My days of grief over the loss of Loki were made worse by my new employer, Target. The store is not yet open, so I had one number for human resources at the store. A number that apparently was not monitored. I texted the number, as instructed during my orientation, and tried to ignore any thoughts of my new job while caring for Loki in his final moments.
It started with a simple one-day call-off for a veterinary emergency as I was not sure how things were going to go. It then became a need for a few days to grieve. I did not hear anything in reply. I attempted to call the number listed online for the store only to hear a recording for Kmart, the previous occupant of that building.
I knew that there was a job fair for a store at the Lebanon Valley Mall that Monday. It was a retailer that I felt would be a much better fit for me than Target. My husband had planned to go, so I was going to go with him. While we were there filling out paper applications (yes, paper), I had a “scam likely” call on my phone. The caller left a voicemail, but I didn’t check because my focus was on getting another job. I NEEDED to get this job—I certainly did not want to return to Target, which was proving to be horrible with communication. Plus I knew I would always associate that job with Loki’s death.
While I was interviewing with the hiring manager at the job fair, I received a text message. I did not know this until after since I had my phone on vibrate and was ignoring it while speaking with the interviewer. We talked about the store, my experience in retail, and various other topics. She seemed excited that I was both experienced and had open availability and decided to hire me right then. I felt hopeful that this job would be a much better fit for me than Target. I still feel that way.
While my husband was interviewing, I checked my voicemail and read the text message. It was Target. The voicemail was asking whether I worked—to be honest, it was the woman with the thick accent, so I couldn’t understand half of what she was saying. The text message was a reply to the messages I had sent to HR days before. They told me that number was temporary, which was news to me, and to use the store number. I had no way of knowing there was a new number since HR never communicated with me during my entire onboarding process. Not even when I was in the store training. Other new hires received text messages about orientation. I had not.
I texted the temporary number back, not caring about that job anymore. They clearly were incapable of handling so many new hires, and I needed to wash my hands of the mess. The position wasn’t what I was told anyway…at least, I guess it wasn’t. I was never informed of anything with them. All I knew was my training was cashier-focused, and I specifically said during my interview that I could not be a cashier. My new job certainly understands that, and though I’ll do some cashiering, my job will mostly be covering the sales floor.
This experience with Target was definitely one of the worst experiences I’ve had in my 20 years of working. I’m sure Target is a great company for which to work, just not the Lebanon one. I am glad to be moving on to a different job—one with a smaller company with which I actually like to shop.