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The Honeymoon is Over 17 June, 2008

Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.
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It’s a Thursday night so it should be relatively busy. Fools Gold is on the main screen which is not a good sign. The weather is warming up, so crowd pullers are needed to keep the profits coming in. In Bruges is all we have tonight.

I find out that the day has been appalling with even the shift managers joining the mulitfunctionals for a chat. This is not good. Already they are not showing late night films and Concessions had only one rush all evening. The Sales Per Person is holding up compared to other sites but, as I check the screens, the numbers are poor. One screen has no one in it. It usually takes at least two multifunctionals to clean a screen but I manage on my own even with a rush of change overs. It’s a slow night all round.

After three weeks’ training and then a stern effort to impose those standards it appears the rule book is being thrown out of the window to hold on to customers at any cost. On the floor I am presented with a customer with a ticket to see the wrong film. The rules are he needs to exchange it for a correct one so the system has an accurate record of attendances for films. Bollocks to that, the manager says just let him in.

I’m on the floor tonight which means cleaning screens between films. The manager’s job is to construct the screenings for the night. Oh look, in one screen the film finishes after the next one starts! Luckily ( or not for the company) no one is actually watching the earlier screening so projection cuts the film early in time to start the next film. Projection diplomatically point out to me that the times for another screen are completely wrong. It’s not clear at all that the duty manager tonight has any idea of this.

A lot of staff have left already and another batch will go when University finishes for the Summer and there will be no one here to train the new crew. So far only one multifunctional has been appointed to supervisor. But will they cull the establishment numbers to keep costs down?

Take my shiny new iPod…..No, I insist 1 June, 2008

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It’s the backward weirdy human rule in life that when we leave our stuff behind in the cinema we only come back to collect the rubbishy sentimental stuff that other lowlifes decide they quite fancy.

I’m standing behind box office in the waiting room for the back office, it’s a cold airless, window-less chair-less clinical room that you have to wait in before you go into the cash office, to have your money counted and then get bollocked for not upselling enough and for having no explanation as to where the fify quid went that your float is down on.  But I’d rather be here than waiting at the dentist’s.  Anyway, it’s where the bulk of the lost property goes.  The valuable stuff should be in the cash office but no one seems to give a fuck.  So there is a steady stream of staff coming through here to stroke the shiny new dark grey iPod Nano 3rd generation some stoopid eedgit has not only left behind in a screen but not bothered to come back to collect.  There is a long list of underpaid staff here who are in the valley of temptation because the managers have not bothered to hold it in the cash office.

It beggars belief what customers do not come back for. Bizzarely, though, a lot of customers do come back for missing odd gloves and scarves that have walked, probably with another customer.

I’ve handled a Mercedes Benz car key and pondered how that rich person managed to get home and avoid their car park fine.  I’ve seen wallets stuffed full of credit cards.  Yes credit cards can be cancelled but why not ask the cinema first before going through all that hassle????  And what about all the other personal cards we hold in our wallets and purses? Membership cards, driving license, reward cards…. Businesses are not slow to charge for a replacement card these days.

And then there are mobile phones.  Maybe people are thinking leave it at the cinema, report it lost and ask your telco for a nice new one.  But what about all the personal information we have on our phones?  While we are on the subject of personal information on mobile phones, never leave it lying around if you don’t want other people to look inside it.  Being a manager in a cinema is not a job if you want to liked.  So if you are married and then start taking time off with another member of staff it’s only a matter of time before the rumour mill kicks in.  And when you leave your mobile phone unattended with messages on it that are best described as embarressing……before you know it everyone else has read them..

Floating or Sinking? 5 April, 2008

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It’s the end of the shift and it’s time to go into the metal plated room otherwise known as the Cash Office. When I take in my float I get that sinking feeling. It’s a bit like going through customs where you have that sensation of being potential guilty without reason. So how did I do? Am I short in which case are my pockets stashed with notes? Have I keyed everything in properly or have I filled in my forms properly to show my mistakes? The money side of the business is the serious side. Firstly, because we are not trusted by default. Secondly, because, on concessions, this is where the real money is made. We are expected to upsell and suggestive sell – if our sales per person is low then we get another bollocking.

Because of the computerised nature of it all myself and others have run up huge amounts of virtual money that has to be tracked back through how sales are recorded. It’s so easy to make mistakes on the Box Office where there are many options for ticket sales to consider: students, senior citizens, disabled people, gift tokens, and more. It is not difficult to work out which button to press but the capacity to miss a particular process is very easy. This creates ghost money on the system and keeps managers guessing.

The real concern is when one’s float is down. Any margin for error in your psychological profile and you are put “under investigation.” That margin can be as little as £3 for one transaction where you made an error of judgement. If you’re face does not fit then it may not be a mistake in the company’s view as one multifunctional found out. No one’ s figures add up but when it runs in to tens or even a hundred pounds then the managers need to make a decision about you. And if you’ve had a run in with the management already then you will get that sinking feeling again.

It’s raining again 24 March, 2008

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Outside the box office but up on the first floor inside the mall the rain drips steadily onto the marble floor. Its a brand new building and its failed the first rain shower test.

Today I start on concessions. Word is out this is the place not to be: long queues, customer aggravation and ice cream to prepare. But this is where the cinema makes its profits. This is where the upsell (“go large for 50p?”) and suggestive sell (“chocolates with your popcorn?”) must be built in as well as remembering all the food, drink, confectionery, ice cream and coffee. It’s daunting. But the approach is you have done the training (for about an hour as a group in a different cinema a fortnight ago) so you know what to do. The external managers and supervisors from other have no guidance from the internal managers and have been left to run the place. It’s crucial to gradually bed in staff: watch the manager, support the manager and then the manager watches and supports you. But no. No time. Watch me for five minutes and then your on your own. There is no price sheet. I have no idea how to log in and despite being shown by a manager she still fails to get it right herself and I get the blame at the end of the day.

Two staff are missing today. One turns up and the other goes AWOL. So the bar stays shut till more staff arrive at lunchtime. The kid on the checkbox tears his hair out as he has few colleagues to clean the screens and managers are missing. The rain means it’s a slow day until the afternoon. 10,000 BC is popular. Some films such as The Other Boleyn Girl are quiet except for a few women leaving the end of the film crying. The beheading clearly did it for them.

A customer wants some jalapenos on his nachos. But the can opener is missing. Then it’s found but doesn’t work. Eventually it’s sorted out. But the customer has gone, disgruntled, by then. So why is there only one can opener in this place?

Eventually, we run out of popcorn and I am put on the popcorn kettle. The manager reassures it’s okay for another kid to use my float. The kettle may be new but one of the two kettles is still bust. I have never been shown how to boot one up and the poor internal supervisor is as perplexed as me. I figure it out in the end and off we go. It’s noisy, boring and repetitive, and not popular with the kids, but hey, it’s a break from some of the more boring jobs: making up the nachos trays. Now how boring is that?

It’s time to go and a kid has been asked to make popcorn. He calls me over as he and the internal supervisor are struggling – the kettle won’t heat up. I explain he has left the oil switch on and its flooded the kettle. If staff had been properly inducted into the job then there would not be problems like with the popcorn kettle.

It’s busy and I can’t get off my station. I eventually take my float and two external manager decide to escort me down to the cash office – there is no tube available to send it down. I then get told off for not coming down and collecting a tube. I bite my tongue. I have no silver so I get told off again for not having cash changing skills. I want to slap this patronising upstart. I then get told off for letting another kid use my float. I want to let rip but she then praises me on my sales per person.