Carowinds to seasonals: Go home after your shift

George, I think he meant the first sentence in the topic summary: "Paramount's Carowinds has shocked some of its seasonal teen workers by banning them from the grounds after their shifts end."....

Or, at least that's what I got from it....

I like the idea of giving a verbal warning, then a written warning, then a pink slip....separate out the good employees from the bad while you're increasing their attention to their JOBS...:)

At the wages paid to most theme park seasonals, I think that those perks are too big a part of the "compensation package" to be eliminated out of hand like that...

Kevin Reid brought up the idea to buy a season pass. Well, I know at Six Flags, you weren't supposed to use your season pass as an employee. The whole ideal was to get a comp pass at any other parks you visited, and re-enter through the employee entrance to go riding at the one you worked at.

Well could they give seasonal employees a discount on a season pass? I do see where works talking to frinds while running a ride can be bad for safty. Wounder if the other Paramount Parks will remove this perk.

I have a feeling the operations managements are all completely independent.

I also have a feeling we'll see this repealed when their pre-season recruitment numbers dip way down.

Sorry... but getting in on a season pass wont help. Sure you can get through the gates, but if a manager spots you it is all over.

They are "banned from the grounds". So they can't even go to the park on days off. It really sucks. Like being banned from the park for any reason. All they can do is work.

Sorry, I didn't get that from the article...

It states..."[Carowinds spokesman David Mandt] noted that employees are welcome to visit the park on their days off for free, a savings of $42.99 on the price of adult admission."

It also stated that one of the reasons was that too many were hanging around wearing parts of their uniforms. I can see where this would not look good to guests. A person in a park seeing a group of employees (in uniforms or parts of uniforms) hanging around and possibly "goofing off" may be a little be put off by this... even if they are off duty (with uniforms or parts of uniforms on, there is no way for the guest to tell).

Bottom line, leave the park, change out of your uniform, come back in, that would solve the problem.

As with many articles, I wonder just how accurate this report is. There are several parts of the article that seem to contradict each other.

*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 7/20/2004 4:33:06 PM ***

yea, if that is the case, they just needed to put in the rule,

"You cannot be in the park as a guest wearing any part of your uniform. You must be entirely in 'street attire'."

That already is in the rules.. at least at PKI. Unfortunetly, a majority of the seasonal employees don't care or don't konw and when told think you're holding a personal grudge against them.

Well, you know what, that's too bad. When you sign that employment contract,you are issued a book of rules (or you should be).It's your job to know them. "I didn't know that" isn't an excuse.Nothing personal, just what you're supposed to do.

I didn't know that this was such big news. There is a topic on another forum discussing this as well. I see that most people here disagree with the new policy. The parks issues new mid-season policies on the regular this season, a few of which may seem a bit absurd. I think this one may result in employees not wanting to come back next season or potential new hires not wanting to work there period.

UGh, stupid! I have NEVER seen a problem at PKI with this, they usually change clothes, or put a T-shirt on to cover their uniform shirt.

Hooray for Carowinds!!! Excellent move.

The new policy (as pointed out above) doesn't say you can't get in for free. It basically says you can't wear your uniform. Folks, the Charlotte Observer spinned this story. The reporter probably has a kid that works at the park and thought he could get the park to change their policy with a little bad publicity.

Totally agree that the UNIFORM is the issue, and I think George stated the APPROPRIATE policy, If there are what look like lots of employees *hanging out* while guests are thinking "they should be staffing some ride, show, or attraction", then that's bad for business.

That being said, HAPPY employees are the BEST kind in the world, and I think the policy, AS STATED currently, will backfire with the seasonals and make some of their most enthusiastic younger employees find work elsewhere....which would be a real shame. Some of the best posters here have, or have had, jobs working as seasonals in their teens/twenties. The whole idea of "promoting from within" RELIES on having energetic, intelligent, and personable people that you CAN promote...and the number of THOSE is likely going to go down from this policy....

Bottom line: Drop the bad policy, and require that they CHANGE their clothes, and NOT disrupt/distract the employees who are "on the clock".

How about they do like many have suggested, and punish the offenders, and to discourage it totally, punish both parties who are conversing, the on duty employee and the off duty employee. This would probably help serve as a deterant for the on duty employees, and make them more focused on thier job than socializing.

My experience with this sort of work is limited working in a fast food restaurant when I was younger, but it was never in the rulebook that you couldn't go and bother people who are flippin' burgers while you're off duty. It didn't need to be in there, because it was just common sense.

The article suggests they had taken previous action, presumably highlighting the issue at staff meetings, put it on the noticeboard etc. If these kids didn't get it after that, even if it was just a few, then I'm sorry but they were asking for it. I'd say with some degree of certainty, that this policy was intended to be revoked by the end of the season.

It's the same thing as when your teacher at school would keep the whole class in if a few people were misbehaving, or the university lecturer would threaten to walk out if the few talking students didn't keep quiet.

At my trip to Carowinds this year, the ride ops seemed mediocre at best. This rule probably results from their general lack of performance.

The uniforms AND the socializing is the problem. When I worked there we were not allowed to ride rides in uniform(firing offense). We would still go up to exits and/or operator stations and talk with our friends. Yes I was guilty too. We did this not only if we returned to the park after clocking out but also on days off when visiting. It wasn't a safe practice and something should be done to prevent it. Not this however. A simple call to security to escort the employee out of the park for disturbing the operator( I was threaten with this once and it worked on me) along with citations for each employee involved would've been sufficient. This would've worked wether employees in uniform or not or regular guests were the ones doing the socializing.

I don't think employees should be banned, just told to act as normal park guests and not do anything they wouldn't be allowed to do if they were the general public(socializing/disturbing operators, going up exit ramps,service areas, hanging around with sweepers ect....)

One of the biggest perks about working at a theme park was always the free admission into the park whenever you weren't working. Taking away that luxury is way to big a perk for me to continue working there. I bet half these kids could go get jobs somewhere else that pay better and are less demanding positions. Crazy - I thought we wanted better ride ops.

Read it again...

It states..."[Carowinds spokesman David Mandt] noted that employees are welcome to visit the park on their days off for free, a savings of $42.99 on the price of adult admission."

As someone else stated, I believe there is a spin on this story for some reason.