Throw 'em a bone (guest compliments)
dexter says:
"I've said it before, working at CP will turn a boy into a man."
There's a gay joke there, but I'll resist this time ;-)
Moosh - showing rare restraint this time...LOL!
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Mamoosh said:
There's a gay joke there, but I'll resist this time ;-)
I never thought of it that way, but it works that way also.
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But seriously folks, I respect the opinions of yall who don't like the thing, but if MF were human, I'd marry it.
Krillin said:
Now I have never been one so I can't really say how hard the work is, but, it doesn't look that hard. Checking the laps bars. Most people can do that them selves. If you are talking about the guys then the booth then that is a different story.
Hah. Sure, it's easy to check a lapbar, but the majority of the the Ride-Ops do not get to sit down. Imagine standing up from 9:45am until 10:15pm five times a week.
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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew (Have Fun Trying To Find Me!)
*** This post was edited by Zero-G on 10/24/2002. ***
Zero-G says:
"Imagine standing up from 9:45am until 10:15pm five times a week."
While I'm sure being a ride-op is hard work, that statement HAS to be an exaggeration. All states have labor laws and if an employee is working that shift w/o a break, that park's HR department is in violation of the law. Most states mandate that employees working an 8-hour shift get two paid 10-min breaks and either a paid 30-min break or an unpaid 60 min break.
If you're working 9:45a - 10:15p without a break, call your state's labor board!
Moosh
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As a guest, I generally try to let the park know how my day was, good and bad. If I see something that needs improvement, I let them know. If I see certain employees going out of their way to make sure every guest has a wonderful experience in the park, I make sure the park knows about that too.
As an employee, I can see what you mean when you talk about a thankless job. I work at Knott's, and I'm definately not there for the money or the attitude I get from guests. I'm there because it's a fun place to work, I have fun there and I do my best to make sure every guest I talk to has a good time. I always tell everyone I work with "If you can't have fun working here, there's really no point in being here, you can make more money for less work flipping burgers." That's just the way I look at it, I love being at Knott's otherwise I wouldn't be there.
edit:
Moosh, it's true that you get breaks, the park would be breaking the law if they didn't give breaks for those long shifts, but try standing for that long and then sitting down. You won't want to get back up when your break is over. I only sit down for about 10 minutes to eat lunch when I'm working at Knott's, the rest of the time I'm on my feet whether I'm on break or not.
*** This post was edited by jeskola on 10/24/2002. ***
Sure, I get brakes, but guess how I get there... by walking... guess what I have to do in order to get food... stand in line... guess how I get back... by walking...
I may be sitting for a total of 30 minutes during the whole day.
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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew (Have Fun Trying To Find Me!)
Anyone who says being a ride operator/attendent obviously hasn't done it. It's not the most grueling job out there, but it comes close. I'm not saying that anyone on these boards couldn't do it... but I am saying, you'd have more respect for the people busting their asses on the docks in the middle of August.
The point of this thread was to encourage you not only to compliment he team member (in any department, not just rides) in person, but be sure to drop a compliment at guest relations... otherwise, they get no real inidication to management (besides observations by managers themsevles) that they're doing a good job. Throw 'em a bone.
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the member formerly known as MisterX
I have been on both sides of the coin.... guest and ride op.
I regularly thank a park/ops when they deserve it. And truthfully, I avoid any sort of complaint unless things just got completely out of hand.
However let me tell you a funny thing that happened at SFWOA. Last year I went to GR to put in the good word for two outstanding ride ops (Yes! You read right... at SFWOA). We'll when I told GR I wanted to compliment them, they responded with "Sorry, we cannot help you... this has never happened before."
Oiy Vey
Shaggy
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Shaggy
R.I.P. Maestro
Phantom Theater 1992-2002
jeskola - When I worked in retail I spent my lunch break GETTING lunch and would have about 10 min to rest and enjoy it. Trust me...I understand what you go through.
Moosh
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Sig under construction
*** This post was edited by Mamoosh on 10/25/2002. ***
Krillin said:
Ravenguy98, to me, it seems like you are just looking for a pat on the back. Kinda of flaunting it..."look at all the "hard work" I have done. If you really do do as good of a job as you say you do, others will brag for you.
I'm not looking for a pat in the back, I'm looking for anybody that does a good job to get a pat on the back. And you know what, others did brag for me: I got a promotion into management after working in the park for one month, and then a month later I was honored with a "Service Superstar" award, which was a very nice gesture, and just shows that from the park's angle, it isn't completely thankless. Hey, the thread wasn't about me personally, but if you want it to be, that's fine, I got plenty to brag about. :)
And if you think being a ride op is easy, here's a typical Saturday where I worked:
8 am - Wake up, shower, shave, etc...grab breakfast, get in car
9:15 - Arrive at work, climb up hill to wooden coaster, climb down hill to fill up water coolers, bring filled coolers back, run morning tests, fill out check lists, etc...
