Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Does anybody have to put up with illogical, outdated or stupid company policies?

This is topic Does anybody have to put up with illogical, outdated or stupid company policies? in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 09-18-2000, 09:55 AM:

I kind of mentioned this on anouther string but I am interested in hearing any other stories about dumb company policies tying your hands.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-18-2000, 02:47 PM:

Loews had a thing a few years back where the managers were supposed to do "whatever it took to make the customer happy", or something along those lines? I was running a theater across the street from a Loews at the time. I remember this specifically as I had a customer come in and point out some really minor problem in the theater on a busy night that no one else on the planet would've possibly noticed or even cared about and after thanking her for bringing it to my attention and assuring her it would be taken care of immediately she asked "so then were is my pass?" Needless to say it went on to include "aren't you going to reward me for pointing out a problem...yada, yada, yada."

Yes, reward!

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 09-18-2000, 03:38 PM:

I have heard of this happening at a couple of local theatres...

"Yes, Film-Guard is the best thing since sliced bread, but it't not on our approved booth suplies list, so don't buy it."

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-20-2000, 12:02 AM:

I suspect the small number of responses is due to everyone's using their real names here

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 09-20-2000, 12:34 PM:

How about this one...

"Effective immediately, anyone having more than one button pushed in per platter deck will be terminated. This action causes the platter to fail and will cause damage to the control box."

The platters are SPECO LP-270's. If you are familiar with them, it is IMPOSSIBLE to push more than one button down at a time per deck.

So the moral is, do not attempt the impossible!!!

Dave

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 09-20-2000, 10:49 PM:

Overheard convesation between Manager and V.P.

V.P.: "I think we should fire XXXXXXX because she knows too much about how this theatre works."

Manager: "yeah but shes my best employee!"

V.P.: "Well lets just fire everyone whos been here for a while and train new people"

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 09-21-2000, 12:53 PM:

I think you are tight Jesse... I know several of my companys engineers, trainers (Hi Brian) and corporate types lurk here...

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 12-22-2002, 01:29 PM:

This thread made me think about Ken's gag order thread. It;s no wonder no-one made any "good" posts to this topic.. I could list a TON.

Penny Wise and dollar foolish.... That's the motto for today...

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 12-22-2002, 01:56 PM:

I could go on and on about this topic. My thing is this: Wouldn't you think companies would realize the amount of money they are losing because of 'outdated' and 'moronic' policies? For example, it took me over 6 months to get hot dogs in my theatre. The main reason was that I had to jump through a few hundred hoops with my corporate office. Between policies on handling invoices and turn around time on questions being being answered - it was quite ridiculous. I estimate we lost thousands of dollars and lots of customers because of this.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 12-22-2002, 02:32 PM:

Damn you Jason for bumping this thread up [Smile]

I got in trouble for starting this. My only intention was to read some light hearted humorous stories (ala Dilbert Comics) from other members. But boy did that one blow up in my face.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 12-22-2002, 02:44 PM:

Micheal,

You're welcome... LOL... In this day of frustration I needed a laugh, and this topic was just the one to do it for me..

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-22-2002, 04:08 PM:

Not anymore [thumbsup]

....I left that company [bs]

and found a company that has it all together.....YEA! [Smile]

Mark

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 12-26-2002, 11:48 AM:

Passes have become the cure-all solution -- in lieu of having projectionists! And refunds? Perish the thought!

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 12-26-2002, 12:20 PM:

quote:

I suspect the small number of responses is due to everyone's using their real names here

I guess I'm lucky not working in the film business; I dont have to worry what I say about it!

I would not be at liberty to discuss my place of employment in any outside forum, but I don't think they would object to any discussion of I.T. (the area in which I work) issues in general, some employers will not allow any discussion of work-related matters at all. I would probably not have any problems if I wanted to discuss general issues related to education either, (I work in a college), as long as they were not things specific to my place of employment.

I use my real name in all forums in which I participate (there are many, on a wide range of subjects).

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-30-2002, 10:59 AM:

My favorite is "Do not show ANYTHING in SR - because if you accidentally show an "A" enconded film in SR it sounds horrible."

Our theater hasn't seen a Dolby "A" print in years.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 12-30-2002, 05:14 PM:

How about this beauty I recenly came across when tyring to rewrite how one particular company does its business...

"the company auditor will do a complete and full audit each and every week for each theater. Each audit will be a complete and full audit for the current and previous three weeks of operations."

Correct me if I am wrong here, but if you do a complete and full audit each and every week, then why bother REDOING the last three weeks of audits?

Dave

Posted by Yul Kim (Member # 1512) on 01-07-2003, 02:36 AM:

"Significantly Reduce Labor and significantly increase customer service."

Also..."send employees home when shows aren't playing and have them return when it gets busy again." Like any employee is going to work for an hour, go home for an hour and come back to work for an hour only to go home again right away. Why not just throw them a cookie everytime they server their 100th customer and consider it payment in full.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-07-2003, 02:53 AM:

For some odd reason my theater only likes to play trailers for movies we are currently showing, and not for upcoming movies unless we are 100% certain that we are getting it. When we find out the week before that we are getting it, trailers are obviously difficult to come by. I suggested just getting trailers for everything early when they are easily available and play them if we think we are getting the movie.

My company says NO because they "have to pay for trailers". That is what I was told. What da hellz? What theater PAYS for trailers?

Posted by Nate Lehrke (Member # 1460) on 01-07-2003, 02:57 AM:

I used to work for a chain that required us to stop all shows & make announcements whenever the National Weather Service issued a Tornado Watch for that county or if the civil defense sirens sounded because of severe weather.

Of course these county's would sound the sirens if clap of thunder was present, it seemed we were interrupting every show during the summer months to tell patrons of the "weather advisory" & how they had the option of leaving with a rain check/seek shelter in our basement/stay & watch remainder of film.

Just plain stupid [thumbsdown]

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 01-07-2003, 06:58 AM:

quote:
I used to work for a chain that required us to stop all shows & make announcements whenever the National Weather Service issued a Tornado Watch for that county or if the civil defense sirens sounded because of severe weather.

I don't think that is such a bad idea. If I remember correctly, there was a theatre in Van Wert, Ohio that was recently leveled by a tornado while they were open. The only reason there were no fatalities is because the management stopped the show and got everybody in the lobby.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WEATHER/11/11/severe.storms/

Another link

I think it would be irresponsible not to take weather service warnings like that seriously... you never know, the first warning you ignore could be the first one that bites you in the ass.