Indeed.com is a portal for finding jobs and employee evaluations of what it is like to work for a particular company. I examined three years worth of reviews for Target in New York City, New York. I analyzed 118 total reviews–covering the time period between February 12, 2018 to December 19, 2020. The reviews for workplace culture at Target, across all territories, is 3.5 stars (out of 5 stars). However, the culture ratings in New York City were slightly higher–3.66 stars.
I broke down the reviews into three buckets–coworker culture, management culture, and work environment culture. Diving into coworker culture first, 88% of those who commented on their coworkers had something positive to say about the coworker culture. Many used the words “family” and “team” to describe their coworkers. One employee remarked, “Every team member helps whenever help is needed. Target is like your second family.” Another commented, “The best part of the job is knowing my co workers are there for me and vice versa because we act as if we are family in the store.”
Of the few who had something negative to say about coworker culture, one said the following: “The co-workers and management all act like they were in high school.” Another sales associate added, “The workers were ok, but not completely great.” Finally, a beauty consultant at Target said, “Many of their employees are lazy. You would end up having to pick up the slack from the overnight crew and etc.”
The reviews of management culture, however, was a mixed bag. 65% of those who commented on management culture had something negative to say about their experience with their leaders. The biggest common thread was that management played favorites: “Management sucks. Also, they promote TMs who are favorites instead of the ones who work hard.” Another team member said: “They cut down hours especially they had Favoritism.” One logistics team member added: “Favoritism is rampant in every store as well.” Yet another security team supervisor remarked, “Difficult management. Played favoritism.” Finally, a guest service advisor had this to say: “The biggest issue is that to go anywhere you needed to be-friend management. Whether or not you were considered for any higher position wasn’t based on your performance, only off of the people you interacted with in and out of work.”
The positive reviews of management culture included one that refuted the “favoritism” claim: “There’s room for growth so if you show them that you’re serious they’ll see it and it’ll pay off.” Other reviews indicated that management was responsive and took care of their subordinates: “Management is great, they understand all of the things you might have went through and making sure they support you physically and mentally which is very important.” A produce associate had this to add: “the management were always informative and open for my needs if I couldn’t make a shift or needed a day off because of health issues.”
When it comes to work environment culture, one of the biggest common themes was that Target was very fast-paced. Depending on the employee, this could be a plus or a minus. One guest service advocate said, “Target is a very fast paced place to work and sometimes working with the public could be a nightmare.” Another cashier remarked, “Fast paced your shift goes by very quickly you always have a task in hand too keep you busy.” One stocking associate said, “Very fast paced you’re on your feet 24/7.” A team member in the backroom said, “it is fast paced and they are very strict with your hours.”
Focusing on the Target in Herald Square, a warehouse team member added, “Target Herald Square is a great place to work with a fast paced environment with many benefits to working there along with a culture that will breed quick and critical problem solving thinkers.” Another store manager, who also liked the fast paced environment, remarked, “Certainly a fast-paced environment where you must get creative to meet the many needs of your Guest while working to develop your team around new company initiatives.”
A cashier who worked at Target also loved the fast paced environment, but noted that it could be busy-making, “The workplace is fast paced and energetic, also busy at times.” Finally a cart attendant/cashier echoed that he liked the fast paced environment and liked the energy, “Fast Pace competitive work environment . Always nice positive fun energy when you went to the store.”
A second theme when it comes to workplace environment culture was that working at Target could be stressful–often because of being understaffed. One sales associate/cart attendant said, “Was stressful on occasion due to being understaffed at the position all the time.” Another Target team member said the same thing: “Overall the job very stressful & lack of employees.” Another team member also echoed that Target was understaffed–leading to stress. Finally, one team member said that dealing with the stressful days was not worth it: “The pay is not worth the stressful days.”
A review of the employee reviews of Target culture reveals that the camaraderie with fellow team members was a highlight. However, management culture tends to promote favoritism for employees with good rapport with their leaders. Finally, the workplace environment is fast paced, which could be both a plus or a minus, and the work tends to be stressful.