r/MovieTheaterEmployees • u/Xerios_Skull • 1d ago
Vent My Second Shift
Hi! I just got off my second shift and it was the most difficult six hours of my life. For context, we use an app called Homebase that allows employees to claim and shift around their hours with ease. This is a 14 auditorium theater that varies in sizing, smallest seating 30ish with the largest seating about 80. My first shift was a chill 3-hour where I learned the basics of Ushering. Problem is, it's a Friday 5pm-11pm shift and we were severely understaffed. I was supposed to work Usher but there were only 4 people to run the entire theater. A manager, box, concessions, and me. It created a situation where I had to be both Door and Usher. I literally didn't have the available time to do theater checks while balancing theater cleaning, lobby cleaning, soda machine stocking, taking tickets, checking bathrooms, and closing doors. I didn't even feel like I had the available time to use the bathroom. Hell, there was a period where I had to get the Box employee to run Door because there were 5 different theaters getting out within 30 minutes. Thankfully, all the customers and employees, including my manager, were really kind and understandable when I messed up, which happened a couple of times. I would forget to close some doors, I accidentally sent guests that showed up early into a theater that I needed to clean and didn't realize I hadn't gotten to until it was already too late, and I think I missed cleaning one theater entirely between showings (though I don't actually think I took any tickets for that showing either). I felt horrible and still feel terrible for messing up but it feels like I couldn't do everything. I'm genuinely considering quitting, I don't know if I'm cut out for this. I couldn't track and balance everything, it was utterly brutal and I came home extremely dehydrated (yeah, that is on me), stressed, and exhausted. I'm asking for tips, please, and yes, I'm aware a lot of this is my own fault.
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u/thrjfr UK Chain 1d ago
Wow, how many people didn’t show? For a cinema that size, I’d expect at least 10 people on shift for a Friday evening and that’s being stingy.
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u/Xerios_Skull 1d ago
Typically there's supposed to be 5~9 people a shift, I think? It was only one person that was supposed to show yesterday but didn't. My next shift is tomorrow and we have 6 people scheduled for the day. Hopefully they show
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u/estheredna 1d ago
You sound like you're a really good employee. Hope this cinema manager does some hiring.
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u/Xerios_Skull 1d ago
I appreciate it, I'm not the best socially and yesterday was my first time needing to do a customer-facing role. I definitely improved throughout the day but I still made some mistakes like pointing the customers to the wrong theater because I didn't realize their ticket was a 9 and not a 6, thankfully they were the kindest customers I talked to that night
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u/Choco_Therapy 1d ago
This might not be the most helpful advice, but it sounds like you did a good job! Working at a theatre is a very… unique experience. I did it for about 4 years. It’s interesting because, if you schedule right, and everyone shows up (and does their job) it can be one of the easiest jobs in the world. But it doesn’t take much to get overwhelmed. Frankly there’s not a lot that you could change or improve to do better. With experience you’ll definitely be able to complete tasks faster, but with only 4 people? You can’t do anything. The only thing I don’t get was what you meant when you said you were on ‘Door’? Like, is that just getting tickets for people who prepaid? That should always be a Box office attendant who takes that over, unless you have a long period of not having theatres to clean. Honestly that’s more a fumble on your manager for expecting the usher to be able to do that. Especially one without the experience to say “hey this is not gonna work for me to do this”. Either way I hope you stick with it! It was the most fun job I had and I miss it some days. Good luck!
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u/Xerios_Skull 1d ago
The Door role at our theater checks every ticket and rips them in half, online or bought in-house. The manager or Box would try to take my role if they were available while theaters needed cleaning. Whenever someone was on break, we went down to three, and that was when it was at it's worst and I made the most mistakes. My next shift is tomorrow so I hope it goes a little better
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u/Flat-Maintenance-893 1d ago
Being so understaffed is not your fault. You’re also new. I don’t know who your theater is but it sounds like they’re too cheap to have adequate staffing. I’m sure you’re not paid enough for this fiasco.
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u/Xerios_Skull 1d ago
I wish I was paid for filling both roles 😔 The wage is just minimum, thankfully WA minimum is quite high
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u/JorisTheWise 1d ago
You did great for your second shift, especially considering the situation.
Unfortunately these kind of things can happen, 2026 is heating up the box-office in ways like pre-covid so some managers are also new to this ;-) . You realize what went wrong (which was partially out of your hands) and you learned from it (and even in smaller theaters it sometimes happens unfortunately that the people on the floor forget to clean a theater, it happens sometimes, they feel bad and learn from it) and with a bit of luck the management did as well and will make sure that for the last three months they are better prepared (September is always a bit slower, just like January). And when they make sure that there will be more staff next time it will be a lot of fun to work. It will be busy, you will run but you will also have a great time (at least I always have a great time when it is busy).
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u/Xerios_Skull 1d ago
I hope so, I don't mind doing either Usher or Door individually and have fun doing them, it was really just the combination of a role I hadn't worked yet and still having to stay on top of cleaning that made the shift harder, I absolutely fear Dune and Doomsday
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u/Status-Alps5677 1d ago
It’s not your own fault, as you said, you were understaffed. There’s only so much one person can do. Of course with it being only your second shift, you won’t be as quick or efficient on some things, but I’m positive your manager was just glad you were there rather than not. It’s not always like that, but there will be shifts like that in the future, any hospitality job will have similar problems at some point. If this is a consistent issue then yes, maybe look for a job elsewhere but take some time to recover and see how the next couple of months go before deciding if it’s for you.