- my coworker was already very grumpy by the time I started
- some of the referees didn't show up on time
- some of the timekeepers (t.k.s) didn't show up on time
- because some of the t.k.s weren't there, one of our two convenors plus our "superconvenor" (i.e., the guy that works in the league office but comes downstairs and makes sure everything happens right during the games and tournaments) each had to do timekeeping until the t.k.s showed up...my coworker turned to me and said, "This is not going to be a good day"...
- because one of the senior-level games ("senior" being the seniors of the kids league, so we're talking 12 year-olds and early teenagers) only had one referee and because one of the coaches felt that referee was being "selectionist" and/or blind, one of the coaches got all upset and came and yelled at us at Guest Services for quite a while, didn't give us a chance to say anything before walking away, came back and yelled at us some more, told us he was going to protest this game, yadda yadda...for future reference, this game was on rink D...oh, and I loved it when he said something like, "this is supposed to be a fun game"...and he got ejected from the game for telling the coach where to go...
- one of the hockey moms came up to us and said (nearly whispering) that there was a crazy man in the building and that she felt he should be barred because it seemed like there was something wrong with him...and that he was protesting the game...we asked her, "you aren't on rink D by any chance, are you?" and of course she was...she mentioned that the kids on his team were goons, and she said no wonder given the example he was setting for them, that the kids were tell the referee to f*** off, etc....anyway, she was really nice and not yelling at us...it was nice to have someone agree with us that this customer was crazy :)...she ended up with a small group of parents around her (a little ways away from our desk) talking about this coach (with me hoping that the crazy coach wouldn't walk by them and a brawl wouldn't ensue)...yeah, it's supposed to be a fun game...and it stops being fun when some of the adults get so upset...
- later, the crazy man told me that some of the kids had had money stolen from them...oh, no, he didn't take a key for the dressing room from us and therefore didn't lock the change room during the game...oh, he knew it was his fault that they didn't take a key...but he said the only person that went into the room during the game was one of our sweepers, and he said it's pretty low to be stealing from kids...well, yes, I agree that it is low to steal from kids; I don't really think any of our facilities staff would do that, but I made a (mental) note of the incident and mentioned it to a convenor...and groaned inwardly about how well the day was going...at least the crazy man wasn't yelling, though he was obviously still upset and still not really listening...I secretly wondered if he was making up this incident (or if he had stolen the money...how uncharitable of me) out of spite to create havoc...my coworker was thankfully not at the desk at the time, as she (had) said (either before or after this part) that if one more person complained to her, that she was going to be doing some talking back, and that the person would not be liking the talking back...
- a couple hours later, another parent called to report a theft that he said had happened a few hours later, and that only one non-team-member had gone into the room during the game and that they had a good description of this person, so after getting some info from him (not the description) I transferred him to the general manager's voicemail (he won't be in until Monday) and told him I could also transfer him to the person running the league that night if he wanted to call back. Well, he didn't call back as far as I know, but then I wouldn't have heard the phone ring if he went through the phone directory when he called (since the call wouldn't have been transferred to our desk so we could help him)...
- after a while, I noticed a group of people standing around the crazy man, I guess other parents of kids on the team...I continued to hope that angry mobs would not develop...
- after a while, a man came up and introduced himself to me as the man that had called me earlier (the man who'd called about the theft) and said something like, "This seems to be quite common in your establishment, hmm? there's a whole group of parents over here talking about it." well, this is the first theft I have heard of happening since I started at the Ice Gardens (I had been told that thefts do happen, but like I said, none had happened since I'd started that I'd heard of), and ya think the reason there's a group of them talking is because one whole dressing room was affected, not because it happens often? anyway, not the kind of comment that you can respond to properly at all...thankfully one of our convenors(the one who hadn't done any timekeeping that day...oh, our t.k.s did show up eventually and the other convenor and superconvenor had been freed up from timekeeping at this point) was nearby and soon took over the situation...
