Good Ride Operators!!!!!!

SteelMonsters: You took my quote out of context. My quote was referring exclusively to guest complaints, not to checking restraints. When you receive a complaint from a guest, it's simply not appropriate, polite, or professional to ignore that guest and walk away. There are better ways to deal with the situation.

That said, the safety of guests is obviously most important. Effeciency is important, but it doesn't rank above treating your guests fairly and profesionally. Of course, effeciency is a guest service; cranking trains through reduces wait times and that obviously benefits your guests. However, guests are certainly going to appreciate an enthusiastic, polite crew over a downright rude one, even if that enthusiastic crew happens to be a bit slower.

-Nate

Sure we have water coolers. We have 5 of them actually, 1 will always be filled with water. And yes, at times it is 4-5 days old. The only problem...these water coolers are downstairs. Unfortunatley, we can't leave positions, so we are basically screwed. In the even that we are really need water, we need to call a lead, have them switch positions, and then you can go downstairs and drink a cup or 5 day old cooler sitting yellow water. Waterbottles? MM barely spends money on toilet paper yet alone water bottles. Maybe other Six Flags parks have it easier, I don't know, but MM is just literally the cheapest park I think.

OMG this man does not shut up about guest politness...

Lnknprk4eva03.

I don't agree with Nate much, but I side with him here.

I am surprised you still have a job at SFMM. Blatantely ignoring guests because you don't want to listen to their complaints would usually justify terminating you.

Of course, since SF is shortstaffed, that is probably why you are still around. Those guests that you can't stand and ignore are the very people supplying you with a paycheck. Without guests, you have no job.

Someone in your position should appreciate them even more since you stated earlier in this thread that you have a 3 year old child to take care of.

If you don't like to deal with unhappy guests, I suggest you find a job where you don't deal with the customer directly.

Disgruntled Amusement ride operators, on the next OPRAH...

I mean really dude; you seem to really have a bad attitude about your job. My way of solving problems at the workplace is to simply try not to let the negatives get me down. I try to keep a smile on my face no matter how hard the job gets. Maybe you could just nicely complain about your water situation until something gets done. Maybe schedule a meeting with a supervisor and politely state that you've noticed a problem. If you are nice and respectful about it, most supe's will WANT to help.

But, judging the way you've been acting on this thread, I'd say it's safe to assume that you are a complainer. A complainer is someone who yells and screams about things instead of doing something about it.

A complainer wants onlookers to say "that poor guy, I wish life would treat him better", but what people really say is, "Wow, what a jerk." No offense is intended; read on...

I've spent a few years being a complainer. I noticed that sporting a bad attitude only brought the morale of some of those that worked with me down to my level. Long story made short, I changed my tune. Wouldn't it be nice if you used your superpowers for good instead of evil?

Instead of ignoring an upset guest, why not challange yourself to help them a little. If you feel yourself getting angry, you could simply take a deep breath, and smile. If a complaint needs to be addressed, the worst thing to do is to ignore it. If you don't have the time to help them, kindly tell them so, and then let them know that they can go to guest service. The people there are better prepaired to answer complaints anyway.

Although you say you like your job, maybe you are lieing to yourself (I say maybe because you would know better than me). If you simply like the fact that you are working at MM, maybe you could transfer to another ride or dept. Maybe you should just give up the park business altogether. Do what will make you happy, for goodness sakes.

I intended this post to help you. I am not bashing you of "bulling" you. I hope this post makes you think. Having worked at two parks, I've been there, so I really do know how you feel.

---

Lnknprk4eva03 said:

Why the hell do you guys care on how we do our job if you are just a guest(visitor)??

---

Because I want to have a safe, friendly, exciting experience when I ride. I expect that when I spend my cash for tickets and if I don't get it, I'm not coming back.

The fact that the phrase "just a guest" emerged shows a great deal of the reason why parks like HW and CP consistantly have respectable attendance figures while SF parks are trying to solve their hemmorhaging of money by trying their hand at customer service.

Thank you for the kind...i dunno what to call them, but thats for the kinds stuff. I appreciate it. Like i said, I like what I do. I love the people who I work with, like a second family. Guests with stupid questions or comments tend to irritate all of us. Not just me, all of us.

Trust me, my supervisors don't care. Im serious they don't. We only see them when something is wrong. They sit on their butts all day in the operations office eating tacos and hamburgers.

I may take your advice into consideration. I shall try, but my fustrations of every day life always coinside with work and it gets the worst of me. Some how why PullUps cost so much and if in fact that wheel is going to blow up anyone of these cycles is always on my mind...at the same time.

Challenge myself to help a guest? Hmm...thats not something I do or would do, sorry. I direct them to my lead or guest relations. Its more simpler and less complicating for me.

