Store employees were forced to complete 'impossible' work of 10-12 people in one night — they had a top-notch response
Many workplaces see insensitive attitudes being thrown at employees, especially toward workers in lower positions. It can easily be seen when these employees are given unacceptably high or impossible targets to complete in a short span of time. An employee–who goes by u/Srvtgrrl_789 on Reddit–revealed that when their former planogram team at Target was given a highly strenuous task with an impossible deadline, their supervisor stood up and united with them to render a top-notch response. Their creative solution is receiving much applause.
The employee further explained that the team’s job was to “set up/take apart store displays and fixtures, which included product label updates and building out new display models.” Their team was asked to do six weeks of overnight shifts to take down and replace items in several departments. Since the equipment was furniture, heavy and fragile items, the team was promised extra help and time to get the work done. Unfortunately, the promise was not delivered and more and more work piled up on them. “Toys and Hardware/Automotive were fine. We finished those, with no extra help, within a day of when they were to be finished,” the post read.
However, the team of five people was given a plan for removing and replacing home goods and furniture in one night. This meant “removing the old display models, taking them in tubs to the trash compactor, removing the shelves, the industrial carpet glued to the shelves and cleaning the shelves.” Additionally, they also had to take apart the furniture before it went to the trash, so it was easier to destroy. Again, they were promised extra help but got nothing and were expected to do the work of 10-12 people. “My supervisor, Delores, was pissed. We were left with a note to get all of that work done within our allotted shift (10 PM-6 AM),” the employee explained.
Despite making calls and trying to get help, the higher-ups ignored the supervisor. Delores, 6 ft.2 tall and a former army veteran, was annoyed. She decided to get the work done and meet the deadline with her team, but in her own way. “I watched Delores climb up on one of the furniture flats, then, while looking straight into the security camera, kicked a fake cherrywood end table off the flat and then jumped down on the flat. It splintered into several pieces. She then proceeded to stomp those pieces into many little pieces,” the employee remarked. She then asked the team what the instructions for the task were. “It says to disassemble them and then take the pieces to the compactor, so they’ll be easier to compact,” the employee replied. The supervisor shrewdly said, “That’s what we’re going to do.”
The team followed her footsteps and climbed up on the furniture, knocked it down and “destroyed” it. They managed to do a lot, but couldn’t take off the carpets and put up the new displays. Nevertheless, they refused to continue to reach the absurd deadline. “When I came to work that night, the new furniture was already put together and up on the new displays. We were also given an apology by the regional manager, who Delores called that day to let him know we’d been screwed over with an impossible deadline and given a free pizza dinner for our trouble,” the post concluded. u/wildwildvivi said, “Cheers to Target's top-notch strategy team!” u/Justaman_097 remarked, “Well played! Delores is a legend.”