A couple of Senior TTS leaders who were brought in with The Home Depot crowd last year with "Bob" are gone. I suppose that's not unexpected with the new CIO. However, this roller coast TTS has been riding for a year & a half is hurting Target.
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I worked in Target TTS for about 10 years pre 2013 In that time I had 10 managers, 3 role changes I chose myself, so make it 7 I didn't and were just turnover or HR looking to place them somewhere new because they didn't commit a fireable offense in their last role, but needed to go, lucky me. That is the biggest reason I left, too many conflicting messages and management styles. Now on the outside looking in, with lots of friends still employed by TTS, it is a nightmare. Everyone blames leadership, rightfully so, but because of the leadership messes the inmates are running the prison now. So much overhead, so much overlap, double, triple work on so much of their efforts. Most of the TTS FTE (non-leadership) are just adapting to the chaos, nothing more. And when Target leadership is ousted, they pollute the rest of MSP's corporations with the same old bad ideas! Gone are the days of TTS regional glory as THE Best IT shop in town! No one wants to work there!
I agree with 3572 that we (Target) are not a sinking ship but we're definitely going through a huge storm that is being driven from multiple directions, some local (brought on by ourselves, past TTS leaders), some regional (brought on by previous leaders in other pyramids), some from an even broader ecosystem. We each have a choice in acting a passenger or crew member on the ship ... either running around asking who is going to take care of us or digging in to lend a hand. The majority of TTS is more than adequately compensated to be able to work through what seems to be/feels like/is incredible ambiguity; most especially anyone with a title of group manager or higher. It sucks when you go through more bosses than post-its. I can't quite claim 7 since February but I'm close. Why am I sticking it out? I still believe in the potential of Target. If I'm wrong, I'll join a growing list of former Targeteers and find opportunity elsewhere. No-one will die. Life will go on. Might even be a motivation to transition the empty nest somewhere warmer and smaller.
Too many passengers (redundant roles) and a slew of anchors(managers). The mantra since our Home Depot crew got onboard was to micro-manage the crud out of us. Seriously - just let us do what we're good at and get off our shoulders! People cannot grow or improve with the caustic level of distrust and lack of confidence from management. Glad to see we are dumping anchors for good! I am thoroughly exhausted from the constant micromanagement.
TTS is like a cruise ship with norovirus and the last cleanup crew really failed to make any clear decisions or chart any cleanup direction. Hopefully the next set of leaders will use bleach and force the viruses off the ship, otherwise you will have to torch the boat.
Anonymous113567 I agree.
Most team members I work with and I don't expect our leaders to tell us our jobs are secure... We know at this stage in the game what the score is. Senior leaders have indicated still big changes in TTS (employees) and consultants are still coming.
I do want our leaders to talk straight to us, give us clarity to the extent of what they know and can share to help us make plans. Most of our groups' immediate leaders seem to be trying to do this.
I don't have bad feelings about Target or my many years here and will make it through this time one way or another. I do hope that my team members, who are younger, have opportunities to move into other roles, if they choose. We should know within the month, the future of our team/members.
While I agree that the lack of clear direction is extremely detrimental to TTS, I don't agree that's it's a sinking ship. It's currently more like an over-capacity jumbo cruise ship weighted down with too many passengers while dragging a slew of anchors behind it, which we can thank our previous execs for. Hopefully our new leaders are smart enough to get rid of all the dead weight ASAP and turn it into something more like an efficiently operated central port with a fleet of much smaller, more nimble boats. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but the longer we wait the less likely we'll be successful.
Hurting Target and everyone who works in TTS...the instability, uncertainty about the future and lack of any clear direction is utterly toxic. I'm a Group Manager and have had 7 leaders since the start of the fiscal year! It's impossible to calmly look everyone in the eye and tell them not to worry about their job security when everyone is convinced we are on a sinking ship. I am trying to get off before it does. Sad face. I'm sorry guys.