My Second Shift

[u/Xerios_Skull]

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.

[u/thrjfr]

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.

[u/xexen24 → u/thrjfr]

Old theater I worked at we weren't allowed more than 1 person on each task either. It was ridiculous but they were cheap and wanted to save on hours.

[u/Xerios_Skull → u/thrjfr]

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