Wheel blow up cycles? (shrug) I don't get it.

I wish you luck on your water obtainment. I hope you can somehow realize that the guests come first.

Most of the time it's not the guests that are really the problem, but the people one works for. In a lot of jobs that I have worked, I have often asked myself about one or two of my superiors, "How in the heck did they ever get that job position anyway?" Not just park jobs either, but others as well.

sometimes a guest complaint comes from a problem not easily solved by you, but by a lead or manager. What makes some employees angry (like me or you) is that the bosses really could have solved the problem before it even became an issue. Why some don't is beond me.

I don't know why, but it always seems that someone either slept thier way, or scammed their way into a job of athority. They just do not belong there. It also seems that the horrible job they do negatively effects a lot of people who work under them.

I don't see it as a big deal if you get a lead involved if you aren't the kind of person who is willing to find a solution or offer an explination to a guest complaint.

maybe if you got water, you would be less irritated.

when the train is on the track, we call it "cycling". so the wheel can blow up one of these cycles...its not hard.

Even if i did have new supervisors or 3 gallons of water i wouldn't change my way of thinking...my leads rock!!

My god!!

If the majority of employees at SFMM have the same attitude as you, no wonder the park has a bad rep and only pulls in 3 mil a year(being a year round park, that figure is not impressive).

Like I said earlier in this post, find another line of work if direct customer interaction isn't your strong point. No matter what you think of the guests, you must make their visit pleasant.

It doesn't matter whether you think their complaint is ridiculous or not. THEY SUPPLY YOUR PAYCHECK!!!

The sooner you start realizing this, the better off you will be.

SFoG is the safest Six Flags Park in the chain! So, if we have a person commit a safety violation, they will most likely be terminated. When we got audited last year, the auditors said we had some of the best crews they have ever seen (Superman, Deja'Vu when it was on point, and Acrophobia.

X Marks The Spizzot

Uh, no. SFFT is the safest park in the chain, with SFGAm in at second.

SFoG...well, I'm sure they're in contention somewhere after that, but they are definitely not one of the safest.

And I'm not sure if you are accurate with what the "auditors" said, but no crew at SFoG is anywhere *near* the best I've ever seen. Best at what, slacking off?

Joe "calls 'em like I see's 'em" C.

PS I truly hope this year is a great turnaround for SFoG. With the rumors of always starting with two trains and having a "stricter" hiring process, hopefully things will be better.

How do you measure how safe a park is? By number of accidents? Where, then, do accidents the park is not at fault for figure in? And is a park that has just happened to have fewer accidents than another necessarily any safer?

-Nate

From my understanding there are safety auditors who go to each park and each park gets a number rating. Highest = best.

They look at things like "are ride ops certified for the ride they're working on" or "are ride ops following safety procedures as stated in the SOP." Things like that. I don't believe it's "how many accidents were there" but "is our staff following procedure."

Someone else who knows want to chime in?

I don't know much about the whole rating system, but I know that there are two systems some parks use. There are the corporate audits where people travel to each of the parks and watch the operators and video tape and such. Certification files and other paperwork are also looked at. Then there are surveys, where guests are asked different questions about the park, from cleanliness to ride safety, where their opinions are used to tally a daily progress report. Also, supervisors and managers watch their operators daily and perform their own audits. Of course, there are probably other ways and all parks might not do the same thing.

Sorry, I should have clarified what I was asking. I'm aware of certain auditing procedures at parks and such. I was just trying to point out that "SFoG is the safest park in the chain!" is a ridiculous, blanket statement.

Does the fact that one park scores, say, a point higher on an audit necessarily mean that you're safer at the higher scoring park? Put another way, if you were to go to each park equal numbers of times, would you be more likely to be involved in an accident at the lower scoring park?

My point is that a higher score on an audit doesn't necessarily mean that. Crap happens, and audits don't prevent accidents from happening. Sure, they're a useful tool, and probably do have some effect on the number of accidents at any given park, but a higher score on an audit doesn't mean that park is necessarily "safer." Sometimes bizarre accidents happen that nobody could have really done anything about.

-Nate

J is right. Yea they video tape and stuff. Goliath got the worst ratin this year. Hahaha. We would call them and make fun of them and stuff, not anymore though. But don't worry, when they're here, we are on our best behavior :)

Hmmm SFOT has gotten safest park for the last 2-3 years. I'm starting to wonder if they are just telling every park that?

We got #1 Park (chainwide) for Guest Satisfaction which includes Safety, Friendliness, Park Cleanliness, and Restroom Cleanliness.

Anybody else share our rank? ;)

Definatley not SFMM, i can tell you that, hahaha.

Yeah, thats odd, b/c we've been told that SFoG's rides dept has been the highest in the chain for the last 3 years...