Working at Target — Reviews by Employees

I was an Executive Team Leader (ETL, or Assistant Manager) at Target, recruited fresh out of college.

Pay (+5) : I've got to say, during a time when the economy was just about to fall out under everyone's feet, Target was good to me. As a 23-year-old graduate, they offered me a salary just under $50,000 a year, when friends older than me who had graduated the year before were struggling in the low $20k's.

Respect (+4) : I wouldn't say I ever felt disrespected by anyone at Target except for A) the small handful of disgruntled team members (hourly employees) and B) one or two fellow ETLs who were just old and miserable. My STL was a hard-driving, results-oriented individual, but he/she never disrespected me. On the contrary, he/she was very helpful and tried to motivate me to improve my career in management.

Benefits (+4) : As a manager, I worked full-time with salary, and I was eligible for benefits almost immediately. The only reason I did not give this category a +5 is because sometimes the copay for basic services seemed too high (a routine dental cleaning cost me $150 - $200 out of pocket), as if Target could have sprung for the next better package, but opted to save some money.

Job Security (+4) : Again, I almost gave this a +5, but I feel that Target, regardless of what they might claim, does display favoritism, depending on what store you're in and who is in charge. Luckily for me, I was a favorite (at least during most of my tenure there). However, if you are targeted (no pun intended) by your STL or other ETLs as a poor performer AND/OR just not liked personally, they have a way of doing what they call "performance managing" you out. Ever receive a coaching or counseling at Target? Did you do everything in your power to change your behavior or performance to fix it, only to receive the "next step" in corrective action a month or two later? Guess what. That's because one of your bosses, or your boss's boss, had it out for you from the get-go. In my experience, I saw this happen 90% of the time because of attitude. If a team member or team leader displayed a crappy attitude, expressed disrespect or disdain for ETLs or fellow team members, etc, one of the ETLs or the STL would bring that person up in a meeting. Eventually a coaching would be given for not being fast, fun, and friendly. Even if that person tried to change, typically the ETL or STL who delivered the original coaching had been personally insulted or embarassed by the team member and held a grudge. When an ETL or STL holds a grudge against you, they will watch you and wait for you to make the same mistake again. You can be good for 29 days, but if you make a mistake on Day 30, you are getting taken to the next level of corrective action. Long story short, I call this sort of behavior by management into question when it comes to job security. If you're well-liked, you can have a nice long career at Target.

Work/Life Balance (-3) : It's retail. Now I understand not having too many vacations off, and I understand managers working rotating weekends. But the biggest problem I had with Targets work/life balance was the 50-hour weeks for ETLs. On countless occasions my coworkers and I would discuss how we felt that we could manage our team and do our jobs during a standard 8-hour day. If you're an ETL and you are breaking your back 60+ hours a week, you are doing something wrong. Not Target. An effective manager knows time management, and if you stay busy, an ETL can get his/her work done within 40 - 45 hours a week. Add to that the fact that I had an unfortunate 45 minute commute to work each way, and all the sudden it seems my workday is in the ballpark of 12 hours.

Career Potential (+2) : Similar to the job security section, I feel that if you are well-liked by your STL and DTL (store- and district-team leader), you can and will grow at Target. If not, you will be stuck in your store for another 18 - 24 months. I will say, however, that Target does have several areas in which a manager can grow. Human Resources, Assets Protection, Logistics, Operations, Distribution Center management, Safety, HQ in Minneapolis, Investigations, and those are only the ones I know about.

Location (0) : This all depends on where you live and where you want to live. In my experience, I spent the whole of my career at one store, and I absolutely hated the location. To begin with, it was far from my home. I passed three other Target stores in my district on the way to work every day. On top of that, my store was in a rural area and had a team that had been there forever. These people were not receptive to change and did not accept me as a young professional with a college degree very happily. However, I was friends with other ETLs in the district who seemed to be thrilled with their coworkers like they were an ETL Dream Team. Definitely wish I had that...

Co-worker Competence (+1) : There were about six other ETLs in my store. Two of them were very smart, helpful, friendly, and good at their jobs. A third was all of the above, but he quit because everyone used him as a scapegoat and he was burned out. Poor guy. Finally, the other three were pretty arrogant and, although they knew their jobs (because they were over 40 and had been in the same position for the last twenty years), they were unwilling to help and enjoyed seeing the young newbies make mistakes, crash, and sometimes burn.

Work Environment (0) : I kept this at 0 because this depends entirely on your position, location, mental outlook, team members, coworkers, bosses, and a whole slew of other factors. For me, it was neutral. For every good day, there was a bad day. For every great day, there were two disastrous days. So maybe -1 is a better description for my experience, but I'll stick with 0.

If you can, work as an ETL. Try it. If you like it, great. It's a decent gig, but don't stay if you get too worn out.

The pay isn't great, but guess what? There isn't much out there that's going to start me out at 10 an hour. I get tons of respect from my ETL's and other TM's. I do have to say though, there are some TM's that are quite stupid at times. There's some things that could be done just by using common sense but isn't. I do have to say though, it's a great place to work (at my store anyway), we all get along and the AP team that I work on has great chemistry. It's one of the few jobs that I get a guaranteed 40 hours a week and at the pay that I am at. I could go out and probably find a job for higher pay but I would have to take a management position and am glad to be away from that for now. It sucks to see people get stuck in bad stores, but a lot of the times it's also the same incompetent people that are constantly asking stupid questions over a 3 month period and are shocked when they get termed. You CAN use your head to decided if something is supposed to be done or not.

