Never Again - Anonymous employee Cherry Hill Programs Employee Review

There is no chain of command for you to follow if you have a problem. Employees are not given phone numbers or email addresses for anyone higher up than the local manager. And even the local manager only has tech support and the district manager. No access to HR or Payroll. Over the last several Christmases there were several sets in my area that had issues with Santa being inappropriate with staff and children. Higher management was made aware and did little to fix the problems. I cannot even begin to explain how many times I've been told it's just a few weeks, make it work. I am not sure what some of the other reviews are talking about with bonuses but there is only bonuses for the local manager and higher. This bonus is held over the managers head the entire season. Don't want to lose your bonus! That bonus by the way, is $250 max, and that is before taxes are taken out. The bonus structure is based on making sales plans in excess of sales made pre-COVID. This is possible for some areas but completely unrealistic in others. I would like to add that any amount of bonus is wonderful and companies are not obligated to offer them. However, if every move I make you are going to hound me about it and micromanage the staff to the point of insanity I would rather just opt-out. Leave the staff and the managers alone and keep your $250. As far as training goes, I have not had a real training in several years despite programs and policies changing. My direct manager had no concept of how to set-up or work the equipment. Tech support's go to resolution is have your tried turning it off and back on again and by the way don't call us. The pay scale is not competitive at all. Every employee from the assistant manager down made less than the employee that greets people and wipes tables at Chick-Fil-A. And the local manager and the area supervisor made $1 and $2 more than that respectively. Over the years I have been asked to do a number of questionable things regarding pay and time. When I pressed for an increase in pay I was told that they would keep me at the current rate but that they would "add time to make up for it". I was also encouraged to do this to get people to agree to working as the bunny. Thankfully I have been in the world and been educated enough to know that this is a form of embezzlement. But how horrible for a company that typically employs younger staff members to encourage tactics like that? I don't think at 16 and 17 or even 18 I would have had the understanding or backbone to disagree with an older adult in a position of authority over me. But it does give management a scapegoat when it's found out because of course these things are never said in text or email, just verbally. The working conditions of this job are not at all what the average person thinks when they see Santa or Bunny sitting on the set. In a lot of malls there is no breakroom, no dedicated bathrooms, no food courts in some, and the staff is expected to just deal with it. I have worked in 5 malls in my immediate area and visited several in rest of my state as well as the surrounding states. It is way more common for the mall to have no real accommodations for the staff and the ones that do, it's the bare minimum. More often than not it's a dirty closet that is shared by bunny or Santa and all associates. And while malls do have public restrooms, they may or may not be anywhere near the set location. Bunny and Santa have to be fully out of costume and redressed in regular clothes before they can use the bathroom if it is public. We are encouraged to get every customer in. They overbook our time slots and then also expect us to take a few walk-ins for every 15 minute window. On many sets this led to staff and bunny or Santa missing their lunch breaks entirely. That means bunny has sat in a hot suit with probably no fan and nothing to drink for 4-8 hours or more. Santa has a little more freedom and can have water on set. But Santas are also usually on the elderly side. The long hours with no meal break or bathroom break is just not acceptable. I have had several in the past that were diabetic or had slight incontinence issues that I was very diligent about watching for signs of discomfort or distress. Many Santas do not have this in a manager. Many managers cave and follow the company policy and just make the customer happy at the expense of the staff. I myself have been forced to choose between policy and the welfare of the people around me. From both directions. I've had to face angry customers and then later angry upper management because I dared to allow Santa a break when someone was waiting to see him. I have also been forced to choose between not having Santa at all because he was being inappropriate and just letting it go and hoping he didn't behave that way again because upper management wouldn't replace him and asked me if I wanted to be the reason a child did not get to see Santa.