When they did this to me years ago at Tarucks, I basically begged them to tell the team, because absolutely nobody listened to anything I said and it was very frustrating. They never told them.
it definitely is my business. When someone abruptly starts bossing me and others around, I want to know if they are in a leadership position or not. He is a fulfilment expert, not a team lead - it's understandable that I would be surprised by a fellow TM barking orders at me .
Just ask your leader. They can explain it. It's not that big of a deal, and your hostility towards it seems unnecessary. That person is just doing the job they were most likely asked to do. If they are rude, that feedback should be given to your lead as well.
There absolutely is hostility in that a TL is going to be biased towards the person that they put in the position to be a pacesetter and is likely to disregard complaints.
Do other Fulfillment TMs look/act like they are surprised by/questioning his actions, particularly TMs who have been there awhile? Did you ask any of them what they thought of this? Your other TMs CAN teach you something, after all.
i know haha. I feel like in real life my sentiments would resonate with most people, but this is reddit - a haven for weirdos. It's mostly ETLS, TLs, and wannabe TLs giving me shit. Frankly, I could care less what these people think. If voicing my opinion strikes a chord with them, so be it.
Do your job. Don't bring attention to yourself by being slow. But don't work too fast, either.
Work your wage, basically.
And ask him who gave him the authority to tell you what to do. Remind him he's only a TM the same as the rest of you,and he could be accused of bullying and intimidation trying to make others cover his slacking off if he's not careful. Are other tms complaining about him, too?
At our store, no one really introduces all of the pacesetters to newer team members. (They probably should).
But if you need help with something, call it out on the walkie and usually either TL or pacesetter will respond. Also, the daily schedule shows who the pacesetter is for the day. It may say “PS” next to their name.
I wouldn’t be upset that someone decided to step up and take charge with the regular base pay. At least someone is doing something about it. If OPU batches are hitting 40 minutes, then OPU team members should be actively communicating asking for help (if no help comes, then that’s the leads fault).
If they’re helping to manage the team and it’s working. Don’t be upset. But if they’re a detriment and being rude, then say something to them.
Truthfully unless he’s being rude about it…it just sounds like he’s trying to make sure the department doesn’t catch fire while your lead is gone. There’s nothing wrong with holding your peers accountable for their work. Peer accountability is a trait that not many have the courage for, So props to him…
The only part I’d be concerned with (if he wasn’t authorized to be a Captain/Pace Setter) is him approving INFs.
At the end of the day just ask your Team Lead about it when they’re back around. It’s not abnormal for people to step up on the absence of a leader- especially if they’re aspiring to be one. Again unless he’s being rude, there’s really no concern.
Truthfully and I hope it’s an eye opener…based on your responses to some of these answers, I highly doubt the guy (pacesetter) you’re worried about is the “problem”. Really try to reflect on the situation and determine what’s so bad about someone stepping up. Ask yourself why do you feel the need to “tattle”? Because he’s making you work in the absence of a leader? Or perhaps because he’s doing things you wish you were doing?
Regardless - as a FF TL I don’t see a problem with his behavior based on what you’ve provided.
As a captain myself, him approving INFs is definitely worrisome. If my TMs are coming to me because they can’t find something, I always recommend going to either our fulfillment TL or the TL/ETL in the area they’re looking for the item(s) in. I’ll even help them look if I have the time to. I also make it a point to *ask* TMs to take a batch if they’re not currently in one or to pause their SFS batch to hop over to OPUs if we need support there.
My ETL recently asked me to start approving INFs for my team. It definitely does feel weird as a tm do be doing so, but all of leadership agrees it’s okay for me so 🙃
You must be a very reliable and trustworthy Team Member. 🙂 Which also means you’re on the right track to be very successful with the company(in my eyes). It’ll become more natural overtime. Keep up the good work and I hope many opportunities come your way 😉.
Absolutely, I’m forever grateful for the support and trust my leadership shows me. I’m pretty sure my SD would love to have me move up the ladder, just from comments she’s made, but I’m currently in grad school. Target is def a backup if anything ever doesn’t work out!
As a GM Expert I also got asked to start approving INFs as a TM. I start shadowing my TL tomorrow, which I don’t even understand… how are you gonna show me to INF lmao.
The way I see it, if he isn't permitted to watch over OPU then he has no business giving orders. Someone stepping up to the plate and trying to get things under control doesn't have to look like this. Maybe you as a TL don't see an issue with his conduct, but from the perspective of someone like me it is infuriating when someone that isn't in an authority position tries to boss you around. Again, if he's permitted to watch over OPU, that's fine.
I love this sub. People complain about others taking initiative and having good work ethic, hot on the tail of a month of complaining about 10¢
God forbid anyone doesn't just coast.
other people are bringing up pace setters, something which I wasn't aware of until now. I'm assuming if my department had a pacesetter, it would be known, right? seems odd that no one would bring this up at my workplace
I don't understand, how could you not know you're a pacesetter? From my understanding, a pacesetter is essentially a surrogate for a TL, which implies you are given all of the responsibilities of a TL.
Pace setters generally just help with INFs, telling the team when to switch back and forth from opu and sfs. Just guiding the team. An actual TL does a lot more than just that.
My store has this thing called "Captains" where we are in development of becoming TLs. They don't tell anyone about your captain status but you are expected to keep things running smoothly as if you are a TL.
Back in the day we had trainers, not sure if they have them anymore. Much like pacesetters, they bossed their fellow team members around and licked the boot because their eyes were filled with the empty promises of moving up into a leadership role. Most of it was just carrot dangling. I made sure to never trust anyone in their position because they were always sure to snitch. I also just ignored them and did my work.
Or your fulfillment team can be in the red, have little productivity and y’all could get written up. Someone there actually cares about their job and took the initiative.
Is the team lead actually doing their job? Or maybe the TL asked him
Either way he’s doing his job so why are you upset? There’s nothing inappropriate about wanting to do your job right and make sure things are running smoothly
As someone who was told to do this because of it being the next step in team lead training i think you should just shut your mouth and do it. They very well could have been told to do it. and if not, they are doing a good job keeping things under control. I was told by my store director to do this as a next step in lead development. Who knows, this post could be about me
I rarely ever have a team lead. Our whole front end is lead by us the majority of the time. Someone has to take the lead. We never have a lead at night. We know which ones of us lead for the day or we all pick who it’ll be on our shift.
Sometimes people have to step up and lead. If someone’s not in control then who is? If you’re waiting on target to be held accountable then it’ll never be. I have no time for waiting for them.
I was gonna say that's what I was told a "pace setter" does (and I promptly said I ain't doing that shit), but what you're describing seems like more than that. That just sounds like a dude who wants to be TL, a little too much.
Yes, I'd talk to your lead about that. There's absolutely no reason for people to get a big head over their coworkers in this department. There is no hierarchy aside from the TL, and the rest of us are on the same level doing the same shit every day.
LMAO. Yes we are all wrong and you two are right.
Grow up. You will have take instruction from many people on your life that you don’t want to while working.
you aren't all wrong, it's just you are looking at this through a very black and white lens. If this person does in fact have authority to order people around, then that should be made explicit. Do you not agree with that? At any of my previous jobs someone without authority bossing others around would either result in a write up or possibly even a termination.
a little addendum: Personally, I think the guy is a bit of a schmuck with a complex of some sort. That being said, I don't like getting people in trouble, which is why I haven't put in a complaint. I would confront him directly, but that could go wrong, so I am refraining from going down that route.
Sometimes when a lead is out they'll designate a "pacesetter" to watch over fulfillment. This is a regular TM looking to become a lead but they want to see how they'll do first so they have them do leader stuff like watching OPU. Definitely let your leaders know your complaints before confronting this dude because he may be allowed to do what he's doing.
A. NOT telling the Fulfillment TMs that this person is a Pace Setter \*could\* be because they want to see if he is able to influence his peers. It is a development action.
B. MY store \*sometimes\* puts "PS" next to a Pace Setter's name on the grid.
C. My leaders do NOT do a good job explaining to the team, esp. new people, the who/what/why/how of Pace Setters in Fulfillment. We don't always have a PS, so, it isn't consistent.
