April 06, 2002
I present for you now,
I present for you now, the first installment in a series, the ramblings of a theater employee. This one is kind of cynical; I tended to be that way in the mornings. So without further ado...
You finally get out of bed at 10:30. You've figured out that you only live 4 minutes from the theater; you can still get there in time. Shower. Dress. For your shift, you need to wear gray dress pants (floor staff get black,) a white dress shirt, a tie (any will do, its the one major freedom you have...) dark socks and black dress shoes. There's a navy blue blazer at work waiting, you look cool when the uniform is complete which is seldom.
You pull up to the theater at 10:55. There's 3 cars in the lot: one is your employees, the other two are customers. The first movie is at 12:30. Why are the customers here so early? You pull out your keys, open one door out of 10 and leave it unlocked. The staff follow you in, and the patrons too. For now, you ignore them.
You go upstairs, and see that its dark. Punch in. Open the office. set the alarm. Sit in peace for a few minutes and pray for an easy day.
You open the safe, do a quick count, make sure it matches from the night before. It matches. You pull in a shopping cart from the booth, and put the cash drawers in there, along with gift certificates and the concession float. You grab a walkie-talkie for yourself, and a few for the people downstairs - how many depends on who you have on: if they're competent, they can have one. If they're going to bug you, they don't. If you imagine them making a run for food later, they get one. If they're annoying, they don't. If you know you're going to joke with them later, they get one. Its really that easy.
Go downstairs, watch the people in the lobby who want you to open. It's about 11:35 now. Distribute drawers, floats, and walkies. Figure out who's working where: someone good at box office, so they can deal with the patrons pissed at paying $8.50 for a movie, someone dually competent at concession, to deal with patrons pissed off at paying $6 for a small popcorn, someone totally incompetent at ushering, so that if he bumps into a wall and hurts himself (which is probable, based on recent hirings...), you don't lose much.
You grab a cup of fresh coffee and begin to wake up. At about 11:45 you open the doors, and are officially open. You head upstairs to check your email, see what has to get done today. You're an assistant manager; you can handle it.
[end installment]
Shout outs to all those who changed their hair color tonight, Michelle and Julia 