10 - Park opens. Attend on wooden coaster. Remember, to attend a wooden coaster with PTC's, you must bend down REALLY low, and check every lap bar and seat belt. Its tiring work, but after the first two hours you are fine. You're a healthy teenager, dagnabbit! :)
12 - Transfer to the rapids ride down the hill, sweep up the station for a little bit. Rapids ride opens at 12:05. To attend the rapids ride, you must jump down into each boat, as its moving on the conveyor belt, bend down (again), and physically pull on each seat belt to make sure it is securely fastened. Sounds easy, but from when the boat is empty to when the boat is off the conveyor, you only have one minute and thirty seconds. Now comes the hard part: guests want to ride without shoes (they can't), guys want to ride without shirts (they can't), guests want you to take their loose articles (they have to place them in the bins themselves), women want to ride with bathing suit bottoms (they can't, and they're usually REALLY pissed abou that one) and you're the one that gets to deal with all of that as well! Its the most stressful job in the park, but you only do it for an hour. Because now you get your...
1 - break, where you have a nice meal and conversation with a supervisor from division 4. Its things like that that make you love working at an amusement park. You got back to work at 1:40 but you are sent up to...
2 - the wooden coaster up the hill to finish up the breaks. You attend up there for 3 hours straight, you have your dinner break, you go back up to the wooden coaster but you are sent down to attend a certain flat ride so someone else can go on their break, so you walk down
5 - and you attend. Oh yeah, did I mention that its over 90 degrees outside? And the attendant spot doesn't have any shade? Its been a long day already, and you're getting a little grumpy, but you're still putting on your best game face for the guests, and saying "Habba great day!" as guests exit. Suddenly, Krillin (oh yeah, the guy from coasterbuzz! kewliez!) pulls you over and says "Hey man, I saw you really hauling ass today attending on a couple rides! Keep up the good work!" and you say "Thank you very much, I really, really appreciate that." After noticing his cool Cedar Point shirt you say "Cool shirt, too!" and wink as he walks down the exit ramp.
Krillin has just made your life a little bit more worth living. What a nice guy. By...
6 - you are back up at the wooden coaster, but your not attending, you're height checking. Sounds easy enough, but you have been standing up pretty much all day, and there is no way you can sit and height check at the same time. Still, its a nice little break from attending, and you get to interact with the guests as they stand in line, which is probably your favorite thing to do at the park.
7:30 - You're back up at the station, attending. You truck through until 11 o'clock, which is when the park closes. Gosh, long day, huh? You've just worked 14 hours. But at least your pay check is going to be phat as hell on friday. :) But wait, you can't go home yet, because...
11 - "Hey, John, Division 5 needs some help at you-know-where. Want some extra hours?" You say sure, because you really enjoy working at you-know-where, which happens to be the park's best ride, the hyper coaster which you got trained on way back in May. Only problem, the coaster still has an hour wait, so you get to operate (which is still cool) until midnight. By then, all the other rides in the park have been done for at least half an hour. Lucky for you, people have already started emptying trash cans, so you only have to change 2 of them, which are filled with rotting beer, all sorts of food, and, yum! Is that vomit I smell in one of my trashbags?? Nice, someone left me a gift. I now potentially have vomit on my hands, and its nearing one o'clock in the morning.
By the time you got out of the park, you didn't care what time it was it was so late, but you know what, even through picking up 30 cigarette butts with your bare hands, maybe getting vomit on yourself, being on your feet for a long, long, time, its still worth it, because you're working with your friends, and they mean a lot to you. And, you got a nice compliment (from a coasterbuzzer no less)! Its all in a day's work, to make sure you guys have the most fun you can.
If you see a park employee doing a good job, tell them you think they are doing a good job. That's it. :)
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If the shoe fits, find another one.
Swoosh said:
Son of Beast @ PKI - I can't believe how fast they can load trains. And they are so chipper.
The question to be rasied is what about Top Gun? They are the same crew.
Heres a story that made my job worth wild.
I was at beast last year. A week after the bump, two trains nice light day. Around 1pm we see someone standing up in the train as it came into the bridge. Once we saw he was holding a girls neck we went down for an emergency. I was telling people that there was a slight delay in the station and we would be down for a short time. well after the ambualnce left I was going to walk up to the ride via the exit. The group of people with the injured friend came to me and said a security guard was suppost to take them to 1st aid they didn't they were pissed. I ran them to 1st aid I mean we were running. we get there I take a water break cause I have no endurance. I then escort them to the entrance of the park.