- this group of people talked to this convenor for at least an hour and a half about the theft incident, within sight of our desk, with my coworker grumbling the whole time about how it was their own fault because
- they didn't take a dressing room key and lock up their stuff
- there are signs posted in a few different places (in at least two places at our desk and I think elsewhere, too) that dressing room keys are available at our desk and not to leave valuables unsecured
- there are signs in the dressing rooms stating the same thing
- the waivers that they signed for their kids at the beginning of the summer season (and they did sign them, 'cuz the kids aren't allowed on the ice if a waiver has not been signed for them) clearly states that basically losses due to theft aren't our fault (among other things...it is a few very long paragraphs that essentially say, "if something bad happens, you can't blame us)
- they saw someone not on the team go into the dressing room during the game and didn't challenge them? hello??? even if you thought the person worked for us, there is no reason why any of our employees should need to go into a changeroom during a game unless the team brought up an issue with the room (there was an incident with a broken light bulb once and one involving an electrical box that I've seen since I started, but the team had brought it up in both cases and therefore knew someone would be going in)...the facilities crew clean up the rooms after games, not during.
- the man that had called me called the police, as did someone else (and eventually the man had his and the other person's cell phone on, one on each ear)...
- the "good description" that they had of this person was that they were wearing a light-coloured jacket (though our convenor was originally told that the person was wearing a black jacket) and had a walkie-talkie on their hip (I think that was it)...okay, so they weren't wearing a red Ice Gardens sweater, which all our facilities crew were that evening, and none of our facilities crew have walkie-talkies these days (only the t.k.s and the referees get them, and they don't put them on their hips), and even back in the day when the facilities crew did have walkie-talkies (this is before I started working there), they would clip them to their collars so that they could hear and answer easily--so basically, it wasn't one of our people, and the "walkie-talkie" must have been a cell phone (maybe one of those Blackberry devices that have a walkie-talkie function built in)...and what kind of description is that? and it was hours ago that the theft happened, so the person is gone by now...
- the police actually did show up, pretty much just as we were closing up the Guest Services area...thankfully they didn't need to talk to us and didn't keep us from leaving...
- my coworker and I had thought ok, maybe 10 kids in the room had money, maybe (given their ages) they had $20 each, so maybe $200 got stolen (an amount I didn't think the police would care to do anything about other than file a report...I certainly hadn't expected them to show up)...but I overheard the cop talking to our facilities supervisor before we left...one kid had about $140 stolen, another had about $120 stolen, and another had a smaller-but-still-sizable amount stolen (and I assume any kids that had even only $20 in their wallets also got robbed)...what are kids that age doing carrying money like that around? I don't even carry more than $40 around unless I am on a trip or need the $ right away for a largish purchase that must be made in cash (such as a $32.75 adult ten-ride ticket between my local mall and York, when I also want to have $20 or so left over for lunches and other smaller purchases). If my kid felt the need to have $140 in his wallet, I would start worrying whether he was buying drugs...ok, not likely what's going on here, but why would you keep that kind of cash on you? why would you not worry about it being stolen (like by leaving it in an unlocked dressing room)?
I have the day off today, thankfully; the rink is closed due to a scheduled power outage in the area ("for an estimated period of 6 to 8 hours beginning at approximately 8:00AM" according to an e-mail I got from my old boss' secretary...I still get the e-mails relating to the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry--which is fine with me for now--of which this was one). Today I get to go out to a birthday party for one of my nephews at my brother's place, so I will get to see family, eat good food and eat cake; hopefully this means today will be a good day. I do have a bit of Father's Day shopping to do (Father's Day is tomorrow; I have baked some cookies for my dad and plan to go out and buy him something as well sometime before we get picked up for the party, but I'm still not sure what we're doing in terms of visiting people as we have to sort out what we're going to do with Martin's dad, too), but hopefully that will not be too stressful.
Okay, I think I am done venting for now. Have a good weekend, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment