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| SFReader Forums > The Real World > World Events > Target's Discriminatory Use of Security Policy | Forum Quick Jump
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Scott M. Sandridge
Former King of Shameless Plugs
      
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 714
| Posted 2/17/2006 4:30 AM (GMT -5) |   | And if you think I'm going overboard on this, feel free to let me know:
Excerpted from my SR Blog:
Yesterday I had planned to list my favorite markets to submit to, but that idea got pushed back a day after a certain event that happened, once again, at Target. "Oh no," I bet you're groaning. "What's he going to complain about now?"
This time, however, it's a bit more serious than the usual rants about work. First off, it has nothing to do with the store managers, it's about a policy from up top. First-off a brief recap on a certain policy, then how said policy revealed itself to be a wee bit discriminatory against Target employees. Not my guys (KBS), but against Target employees. They have a policy that no one working overnight is allowed outside for any reason whatsoever before 5:30 A.M. Ok, no prob. I didn't like it (since I like to smoke and the only designated smoking area is outside), but it was equally enforced on KBS crew and Target employees.
Well, last night was inventory night, and the employees of WISI were there doing inventory. Break time came around. Target's managers unlocked and opened the doors to allow them to take a break outside if they wanted (remember above policy?) but then announced on the intercom the break time for Target employees, adding, "The doors are open but no Target employees can go outside."
The Target employees, naturally, were a bit confused over the double-standard, as was my crew. The Target employees took it in stride since, after all, too much fuss might cost them their jobs (As one employee had put it, "What can you do? It's their rules."). I even kept silent, more or less, however...that's because I have this blog to let it out.
Such acts of blatant, in-your-face descrimination cannot be tolerated! What is Target's problem! What is it about the big wigs that makes them think they're so high-and-mighty that they think they can get away with stuff like this? They can't even use the "It's for your own safety" crap this time because the doors were open and unlocked for fifteen minutes straight at 1:00 A.M.! WISI employees were given a special privilege that they don't even give their own employees! Obviously, they're not concerned about theft from outside the store, like they kept telling us! Obviously, they trust complete strangers running about more than they do their own people!
Me and my supervisor were somewhat vocal about it, though we kept our discussion subdued between the two of us. Afterwards, everywhere we went, we spotted one manager or another keeping tabs on us (they were trying to be discreet about it but were failing miserably) whenever the two of us got together. Interesting, since at this point in time, we are the only two people who aren't very worried about our jobs. Now I know why they never liked me talking to their employees.
I haven't been buying from Target for awhile over the other crap. I had let up my own personal boycott when I thought things were getting better. Boy was I wrong! Not letting me play my music while others are around, that I can handle. Not letting me or my crew have access to a designated smoking area, while crappy, is tolerable. But outright blatant discrimination with regards to their own policies (even as dumb as those policies are) is not something I can condone or look the other way from! This crap impacted people I consider my friends! Do to me whatever you want, but don't mess with my friends!
I'm not buying from Target, and I encourage everyone else to not buy from Target. From not allowing the Salvation Army on their property, to threatening to fire employees who say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas (btw, nothing wrong with Happy Holidays, I just don't think people should be forced to say it), to letting their pharmacies not allow emergency contraceptives, and with the discriminatory ways they treat their own employees: take your pick, I'm sure you can find the reason to join the boycott. Maybe, just maybe, after they lose a few mil, they'll shape up finally. I doubt it, but one can always hope. And permission to copy my rant and paste it wherever you wish. Get the word out. Or not. Your choice is your freedom. Choose wisely.
Scott M. Sandridge
My Website
http://www.scottmsandridge.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Dragon Angel
Lord Dragon
Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 1066
| Posted 2/17/2006 1:46 PM (GMT -5) | | I bet it's because of shoplifting. Target simply doesn't trust their own employees. From my own experience, I know that at least one person worked there because it is easy to shoplift from them. So, I would say they aren't completely misguided. I do agree that it is insulting to the employees, but a few bad eggs can ruin it for everyone.
