Before I go further, I need to draw out what FIW looks like in your mind, so that you can follow along. FIW is made up of two basic parking areas: One for buses that haven't been through the fuel/wash process yet (this being where we drop the bus off at the end of the night), and another parking lot for those that are clean and ready to go. Buses are moved through the process, then brought around by the wash crew to the "Ready Line" in the clean lot. The ready line, depending on how quickly buses are getting cleaned versus how quickly they are benig brought in by the drivers, who after dropping off their bus walk to the ready line and pick up a bus to take to TTC. Occasionally, we will use the back lot of the lot with the ready lines. Here is a Google Earth view of FIW with notations made by yours truly.
There was only one bus in the ready line, and no coordinators to tell us what to do, so he and I hopped onto it, and were preparing to leave. We had made a judgment call that we didn't know when the next clean bus would be brought out, and we both had a clock-out time coming up quickly. So we got on the bus. When there is only one bus available and multiple drivers going to the same place, we often pile onto the same bus. When there are enough buses waiting for us, everyone takes one. That's been the standard operating procedure for at least the three months that I've been doing it. So as Bob was closing the door, the coordinator drove over, rolled down her window, looked incredulously at Bob, and with a tone of voice that dripped contempt for him and the fact he was breathing, asked, "Why do you have passengers?" Bob didn't hear, so he asked her to 10-9, and she asked again, even more annoyedly now. Before Bob said anything, I replied with having not seen any other buses. She replied that there were two rows of them. The two rows, I later found out, were in a place they have never been before: In the area we sometimes use when the dirty line fills up and they can't even get one more bus in there. Having never had the ready line be there before, both Bob and I assumed those buses in the distance were probably dirty. Making matters worse, the bus Bob and I were on was in the normal area, along with the bus I wound up taking, which came a minute later.
So to recap, because this coordinator decided to do things differently from the norm, then wasn't there when drivers came to do what they normally do (take buses from the ready line), when we did what we were trained, we were doing the wrong thing. Would have been nice of her to tell us nicely instead of contemptuously.
As I was exiting Bob's bus, I think I might have said something under my breath to the effect of "Yeah, yeah, we're just a bunch of idiots, here..."
In the future, I am not supposed to fall back on my training and make any judgment calls at FIW. Instead, I will assume I am to be considered a stupid ass and will not do anything without the FIW coordinator first commanding it.
When I am in a job where I have to make a thousand judgment calls every hour that will affect peoples' lives forever, when I get berated for making one call that is not the one the coordinator likes because they have changed the rules mid-game, I find that downright offensive, and I wonder how that person was even ever hired at Disney. All I can say is that with her personality, it's a good thing she doesn't work with the guests.
Having already had a rough day today (late due to traffic, even though I left a half hour earlier than I normally do; leg cramp after driving an old RTS that the gear selector digs into my leg mid-calf; quite a few not-nice guests and finally ending the day on the ES), getting yelled at by a coordinator because they were not around to set the guidelines just sorta set me off this evening.
For more info, Cranbiz'll be coming around soon.
