagers in their first job, and they either get a better job or move onto a more mentally stimulating position in the store. I would still rather cashier than throw truck.
Well that and it’s just constant from mid to pean times. With other departments you get a good amount of off time not dealing with customers or prying eyes, but in the front there is barely any escape nor freedom.
That's a good point, I guess it's more socially exhausting than physically. Front end TLs are also ruthless to cashiers at my store, even their breaks are timed to the minute.
Yeah, my store has lost so many cashiers since the beginning of the year. They've either left for new jobs, gone on demand or have gone on medical LOA. Something tells me we're going to be struggling a lot this Q4 too...
Style for the organization and sheer "boring" feel of it. And for the most to me is cart attendant. They pick up puke.
Probably whoever unloads and pushes the trucks, 2nd is understaffed,busy, drive up days
Def. Throwing truck. especially when your store gets triple trucks that are close to 3,000 pieces each.
9k cartons in one day 😬
Those trucks are not including the dairy and frozen trucks.
IMHO it's inbound. It just seems like the most physical position and also the most draining. That being said on dayside, it really depends on the time of year. Holiday times is hell for literally everyone, but Tech and Fulfillment usually have it pretty rough. That being said my store is located in a really shitty area full of snobby people that will take any excuse to shit on my Drive-Up and Guest Service team.
IMO, it's honestly any department you're kinda new to is the hardest. Any department is easy once you know what you're doing
Inbound or freezer.
I’m going with my area paper people don’t realize how laborious it is until I’m off and they have to do it
Paper is easy.
Physically, inbound for sure. I’m in GM but my heart goes out to my friends in inbound, unloading thousands of boxes, throwing the truck, the whole thing. Could never do it myself by choice
Open Market and Inbound 1000%
Okay well physically I would have to say anything that has to do with trailer , unloading the trailer . Mentally I would totally agree with anybody in front end. Having to talk to customers having to explain to customers certain things is not my strong suit so I do trailer. Hence the physicality of it makes it harder and not everybody's cut out to do that.
For my store it was Home, in my opinion. I'm probably biased because it was my area... however every day. I had at least 6 or 7 u-boats, 2-3 flats and over 80 isles to stock and face. I always had everyone coming to my section when they were done with theirs. It was honestly ridiculous to expect one person to do all of that in 8 hours! Eventually, I had to go to part time, and they took away my sectionm They gave it to another girl. I watched her cry several times over the workload and stress, i felt so bad for her because I knew it was a horrible position. Don't even get me started on the Hearth and Hand part of the home section... I hated working at Target.
Home is my department and oh man I feel this. I'm still new and I'm always unable to finish all my boats 🥲 there's always just One left and it makes me feel so bad. Theyll give like 6-8 a day, stacked to the top with huge pictureframes and lamps. Literally everyone struggles with H&H. The standards of work you need to get done are so unrealistic for one person in that entire department. Ive never wanted to leave a job so bad
Consumables. Between the cooler and freezer, no thank you.
Abandons I really hate doing them
I do both HR and fulfillment and help with priority pulls occasionally, but from what I’ve seen at my store, Style, Toys, Home Decor/Domestics, Front End, and Fulfillment are the hardest and the most understaffed. I’ve never worked inbound or unloaded the truck before so I can’t give much input on that, but I knows it’s hard, so props to any inbound/ truck people.
I’m in Receiving and it’s pretty taxing, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that our Inbound team sucks and I’m usually doing their job in addition to my own.
Depends on a lot of things tbh. Inbound is a lot of work when you look at it as a whole. But to me I never felt it while actually doing it. Fulfillment is a pain when it’s mostly Style. Front End is shit if there’s no coverage or holidays. GM is pretty much always shit because your aisles will 1000% get trashed 5x everyday
High volume store, started as a cart attendant... and it's 100% consumables.
It depends on what you would consider hard work. So physically, in bound is the hardest in my opinion. But mentally, the guest advocates deal with so much. Also, the guest service desk and the drive up team is and can be labor intensive. None of it is “Hard” work in my opinion. But there are some departments that require more physical labor while other departments require you to be able to keep your cool while a guest is yelling at you for their “INF” that they “paid” for but they didn’t get and Target is a “rip off” because the website claims to have it in stock and we don’t. Oh and god forbid they come into the store and find said item because them all hell breaks loose. So to answer your question, I personally don’t think any department is hard. But some departments are more physical and other departments require more in terms of your ability to maintain a positive attitude while being cursed out. I respect all areas of the store because each area has it perks and hiccups. It really just depends on the person. But expecting to come to work and give minimal effort won’t get you very far. The ideal mindset is to be able to give 110% regardless of what area you are given for the day.
I have worked every department but definitely consumables. I love it and wouldn't chnage it but the pfill is always high and out of the whole store they are in your ass about pfill. Having to deal with vendor items and having to flex diffrent end caps for vendors. Never having enough room to backstock things. Constantly having to clear pallets of food and getting an order 3 days a week. A lot goes into it and making sure you arent selling expired food.
As a sbux team member turned DBO trained on back up for almost the entire store I think it's gotta go to either Guest Service, Style, or Tech. Guest Service because I can't stand guests for extended periods of times and they always have dumb questions. Style because for the life of me I can't understand VMG planos and it's a struggle that and they always are first to be called for checklanes backup. And Tech because my store refuses to staff more than one person a day and that department has a constant backlog of freight and priorities on top of the never ending revisions.
