Stupid Guest Tricks

Okay, it's official (to me anyway).

Management is NOT there to help you. Whenever they show up to your location do not expect them to help you. In fact, if anything expect them to make things worse.

A while back I did a special event. We had two guests that were very upset because they bought tickets for the first show (Fantasmic private seating), but accidently missed it. I am not a lead or a manager so I told the guests to hold on a second while I got help. The two leads on duty were on break. I was looking for someone to help me. All of the sudden I see a Special Events manager enter the area.

I don't remember the conversation I had with a certain manager word for word. But the following is the general gist of it.

ME: Hey, are you here to help with this event?
Manager: Help? No. I'm not helping. I'm a manager.

I was a bit shocked. A few seconds later I found a cast member that took over the situation and helped the guests. He cheered them both up and he really made their night. Later, that same manager did check on that cast member to make sure everything was all right.

Now, I know that management has a lot of responsibilities. I know their job is important. But, is it really out of the question for me to think that when a manager is at a location, that they might lend a hand for a few minutes to help a peon like me? Am I missing something? Maybe we misunderstood each other. The whole conversation really irritated me.

Reminds me of how/if/when you come up to an accident (say a small fender bender) and there are no cops around. Everyone who wants to get around the accident pretty much handles it themselves...alternates into another lanes, etc.

When the cops happen upon the scene, that's when the backups begin. Most cops have no idea how to actually direct traffic.

And, don't get me started with the "fire police." Those morons couldn't direct traffic if you gave them a (symphony orchestra conductor's) stick.

goose wrote:

Okay, it's official (to me anyway).

Management is NOT there to help you. Whenever they show up to your location do not expect them to help you. In fact, if anything expect them to make things worse.

Exactly...In the stores, when the guest is wrong, they end up giving them basically the whole damn store even though you were right. (They give a cast member B discount to them or something ridiculous like that).

I came in as a guest a few years ago to DCA during the first Primetime Weekend and had an issue where myself and a bunch of other people weren't being treated fairly. So I complained to one of the managers working the special event. He basically blew me off and said there's nothing I can do. So I went to one of the CMs at the Hyperion and they resolved the situation.

goose wrote:Now, I know that management has a lot of responsibilities. I know their job is important. But, is it really out of the question for me to think that when a manager is at a location, that they might lend a hand for a few minutes to help a peon like me? Am I missing something? Maybe we misunderstood each other. The whole conversation really irritated me.

This is one of the problems that I have with the changes made in the company. In the old days, supervisors (as managers used to be called) had come up through the ranks - they were R/O's, Merch. or Foods Cast Members, became leads and then applied to go higher. So they had an understanding of exactly what the frontline CM's were going through. When you hire someone in from the outside with their MBA or just plain BA in Business, they don't give a rat about the little details that make an experience good for the guest or manageable for CM's. We used to have one supervisor who would go over to costume and get suited up for Pirates when our line would get out of hand. He'd pitch in on the load dock until the 4-queues were manageable again. Is there anyone who still does that?

Now that I think about it, the supervisors we loved the most in Attractions had all been ride operators before, so they knew exactly what kinds of nonsense we were up against, and they helped us maintain our sense of humor about problem children guests...

BirdMom wrote:This is one of the problems that I have with the changes made in the company. In the old days, supervisors (as managers used to be called) had come up through the ranks - they were R/O's, Merch. or Foods Cast Members, became leads and then applied to go higher. So they had an understanding of exactly what the frontline CM's were going through. When you hire someone in from the outside with their MBA or just plain BA in Business, they don't give a rat about the little details that make an experience good for the guest or manageable for CM's. We used to have one supervisor who would go over to costume and get suited up for Pirates when our line would get out of hand. He'd pitch in on the load dock until the 4-queues were manageable again. Is there anyone who still does that?

Now that I think about it, the supervisors we loved the most in Attractions had all been ride operators before, so they knew exactly what kinds of nonsense we were up against, and they helped us maintain our sense of humor about problem children guests....

I tip my hat off to you, birdmom. I couldn't have said it better myself. No matter what the policy or situation is, all a guest has to do is complain and 9 times out of 10 a manager will not back you up but they will take the side of the guest. It's no wonder there are so many GOOD cast members who are leaving. I've about had it myself. I'm tired of trying my best only to get screwed in the end.

BirdMom wrote:We used to have one supervisor who would go over to costume and get suited up for Pirates when our line would get out of hand. He'd pitch in on the load dock until the 4-queues were manageable again. Is there anyone who still does that?

I had quite a few managers on the West side who would jump into rotation on a regular basis. A couple of them were even better at it than a good percentage of the ROs.

There are good managers in the parks, but there are some real morons, too. Going from West side to Hollywood made me appreciate how good I had it on the West side where I could actually talk to my managers and they would listen to what I had to say.