Living & Working in Great Places
Working for Delaware North in Yellowstone - Wrap Up
Anyone else finishing up or done working for Delaware North in Yellowstone? Care to share? I just finished working for them in Canyon and was wondering if other parts of the park had as terrible of a time that we did in Canyon. This was the first summer that EVERYONE agreed that the work was awful. Our foreign students, retired workers, domestic college students, young workers...EVERYONE had a horrible time. Each day we'd return to the dorm and sit for an hour and everyone would recap their day and share about the latest drama or nonsense that management had put us though.
I witnessed Floor Managers hitting on female Asian students on NUMEROUS occasions. One older male manager frequently visited female foreign students in their rooms in the dorm to "check on them". He would "check" to make sure they were in bed (if they had called in sick). "Check" to make sure they weren't drinking (if they were underage). I walked by him once asking a group of Asian girls (who were shopping on their day off) if they were going to buy any "see-through shirts". This kind of thing happened daily and of course our foreign students were too afraid to complain (who do you complain to when management is the one being inappropriate). They were also told that they wouldn't be rehired if they complained and that they could be sent home.
I also witnessed one manager lost control and grab an employee by the arm and shake her. The next day the employee came into work with bruises on her arm where she had been grabbed. When she complained to the store manager, the abusive manager was told that she had to apologize, that's it. The following day the employee was promoted to a position that hadn't existed the previous day. The whole incident was basically denied from that point on.
The same manager was known to disappear to different parts of the store, holed up the storage room or her office, crying for up to two hours! She was an emotional wreck who would lash out an employees, smack them on the arm, shove them, or verbally abuse them. During one of her "meltdowns" we were without any help whatsoever. When we complained to our store manager that this would happen up to three times a week we were told to get back to work and mind our own business.
Complaining about management was strictly forbidden. We weren't told this in so many words but it was made clear. When one manager shoved an employee and yelled at him in front of customers (for reaching for a food order that hadn't been completed) the tables were turned on him. He was followed around for the next week and written up for every infraction that they could witness. Most of them were infractions that we had no idea existed. Rules that weren't in any handbook, hadn't been explained to us.
That brings me to my next point: in Canyon there is no training at all. It doesn't matter what your position. You will not be trained. You will be places in your job on the first day and be expected to work. If you are particularly inexperienced they may have you follow someone around for one day but that's the most I've ever seen. You will never be trained personally by your manager. You'll be lucky if they even stop by to introduce yourself. You WILL however be held responsible for any mistakes in the future.
Oh, and should you make any mistakes don't count on any warnings from management. I once was trying to help out a fellow employee during an especially busy day while the manager just looked on. The next day I was brought into the store manager's office and told that I was being written up for doing work that was not specifically in my job description. Nevermind that the day before she had been standing there the whole time while I helped my co-worker out and could have said something then. Nevermind that nowhere in my job description does it say that I can be written up for helping coworkers out. I was written up. And when I told my store manager that I simply wanted to help, that I had no ill intentions, she told me to stop lying, that I KNEW what I was doing was wrong and that I was just playing games with her. Weird stuff, people. Very weird.
I also witnessed our store manager giving a floor supervisor a $45 purse that was supposed to be thrown in the trash. At our store we have strict rules about food or gifts that cannot be sold due to damage: they go in the trash. You can be fired for eating a burger that was made wrong and can't be sold. But our manager gave the floor supervisor this purse because the BUCKLE WAS BROKEN. Two days later a young male Asian employee was fired because he took home a basket of cold fries that was left over at the end of the day. Nevermind that this employee (who english was NOT good) had seen a floor supervisor pull fries from the fryer on almost a daily basis. Nevermind that the was his first offense and was a great employee who worked hard. He was fired and told he had to find a way back home to China in the next two days.
I could go on and on about all the horrible things management put us through this summer. But basically it comes down to this: DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY. In the two and half months that I worked there I witness over ten people pack up their things and leave in the middle of the night. Or walk out of work, mid-shift, and never come back. Not just young people either. Retired couples came home after work and just started packing and never said good-bye. Employees who have worked in Yellowstone for YEARS, refusing to ever come back. Foreign students, crying on the phone to their parents back home because they expected the United States to be this great country where everyone had a better life and people were not taken advantage of at their work.
Delaware North, by the way, is also being sued by one of it's corporate employees in Yellowstone for its working conditions.
I witnessed Floor Managers hitting on female Asian students on NUMEROUS occasions. One older male manager frequently visited female foreign students in their rooms in the dorm to "check on them". He would "check" to make sure they were in bed (if they had called in sick). "Check" to make sure they weren't drinking (if they were underage). I walked by him once asking a group of Asian girls (who were shopping on their day off) if they were going to buy any "see-through shirts". This kind of thing happened daily and of course our foreign students were too afraid to complain (who do you complain to when management is the one being inappropriate). They were also told that they wouldn't be rehired if they complained and that they could be sent home.
I also witnessed one manager lost control and grab an employee by the arm and shake her. The next day the employee came into work with bruises on her arm where she had been grabbed. When she complained to the store manager, the abusive manager was told that she had to apologize, that's it. The following day the employee was promoted to a position that hadn't existed the previous day. The whole incident was basically denied from that point on.