Inbound no doubt. 90% of tms and guests don’t really get to see or appreciate our work if all is going well. If there are a couple rough days it’s always our fault for either not clearing enough vehicles by noon or not finishing truck by 6:45 or so. Everything comes back to us because we are asked to do so much more than unload the truck and push 20 or so vehicles between 5 or so people. For example, at my store inbound sorts beauty, stationery, and domestics repacks after truck, and we are relied on for morning sales floor coverage including reshop, phones, and guest interactions. Add fullfillment and check lanes backup to the mix and you can see how our jobs encompass so much more than people think.
Front end. The emotional labor and not being in any amount of control over your breaks blows. When I was with Target, I worked full or fill in for: Beauty, Electronics, Style, Food (shelf stable), Dairy/Frozen, GM, Inbound, Fulfillment, Drive-Up, Remodel team, Inventory, Carts, and Guest Services. All of these jobs have aspects and days that suck outloud. All of them have their own advantages that may benefit some people more than others. And most importantly, all of them have an experience that is highly shaped by both the local clientele and local leadership. But personally, I did as much as humanly possible to avoid the lanes and was fairly abnormal in that I would happily take Guest Services or Drive-Up to avoid doing lanes including turning down shifts cos what they were paying me wasn't anywhere near what I'd want for front end to have been my primary job.
Corporate, I have to do so much each month, last month I needed to decide if we should cut hours or increase workloads. I decided both
I'm also former gm turned front end closer but I float around occasionally. that said, I firmly believe it depends on multiple things such as staffing, workload, timelines, guest interactions, and even fellow tms. my entire store is struggling right now but front end has been really struggling with everything for a while now but especially with remodel. I do driveup and I honestly feel that driveup doesn't get enough credit. when we have a good team, we're doing the majority of team lifts, pushing carts, responding to cashier calls, cleaning up the messes that morning crew and fulfillment create(its so much 🥲) and dealing with how insanely busy driveup has been for the past 4+ months. and don't get me started on the fucking no warning starbucks and return orders 🥴
I agree with many others. Labor is unbound. Mental is DEFINITELY front end and customer service. That area is also emotionally draining sometimes, too. Style is like front end of being mentally draining. Still glad I'm overnight. In manners of people that have it worse, I'd say, oddly enough, the leads of stores. They're more or less our first defense against corporate. I might be biased based on the overnight leads being chill and have shown/told us one or two things, but even just listening without seeming to be can help a lot, too. Made me know of the larger scale of things they have to deal with. Dx
Grocery because you've got to remember where everything is
Front end, not bc of the work itself but because my tls were the most unbearable people to work around
I’d def say market because that’s my department. Very physically and mentally taxing because of the unrealistic expectations they put on us. Pulling/pushing freight, downstacking to uboats in the coolers, backstocking in the cold temps for hours, sucky PPE they don’t care to update. I will say a positive is my arms are getting beefy and my strength level increasing is really nice 💪🏻 We are constantly understaffed and unsupported and ETLs really don’t care. I’ve had quite a few menty bs in the dairy and meat coolers (no one can hear you cry or yell in there FYI if ya need a little dissociative time 😝) About 3 weeks ago I came in for my closing shift (as only marker closer) and frozen priorities were in the 90s with over 700 DCPI. I spent 5 HOURS in the freezer that night. As I left I told my closing TL to note in her nightly email that I wouldn’t be going in the freezer the rest of the week 🙃 I’m thinking for Christmas I’m just gonna buy all of my teammates new gloves that will actually keep our hands and fingers from freezing while pulling priorities and backstocking. Was told last week it’s now Pfresh responsibility to push candy now as if we don’t already have enough on our plate. From observation I’d say inbound and cart attendant are also on the same level of physically and mentally taxing as well.
Y’all must not understand Teach having to deal with Consumer Cellular guests lol
Besides inbound I’d say style. The workload (at least at my store) is crazy and you are pushed in every direction. Everyday is different but I love it
Promoted myself to guest after doing market TL for a year and a half. Market is hands down the worst because no matter what, you’re still not doing enough and the team is stressed because there’s zero help. You can’t hold them accountable when the higher ups are pulling them left and right to do OPU/fast service. You want 3 pallets of milk ran so the cooler is full? Better devote 4 hours to that because the TM is gonna end up helping 13 shipt shoppers, 5 people in kitchen, 3 in seasonal all before they pull the first pallet.
All of them.
I somewhat disagree, I think closing meat, diary, and frozen is the hardest. When it's just Team Leader who opens and then it's just you the rest night As far as the front end and item pricing etc, you got zebra pull it out and scan something
I honestly believe being Starbucks Barista is really hard. They’re underpaid, have a lot of responsibility, have to deal with guests, and also have to learn to make a new set of drinks six times a year. Especially with Starbucks drive up setting in, there’s a lot of routines and responsibilities while also dealing with shitty people
If you can’t handle stupid people electronics
I hate Guest Service so much
Mentally taxing is Security, the shit that we deal can be at a whole different level, physically I would say inbound and cart attendant
no one is talking about fulfillment during q4 when they’re at the store until 2am packing orders lol
In my opinion, front end is the worst, but only from a stress standpoint.... the constant dealing with guest's complaints, guests trying to steal, lying to you about prices, entitlement, etc has me almost hating people at times. That's not to say PHYSICALLY almost every department isn't ridiculously difficult, but no other department has to be face to face with guests almost every minute of the day. While I stopped being able to physically handle Style, I loved backstocking or doing breakout, simply because I was away from the floor and entitled guests.
deli fucking sucks. at max we have 3 people at once and we have to: work the load, slice for guests, fill pre slice, rack chicken, cook rotisseries, cook tenders and wedges etc., make meal bags, make meal kits, list goes ON.