All 5 members personally thanked me and asked me for my name. They went to GR and told them before I left. I felt really good and the rest of my day I Busted ass on that ride like I never did before. It felt good to be thanked.
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Be nice to ride op's. No matter how slow unfriendly and uncaring they may seem Most work hard to make your day great.
I guess the reason I have never done it before is that the parks that really performed for me I expected it from based on feedback from other enthusiasts. At IOA I expected to be blown away(and I was). At CP I expected to be treated like a king and I was. I think in the future I will try and give more compliments to the parks I like so that they keep doing the things they do right the same way into the future...
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Bob Hansen
A proud CoasterBuzz Member
Wanna Ride A Woodie?
Thankless? When I was a ride op, just working in a park was all the thanks I needed! You could be doing a lot worse! So what if you have to deal with bad apples now and again...just be happy that you aren't them.
Still, when I get good service, I let guest services know now and again. It's my way of letting a park know that I care about how I'm treated.
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"If the beats were made of meat then they would have to be me ..." - L.L. Cool J
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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com
I wish it was 9:45 to 10:15, 5 days a week. Actually, it's usually 9:25am to at least 11:30pm, sometimes 12:30am...and it's six days a week. And we get two 45 minute breaks in there, half of which are spent walking to the employee cafeteria and back.
So...at 15 hours, minus 1 hour of sitting during 2 breaks, that's 14 hours. Running back and forth, popping pedals on Corkscrew, telling people they can't take their $8 souvenir bottle on the ride (even though they just bought it and the sign at the entrance wasn't big enough), bending over checking harnesses, and making sure kids don't jump into moving trains.
Easily over 60 hours of this week in, week out, for almost four solid months. And some woman with her purse hidden under her coat today told me that I was "the biggest f'ing moron out of all the idiots I've had to put up with today." Because she can't read the sign at our entrance. And she tried to HIDE her bag when she realized she couldn't bring it on.
I offered to let her come straight back up the exit and ride if she took it to a locker or left it with someone, and instead of "Thanks, I appreciate you slightly bending the rules to accomodate my mistake," I get "biggest f'ing moron."
Thankless is right.
Thank you for the opportunity to vent my frustration. Tomorrow's the last day of it for awhile :-)
Alan--PTC/ScrewCrew 02
Alan--
So very true. So very, very true.
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the member formerly known as MisterX
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Lifts are for wimps. Real enthusiasts use the power of their minds to make the trains go up the first hill.
Yes Alan, Sometimes you DO get a guest who just can't see that you are just doing what you are told and trying to keep them all as safe as possible. I have always said that most park goers leave their brain at the front gate.
Once, while opperating the Baloon Race in Camp Snoopy, a young lady tried to get on the ride with her 3 week old baby. When I told her in a very polite way the handheld infants were not allowed, she got very angry and told me that her husband would be back to kick my A$$. Well when he came a few minuts later, I already had security there. The whole family were escorted out of the park.
Anyone can see that it is an extreme childrens ride. I have seen kids in danger of falling out of the ride sevral times. I really have no idea what this lady was thinking. One of her arguments was that they let her take her baby on the scrambler (yea, right. Whatever lady).
And that's just one irate guest one one day. I got crap like this on a daily basis however, I have had a lot more positive guests than negitive ones.
BrandonR said:
If you do give a compliment to guest relations, it will get back around to the ride operator... It's not a useless gesture!
That goes for any employee, not just ride ops. I'm working line control at Knott's right now for Haunt (my second year), and the other night it felt really good when my talent captain told me "Last night we didn't get any complaints about line control, and some of the guests said you were all doing a great job!" That's what I like to hear, I work hard to make sure the guests have a good time. I have to deal with people's attitudes all the time, it's pretty rare to get a positive comment like that, but it's worth all the hard work, attitudes, and late hours just to know that the guests appreciate what I'm doing.
I'll definately be working at Knott's again after Haunt is over (as a ride op), and working Haunt again next year as a monster.
PKIEMPSOB said:The question to be rasied is what about Top Gun? They are the same crew.
I appologize, I didn't realize they were the same crew - and since this year was my first visit to the park, kind of hard to know that. Also I only rode Top Gun once because really it was a slow line. Granted that there was only one train due to the accident, but after being spoiled by Ninja at SFMM, Top Gun left a lot to be desired. The crew though was wonderful. ;)
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