Thursday, August 4, 2011

Six Flags is a Terrible Employer

This is article #5 of 5 for random week

I quit my summer job at Six Flags. I was in the fortunate position of not needing the job thanks to ad revenue through this site, selling stuff on Ebay, and other projects I take on the side. God bless the people who do need the money bad enough to work and stay there.

Now before I get started on my personal experiences at Six Flags New England I would like to clear some things up. When I brought up the fact that I did not make overtime (more on this later) with my grandfather, he told me all about when he was a kid how he worked on a tobacco farm, and he did not make overtime because it was seasonal work, and how he could not go to the bathroom whenever he wanted, and how I should be lucky to find a job so late in the summer and so on and so on. I am sure that there are other people out there who would love to ostracize me for not being hard working.

It seems to be a cultural thing, that complaining about your job and that if you're not happy slaving away at it, then you are subhuman garbage. After all the American dream is all about; if you want more out of life you should be happy to work harder for it. For more on this check out this video:

                                        

Six flags is a horrible employer. I was treated terribly by guests, staff and the company. Recently I found out I was not alone in my complaints, and in fact employees at other parks have it worse. Ride operators at Six Flags Texas are not allowed to drink water on the job, less the look like they are stealing from the company. If there is one thing I was thankful for, it was that we were given as much ice water as we could drink.

Ride operators have to stand outside at their ride all day, most of us were scheduled for eight to twelve (or more) hour shifts. During my one month stint at six flags, we had to close down our rides twice due to thunderstorms. All ride operators were told to stay at their posts even while lightning struck inside the park.We would be given two breaks which had to be taken in a designated area, and included the time it took you to walk to and from the break area to your position. Getting a bathroom break could take 30 to 45 minutes. I once had a supervisor ask me why I had to go to the bathroom when I had my break two hours ago. I often would leave my post in order to use the bathroom, although this is grounds for immediate termination:
"This year there was a girl at a ride who had to go to the bathroom, she called for the job coach to come down and relieve her, she called for a supervisor to come down and relieve her, she even called for any available person including silver tags to come down and run the ride for 5 minutes so she could go. No one came, so after two hours she unloaded the ride, and went to the bathroom. There was no staffing shortage that day, she was fired over it."
Link.
  
As I mentioned before, Six Flags employees are not subject to overtime because the work is "seasonal". I found this peculiar considering the park is open until Halloween. I looked up Massachusetts law on the subject, and found that a stipulation exists for amusement parks. Seasonal employment is defined as one-hundred twenty days in this law, but then goes on to set seasonal employment for amusement parks at 150 days. Why was this stipulation made? 

On my second day of work a woman accused me of calling her a slut because I would not let her daughter drive the car on Route 66 due to the height restriction (she was under 48''). She then stormed off looking for security. Being yelled at by guests is a common occurrence. You can expect a promise to be fired or a personal insult at least once a day. On a separate occasion I had a guest call me a "moolie" because according to the rules of the ride, he had to ride with his children and he did not want to.

During my first week I also had a team leader fail to give me a break. I was afraid that this would continue to happen, so I documented the case should it happen again. Originally when I was hired, I was given a stack of papers to sign. The last two forms at the end of all the mandatory forms were optional. They were pre-written statements that waived the employee's rights for a break or for the mandatory one day off in a week. When I did not sign these forms, human resources asked me why did I not sign them, and then told me that my supervisor would want me to sign the forms. I still declined. When I went to my ADP account to take a screen shot of my "virtual" time slip for this article (we cant have real ones) I was notified that I was unauthorized to access my account.

The event that lead to me leaving on the spot had to do with the grooming standards at Six Flags. This was more or less the straw that broke the camel's back in my long list of catalysts. Men have to be shaved when working at Six Flags, as is part of the grooming standards. When I went to the window to punch in I was told that I would have to shave before coming into work. The girl behind the counter took out a can of Noxema and a pink razor. I asked about where could I shave and she said "yeah about that..." I said "What?" and she said "Yeah...". A woman from a desk behind her walked up and said "The bathroom in the park." I said "what" again, and then with a  very stern demeanor, she articulately said "go through the security gate, into the bathroom and shave". I looked at the Noxema, then the girl, then the pink razor, then the woman, and I shrugged my shoulders and walked away.

Not coming into work is a "No call, no show" which effectively puts you on probation. I don't know what that means but I returned my uniform the next day. When I tried to turn in my red dot rewards, I was promptly told people who don't work at the park can not turn them in.

The red dots didn't bother me, nor did losing the job, or the six hour shifts that turned into twelve when your supervisor asks you to stay longer. It was the damn pink razor. Why was it pink? The only way body hair can be out of grooming standard is if it is male facial body hair. If they are going to keep shaving cream and a razor handy for men to use in a public restroom, why is it pink? Never mind the fact that those types of razor are not even supposed to be used on somebody's face. It was very deliberate.

