Target employees mixed on the return-to-office policy, company direction

A mix of confusion and dissatisfaction is festering among some Target employees, as its biggest corporate unit settles into a mandatory three-day-a-week office schedule.

One former worker said she learned three weeks before the Sept. 2 start date that she would need to move back to Minnesota. Another who has caregiving needs left the company after she was denied an exemption. Such stories, whether intended or not, create unease for those left working at headquarters.

Worker sentiment is far from uniform with several employees who were downtown for the Target Together all-company meeting this week expressing a range of emotions — from apathy to optimism — about the new in-office mandates. Yet others expressed concern about the way the return-to-work mandate was rolled out.

Some Target teams started calling employees back to regular in-office days in June, the same month an employee survey showed mounting frustration with corporate leadership and uncertainty about the retailer’s direction, according to the Wall Street Journal.

About 40% of the roughly 260,000 workers who responded to the survey said they lacked confidence in Target’s future, the story said. Sentiment was especially poor among workers at the Minneapolis headquarters, where scores were even lower.

Despite the low morale, a Target spokesperson said around 80% of headquarters workers have said they plan to stay with the company.

When Target began calling employees back to the office in June, questions emerged about who would be expected to return and whether the company’s policy would change. The shift came around the same time as the announcement of a new CEO and several quarters of sluggish sales.

Haley Saunders, a former software engineer at Target, said she was hired in September 2022 on a local contract, which meant she was assigned to the company’s downtown Minneapolis headquarters. But under Target’s flexible work policy, she spent most of her time working from home and collaborating with her team on Zoom.

In January 2024, Saunders moved to Pittsburgh to be her mother’s full-time caregiver and worked remotely. Over the next year, she said she made multiple appeals to switch to a remote contract. Each request was denied, according to emails reviewed by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

“I’m not asking to avoid returning to the office indefinitely. I’m not asking to avoid in-person weeks when remote folks join. I’m simply requesting flexibility to continue working remotely during this extraordinary circumstance,” Saunders wrote in an email to the vice president of TargetTech, Digital. “I believe this approach aligns with Target’s values of care and empathy for its team members, while still ensuring I meet business needs.”

She said she was fired for not reporting to the office. Of her nine teammates, five have remote contracts and are not required to return to the office.

“The hardest part is the hypocrisy,” Saunders said. “I was fired in a Zoom meeting with two of my bosses and an HR representative, all of whom were working from home.”

When employees were called back, she was told to report to Target’s Brooklyn Park office, based on team preferences. Swarnakari asked to work downtown instead because it was a shorter commute and she was caring for a child.

She said her request was denied, and she decided to quit. Half of her team also works remotely, she said.

“This mandate takes away that personal time only from specific individuals. There is no discrete rule on whom the return to office applies or what is the radius around the Twin Cities where this is applicable,” Swarnakari wrote in an email.

Target’s corporate policy, called “flex for your day,” has not changed, which allows team leaders to set work plans based on roles and preferences. In some cases, it has created uneven situations in which teams are split between office and remote workers.

A Target spokesperson this week declined to comment on the employees’ stories, citing personnel matters.

The push to bring employees back comes as the chain faces a more challenging business environment. Target has struggled with sluggish sales and tougher competition, raising questions about how it can re-energize both customers and employees ahead of the crucial holiday season.

With pressure on discretionary spending — Target’s bread and butter — selection and store experience are crucial, Gomez said on a recent earnings call.

Target reported in August that same-store sales were down more than 3% for May, June and July. Walmart said sales for the same three months rose nearly 5% from a year ago.

Michael Fiddelke, Target’s incoming CEO and chief operating officer, acknowledged on a recent earnings call that the chain needs to do more to rebuild its reputation for style and design, especially in home goods, while also improving the in-store shopping experience and advancing the company’s technology.