Pros
The Park. The People. The diversity of staff. Good people are slowly rising through the ranks, and if they can keep from becoming indoctrinated into the CPC way, it could be an amazing place.
Cons
Over the arc of my time employed at the park, I observed many shifts in the way management conducted themselves and how they set out to manage both the staff and the park itself. Like any other place of employment, you can always find something wrong with how things are done. Unlike every other workplace, the open hostility and the environment which was fostered there was extreme. For a long time gaslighting, heavy pressure, and nonsensical directives were the primary management style. If you hadn’t had experience working with other companies or were susceptible to intimidation tactics, it was easy to fall prey to this psychological manipulation. Managers would expressly tell me to not email them with updates about specific issues. Why do you ask? This would be because they didn’t want a record of asking you to do something and it being done as requested. Or that you questioned why it should be done in a certain way, because that would show that you did, in fact, think about the efficiency of how to tackle your work. Most times they wanted “no-email-trails” because they were reacting to their bosses who just wanted it to get done without regard for safety, efficiency, or the expertise of the staff member they hired with said expertise. *Fun Fact: my boss had no idea what was on my resume and what kind of expertise I had to offer. * Those no-email-trail requests were always way too shady for me to accept, so whenever possible I would write long, explanatory emails detailing everything. Sure, I got chastised for it, but what else could they do about it. Continue to do this if you presently work there, or are hired. Trust me, it saved my butt many a time from their gaslighting. I was warned when I was hired there was a good ol’ boy mentality there. Now it has broken up between recent retirements, layoffs, and the president “stepping down.” Three are left standing. One reports directly to another who is now in charge. He even had to do his bidding in meetings with field staff to ask them to post reviews on here. What a dumb idea. It smacked of a backfire as soon as I heard it was happening. COO and CFO if you are reading this (I bet you are) what did you expect? By announcing it word spread and a fire was lit. The meetings to ask staff to post just added fuel to the fire. And here we are. The board is pissed because of the negativity surrounding your ineptitude at keeping the staff happy. Good ol’ boy #1 is leaving. Good ol’ boys #2 and #3 are now in charge. You say the reason for the lay-offs was reducing the budget. I believe that. What I can’t believe is that you are still trying to spin stories to the remaining staff that it was to foster a better environment for communication; to break down silos. Pick a lane, guys. This in a nutshell is why things are falling apart. Maybe it’s time for the union to come back in and give it one more college try.
