Tough Pay and Work at CP for 2010?

If Cedar Point implemented any of those rules, ie: paying to get in, doubling housing prices, charging to park, no loitering, they would be eliminated from international recruiting contention, which they need to function now.

There is no way for them to track who is in/out of the park. What are they going to do? Pull a real time report from TimeTraxx to see who punched out, then see who didn't swipe out through the exit gate? Oh yeah, that doesn't work. Come in early? How do you get to the cafeteria, or wardrobe?

The parking tax would be the least of their worries when the US Govt. yanks them from the J-1 Visa program. Who made these new rules up?

I've seen nothing to confirm that these ARE the new rules or if somebody was just blowing off steam.

I think this is a "straw man" set up so that the employees won't complain too loudly when *some* unpleasant policy changes come to pass.... I cannot foresee any possible way that ALL of these are actual rules intended for implementation - they'd have people "going postal" on a weekly basis.

^ Weekly? No, they'd be going off the deep end DAILY!

Heck, they'd have to turn one of the dorms into a mental health ward!

I do have to say that cedar point used to be my favorate park, but in the last few years the park has been going down the crapper.

It's like a 360 turnaround between six flags and cedar fair the last few years.

Let's just hope this is a rumor and nothing else.

Hopman said:
^ Weekly? No, they'd be going off the deep end DAILY!
Heck, they'd have to turn one of the dorms into a mental health ward!

Man pick Cedars-that place already smells like a moldy hospital ;)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

Hopeman, I worked in Operations in 1999, 2000, and 2006.Third-in-charge of Paddlewheel in '99, Third-in-charge /Acting TL of Camp Snoopy in 2000 ending with a few months at Paddlewheelas well, and ATL of Paddlewheel in '06. I got theemployee-of-the-month recognition once each year, which you may knowisn't easy to get even once in Operations Dept.

LuvRaptor said:
I always find it hard to believe that CP can pay their employees what they do. At least they eliminated the "$1.00/hr bonus that you will only get at contracts end and if you don't make the contract then you don't get your bonus $$" rule. That forced a lot of less than happy employees to stay.

The bosses seemed to hold that bonus over the employees heads the closer the end of the season came. It sometimes seemed pretty dubious of them when they kept firing people close to the end of the season, because then they didn't have to pay that person's bonus.

LuvRaptor also said:

And contrary to what some have asked MANY employees (myself included) loved to hang at the park on their day(s) off. Dont forget for alot of them its got nothing to do with the rides, but the friends.

Awesome positive point, there. I remember many times I didn't have anything to do on my day off, so I'd get some friends together to just hang out at the park.

Jo then concluded:

If you bust your a** you can make good $ working at CP...

But I never did it for the $.

Yeah. One can make decent money there, but that's because you are forced to work so many hours. It was kind of difficult for me to keep from spending it while I was there too. I did finally save a little up near the end of my third year there. I suppose I never worked there for the money either. The "benefits" were enough to keep me coming back.

Carrie M. said:

LostKause said:
"The Complete Lightweight's Guide to Working at Any Seasonal Job".

There, fixed that for you. ;)

I hate it when people change my initial post to make it something it is not, and then say, "There, fixed that for you", as if doing me a favor. It's apparent that I did not say that.

I assume that you've actually worked there before? What about you, Gonch? If not, then you have no idea what I am talking about.

Merriam Webster defines Lightweight as:

2 : one of little consequence or ability <a political lightweight>

My specific job required a lot of ability and talent. Driving a boat,being charming all day to strangers, and remembering your 10 minute spiel, sometimes changing it up to better entertain the specific riders on that particular tour, keeping the timing just right, all while keeping safety in mind isn't as easy as it may sound. Add to that my ATL duties of making schedules, running breaks, and keeping everyone else safe and positive all day. Not easy at all.

I was either going to be in live Entertainment as a singer or a"Captain" at Paddlewheel. I wasn't able to visit the park to try out for Live E,so Paddlewheel it was. What got me the job was the many years of front man experience as a rock musician, and year after year, I was asked to come back to work on the ride, so no, I was definitely not considered a"lightweight".

