Kenversations™
Page 4 of 7

Preparing the Area
My first cast member is scheduled to come on at 7:30 a.m. Until then, I roam the area, methodically going through the landscaping to pick out the trash, stantion plugs, looking for lost items, and restaurant trays, dishes, and silverware. If there was a late showing of Fantasmic! the night before, certain flowerbeds may be trashed. There are mornings when things are very clean, and mornings where it is so bad there won’t be enough time to get most of it up before the park opens.

I’m understanding. I know it can be tough to close out during a busy season. The foreman might be new to being a lead, may have been at the park for less than a year, and may have a crew full of people who are fresh out of training, some of whom won’t care or won't be tough enough to stay a week. He might be inexperienced with this particular area and the specific characteristics it has. He might be too busy to remember to make sure they all use flashlights when checking their beds, and they might not think to get and use one, or they might not even bother checking the beds. The poor lead isn’t omnipresent… it is hard to personally check the entire area each night. You have to choose your battles. Besides, even with a good flashlight, more can be seen during daylight.

Closing is a different can of worms… maybe I can write a shorter column about that another time.

Making my way around the area, I make sure there are no full trashcans, and generally survey the area. Usually, trash can and benches will need to be placed back where they belong. Trashcans are often used as very expensive barricades on the part of attractions cast members. We’ll find two or more cans placed next to each other or in very close proximity, which is very inefficient, or "area" cans in the line or line cans in the area - yes, there is a difference.

You never know what you’re going to find when you are opening up. I won’t gross you out with tales of things we find that festered overnight.

Places that definitely will need to be cleaned include the area by the fry wagon (long-handle picker will be needed to get all the debris that will be down by the river), in the line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (time for some climbing), under the Tiki Room exit stairs, and the outside queue of Indy.

I try to make it back to the locker before 7:30 to leave a note for the 7:30 person to tell him or her where I’ll need help with the rest of the opening procedures. While a 7:30 a.m. start time means they’re supposed to be there at 7:30, they might not make it there until five or ten minutes later. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when the park is opening at 8, it is.

But, you have to choose your battles. I’m usually not there to actually see them show up, because the moments are precious and they’re dwindling. As 8 a.m. approaches, I might get a radio with a dying battery from a night cast member. Otherwise, I’ll have to call the office and see if anyone has called in sick, been pulled to another area, or been added to my crew, as there should be another person coming on and I need to fill out the schedule.

Planning the Day
As with most things in life, planning can make all of the difference, even if things change. (and boy, do they ever change sometimes.) Scheduling well or badly can mean the difference between a safe, clean area or a shameful disaster of a mess. The trick is to make sure that every area is adequately covered at all times, at least as on paper, until the area can be handed over to the closing foreman.

I consider how many people I have, what their hours are, and who they are, and what the projected attendance for the day is. Fewer people on the schedule means more work for everyone else, such as larger areas to cover. Certain people are more efficient at different tasks. It is hard if you don’t recognize names on the schedule, because you have no idea what that person’s experience, attitude, personality, preferences, strengths, or weaknesses are. Ideally, on a very busy day, as Adventure/Frontier foreman, I’m going to have a crew of 8 able-bodied, fairly competent cast members with good attitudes working with me on the day end (meaning starting no later than 1:30 p.m. It very rarely works out that way.

With 8 people, one is going to cover Indy, which includes sweeping the line, taking care of Indy trash cans, responding if there is a hydraulic fluid spill from one of the troop transports, and making sure the cast member / Guest Who Needs to Go NOW! Restrooms are good, which means they get a premium rate.

Two people are going to end up dumping trash. The be taking large metal carts with 3, 6, or 8 hard resin trash can liners through the area and emptying out the trash in the area cans. A "stomp board" helps them compact the trash somewhat, and the liners can be moved through the area on small wheeled platforms. They' also be responsible for emptying the bagged trash can in the lines and waiting areas, and the bagged recycling cans.

One person will end up sweeping lines. He or she keeps a record of which lines were done at what time.

Three people will each have a section of the area - Adventure, Frontier, and Alley/Trail. Frontier stops at the petrified tree and the wooden bridge on Big Thunder Trail, but is otherwise self-explanatory, as is Adventure. Alley/Trail goes from the entrance of Pirates to the wooden bridge on the Big Thunder Trail.

Finally, a breaker will cover those three areas during breaks and lunches and handle odd jobs.

