It's a bit of a read but I have a conclusion at the bottom if you must.
They will excessively overwork their employees in harsh weather conditions even though official policy prohibits them from doing so -sometimes on the technicality that the weather is a code "red" and not a code "purple" (that is to say that it's still raining and thundering but just a little less). It's been my experience that management and even 'wannbe management' interns will try to send you out into the rain to go to the other side of the park or ask you to sell in scolding heat while wearing a silly hat that everyone in our position has been complaining about
It is not rare for someone to quit on their first day because of the amount of weight they are required to carry for hours on end.
Management is incompetent in how sales actually works if they are even present to lend you support while you are selling.
There is 0 training. You go to the general orientation that everyone starting at the park attends which talks about some of the history of the company but on your first day as a merchant you will literally be given an apron with money and a tray full of merchandise that you sign-off on and told to go out and sell by walking up and down stadium stairs that you are not used to walking and is a serious tripping hazard (employees have fallen on their butts a few times before). If you're lucky you will get to work with someone who is more experienced than you and they will volunteer thenselves to be your unofficial trainer (company policy prohibits for non-trainers to actually train other employees so they are taking a slight risk)
Lack of management and training to an extent can lead to an air of independence but taken to the extreme SeaWorld has allowed it to get to and you often get mis or under-informed employees a dangerous work environment and an often frustrating one because the onus is still placed on you by guest and management for things you simply weren't trained for.
I'm still uncertain if this is just industry practice but at least in the company's Vending department it seems that management (on those occasions that they are rarely present) give write-ups or a Performance Tracking Form (PTF) to their employees as if to just have a blemish on their record so that they can have something to point towards if things go sour.
There is very little opportunity to move up in the company. Ever since my first day all I have been told by employees that have been in the company for 5+ years is that there is no way to get a full time job at the company and that even just going up in positions as a part time can be difficult.
This may be considered a pro but I'm placing it under con because the company only raised pay rates recently because their hand was forced by the competition.
It's of the least exciting parks to work in.
Wardrobe, unlike in other theme parks I have worked for, is not opened for your convenience. they are opened m-sat from 8am to 5 or 6ish which makes it difficult to get an alteration or fix your badge before or after your shift without cutting into your personal life.
Unlike other theme parks you are not paid for the entirety of scheduled shift if you are sent home early. You will only be paid a max of 2 hours just for reporting if you are sent home within 2 hours of showing up for work.
0 benefit in terms of health insurance, 401k, etc.
In many ways the amateur ways in which this company operates is painfully obvious especially when you compare how structured other parks like Disney or Universal operate. You can see it right away even before you finish orientation when they fail to offer you even a decent tour of the park. They still don't take credit cards for outside specialized vendors, which leads to disappointed guest and they're only just now catching up on some of the tech other parks have.
Ethical dilemmas I think is of the biggest cons in this list. Often you are told to sell merchandise that you know is defective, items that are overpriced and often break and you know this because you see the amount of "damages" that are stored in the back of the park and you are the face that is interacting with guest in an attempt to sell an item you aren't even receiving a commission on (I'm not endorsing commission as it often breeds dirty sales tactics and hostile work environment so I applaud SeaWorld if they recognized that much and is the reason they don't put commissions on sale). It's interesting that management asks for vendors to sell as though there is some sort of immediate incentive to sell when there clearly isn't one and it's also interesting to see how invested some in management are in how many sales there are even though they are not personally commissioned and I hear them talk about how badly their supervisor and/or the company treats them. It's my personal opinion but it makes me wonder if they even have lives outside of work and if they even have an internal life to speak of.
You can take my survey as anecdotal. I've talked with and overheard several people in our department, everyone from management, to Cash Control, to Specialized Sales Clerks (Vending) and everyone one concludes the same things: Complaints aren't heard, the position is to physically demanding even for the professionally trained athletes in our group, they give too little hours and little pay to make a decent living, fulltime jobs are hard to come by, ALMOST EVERYONE wants to desperately leave the Vending department for other departments at SeaWorld or other parks.
I think it is telling that I find the guests at the park more pleasant than the people I work for.
CONCLUSION:
There are some decent departments in the company but, for the headaches that they offer, you are better of looking elsewhere if your only option at SeaWorld is Specialized Sales Clerk (Vending). And there is a reason employees often celebrate a code purple (which is when the park is basically shut down due to inclement weather). I honestly think OSHA should investigate this part of the park as much as they scrutinized the animal trainers.
I wanted to mentioned that on a side note during orientation, the guy heading the orientation made a fuss on how the company's majority shareholding investment group (Blackstone) maybe getting ready to make a move. I'm not endorsing any claims but it maybe interesting to just watch this company for a bit especially amongst their on going "Blackfish" controversy.
