Stupid Guest Tricks

This week, everyone on my attraction was scheduled to be recertified due to changes to the Operating Guidelines. Two hours in a room with a numbered copy of the three chapters that changed, no access to the rest of the OG, and a trainer who had been instructed to read from the book to us and not expand on what was said.

Frankly, this does strike me as a reasonable way to approach things. Listen to the new OG, read it if we like, then sign off that we understand the new procedures. Keeps everyone informed and documents who got trained.

Unfortunately, the OG revisions were clearly written by someone who had *never* operated our attraction! The revisions had also clearly skipped a technical edit, much less proofreading.

I can handle misspellings and misplaced punctuation -- twenty years of grading term papers has made me pretty much immune to them.

I can handle it when the same sentence is repeated three times in the same paragraph. I've done the same thing when editing online, and there's really no ambiguity there.

I cannot handle a procedure that is contradictory -- use a "proceed" hand signal to move backwards some times, but a "reverse" hand signal at other times.

I cannot handle a procedure that requires the unavailable -- one procedure requires use of an "emergency stop" hand signal, which we don't have.

I cannot handle a procedure that requires the impossible -- observing a platform is clear and another CM is present before arriving at the platform, or giving hand signals to another CM when they cannot see me.

I cannot handle a procedure that requires me to check that a device is functioning correctly when it's been unplugged since at least 1998.

Each such discrepancy I raised to my trainer, often to a chorus of, "Yeah, what about that?" from my fellow CMs. Despite him being a great guy and competent CM, and despite his best efforts to resolve these conflicts, he had to resort to, "I don't know," to answer several dozen such questions.

At the end of the session, we all got forms to sign. They stated "I acknowledge that I understand the Operation Guidelines...." Since I didn't, and couldn't get answers, I felt that I couldn't sign it. In fact, I wrote on the bottom of the form that I was unable to sign it because I didn't understand.

Now if the Company does things right, they'll next refer me to the Training Coordinator for more training. That won't work, as she's never worked the attraction either.

Then they should send me to the Training Manager (one of our area's GSMs) for more training. I've already spoken to him about some of the problems, and he doesn't know either. (Plus he's got less than two months in the area anyway.)

I don't know what the next step is, but I'm guessing it's *not* "review and revise the new OG".

As they won't be able to convince me to sign, they *should* stop scheduling me to work on the attraction.

OTOH, the last time I refused to sign such a form, the issue vanished and I've never heard about it again.

If there's any good news in all this, it's that the Company is very likely to neglect to notice the missing signature and to continue to schedule me to work. This is good, because they will then be unable to dicipline me for anything I do on the attraction, because I'm not just "untrained", I've given the Company written notice that I don't understand the OG!

We'll just have to wait and see what develops. Stay tooned, boys and girls, more comedy next week!!!

Reminds me of a presentation given by the senior VP of marketing at a company I worked for. He was a rock 'n' roll acronym generator spewing terms left and right. When he was asked what the acronyms stood for he started pulling definitions out of his ass. When he was confronted by people in the class that knew what they stood for he went in to total meltdown. Needless to say, his credibility with the system engineering staff never got beyond zero after that.

According to our OG updates, new verbiage replaced or updated some of the existing verbiage regarding service animal break areas. Apparently (this is for an attraction at AK), the nearest service animal break area is located behind One Man's Dream. (which, for those who don't know, is at the Disney-MGM studios)

hobie16 wrote:Reminds me of a presentation given by the senior VP of marketing at a company I worked for. He was a rock 'n' roll acronym generator spewing terms left and right. When he was asked what the acronyms stood for he started pulling definitions out of his ass. When he was confronted by people in the class that knew what they stood for he went in to total meltdown. Needless to say, his credibility with the system engineering staff never got beyond zero after that.

Reminds me of a line from "Good Morning Vietnam:"

Adrian Cronauer: Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P

leftcoaster wrote:Reminds me of a line from "Good Morning Vietnam:"

Adrian Cronauer: Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P

Wasn't there something about being SOL too?

Also sounds like being a mushroom. Feed them SHIT and KEEP THEM IN THE DARK! Why do people tell you one thing while thing something else. Then get pissed off b/c YOU could'nt read THEIR mind? :mad:

I really think the imcompitance of the leadership at Disney is getting way way out of hand. Where i work they have been open a year now and I still have not seen an OG to even look through. i know that about 5 people were writing it but the only thing i saw had other attraction names sprawled all over it

hobie16 wrote:Wasn't there something about being SOL too?

Not sure. It's be awhile since I have seen the movie, and I stole the line/quote from IMDB. I think there is something about "being SOL," but that is a different part of the move.

UPDATE:

Today, it began with rumors. Various GSMs started asking what I had done to get the training manager so ticked off. He and the area manager were being quoted saying things like:

"That's it for him on the trains. We'll put his butt on turnstiles forever."

"He is *not* getting away with this. He is *finished* on the trains, and his [other role] is *history*."

"I've had it with him. It's time for him to move on."

Which strikes me as pretty harsh statements from someone who never even read what I wrote on the recert form.

One of the better GSMs was asked to talk to me because, "You seem to have an 'in' with him." Said "in" being that he and I ask each other honest questions, then shut up and listen to the answer.

So, he asked me what on earth I had done, and I explained that I hadn't signed a form that said I understood something I didn't understand.

More backstage muttering and rumors of impending doom ensued.

Finally, I was called into the office with the training manager and area manager, who asked what my problem was. Apparently, neither had bothered to read what I had written. Turns out I wasn't the mad bomber they had been preparing to lynch, and was eager to help them fix the OG.

They finally agreed to let me review the OG and write up a list of problems; to submit my suggestions for the next round of changes (which had already begun); to review my objections to the OG with me, answering as many outstanding questions as they could; and to let me keep my qualification as a conductor.

Most importantly, they stated clearly that dicipline would not be based on the OG (despite it being labled a "procedure"), insisting that common sense and SCSE would be the standard (which I'm good with).

All I have to do is the review, and I'll post to them a written statement with my understanding that the new OG is not to be followed whenever it's impossible, unsafe, or terminally inconvenient.

If they keep to their word, all should work out well.

If not... well, I'm having a meeting with the Union before I sign off.

What really cracks me up is just how violently upset they got without even reading what I wrote. Sheesh, if they go that ballistic based on rumors, I wonder what they'd do if I really *did* screw up majorly?

Zazu wrote:What really cracks me up is just how violently upset they got without even reading what I wrote. Sheesh, if they go that ballistic based on rumors, I wonder what they'd do if I really *did* screw up majorly?

If it was anything like Africa Ops, you would probably get promoted to Guest Relations.