Not too long ago, the schedules were modified to show how the shift hours had been designated, i.e. people are designated for trash removal, sweeping lines, and covering breaks. The lead has the authority to assign people to wherever he sees fit, though. When it comes to something like Indy, however, there is a premium paid to the cast member, and if you move someone out of Indy, they may ask for their premium anyway, so I tend to leave that person in there.

After calling the office on a park phone to ask if anyone has been pulled, has called in sick, or whatever, I ask any of my early crew members what their preference in assignments and break times are. It doesn’t mean they’ll get what they ask for, but the input can help. Looking down the list and seeing how many people I have, what their hours are, and who these people are, I formulate a plan for the schedule. Then, I run down the line, first filling in the assignments, then the break times for the assignments that will need a breaker in place when those people are on break.

While some managers consider breakers the last position to be assigned, I always try to have a breaker, unless my crew is so small as to render it impossible or unnecessary. It isn’t that I don’t want to cover the breaks myself, but a foreman needs the freedom to answer calls and the like, and I know from experience that it stinks to return from a break or a lunch to find that your area hasn’t been covered. My breaker is usually someone I trust, someone I think to be a good, experienced, competent worker, and someone I like to give a break to, because covering breaks is less monotonous than covering the same area for eight hours.

If it comes down to having the area split into three coverage areas or splitting it into two and having someone dedicated solely to sweeping lines, I’ll choose the second option. Lines have gotten worse over the years, thanks to Vending, among other things, and FastPass can be a blessing or a curse. Some look at being assigned to lines as punishment. Some covet trash duty, which is less tedious and tends to be less supervised. I try to assign people to where I think they’ll be the most effective.

When filling in the breaks, I try to make it so that the breaks will be comfortably paced for the cast member, will not overlap, and if reasonable, back-to-back so that the breaker can be freed for longer blocks of time to do other tasks when not covering a break. An eight hour shift means a cast member will get a half-hour unpaid lunch (hence, full shifts are scheduled for eight-and-a-half hours) and two fifteen-minute breaks. Seven hours or less means two breaks but no lunch (mutually waived). Anything over seven hours means lunch is mandatory, so someone working seven hours and fifteen minutes makes less than someone working seven hours. Anything over four hours requires two breaks. Shifts are typically six hours and up. Some people work a four- day, ten-hour-a-day week.

I don’t write in when my breaks will be, as I tend to disappear on them, and I don’t want everyone else to take the opportunity to slack off. Leads will often take a break along with their lunch out of convenience. I schedule my lunch first and my breaks later, as I might not get my lunch otherwise. By law and by union rules, we must take our breaks, or be compensated with overtime pay. I tell the people working with me to take their brakes no matter what (even late). If things go downhill, it isn’t because they aren’t doing their job - it is because there are either too many guests, or there has been a breakdown in the system, such as not enough cast members. My lunch may not actually happen until halfway through my shift or longer, and I may never get my breaks. We are often called off of out lunches and breaks for responsive calls, to meet a cast member, or whatever.

After the break times are filled in, the breaker’s direction sheet can be made. The breaker may cover an area until the other cast member arrives, will cover breaks, and may be assigned to such tasks as sweeping lines or shops, cleaning up the backstage areas, taking stuff to Lost & Found, getting stock for the locker, various odd jobs, going to parade clean-ups, pushbrooming, spot-mopping, etc.

Once I’m finished with the schedule and break sheet, I’ll take it upstairs and make copies - one for our managers (I have to fill in my breaks on this one), and one for my pocket so I can keep track of everything wherever I am.

The King and Queen Arrive
As the park is now open, I pick up my pan and broom and head out to great the early guests. Unless there is still opening clean-ups to do, there usually isn’t a whole lot to do at this point. The park is a long way from being busy. Most of the activity at this time will be directing guests to where they want to go. Some want breakfast. Some are rushing to one attraction or another. Some are already looking for characters.

The Custodial Foremen are very visible, and must deal with guests, all levels of most other departments, their managers, their crew - in sort, just about everyone. It is good to be flexible, knowledgeable about the Resort, and good with people.

I'm there first and foremost to assist guests, provide them with a clean and safe environment to enjoy their day, and to equip my crew to do the same. Throughout the day, I'm supposed to observe the individuals on my crew, especially the newer ones, for coaching and feedback purposes.

Even though I'm a foreman, that doesn't place me above doing any task Day Custodial is responsible for. We work as a team, even though I delegate various responsibilities and calls.