Nearly 40 Six Flags Worlds of Adventure full-timers let go

Suprise Suprise. Looks like SFWoA really took a beating this year.
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Jes
Webmaster, Jes's Roller Coasters
"Thank You Jeff Putz"

You would think that they would do this after the holidays!

They couldn't even hold on to them till January... pathetic.

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Jes
Webmaster, Jes's Roller Coasters
"Thank You Jeff Putz"

Six Flags = No heart for the holidays

Hey, that's life. I'm on the street too right now, the victim of a poorly managed company that blames its troubles on the events of 9/11 (which are a factor, but a relatively small part of the problem).

Heart has a place in companies led by people who aren't clueless about the world we live in, and can see beyond quarterly results and fluctuations in market conditions. These companies are led by the very people who built them in the first place.

Six Flags is a bank project run by bank people (save for the COO, who has an amusement industry resume).

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I would assume 4O employees is a fairly large number for a park this size, especialy considering they are full time employees.

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Jes
Webmaster, Jes's Roller Coasters
"Thank You Jeff Putz"

You guys that sit here and say that Six Flags is pathetic and heartless for letting these people go obviously dont know how the corporate world works.

Yes, its a sad situation but if its inevitable, then they must act on it. They were given severance packages which the company did on its own free will. Their is no law that requires companies that lay off people to do this. They get the package and they can start collecting unemployment right away so its not all that bad.

Of course losing your job can be depressing and stressfull but as Jeff said, that is life. Dont use this as another excuse to ridicule SF because that is just plain wrong.

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""An hour wait for a 2 minute thrill. Yes, we need our heads examined""

I'm actually surprised it took this long. Regardless, I really hope they get the leadership the park needs to make this a great park. Attraction-wise, they're there for rides, but need to pay a lot more attention to the wild life side. Mind you, that's a hope based more on what Steph and some others have said, but I trust their judgement (they're the ones with the fancy graduate degrees in biology).

As much as I rag on this park, I sincerely hope they get their act together.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

What do you guys expect?  They were two parks that have now become one.  Whereas each park had a position that was nearly identical to the other park that was imperative for their operations, now that they are a single park, it is pointless and irresponsible to have two people performing the same function when only one needs to do it?  When two corporations merge into one, there are hundreds and sometimes even thousands of layoffs.  40 people being layed off is nothing.  I'm sure Six Flags: WOA has a lot more employees than most Amusement Parks.

Hudkina has it exactly right. I read the business section everyday in my local paper, and it's really sad to read how many people are layed off. I swear it's almost everyday that someone announces layoffs in the thousands. Numbers aside though, it does stink to get layed off.

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SFA 2002-What are they building?

Also how do we know theses people where not the ones that got the most complaints about them, it seems that more than few guests have had bad dealings with employees there, hopefully they used the double job excuse to weed out a few bad apples.
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Army Rangers lead the way *** This post was edited by supermandl on 12/16/2001. ***

The problems people have had I'm sure are with seasonals, not the year-round folks. The majority of overlap had to be in terms of higher level management and areas where a service was provided in both parks. For example, you might see staff reduction in food services, but not in rides.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

man, that has got to suck. sorry to the people that lost there jobs.

Jeff said:
"The problems people have had I'm sure are with seasonals, not the year-round folks. The majority of overlap had to be in terms of higher level management"
Yes that is probably true, however it is the fulltime and management people that are hiring these problem seasonal people and supervising them.  If there are "bad apple" seasonals, it's only because "bad apple" management hires them and allows them to continue to be employed with there bad attitudes and poor work ethic.
I'm hoping this was a weed out and will allow the park to move forward in its service without some dead wood, but only time will tell. *** This post was edited by G-Money on 12/17/2001. ***

Unfortunately I think that the people let go and/or moved out were the ones with the leadership and ability to move the park forward. Also keep in mind that there were several others moved to other parks with no intention of replacing them at WOA. So the loss is a little higher than 40. Keeping in mind that there were only about 200 or ao to begin with that is a substantial percentage.

I think that we all agree that the turnover in the park services department was something well deserved though. And if the maintenance department was anything still like what I used to deal with (and I hear it was) then the cuts there were well deserved also.

You people amaze me.  Have any of you actually worked in any type of management position for a major amusement park.  I am not talking about being the manager for the cotton candy stand.  It takes a lot of hard work and knowledge of the business to run a park.  That is why we see a lot of mom and pop parks closing down or a bunch of idiots trying to run a park with out ever working at a park prior to.  All of you people writing these messages don't even have a clue how to run a department at a park. Why don't you let the people that work at the parks come to your place of employment and criticize your every move.  Then you can respond to that!!!!! *** This post was edited by bertjj on 12/19/2001. ***

Just as we have no idea who you are in the anonymity of the Internet, you have no idea who the people are posting. You'd be really surprised if you knew just who some CoasterBuzz members were and where they work.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Jeff, you are correct about the anonymity of the internet.  I do work(full time)as a manager for a major amusement park chain.  Trust me, there are plenty of people in the business that look at these sites and shake their heads at the comments made on them.  There are several comments that are not backed by anything other than observations while attending these parks as guests.  The biggest kick we get is when someone states the kid at the dippin dots stand told him about the big attraction for the next season.  Like any business the corp. big wigs are not going to walk the parks and tell seasonal employees before their VPs',directors, managers and the press.  There is a lot of complaining done with out people doing their homework.  Not to take away from those who do their homework, the people who put their comments on w/o the facts give everyone else a bad name. *** This post was edited by bertjj on 12/19/2001. ***

This isn't speculative talk about new attractions here, this is talk about guest experience (and for the record, it's the Lemon Chill Guy who really knows what's going on). You don't have to do homework to know you aren't having the experience you think you should have at an amusement park. If you and other management types don't see that, you're doomed to failure. The customer isn't always right, but when they don't come back, you're broke.

Now since we aren't talking about Lemon Chill Guy nonsense in this topic, but rather the mismangement of this park, you say that, "It takes a lot of hard work and knowledge of the business to run a park." Yes, that's true, and if someone in this forum states that a park isn't meeting their expectations, then it's perfectly valid and legitimate to theorize that the reason is the park is poorly managed. Isn't that the reason behind the poor operation of any service business we patronize?

You also said that, "That is why we see a lot of mom and pop parks closing down or a bunch of idiots trying to run a park with out ever working at a park prior to." Which parks are those? Arguably some of the best parks in the country are places like Holiday World, where in the context of this topic, the park is run by a family and the leadership in management from the top down is first class. Can you say that about your organization?

You finish with, "Why don't you let the people that work at the parks come to your place of employment and criticize your every move." That's just a piss poor attitude. If people criticize your service and hospitality business, you had better listen to what they have to say. They're spending discretionary income at your place. They have other choices, and those other choices are where they'll go next time if you blow off their feedback because they "don't even have a clue how to run a department at a park."

The park formerly known as Geauga Lake is poorly managed. I feel that way after talking to managers, seasonals and sheer experience. It's a blemish to Six Flags as a company, which does have some well run parks.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"