Interesting Cedar Point Facebook Hiring Post -- Grooming Standards

Did you read the guidelines?

I looked all around the site linked in that Facebook post and couldn't find the actual guidelines.

This thread reminds me of when this popped up a year or so ago.

Seriously...It's time to stop with the thinking that anyone with a tattoo can't be taken seriously or have an actual professional career. You can have a professional job while having tattoos and a beard. I know this because I have both a beard and tattoos and they haven't kept me from getting promotions, raises, and most recently an award for my service and dedication with the company. Hell...I just got another tattoo while I was in Mexico 2 days ago and people were excited to see it when I returned to work this week.

Where are the guidelines? I looked all over the site for them.

I would expect that long hair would have to be pulled back for ride operators and those who work around food. I would also hope that food workers be required to wear a beard net.

Other than that, I have not problem with relaxing the grooming guidelines at all. I had to cut my hair and take my ear rings out to work there many years ago. It was a small price to pay...

It occurs to me now that a team member posted his version of what he’s seen from the park. My apologies.

Basically, visible tattoos may not be vulgar or appear on the head, face, or neck. Hair must be neat. Color should be consistent or lightly streaked. Piercings may be up to a certain size including gauges. Gauges must be solid. It seems to me that nose piercings are permitted, but a single post or something.
I’m sure as far as hair goes the standard health department requirements will be followed.

He posted this info to the thread on PointBuzz. So rest easy, everyone. You won’t face Cousin Itt, a skull face, or any tear drops. What you should have is better service and shorter lines at the food stands. That’s the idea.

I think that a great financial opportunity for parks would be to embrace young professionals, DINKs, singles, and parents who just want to get away from their kids for a few days. Obviously, families have the advantage of volume (5 human beings in group > 1-2 human beings in a group), but I think that people with fewer financial responsibilities would be a more profitable group to go after. I just can't see a lot of parents being that enthusiastic about buying all the goodies that parks want you to buy when you think about the cost, and multiply if by 5-6. Then you think about your mortgage, looming college tuition for the kids, car payments, bills, etc. You're going to be packing sandwiches and telling the kids "Oh sorry honey, the arcade is closed, the Game Boy will let you pay for free all day though."

In contrast, younger people with jobs go to parks, and the costs are pretty inexpensive when they're just paying for themselves. And if they're trying to impress a date, they'll buy whatever they need to in order to impress the date. The dad has the mom locked in for years, so he's not trying to impress her.

The point is that many of the Millennials who are going to be your young professionals with money to spend may have the beards and tats. They're not going to be super thrilled about efforts to make it more and more a family experience, and not one geared towards their kind of people.

Maybe that's over analysis? I really think Cedar Point is just having trouble filling positions with quality people so they are loosening old grooming standards that was limiting their applicant pool.

eightdotthree said:

Maybe that's over analysis? I really think Cedar Point is just having trouble filling positions with quality people so they are loosening old grooming standards that was limiting their applicant pool.

I think that staffing has always been issue though. Its a very difficult industry to hire for. You have 40 hour work for people a few months a year. You have weekend work for them for the weekend for a few months. Work is blacked out for months. The pay is low. The work is challenging. The stakes are high and your mistakes can lead to bodily injury and death for other people.

If they're just discovering now that its difficult to hire for, I don't know where they've been for years. I think that they've always struggled to staff their park. Every park struggles with staffing.

Right. I don't think that they are doing this to make it more comfortable for millennials to visit the park. They just need to fill positions.

eightdotthree said:

Right. I don't think that they are doing this to make it more comfortable for millennials to visit the park. They just need to fill positions.

Oh right, right, right. Upvote for that. Sorry, I was probably referring more to what parks should do, not necessarily assuming that parks are smart enough to do it yet.

I think that ultimately, the old adage was that the ink from tattoos didn't necessarily sink in and make it stupid, but you were just supposed to know and keep track of all society's norms and rules. Otherwise, you weren't part of the same world. But I think that as you were saying, in many different industries, the need for qualified candidates at cheaper prices is taking discrimination options away from those who hire. Obviously in most tech firms, there is an open culture where results are everything, and you're judged by how good you are at the job, and not how you play the political game.

I’m pretty sure the problem isn’t lack of customers.
Amusement parks aren’t your grandfathers’ country clubs that need to reinvent themselves to keep future generations interested. I’m working? Yes. In attending? No.

I would also say (on the now mostly irrelevant topic) that I have spent WAY more at parks as a family with small kids than as a DINK or single professional. Kids have way less tolerance for hunger, lines, discomfort, and boredom and now that it's "all about them" I have trouble scraping pennies. Also, I think the family with young kids has the highest ratio of income & desire to "wow" to tolerance for discomfort.

Right, its a little off-topic but I find it an interesting topic. Maybe I had cheap parents, but I always found myself treating myself a lot more when I starting going to parks on my own, with friends with, girlfriends, etc. You can just spend the money and not have to beg anyone. I feel like parents try to set precedents where even if they wouldn't mind spending it, they don't want to spoil the child and set the precedent and not give in.

But I agree, its all anecdotal until actual data is shown.

You could also argue that the data is already going to be skewed if the stuff that is offered is already geared towards families.