Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Working at multiple theaters

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Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-21-2003, 10:04 AM:

I have always wondered if it is a conflict of interest if an employee works for two different theaters owned seperatly. I ask this because we had a employee working for two compeating theaters.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-21-2003, 10:14 AM:

How about someone who works for one theater but has multiple personalities?

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-21-2003, 10:50 AM:

ok ya got me on that one.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 03-21-2003, 12:09 PM:

Back in the 80's I worked (as a projectionist) in five different theatres in the course of a week:

Phoenix Theatre
Sonomarin D/I
Parkway D/I
Novato Theatre
Cinema II

Of those five, only the drive-ins were owned by the same company. Had no problems whatsoever.

-Aaron

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-21-2003, 12:17 PM:

How about working for three companies in the course of a day? [Smile]

I've always felt that if it didn't cause major scheduling conflicts that couldn't be sorted out among the projectionists then why not. If a company has a problem or policy against it then "don't ask, don't tell" usually works well.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 03-21-2003, 01:02 PM:

Back when I was a theatre projectionist in Los Angeles. I worked
for five different companys.

GCC
Pacific
Mann
Cineplex
Laemmle

None of the companies had any problems with the scheduling.
One thing that a few of the companies tried was sharing
projectionists at a few locations. Pacific/Cineplex and
Mann/Pacific. In Westwood the Odeon and the Crest, for a
time was a shared job. Before the Crest theatre started
limited service on the Local 150 contract. In Pasadena,
the Pacific Hastings 8 and the Mann Hastings Ranch 3 was
a shared job. Each of the above theatres were one block
to a half block away from each other. Another thing
Pacific did was shared Drive-Ins. They had two single
screen Drive-Ins about 2-3 mile from each other. So you
start one and then go to the other one to start. You then
drove back to the first one. You also got mileage, wow [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-21-2003, 01:45 PM:

To give you amore serious answer to your question:
Aaron has 4 personalities (I met all 4 of them at the film-tech gathering in Las Vegas).
Now, by working in 5 different locations, there would have been only one potential conflict of interests.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-21-2003, 01:47 PM:

How about identical twins working one position at one theatre?

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 03-21-2003, 01:58 PM:

I've had that Daryl. [Smile]

I hired the first one, then the second one got hired about 2 weeks later--soon after school started back up and they had to cut down so they both took half the shifts and split what one employee would normally do. Only problem is they kept fighting over who was going to take the weekend shifts...they soon left after that. The whole thing didn't last over 2 months.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-21-2003, 02:02 PM:

It'd be more interesting if you didn't know.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 03-21-2003, 02:05 PM:

I'm sure it would but if I ever found out I'd be pretty pissed off!

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-21-2003, 02:43 PM:

How about just one person working in just one theater, but in parallel dimensions?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-21-2003, 02:46 PM:

I think it would only be possible in serial dimensions.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 03-21-2003, 02:51 PM:

Back in the union days it wasn't uncommon for projectionists to work multiple locations, or so I hear. Now most theatres have policies against employees working for different theatre companies. I'm not sure if I agree with this in the case of mininum wage popcorn shovelers. However, it is a reasonable policy for the assistant managers/supervisors of a theatre. Since many 'projectionists' now fall into this category the practice of working at multiple locations is diminishing, though as noted it still occurs.

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-21-2003, 02:54 PM:

Well the twin idea would be some fun jokes, and a lot of confusion.
[Wink]

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 03-21-2003, 07:42 PM:

We would not permit it. Period.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-21-2003, 07:59 PM:

I don't think there has been a time (except when I was in Colorado) that I only worked one theater. It has never been a problem and I have never let other theaters interfere. In many instances it has helped that projectionists were working other theaters, for in an emergency, there is double or triple the amount of people who can rush in there and fill in should something happen.

Regarding floor staff I don't have much of an opinion. However I do strongly feel that any manager (not counting booth manager) should not be able to work at another location.

Posted by Kyle Watkins (Member # 986) on 03-21-2003, 08:30 PM:

Until a couple of years ago I always work at 2 theaters. I don?t do it now because I don?t want 2 jobs. If I ever get a second job again it be at another theater, due to this is the only thing ive done for about 10 years. I don?t believe it is a conflict of interest. In many cases it can be a learning experience. Not every one knew that I work multi theaters, some times its best not to know. I just told the second one that the other is a priority if say something went wrong. One time it was good that I did work for multi theaters, we had a bulb explode and we had no spares so I borrow one and the other company order and extra one for in return. Plus if ever ran out of butter and all that other good stuff.

Kyle

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-22-2003, 05:46 PM:

I worked as a projectionist at both a drive-in and an indoor house in the same small town. The owner of the indoor theatre was very critical of his competition, but never had a problem with the fact that I worked at both theatres. Of course, I was discrete in not sharing any business information between the theatres.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-23-2003, 09:58 PM:

I feel pretty strongly that managers shouldn't work for multiple competing businesses. There's too much chance of an appearance of a conflict of interest, even if there aren't any actual problems.

