It'd be great if we can have this thread with some dignity and stay polite.
14 replies (most recent on top)
Top leaders in Legal have nobody's back but their own. So sad that department has deminished with rest of company.
Target is a deeply broken company and it will take years for Brian Cornell (or whomever is in charge) to successfully make the kind of top-to-bottom philosophical, operational and cultural changes that are required in this flawed state.
The hubris, arrogance and absolute dominance of style over substance is precisely to blame for Target's many recent multi-billion dollar mistakes…among others:
1) The epic failure of Target.com;
2) The catastrophic data breach;
3) And the horribly botched response to the data breach;
4) A barely-functional grocery business;
5) The disaster known as Target Canada
Among others.
Unfortunately, the reckless fiefdom-building of so-called leaders and utter lack of true strategy (in any reasonable business sense of the word) has created an endless cycle of (a) flawed initiative is devised, (b) flawed initiative is rolled out and botched, (c) flawed initiative is reverted to original, flawed model after a year or two of life.
The millions of dollars in waste are staggering.
Spend whatever time and resources are needed to make a presentation look appropriate. Use the four screen technology to say absolutely nothing but what is just the most banal and non-offensive solution. Benchmark the shit out of a project and hire an outside consultant. Tell them the are are worthless, copy and paste their solution into a red and white PowerPoint and take credit for it.
I saw this many times in Store Design. The best part was traveling and submitting a lavish expenses report. There is talent at a Target, but - they it is too scary to speak your mind.
Layoffs are gonna happen. Target got out of shape.
I learned that Target Corp. HQ is "all sizzle, no steak." How social you are and how much cheerleading you do in the right circles is far more important than actual work performed. I learned that HQ runs the company like an ADHD kid hopped-up in Mountain Dew and No-Doze: Chasing the latest shiny trinket while not getting the fundamentals of running a large corporation right. I also learned that there are plenty of other companies that do things right, and as a result are growing. Those companies pay better, have better benefits, but in return expect actual work and performance. Having "Target" on your resume is still a good thing, because many employers think of Target the way it used to be. Use that to your advantage, while you can. Good luck!
I learned that Vicki Wold is a toxic person in a leadership position.
I learned that all promotions and incentives are based on the perception of one person towards you. If there is one slightly negative rumor about you (i.e. "I saw him arriving to the office at 9:20 last week"), it will be placed on top of whatever measurable accomplishments you would have put together.
So, people, find yourselves a decent job where your accomplishments count.
Spot on about perception trumping all else...even if a false one.
I learned that the only thing that matters is perception, and that the loudest person is right. Honestly the culture at Target is the most stressful thing about working there. If they want to stay successful in the future they need to change the culture.
I learned a valuable lesson in concealing my emotions and never being direct. That's about it. Unfortunately, those are only useful life skills for working at Target. They need to be unlearned in other places where character actually matters.
target is like communism, huge overhead, no one really knows or cares how much something costs besides whether sourcing can meet their margins. PDMs that should be doing this have no idea for a microsoft project is or how to create a budget, everything is kept in some dinky excel that's colorcoded to no end. PMs that have nothing to do that each have 2-3 BAs assigned to them that also don't really have anything to do. 1:1 manager to reports ratio in Ops; Managers, Sr. Mangers, Group Managers, Sr. Group Managers -- 4 layers of management that you could and should replace with 1.
people are lifers because if you coffee and status it really doesn't matter what your content contribution is - perception becomes 100% reality.
walking through greathall every day i thought you could lay off everyone in that hall this instant and productivity would not go down but actually may improve - maybe this will be happening now. i feel sorry for these people because with all the overhead and useless level of management levels that they've become accustomed to they won't know how to work in their next job.
It doesnt matter how hard you work, your dedication, your ability to execute, the criticalityof your area. If you are not in the right political circles you are expendable. I was working my butt off up until the hour i was let go. the lack of leadership: talent, focus and drive is why Target cant addres key issues like rolling out to another country, securing data, growing .com revenue.
After being with the company almost two decades I've seen the company culture go from braggable to being embarrassing to work here. That said, I've learned if you do not believe working at target can be any more degrading or a worse place to work, just wait until tomorrow. I used to love this company. It all changed when Bob Ulrich left. His concept was to keep the Team happy and they will take care of the way nvestors. It Worked. We had a two for one and a three for one stock split. NOW our so called leadership is trying to impress stock holders at the Team's express. This thought process is screwing us all. Everyone who has proxy votes needs to vote the board out. Period. Vote the. oUT. If not then target will just be another retailer who has mostly temps working ng for them and the stock price will linger around 30 bucks. Don't believe me? Ask sears and Kmart.
a) Cover your own back.
b) Your first day and your last day will be the only days when you will smile and have confidence in the future.
c) There is no leadership. Only managers with a title who portray arrogance, indecisiveness and stereotypes.
d) You can only perform within very defined boundaries. If you jump the fence, you will be punished.
e) Promotions and increases are only for those 'in the club', meaning the three-pieced suits and the arrogants. There is no meritocracy.
f) I would only work there again for the money.
1) How under the wrong leadership a great company can tank and become almost unrecognizable.
2) That arrogance gets you nowhere if you don't stay current with the times, understand your customer, and keep up with prevalent technology.
3) When you outsource too many employees you may have also outsourced too many customers.
I learned that I need to watch my back, I learned that hard work pays but not always