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html | | Back to Top | | |
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Scott M. Sandridge
Former King of Shameless Plugs
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 714
| Posted 2/17/2006 2:20 PM (GMT -5) | | quote:
Originally posted by Jeff Edwards
Hey Scott. I know zilch about all of this, and am not defending Target's policy that you described, but could this policy be related in some strange way to insurance requirements? I am thinking there is some obscure rule related to worker's comp or whatever and some Target executive made the decision, "No overnight employees can walk outside. There, that solves that problem." I'm not saying they did the right thing by any means, but I am thinking that they're just trying to come up with some way - however misguided - to comply with "rules" that are outside of their control.
-Jeff
That might be the case, but if Target employees aren't allowed to go outside on overnights then the inventory employees shouldn't have been allowed to, either. I have no problem with the policy, itself--however idiotic I think it is--it was the double standard they showed last night. It also made the whole reason they claim to have the policy for a moot point at the least, a lie at the worst.
It might actually be about some insurance requirement/workers comp thing, but it would be nice if they were up front about it and just said so.
My Website
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Scott M. Sandridge
Former King of Shameless Plugs
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 714
| Posted 2/17/2006 2:42 PM (GMT -5) | | quote:
Originally posted by davidolson22
I bet it's because of shoplifting. Target simply doesn't trust their own employees. From my own experience, I know that at least one person worked there because it is easy to shoplift from them. So, I would say they aren't completely misguided. I do agree that it is insulting to the employees, but a few bad eggs can ruin it for everyone.
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html
I'm sure that's part of the reason, too. But the WISI employees they did allow outside could just as easily have shoplifted as well. And yet...
They hold us KBS employess to the same policies as the Target employees when we're there, which is as it should be. I just can't understand what made the WISI employees so special. And did they really have to be so blatant about it?
We (KBS crew) can't even go out and clean the outside windows until after 5:30 A.M.(or even clean between the two sets of doors, depending on which manager's in charge and their own "interpretation" of said policy) yet WISI employees got to go out for a break at 1 A.M. while the Target employees couldn't? And they announce such over the P.A.?
My Website
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Dragon Angel
Lord Dragon
Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 1066
| Posted 2/17/2006 6:37 PM (GMT -5) | | What's a KBS and what's a WISI?
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html | | Back to Top | | |
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Scott M. Sandridge
Former King of Shameless Plugs
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 714
| Posted 2/18/2006 2:36 AM (GMT -5) | | KBS is Kellermeyer Building Services. The cleaners contracted to clean the Target stores in the local area. WISI is a company that does the yearly inventory checks for Target.
My Website
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darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1760
| Posted 2/18/2006 10:19 AM (GMT -5) | | | I don't know if this makes any difference ... but 20 years ago when I was in the grocery store business there were federal laws that affected and limited how inventory counters and store management could intermingle. Maybe it's something like this? | | Back to Top | | |
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Scott M. Sandridge
Former King of Shameless Plugs
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 714
| Posted 2/18/2006 2:55 PM (GMT -5) | | That could be the case, but I've worked in this particular store for a few years now, and this is the first year they've done it like this. Besides, they could've kept them seperated by having the one group go upstairs to the break room and the other stay downstairs at the food court. They didn't have to break policy for one and not the other.
I don't know. It just seemed real crappy to me the way they've recently been treating their employees. It wasn't like this before.
My Website
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darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1760
| Posted 2/18/2006 3:02 PM (GMT -5) | | Historically speaking, when a political ruler begins to tighten the grip too much, it means there's a downfall coming in the future.
I'd hazard a guess it's the same for a corporation. Not that Target is getting ready to go under, but there might be tough times ahead. The U.S. economy is not in great shape, regardless of what one politician or another might say. | | Back to Top | | |
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Scott M. Sandridge
Former King of Shameless Plugs
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 714
| Posted 2/18/2006 3:21 PM (GMT -5) | | Considering the Target store closings I've heard about added to them cutting hours and benefits to almost half within the past year, I'd have to agree with you on that one.
I used to like shopping at Target, but anymore just having to walk into that store turns my stomach.
My Website
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Rob Mancebo
Adept
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 984
| Posted 3/6/2006 12:17 PM (GMT -5) | |
Scott M. Sandridge said...