I hope this article is useful for anybody whoever is considering working at Six Flags New England. I find it interesting that a google for "six flags bad employer" does not yield anything about working for the park, but "Six Flags red dot" does, or Six Flags ESO (Employment Service Office). Although you would not know to search for these things unless you already worked there. Here's your heads up!!

For more information on Six Flags (or other parks such as Ceder Point) check out the links I provided in this post. They all provide a wealth of information, and can let you know what a hell hole it can be to work in any of these places.

8 comments:

  1. Interesting post.
    This year after waiting for 1 hour in "kiddie park" ride, one of my twin son wasn't allowed to take that ride because he was 1 cm short of 36inches. True story. Not 2 inches, 1 inch just 1 cm.
    Do you how much painful it is to wait in queue for 1 hour and she doesnt allow my kid to take that silly ride? When I insisted, she asked me to go to securitygate and get a waiver from her manager and start again from the queue for 1 hour. Absurd. She spoiled our mood and I couldnt face my poor kid to whom I had been hyping about the whole ride for 1 hour.
    Mind you, he went on other big rides without problem.
    I stayed irritable for rest of evening.
    I told my husband that girl is fit to work only behind the scenes and can never work with this attitute with any customerfacing job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I completely agree with the anonymous person who answered before me!! It's making me mad just thinking about this because I WORK IN THE KID SECTION. Look, I'm sorry you had to wait for an hour but it was that girl's job to make sure your child is safe, even if they were just one cm too short, that's STILL too short. We, as operators, sometimes care about a child's safety more than their idiotic, stubborn parents. I am CONSTANTLY getting yelled at and insulted by rude parents who insist that I am "being a b*tch" and have "ruined their kid's day*... Look, I get paid less than $8 an hour to stand (not allowed to sit) outside in the sun for 12 hours a day and try to promote safety while taking crap from stupid guests that think they're somehow special enough to override the park's rules. UGH.
      Have a SixFlags day (or, in other words, go f*ck yourself).

      Delete
  2. Sorry to hear you had such a bad time bro. you can come work at sears with me :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amen Anonymous, Amen!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hate working at six flags. I hate it so fucking much. I get yelled at every day, and I don't know how long ago you worked there but they never bring me water, even when I ask. I got heat stroke and was kept on the job. I just want to quit, and I'm going to as soon as I can. As soon as I have the money to.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I work at sixflags. I feel like quitting due to the water thing. Oh poor guests, should they have to see SF emoloyees drink.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Don't blame you.

    Tried getting a job there once. Was told at the END of the interview that I didn't fit in because of past jobs. I was an extra and had worked at a haunted house.

    Bottom line they made me sit there through the whole interview process when they were going to tell me no in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I work at SFNE in retail, I also requested to learn how to bake for the retail department (fudge and Apples, nothing super fancy) I thought that by offering to step up would show initiative thus getting me more shifts. Nope. They put me on as a clerk maybe 3-4 times a week, then if they need me as baker they put me on for baker. I don't bake often, they have the other person or a supervisor do it more than not, so I'm not 100% sure about everything. They get mad about that or when I mess up because no one was around to ask for help because the supervisor and lead just disappear and its not like a TM who has never baked for flags before can help. They also talk a LOT of shit. You do something they don't like you're never going to live it down. There was once day I was in a negative mood (heaven forbid) and my super asked me why I responded with "I don't think you really care so I don't want to talk about it. This also isn't the time or place." My thought process is: I've seen multiple times this super talk smack about people. I've heard him talk about me. I work my back end off every shift and not once have I left them high and dry yet they still talk. So sorry that I don't want to share my personal life with someone who is just going to go repeat and laugh about what I said later on with someone else. Also I was at work, clocked in for a shift. I am there to do my job and then leave. I am not going to talk about personal stuff there. I may mention a thing it two when its slow but I'm not about to tell you my life story. So he got mad and proceeded to talk about me to my lead. That was fun. My head manager is an absolute a**. She is grumpy and rude, she treats everyone like poop. For example, I approached her when I first started at the end of May (even though I was hired and trained early April) asking if there was an opportunity for more hours she told me that she had to give the internationals (people who cone to work for the summer from a non USA territory like China or Thailand) a minimum of 35 hours a week. Mind you I had almost fill availability at this time. I worked every day except Friday and was open for any shift. But don't worry the American trying to make money to support a family didn't need more hours, a non American working through a college program in their country needed it because about half their paycheck went back to the company for "housing costs"

    ReplyDelete