ETL's have their special group they could steal thousands of dollars a night and get away with it, open door policy is a bunch of BS, ETL's dont listen! some employees think their better than others...we all work at target, at one point or another we have all screwed up pretty bad in life, pay is below poverty, ETL's think they're some short of gods or something, someone need to kick them off their power trip

Worked for target for 5 years. I started as a "salesfloor team member" and worked my way into management. Target offers ok pay and really good benefits. However in the last year or so corporate has really changed things around and not for the better. I left Target in the Fall of 2009 after being very dissatisfied.

Pay - My first job ever and started out above minimum wage. I was happy with that.

Respect - HR and team leaders are very serious with any troubles team members encountered. If I felt dizzy/sick, I was allowed to rest as long as I needed and even go home if it was serious without being penalized. HR was always available and super caring. When my grades started to slip from too much work, HR personally asked around other workers to take my shifts so I could focus on school. This company has a LOT of respect for their employees.

Job Security: After seasonal, MANY people were laid off (especially cashiers with low speed scores). And I know a lot of people who depend on their jobs for a living had hours cut during slow times.

Potential Growth: A fellow cashier was promoted to Team Leader. It's easy to go from team member to team leader, but i am not sure if growth is as easy for other positions.

Co-Worker Competence: Though a lot of customers assume Target employees are stupid (a customer in a horrible mood once called me "retarded"...) everyone I worked with was intelligent and abnormally PATIENT. If a worker seems to be incompetent to you, they might just be tired from dealing with demanding/ridiculous/obnoxious customers all day. But I've worked with FAR, FAR more incompetent employees in other workplaces (*cough Victoria's Secret cough*)

Work Environment: Target is fantastic, the customers are horrible. I cannot rant enough about rude/crazy/obnoxious etc. customers. They are the reason I ultimately had to quit; I could not stand there and grit my teeth and smile anymore when a customer was OBVIOUSLY wrong.

Quite possibly one of the worst experiences i've ever had at a job. Main complaint: always switching shifts and departments

I was a team lead for 6 years. I can't believe I stayed as long as I did. I got to the point that I hated it so much that I would be physically ill when walking into the front doors. My issue is that fact that Target keeps salary budgets for those working the salefloor so low that it is impossible to get anything done. I would come in for my shift with lists of tasks to be completed in my departments, the departments I get evaluated on during my annual review. However, I got to spend almost zero time in my departments but most of my 8 hour day was spent on the front lanes. If they wanted me to be a cashier, then they should have hired me to be a cashier.

Out of the 20 plus lanes you find in Super Targets, only 2 or 3 of them are staffed. So what do they do when guests want to check out? They force the few people who are scheduled on the salesfloor to come up and check them out. Often times, that leaves no one on the salesfloor. When a guest needs help on the salefloor and pushes the button, you get in trouble for not answering it fast enough. You could be on a lane or all the way across the store. ETLs are above working the registers or answering calls. For those on the salesfloor it is exhausting running all over the store to help guests and super stressful knowing you are not gettting your planograms and/or adjacencies done.

There were never enough people scheduled to clean up the store at night so being there until 2 or 3 in the morning just cleaning up after guests was not uncommon. We never had time to get backstock out of the back, flex in new merchandise, work clearance by company brand, keep up with returns and go-backs, sell enough Red Cards, or anything else you want to do to get your department where it needs to be or to feel good about achieving a job well done. I don't think I ever walked out of there at the end of my shift and felt good about the amount of work I got done or how my department looked unless i got to work an overnight and was left alone.

I really enjoy working for Target. As a salesfloor team member, I am at the bottom of the totem poll. I am treated with respect from all of my managers. There isn't a day that I do not look forward to work. I am always kept busy and I have gained valuable retail experience. Also, there is no discrimination amongst race/gender/orientation/age. This allows a wonderfully diverse atmosphere. Way to go Target!

The pay beginning is quite ridiculous and so are how raises are handled. I feel bad to see people get $.08 and we can say it's ok because it's the economy's fault. With the cost of living going up always why isn't our pay to compensate for that?
I feel like I get respect so I won't spend time on that or benefits. I think it's awesome you only have to work as little as 20 hours a week and get health benefits. I'm very secure with my job security also.
As far as the carerr potential/growth it's a joke what they make you go through. It doesn't matter how good a team member you are, and know you are, you still have to go through interviews that frustrated the heck out of me. I failed 4 times before I guess coming up with the answers they wanted to hear.
Finally, I'll just comment on work environment. It is so hot in our building. I realize times are bad and making cuts is necessary but not when it comes to work environment and making your employess work in their own sweat. After 10 minutes of work my shirt is already soaked and I'm one who doesn't usually sweat that easily. It's a continuous complaint for alot of team members I hear.

been with Target fora long time and am very happy with what they stand for. There are no surprises- They are who they are- a fortune 500 company,a company recognized for being the best for working mom's and for being a giver back to the community. I like the fun events and community events and I also like that if I have a problem I generally can go to my boss and share my concerns. Can even say when I disagree and why without fear of retailiation. Ia m proud of my team and their accomplishments. Does that mean we have no drama? of course not - but there is drama everywhere and it"s how you deal with that drama (or adversity) that sets you apart. Over all, I highly recommend working for Target and am thankful for them.