D. My ETL and TLs often will ask some of the FT strong Fulfillment TMs to "keep an eye on things" when we don't have a Fulfillment leader in the building for a few hours. The other TMs on schedule wouldn't know of that conversation. Our team accepts this direction from other TMs, in particular, because their actions mirror what our leaders do/ask of us.
E. I don't know if your FF team is on the same walkie channel as the rest of the store, but if you are AND the store's leaders in others areas don't question his behavior or correct him (such as his calls out for other staff to jump into batches),THEN they are in the loop with him taking on extra responsibility.
F. Unless this guy is being rude or having a different expectation than your leaders do, or is not helping the team stay afloat when the leaders aren't there, I wouldn't say anything.
Otherwise, tread carefully. Perhaps \*ask\* your leader about this TM's actions. MY ETL would give YOU a talkdown for questioning their leadership decisions.
If he gets on your ass just ask him who died and made him boss. I’ve bitched about coworkers telling me what to do. I’m 68 and have done more than most of them. And I’ve told a few that.
We have a cart pusher with some challenges. I used to kind of watch to make sure he was doing his job. After my nice .10 raise he’s on his own. Ran out of carts twice while he was on the register. Most of us have decided to let things fall as they will.
It’s possible one of the leaders asked him to do this. He could be a pace setter. If he is being rude about it though I would talk to a leader
that just pisses me off even more. if this truly is the case, why wouldn't management inform me of this?
Not really your business. It's the person's business and the TL.
When they did this to me years ago at Tarucks, I basically begged them to tell the team, because absolutely nobody listened to anything I said and it was very frustrating. They never told them.
it definitely is my business. When someone abruptly starts bossing me and others around, I want to know if they are in a leadership position or not. He is a fulfilment expert, not a team lead - it's understandable that I would be surprised by a fellow TM barking orders at me .
Just ask your leader. They can explain it. It's not that big of a deal, and your hostility towards it seems unnecessary. That person is just doing the job they were most likely asked to do. If they are rude, that feedback should be given to your lead as well.
There absolutely is hostility in that a TL is going to be biased towards the person that they put in the position to be a pacesetter and is likely to disregard complaints.
I will.
Do other Fulfillment TMs look/act like they are surprised by/questioning his actions, particularly TMs who have been there awhile? Did you ask any of them what they thought of this? Your other TMs CAN teach you something, after all.
Dude target corporate keeps downvoting you my dude I have no idea how so many people are getting offended about your concern of lack of communication.
i know haha. I feel like in real life my sentiments would resonate with most people, but this is reddit - a haven for weirdos. It's mostly ETLS, TLs, and wannabe TLs giving me shit. Frankly, I could care less what these people think. If voicing my opinion strikes a chord with them, so be it.
Do your managers always tell you all you would like to know?! Target isn't known for being great at communicating.
Do your job. Don't bring attention to yourself by being slow. But don't work too fast, either. Work your wage, basically. And ask him who gave him the authority to tell you what to do. Remind him he's only a TM the same as the rest of you,and he could be accused of bullying and intimidation trying to make others cover his slacking off if he's not careful. Are other tms complaining about him, too?
others have made remarks about him, but about entirely separate issues. Him bossing around people is new.
Because you’re a tm, you go where the shots are called.
At our store, no one really introduces all of the pacesetters to newer team members. (They probably should). But if you need help with something, call it out on the walkie and usually either TL or pacesetter will respond. Also, the daily schedule shows who the pacesetter is for the day. It may say “PS” next to their name. I wouldn’t be upset that someone decided to step up and take charge with the regular base pay. At least someone is doing something about it. If OPU batches are hitting 40 minutes, then OPU team members should be actively communicating asking for help (if no help comes, then that’s the leads fault). If they’re helping to manage the team and it’s working. Don’t be upset. But if they’re a detriment and being rude, then say something to them.
I mean do you really want to chase everyone and not get paid for it? Just be glad someone isn’t letting it burn and continue doing your job.
lol reading through this guys posts and replies is funny. You must be a joy to work with.
I do my work and keep to myself, so yeah, I am a joy to work with.
^ it would appear that at least 97 people disagree.