The difficulty of my first year at Cedar Point really took me by surprise, as it does many people who work there. You two should really try it. It may help you to better understand what we former Cedar Point employees are talking about.

You two can discuss how you really feel about park employees on the next podcast, and everyone will hang on your every word.

Edit - Added some spaces and moved some things around.

LostKause said:
I assume that you've actually worked there before? What about you, Gonch? If not, then you have no idea what I am talking about.

Everything you've described applies to any entry-level, seasonal, minimum wage job.

Work is hard and stuff...

My specific job required a lot of ability and talent. Driving a boat,being charming all day to strangers, and remembering your 10 minute spiel, sometimeschanging it up to better entertain the specific riders on thatparticular tour, keeping the timing just right, all while keeping safety in mind isn't as easy as itmay sound. Add to that my ATL duties of making schedules, running breaks, and keeping everyone else safe and positive all day. Not easy at all.

Never said it was easy. But no job is. It's no worse than a similar position anywhere else...and in the big scheme of things, it's still an entry level, minimum wage style scenario. Work gets no easier than that.

The difficulty of my first year at Cedar Point really took me bysurprise, as it does many people who work there. You two should really tryit. It may help you to better understand what we former Cedar Point employees are talking about.

I'd rather not.

You two can discuss how you really feel about park employees on the next podcast, and everyone will hang on your every word.

My specific job on the podcast requires a lot of ability and talent. Understanding the industry, being charming for whoever might download the show, and remembering specific points on the news items that I'd like to add, sometimes changing it up to better entertain the specific listeners on that particular show, keeping the timing just right, all while keeping my language in mind isn't as easy as it may sound. Add to that my Gonchly duties of making jokes, googling facts, while at the same time being smug and keeping everyone else smiling and positive all show. Not easy at all.

Doing the podcast is hard and stuff...

Cool. When I worked Group U I was back in that area (from MF & Coasters on back) of the park most of the time.

It got to the point that I could tell which coasters were running and which ones weren't just by the sound.

For the rest of you, if you think hauling over a ton of trash every day in ALL weather is an easy gig, TRY IT!!!! I triple-dog dare you! :)

I just wanted to know when Hopman became Hopeman....because that's a change we should all embrace... :) ;)

Thank you. I think it was a typo by LK, but it's no big deal. :)

On the other hand, can Jo, LK, and myself proudly say "We survived working at CP?"

^I thought it was a typo too...until it happened a second time. Not a strong believer in coincidences...

Anyhow, congratulations! Doing the job may not require the "special skills" others are alluding to, but doing a hard job well takes alot of effort - and that's big in my book.

rollergator said:
Anyhow, congratulations! Doing the job may not require the "special skills" others are alluding to, but doing a hard job well takes alot of effort - and that's big in my book.

Less effort than complaining about how hard it is, though. ;)

Seriously, no one is discounting the effort (or even the performance)...just the expectations and perspective.

You guys would be surprized how much agility it takes to do all the cans on TTD, Snake River, and Raptor.

You do realize that CP has over 2,100 trash cans in the park, right? Plus, Group U was in charge of hauling all the dumpsters behind the resturants and other areas in the park. They, along with all the trah from the cans, go into the compactors (and their respective 30 cubic yard dumpsters) behind Blue Streak and Mean Streak. CP even has it's own roll-off truck to haul it all away. The park easily generates 75-100 tons of trash PER DAY.

Think about that next time you toss out that empty water bottle.

I don't know, I sure would feel a lot different about those with the "special skills needed to run a multimillion dollar company" if so many of those people supposedly thusly gifted weren't busy bailing out with Golden Parachutes while their companies crash-landed in a sea of red ink. I can't even get my Program Director to recognize that we need projects that PAY (you know, money) if he wants to employ people to work on said projects....

Bottom line: Common sense ain't all that common... ;)

rollergator said:
I sure would feel a lot different about those with the "special skills needed to run a multimillion dollar company" if...

