No link yet; this happened today to one of my Facebook friends, a high school classmate. Several minutes later, the management pulled her off the lane and confiscated the card, stating that it was considered a tip, which is not allowed at Target. There was a story about a man who was going around town buying gift cards for employees, and she thinks it may have been him.
Long story made short: She could really use that $100, and considered it a gift, not a tip. .
Does anyone know what recourse she could have regarding this? Has anything like that ever happened to you, and what did you do about it?
Does your friend know what management did with the gift card? That would be horrible if the manager used it themselves, but I suppose they could have just thrown it away.
Does Target have an anonymous phone line to HR? When I worked for Ann Taylor they had a hotline you could call if you had an HR related issue that you didn’t feel comfortable bringing up with management or if you felt management was being unresponsive. Target’s such a large corporation that they probably have something similar. Could your friend call and ask about policy for employees receiving gifts without revealing identifying details? She could make a decision then about pursuing this depending on the response she gets.
Your state has a department that enforces wage laws. It’s usually under the [State] Department of Labor. They should have a toll-free number, and possibly an internet form, for asking questions and making complaints.
I work for a big retail corporation (not Target) and was specifically told I can’t accept anything - tips, gifts, nothing. I’d love to take a gift card if offered, but I was told I couldn’t. I can only tell them, thanks but it’s not allowed, but you can fill out this online survey and say nice things. I assume Target has that rule, too, and I bet it was in their training or their employee handbook. At my childcare job, I can take baked goods and whatever the parents offer me, but not at megacorp, and it’s probably the same there at Target.
Of course… I still wonder if it was in her employee handbook, though. I’m totally on her side. Would be an excellent Christmas present (especially with her store discount).
It sounds like that’s exactly what she did, and got caught anyway, whether on a surveillance camera or by a manager who was close enough to hear their conversation.
Still I’m sure that the whole experience will make her happier in her future work at Target and will probably be a powerful motivational tool for anyone working there.
Policy is policy, especially if it’s in an employee handbook that she neglected to read (I’ve never had a job that didn’t have an employee handbook, and I’ve never read one), but what I’m interested in is: does the gift-giver have any recourse?
This is the kind of thing that can go viral on social media. Suppose the gift-giver found out that managment confiscated the card? Could the gift-giver demand that the card be returned to him (considering that company policy prohibits returning it to the employee)? I could imagine the gift-giver being quite upset at this news.
