Need a Reality Check Please

[mapo]

OK, by now you all know that I have started to hate the holidays. Tinker Bell has even stated that she agrees with me; well not THE Tinker Bell :D:

So here goes a little poll to see how we are all feeling.

Thanks for playing!

MAPO

[glendalais]

Summer, by far.

SGs are one thing. SGs while wearing 60% Polyester in 120% humidity is another thing alltogether, lol.

[DragonFox98]

I'm gonna have to say Winter....

Even though I don't work at a park, winter is the worst! I work for a fuel company that specialized in heating oil. Needless to say, you constantly get people (on Christmas Day!!!) that call and say "I'm out of oil". Can you not read the gauge? So, winter is worst for us and I carry the beeper for the call service. Yeah! [/sarcasm]

[Mayonnaise]

I'm not voting. At my current job i have no customer contact. I just make the product.

But back when I was a College campus telephone operator, my answer would be September. Clueless freshmen with entitlement complexes dialing 0 in the dorms, who want me to connect them to long distance numbers without their long distance charge code, and helicopter parents demanding that I locate their child NOW because:

"POOKEY HASN'T CALLED HOME IN TWO DAYS!!!!"

That's right ma'am. Pookey is a College freshman. Pookey has just discovered that the meal plan means he can eat as much pizza as he wants, and never eat vegetables... and no one will yell at him if he stays out till 3am at the Student Center video arcade playing Dance Dance Revolution. He will call you back when the novelty wears off.

"But can't you get him on the phone NOW? We trusted this school with our child, and you don't know where he is?!?!?!?"

It's not High School. The University does not know where your son is at when he's not in class... hell with the staggeringly low number of Professors taking attendance, we probably don't even know if he's been at his classes unless there was something due. I felt so bad for the kids when their parents insisted that we send a public safety officer to track them down. How embarrassing.

8^S

[DisneyMom]

Today is going to be bad- 1st day back after a Holiday Weekend. Do you know how many people are "sick" today because they overdid it, and will need a work note for ditching the day after the Holiday?


This is pretty much the year-round Holiday Routine.
Oh, yeah, and Flu Season sucks! :mad:

[Freak]

and no one will yell at him if he stays out till 3am at the Student Center video arcade playing Dance Dance Revolution.

Hey,there ain't nothin wrong with Dance Dance Revolution! :crabby: (I'm hoping to play later tonite, all the good machines are disappearing though!)

I think for me so far its Summer. Summer @ DCA is a LOT better than Summer @ K's. Summer @ K's had a lot of SGs, but then again, different department, maybe I'll be seeing less SGs than I did in Attractions @ K's.... (Probably not)

[Mayonnaise]

Hey,there ain't nothin wrong with Dance Dance Revolution! :crabby:

Did I say there was?

8^S

[Freak]

Maybe.. :p: ;)
No, I just saw Dance Dance Revolution. I haven't played forever (more than two weeks is forever). I wish I had a college that had a arcade like that. I own my own machine, but its in Florida.

[LadySiren]

Maybe.. :p: ;)
No, I just saw Dance Dance Revolution. I haven't played forever (more than two weeks is forever). I wish I had a college that had a arcade like that. I own my own machine, but its in Florida.

If you really want to see DDR at its finest, you have to watch a bunch of game programmers go at it in a head-to-head DDR dance-off. One company I worked for (the one that eventually bought Atari) encouraged us to do "market research". This of course, resulted in us having DDR sessions every afternoon. I wish I'd thought to bring a video camera to some of these.

To get back on topic: SGs aren't just limited to WDW. Okay, I'll be generous - this wasn't necessarily a SC (stupid customer) but one that was certainly clueless.

One of my earliest jobs in the game industry was to help out on the tech support lines for a smaller game company. I'm dating myself here, but the game I was helping out on calls with was one of the first Windows 3.1 games (yeah, yeah...I'm ancient). This game required the user to open up an MS-DOS window to install it. I about cried trying to get this guy to understand that he needed to open up a DOS box.

Me: "Okay, you need to open up an MS-DOS window. If you'll click th..."

SC: "A whatDOS? What is that? Is it in the game box? Which disc is it?"

Me: "No sir, you need to go to MS-DOS mode to install this game. Now, if you'll please click th..."

SC: "What's MS box mode?"

Me, suppressing a sigh: "MS stands for Microsoft. DOS stands for Disk Operating System. It's like the window below Windows 3.1 and it runs your PC. All you need to do is click th..."

SC: "Oh wait...you mean (insert appropriate ominous music) The Dark Place. You want me to go to The Dark Place!"

Me: "Yes sir, The Dark Place. Now if you'll simply click..."

I ran screaming from tech support as soon as a job as producer opened up, and never looked back.

[delsdad]

It has to be Christmas that I most hate working. Seems that producers keep thinking that "Their show" will sell really well on Dec 24, 25, 26th. And it never does.

The second year of Phantom, some genius at the office decided to schedule a performance for 1pm Christmas day. It only sold about 200 tickets, so they gave the cast crew and orchestra comp tickets for that performance. Everyone was pissed about having to work the holiday, and as a group we donated all the tickets to a variety of shelters, so at least we would feel good about having to work the 25th. A very appreciative bunch filled the seats and the response from them was great. And because they didn't spend money on swag and the bar like the usual crowd, the producer lost out on the average 100$ a person that the usual audience spent on t-shirts and drinks. It was revenge on him that warmed our hearts !

In the 21 years I have been working in the live entertainment business, the only shows that sell well on the 24th and 25th are the ice shows, and even they are only marginal. Everyone else has their holiday invaded to perform to houses well under half full. The 26th can sell OK as tickets are given as gifts, but nothing sells out, and to justify the huge overtime cost for that day (2.5X) they barely break even.

This is why I love working the Nutcracker over Christmas. No show the 24th, 25th, or 26th, as there are over 100 kids in the cast, who wont perform those days. Plus its a short show that puts you in a Christmas frame of mind.

I was actually contemplating leaving my current show before December, in order to have the time off over Christmas, but I don't need to. We are closing in late August! Yes I am happy about that. It means time home in the evenings with my Daughter! And probably Nutcracker in December too.

Those of us that don't perform an essential service, and Christmas is not tourist time in Toronto. By 6pm the 24th its tumbleweeds. Now the 26th comes with its own retail madness, that actually breaks the law, but the stores just pay the fines. I wish they would actually follow the rules and let retail folks have the 2 days in a row off too.