Retail workers have a lot of responsibilities, and as stores continue to cut hours for workers, many employees are tasked with taking on more responsibilities during the same amount of time.
This has been a common point of discussion on the internet for some time. Users have noted employers’ tendencies to cut staff and redistribute the lost staff’s responsibilities to other workers, often without increasing their pay in the process. Others have simply noted the uneven distribution of tasks between workers that is common in some workplaces.
Now, another internet user is claiming that her manager at Target sent a video to her personal cell phone criticizing her work. Here’s why she suspects it might be workplace retaliation.
What did this woman get from her manager?
TikTok user Yari Cana (@yari.cana) recently shared a clip that she says was sent to her by her manager at Target. The clip shows a section of the store in which the clothing has been stacked, though it is slightly askew.
“Very disappointing for someone that only had to zone Ready-to-Wear last night,” the alleged manager’s voice says.
In the text overlaying the video, Cana states that she received the clip from her boss to her personal phone, and that the video was received on her day off.
In two follow-up videos, Cana explains why she believes there might be something more going on here.
According to Cana, she had to take time off because her child was sick. This resulted in her being gone for about a week, during which time she says she kept her employer up-to-date about the status of her child and her potential return to work.
However, when she logged onto the platform to see her updated hours, she saw that she had been deleted from the schedule for the next two weeks. While her manager told her that this was simply due to the store cutting hours, Cana claims that she spoke to multiple other employees who alleged that their hours had not been cut.
Finally, though things seemed normal when she eventually did return to work, she had to take a day off due to illness. It was on this day that she received the video in question—a move that she now believes was in retaliation for needing to take so many days off the job.
“Mind you, I had 3 sections to work on, in just 4 hours,” she explains of the video her boss sent. “The pressure to complete the ‘100%’ how they call it is real, but it does not goes with me. I do as much as I can in my 4 hrs, and then go home, but no, that’s not enough and then I get harassed by it!”
According to the United States Department of Labor, “Retaliation occurs when an employer (through a manager, supervisor, administrator, or directly) fires an employee or takes any other type of adverse action against an employee for engaging in protected activity.”
Significantly cutting hours, as described by Cana, could be considered an adverse action and may lead to a claim of workplace retaliation.
To resolve this issue, Cana can reach out to the Department of Labor, which will work with her to address the accusations she made in her videos. The Department of Labor has a website about the process of doing this, which is available here.
In the comments section, many users claimed that Cana should not simply accept messages like these, and should instead work to make sure issues like these do not occur again.
“As someone who used to work at target, this has never happened and should never happen. Send to HR immediately and it’s very unprofessional of them to do this,” wrote a user. “They could’ve spoke to you on the clock, in the office privately.”
“Does she know that customers love to ruin the piles ? even if you zone it to perfection it was going to get destroyed,” noted another.
“make sure you do a time adjustment for work related calls and texts,” offered a third.