Ok, then let me add 'skills' to my list of things I'm not discounting.

Not sure why it's being read that way.

I appreciate the skills needed, effort given and total performance of those working these minimum wage, seasonal jobs. My point of contention doesn't lie there.

With that said, all my snarky comments still stand, don't they? :)

Hopman said:
On the other hand, can Jo, LK, and myself proudly say "We survived working at CP?"

I worked at CP on Raptor in '00, '02, '03 and went back again this year. I survived it and every year that I said "I will never do that again"..I proved myself wrong every time I went back. I decided to go back this season because I was unemployed and more so because I absolutely loved the crew. I knew I'd love working with them and I did!!
I told them not to cut me any slack---they didnt!!

So yes I did survive and still consider the 4 years working at CP to be one of my proudest employment accomplishments!! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

Hopman said:
You do realize that CP has over 2,100 trash cans in the park, right? Plus, Group U was in charge of hauling all the dumpsters behind the resturants and other areas in the park. They, along with all the trah from the cans, go into the compactors (and their respective 30 cubic yard dumpsters) behind Blue Streak and Mean Streak. CP even has it's own roll-off truck to haul it all away. The park easily generates 75-100 tons of trash PER DAY.

Think about that next time you toss out that empty water bottle.

So you're to blame for every time I walked in to my ride in the morning to find out we got called out, AGAIN, for having bags of trash hanging on our third low zone fences and trash all over the ground there! ;)

Seriously though, 07 Group U was horrible about that. We got called at least 3 times by Oz or Woz and yelled at for bags of trash hanging on the low zone fence and trash all over it. And then the dead seagull in our infield that Park Services refused to come and get, so our morning maintenance guy offered to grab it. Oh 2007, what a great season. :)

LostKause said:

I hate it when people change my initial post to make it something it is not, and then say, "There, fixed that for you", as if doing me a favor. It's apparent that I did not say that.

I was kidding. I won't make that reference to your posts in the future.

I assume that you've actually worked there before? What about you, Gonch? If not, then you have no idea what I am talking about.

No, I haven't worked there. But I do have an idea of what you have reported here are your complaints about the job and what you think makes for a good read about being an idiot to work there. (I didn't change any of your words there.)

I don't believe the things you reference to be a hardship for working in a seasonal, minimum wage job, nor do I think one would have to be an idiot to work there.

Merriam Webster defines Lightweight as:

2 : one of little consequence or ability <a political lightweight>

My specific job required a lot of ability and talent.

No, you brought ability and talent to the job. But it was not required. There is a difference, but I get the impression you have trouble separating the two.

I was either going to be in live Entertainment as a singer or a"Captain" at Paddlewheel. I wasn't able to visit the park to try out for Live E,so Paddlewheel it was. What got me the job was the many years of front man experience as a rock musician, and year after year, I was asked to come back to work on the ride, so no, I was definitely not considered a"lightweight".

I think the most important aspect of what you've reported above is that you chose to return to the job year after year, despite the now reported unfavorable working conditions. That's interesting.

The difficulty of my first year at Cedar Point really took me by surprise, as it does many people who work there. You two should really try it. It may help you to better understand what we former Cedar Point employees are talking about.

I would imagine it would take anyone by surprise who wasn't prepared for the difficulty of labor. Amusement parks are amusing for the guests, but are not meant to be so for the employees.

You two can discuss how you really feel about park employees on the next podcast, and everyone will hang on your every word.

I really think you are the only one who hangs on our every word. Why else would you get so upset about what we have to say?

As for the rest of the comments since LK's post, I also want to point out that I do not think that the work is easy or that those who do it lack any skills, talent, or ability. The perception has been tipped that way due to LK's take on my statement.

I have the utmost respect for those who are willing to work hard and do well. I do not respect in the least those who spend their time complaining about it or looking for special recognition.

We all have choices to make. If CP does not appeal to you as a place of employment, then don't work there. It's really that simple.

I think the original letter writer is an employee trying to eliminate as much competition as possible for next year's jobs, so he/she made up all that stuff to discourage people from applying.