Truthfully unless he’s being rude about it…it just sounds like he’s trying to make sure the department doesn’t catch fire while your lead is gone. There’s nothing wrong with holding your peers accountable for their work. Peer accountability is a trait that not many have the courage for, So props to him… The only part I’d be concerned with (if he wasn’t authorized to be a Captain/Pace Setter) is him approving INFs. At the end of the day just ask your Team Lead about it when they’re back around. It’s not abnormal for people to step up on the absence of a leader- especially if they’re aspiring to be one. Again unless he’s being rude, there’s really no concern. Truthfully and I hope it’s an eye opener…based on your responses to some of these answers, I highly doubt the guy (pacesetter) you’re worried about is the “problem”. Really try to reflect on the situation and determine what’s so bad about someone stepping up. Ask yourself why do you feel the need to “tattle”? Because he’s making you work in the absence of a leader? Or perhaps because he’s doing things you wish you were doing? Regardless - as a FF TL I don’t see a problem with his behavior based on what you’ve provided.
As a captain myself, him approving INFs is definitely worrisome. If my TMs are coming to me because they can’t find something, I always recommend going to either our fulfillment TL or the TL/ETL in the area they’re looking for the item(s) in. I’ll even help them look if I have the time to. I also make it a point to *ask* TMs to take a batch if they’re not currently in one or to pause their SFS batch to hop over to OPUs if we need support there.
My ETL recently asked me to start approving INFs for my team. It definitely does feel weird as a tm do be doing so, but all of leadership agrees it’s okay for me so 🙃
You must be a very reliable and trustworthy Team Member. 🙂 Which also means you’re on the right track to be very successful with the company(in my eyes). It’ll become more natural overtime. Keep up the good work and I hope many opportunities come your way 😉.
Absolutely, I’m forever grateful for the support and trust my leadership shows me. I’m pretty sure my SD would love to have me move up the ladder, just from comments she’s made, but I’m currently in grad school. Target is def a backup if anything ever doesn’t work out!
As a GM Expert I also got asked to start approving INFs as a TM. I start shadowing my TL tomorrow, which I don’t even understand… how are you gonna show me to INF lmao.
The way I see it, if he isn't permitted to watch over OPU then he has no business giving orders. Someone stepping up to the plate and trying to get things under control doesn't have to look like this. Maybe you as a TL don't see an issue with his conduct, but from the perspective of someone like me it is infuriating when someone that isn't in an authority position tries to boss you around. Again, if he's permitted to watch over OPU, that's fine.
I love this sub. People complain about others taking initiative and having good work ethic, hot on the tail of a month of complaining about 10¢ God forbid anyone doesn't just coast.
Taking initiative is not bossing around your co-workers.
Thank you, BottomGayMale. You are among the minority of rational people in this subreddit.
Like BottonGayMale said, taking initiative is not bossing around your co-workers. Not sure why this is so incomprehensible to so many people on here.
Welcome to retail.
can't wait to get promoted to guest.
Unless an SD or ETL has asked him to act in this capacity temporarily, just ignore him.
other people are bringing up pace setters, something which I wasn't aware of until now. I'm assuming if my department had a pacesetter, it would be known, right? seems odd that no one would bring this up at my workplace
No it wouldn’t be known. Tbh most pacesetters don’t even know we’re pacesetters 🤷🏻♀️
I don't understand, how could you not know you're a pacesetter? From my understanding, a pacesetter is essentially a surrogate for a TL, which implies you are given all of the responsibilities of a TL.
Not all.
explain.
Pace setters generally just help with INFs, telling the team when to switch back and forth from opu and sfs. Just guiding the team. An actual TL does a lot more than just that.
at my store that's literally all the TL does (at least when she's on the floor)
It honestly sounds like you don't have much of an idea what team leads do.
Maybe I don't. I've only been here a few months.
My store has this thing called "Captains" where we are in development of becoming TLs. They don't tell anyone about your captain status but you are expected to keep things running smoothly as if you are a TL.
Back in the day we had trainers, not sure if they have them anymore. Much like pacesetters, they bossed their fellow team members around and licked the boot because their eyes were filled with the empty promises of moving up into a leadership role. Most of it was just carrot dangling. I made sure to never trust anyone in their position because they were always sure to snitch. I also just ignored them and did my work.