And if you think I'm going overboard on this, feel free to let me know:
I'm not buying from Target, and I encourage everyone else to not buy from Target. From not allowing the Salvation Army on their property, to threatening to fire employees who say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas (btw, nothing wrong with Happy Holidays, I just don't think people should be forced to say it), to letting their pharmacies not allow emergency contraceptives, and with the discriminatory ways they treat their own employees: take your pick, I'm sure you can find the reason to join the boycott. Maybe, just maybe, after they lose a few mil, they'll shape up finally. I doubt it, but one can always hope. And permission to copy my rant and paste it wherever you wish. Get the word out. Or not. Your choice is your freedom. Choose wisely.
- I am in no way officially representing Target here they have a relations department that I'm sure would be glad to give you quotes of their corporate guidelines but - -
First, feel free to vote with your feet. If you don't like Target you can always go to BuyMart or WallMart and get similar goods at similar prices.
However, if it's because of them not allowing the Bell Ringers on their property, I think your 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'. Target quit allowing the S.A. Bellringers to avoid lawsuits from other groups who were not allowed. If they let one group then the others want to be there too (And just how many people asking for money do you want to push past to get to the doors???) Target Corp itself gives a fortune to the Salvation Army every year. The head of our local S.A. came by and appologised to the local Target for the unwarrented bad press given to Target over the ban.
I know for a fact that Target Corp has not joined into the the 'Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas' debate so anything you've heard about that is from individule Store Managers. People greet each other with whatever polite greeting they wish out here. Mostly they say 'Can I help you find something' which is a Target standard.
Emergency controceptives? This is another contraversy I haven't heard about here. Again it probably comes from the Pharmacisist or Store Manager.
Not letting the employees out before 05:30 sounds like a safety issue. There are several reasons for this, mostly related to problems in large citys. Breaks tend to be standard. What happens when the local hoods learn that there's going to be a group of unarmed folks (Target does not allow weapons on-premisis) in the same, dim place every night at the same time??? It's also typical for robbers to follow such a group back inside when the break is done and rob a store. If another group was let out, it was probably agreed to in advance between their boss and the store Manager.
The questions you've raised are valid but I suggest you walk by and grab a complaint form and send it in to Target Corp. Target is hardly a perfectly run store, it's thousands of stores and if THQ dosen't hear about complaints, they'll never be able to address the problems.
Rob
Adventure-History-Fantasy-Folklore www.geocities.com/robmancebo/ | | Back to Top | | |
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targetsucks
Stablehand
Date Joined Apr 2006
Total Posts : 1
| Posted 4/4/2006 2:20 PM (GMT -5) | | Hi,
I would just like to say, as a target employee, that it's not that they don't let us out. They let us out at 5 a.m. if we are working past that time. The 5 o'clock break is the unpaid one. The first break is the paid one where apparently we are their responsibility and must be cared for at all costs even though we work with shoddy equipment, noxious fumes and dust from the cleaning crew and construction as well as the fact that we have many employees with asthma, allergies and disabilities due to age or previous accidents. I guess it is ok to work us to death in a hotbed of germs and fumes, make us work well past our scheduled times and not even let us out for a quick smoke where there is at least ten of us. Honestly, what's going to happen with ten of us standing around for five minutes with box cutters in our back pockets? Like I said above, they let us out at five so the shoplifting thing is a mute point. Daytime employees have more opportunity to steal yet get more priviledge because the store is open. There is no valid reason for this policy other than control. The excuses given to us about this policy fail miserably every time when challenged and the employees at my particular store are fed up with the mistreatment. Even though customers and dayside team members have more opportunity for theft, we are treated as if we are a bunch of thieving animals who don't deserve to be let out into society. We are planning a petition, of course this may not work in the beginning, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and I have been known to be pretty squeaky when I want to be. Management has no right to complain that none of us want to work past our scheduled shifts and give 110% when we cant even get a breath of fresh air or a smoke. Try being cooped up in a building with twenty other people who haven't had a cigarette for seven hours and see how cooperative they are. Not very
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