As for projectionists and floor staff, I personally think that there is no problem with working at multiple theatres (even those which are in direct competition) _if_ the employee is up front about this situation with all affected employers and no objections are raised and as long as the employee doesn't share proprietary information on bookings or policies (or anything else that might be sensitive).

Since I just do film work as a hobby, I end up filling in at a bunch of different places. No one has ever had a problem with that. I like working in different booths and would be bored stiff if I could only work in one places. It's fun to do stuff like run DLP and carbon arc in the same week.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-23-2003, 10:23 PM:

How about carbon arc lit DLP? [Smile]

Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 03-24-2003, 12:31 AM:

I think working in multiple theatres is healthy and adds to your experience. Though at times I've had to pull shifts at several different theatres in a week and that gets tiring after a while.

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-24-2003, 12:52 AM:

Our projectionists had an agreement where they'd fill in for the union guys over at the competition when they went on vacation and vice versa. It never caused any problems, except for one guest projectionist who tried to "appropriate" some bulbs for his theater. [Mad]

He was dealt with immediately and everyone lived happily ever after.

Posted by Gunnar Johansson (Member # 1661) on 03-24-2003, 03:55 PM:

I/we encourage everyone to do it if they can. They get to know what and how it´s done elsewhere and the experience is always positive. This is not just films but concerts as well (our other line of business). Go see as many as possible, and work with as many as possible, and we usually get the best of it all as good ideas tend to come from being inspired by how others do it, either good or bad.
//Gunnar

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-24-2003, 11:20 PM:

Nicholas do work for StarZZZ or something?

Anyway I had a job at one time where there were two identical twins working as floorstaff (remember, Brad?). They never ever spoke. Both of them were promoted to supervisors at the exact same time. They always seemed to work together. Then later they were both promoted to assistant managers at the same time. Apperently they were a package deal. To this day I still do not think that either of them has vocal chords.

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-25-2003, 12:05 AM:

quote:
Nicholas do work for StarZZZ or something?

I don't get it. [Confused]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-25-2003, 12:19 AM:

StarZ is an arthouse complex in the former AMC Tivoli. Their projectionist would fill in for Landmark from time to time.

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-25-2003, 12:42 AM:

Ah, I see. I could never work for a company that used a "Z" to pluralize. For that very reason, I turned down a point guard position with the Utah Jazz and the lead role in Biker Boyz. [Wink]

Sadly, I'm not "in the field" so to speak here in Colorado. I'm just admining my company's website while they build me a theater back in Texas. A very long, weird, and boring story that I might post someday in that Who The HECK are you? thread over in Film-Yak. But for now, I prefer to remain a mysterious figure, lurking in the shadows... [evil]

Back to the topic, when I started as an AM, my GM wouldn't ever hire concession kids who had worked at the competition. She said they were "ruined" and judging from the state of their operations, I'd pretty much have to agree. I think management folk splitting time between companies is pretty much a no-no, but I don't see why projectionists would cause that much of a problem as long as they approached the situation professionally.

I'd rather have one quality boother splitting time between two theaters than have two popcorn-jockies threading and scratching in his/her place.

Boother? Popcorn-jocky? Now I'm just making this crap up as I go along.

There was a rumor that one of the projectionists at the Landmark River Oaks in Houston had sticky fingers too. Maybe it's a corporate policy. Booth manual, page 17: "When visiting another company's facility, be sure to grab some bulbs and splicing tape. The more you take from them, the more we can spend on espresso machines for our concession stands..."

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-25-2003, 08:05 AM:

Boother and Popcorn jocky. I love it, the kids at my cinema would have a heart attack. [evil]

Posted by Kristin Wahlund (Member # 922) on 03-27-2003, 01:23 PM:

I was working as a projectionist for a second run theatre and at the same time applied to another first run theatre of a different company and they told me I had to quit the other one before I could start working there. even though they werent even really competition in any way, it was a different company and they wouldnt let me work both! Too bad after I quit the new place wouldnt let me do anything but floor staff to this day all i am is a crappy supervisor, man was i pissed, still am.

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 05-07-2003, 07:30 AM:

I just got hired at Cinemark in hadley Ma, 12 screen theater, But I will stay at the garden also, thanks for the replys. [Smile]

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-07-2003, 11:01 AM:

We have twins working at our theater. It's pretty funny when one sells the ticket and the other rips the ticket.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 05-07-2003, 04:38 PM:

You're right Dustin. For many years I worked as a "relief" operator as a union man and would cover many theatres owned by different companies. The union was responsible for supplying the projectionist and there was no prohibition of working for different owners.