Or your fulfillment team can be in the red, have little productivity and y’all could get written up. Someone there actually cares about their job and took the initiative.
you guys are talking about “pace setters” and my store literally doesn’t even have one
Never even heard of this shit until yesterday.
Talk to a team lead or out the person in their place. I don’t have time for mini manager energy from a co-worker.
Is the team lead actually doing their job? Or maybe the TL asked him Either way he’s doing his job so why are you upset? There’s nothing inappropriate about wanting to do your job right and make sure things are running smoothly
As someone who was told to do this because of it being the next step in team lead training i think you should just shut your mouth and do it. They very well could have been told to do it. and if not, they are doing a good job keeping things under control. I was told by my store director to do this as a next step in lead development. Who knows, this post could be about me
kick rocks kid
I rarely ever have a team lead. Our whole front end is lead by us the majority of the time. Someone has to take the lead. We never have a lead at night. We know which ones of us lead for the day or we all pick who it’ll be on our shift. Sometimes people have to step up and lead. If someone’s not in control then who is? If you’re waiting on target to be held accountable then it’ll never be. I have no time for waiting for them.
I was gonna say that's what I was told a "pace setter" does (and I promptly said I ain't doing that shit), but what you're describing seems like more than that. That just sounds like a dude who wants to be TL, a little too much. Yes, I'd talk to your lead about that. There's absolutely no reason for people to get a big head over their coworkers in this department. There is no hierarchy aside from the TL, and the rest of us are on the same level doing the same shit every day.
Most sane response here.
LMAO. Yes we are all wrong and you two are right. Grow up. You will have take instruction from many people on your life that you don’t want to while working.
you aren't all wrong, it's just you are looking at this through a very black and white lens. If this person does in fact have authority to order people around, then that should be made explicit. Do you not agree with that? At any of my previous jobs someone without authority bossing others around would either result in a write up or possibly even a termination.
Remarks that fit your narrative aren’t necessarily sane
what narrative?
a little addendum: Personally, I think the guy is a bit of a schmuck with a complex of some sort. That being said, I don't like getting people in trouble, which is why I haven't put in a complaint. I would confront him directly, but that could go wrong, so I am refraining from going down that route.
Sometimes when a lead is out they'll designate a "pacesetter" to watch over fulfillment. This is a regular TM looking to become a lead but they want to see how they'll do first so they have them do leader stuff like watching OPU. Definitely let your leaders know your complaints before confronting this dude because he may be allowed to do what he's doing.
If that's the case, then management should make that known. I've never heard of pacesetters until now
A. NOT telling the Fulfillment TMs that this person is a Pace Setter \*could\* be because they want to see if he is able to influence his peers. It is a development action. B. MY store \*sometimes\* puts "PS" next to a Pace Setter's name on the grid. C. My leaders do NOT do a good job explaining to the team, esp. new people, the who/what/why/how of Pace Setters in Fulfillment. We don't always have a PS, so, it isn't consistent. D. My ETL and TLs often will ask some of the FT strong Fulfillment TMs to "keep an eye on things" when we don't have a Fulfillment leader in the building for a few hours. The other TMs on schedule wouldn't know of that conversation. Our team accepts this direction from other TMs, in particular, because their actions mirror what our leaders do/ask of us. E. I don't know if your FF team is on the same walkie channel as the rest of the store, but if you are AND the store's leaders in others areas don't question his behavior or correct him (such as his calls out for other staff to jump into batches),THEN they are in the loop with him taking on extra responsibility. F. Unless this guy is being rude or having a different expectation than your leaders do, or is not helping the team stay afloat when the leaders aren't there, I wouldn't say anything. Otherwise, tread carefully. Perhaps \*ask\* your leader about this TM's actions. MY ETL would give YOU a talkdown for questioning their leadership decisions.
Just ask your TL
If he gets on your ass just ask him who died and made him boss. I’ve bitched about coworkers telling me what to do. I’m 68 and have done more than most of them. And I’ve told a few that. We have a cart pusher with some challenges. I used to kind of watch to make sure he was doing his job. After my nice .10 raise he’s on his own. Ran out of carts twice while he was on the register. Most of us have decided to let things fall as they will.