The same manager was known to disappear to different parts of the store, holed up the storage room or her office, crying for up to two hours! She was an emotional wreck who would lash out an employees, smack them on the arm, shove them, or verbally abuse them. During one of her "meltdowns" we were without any help whatsoever. When we complained to our store manager that this would happen up to three times a week we were told to get back to work and mind our own business.
Complaining about management was strictly forbidden. We weren't told this in so many words but it was made clear. When one manager shoved an employee and yelled at him in front of customers (for reaching for a food order that hadn't been completed) the tables were turned on him. He was followed around for the next week and written up for every infraction that they could witness. Most of them were infractions that we had no idea existed. Rules that weren't in any handbook, hadn't been explained to us.
That brings me to my next point: in Canyon there is no training at all. It doesn't matter what your position. You will not be trained. You will be places in your job on the first day and be expected to work. If you are particularly inexperienced they may have you follow someone around for one day but that's the most I've ever seen. You will never be trained personally by your manager. You'll be lucky if they even stop by to introduce yourself. You WILL however be held responsible for any mistakes in the future.
Oh, and should you make any mistakes don't count on any warnings from management. I once was trying to help out a fellow employee during an especially busy day while the manager just looked on. The next day I was brought into the store manager's office and told that I was being written up for doing work that was not specifically in my job description. Nevermind that the day before she had been standing there the whole time while I helped my co-worker out and could have said something then. Nevermind that nowhere in my job description does it say that I can be written up for helping coworkers out. I was written up. And when I told my store manager that I simply wanted to help, that I had no ill intentions, she told me to stop lying, that I KNEW what I was doing was wrong and that I was just playing games with her. Weird stuff, people. Very weird.
I also witnessed our store manager giving a floor supervisor a $45 purse that was supposed to be thrown in the trash. At our store we have strict rules about food or gifts that cannot be sold due to damage: they go in the trash. You can be fired for eating a burger that was made wrong and can't be sold. But our manager gave the floor supervisor this purse because the BUCKLE WAS BROKEN. Two days later a young male Asian employee was fired because he took home a basket of cold fries that was left over at the end of the day. Nevermind that this employee (who english was NOT good) had seen a floor supervisor pull fries from the fryer on almost a daily basis. Nevermind that the was his first offense and was a great employee who worked hard. He was fired and told he had to find a way back home to China in the next two days.
I could go on and on about all the horrible things management put us through this summer. But basically it comes down to this: DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY. In the two and half months that I worked there I witness over ten people pack up their things and leave in the middle of the night. Or walk out of work, mid-shift, and never come back. Not just young people either. Retired couples came home after work and just started packing and never said good-bye. Employees who have worked in Yellowstone for YEARS, refusing to ever come back. Foreign students, crying on the phone to their parents back home because they expected the United States to be this great country where everyone had a better life and people were not taken advantage of at their work.
Delaware North, by the way, is also being sued by one of it's corporate employees in Yellowstone for its working conditions.
Tags: delaware, north, yellowstone
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by DNC veteran on -
Reggie, unfortunately by the time people leave the park they are so happy to be out of there they just want to leave the whole experience behind them. Not to mention that most of these people don't have the resources to do anything about it. Or they reside in a different country.
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Permalink Reply by Keith Larson on -
I'm sorry you did not have an enjoyable season. It sounds like your managers were under-qualified and overwhelmed.
I'm mainly concerned about the incidents with the older male manager and female Asian workers. Especially the see-thru comment. I would have documented everything at the time. Names, witnesses, times, places, words, actions, reactions. Specifics are very important. A complaint would not have to be generated from the girls. If the action made me feel that the "atmosphere" was uncomfortable, that's all that would be required for me to lodge a complaint. If I didn't feel comfortable discussing this with local management, I would have skipped them and taken it to the corporate level...it took me about 15 seconds to do a search on how to contact Delaware North Companies corporate officials.
In this day, no corporate office is going to tolerate any manager anywhere in its organization to do anything so, um, stupid. The possible problems are too great.
Sometimes the impersonal world of the corporate world is difficult to deal with. In this case it is probably lesser than in the smaller places....what do you do if it's the owner that's being an ass?
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Permalink Reply by DNC veteran on
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Keith, I would have been happy to document these situations but I didn't feel like it was my place to do so. The girls involved were very scared about being sent home. They were told that if anything happened and they got fired they would be sent home (China) the very next day...they were NOT allowed to find work elsewhere. Delaware North specifically told them that they would call and report them to the company that sent them over and notify them that if they were not home ASAP they would be in violation of their visas.
I did the call 1-800 third-party number and I did everything I could to report incidents that I was involved in. Unfortunately I couldn't promise these girls that they would be safe if they reported their manager for incidents THEY were involved in. They could see for themselves that people who reported managers were made into targets. If I had reported anything and as a result one of the girls was fired (DNC could find some OTHER reason to get rid of them) I would have felt horrible. They really did not want to be sent home.
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Permalink Reply by mary im not nice on
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TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
she is a disgruntled employee who was for the most part the instigater in all the problems that did occur at the canyon this summer thankfully she is gone and things have been just great. dont take the word of one person!!!! try things for your self ... all 80 other employees are still there and happy. people see things in different ways and are not happy if they are not the center of attention. if you steal from the store there are repercusions.DO NOT STEAL and you wont be fired, and we dont even carry purses. like i said some people just like to cause trouble.
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Permalink Reply by DNC veteran on
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Disgruntled makes me sound like some cranky employee who didn't get the raise she wanted. Not a disappointed employee who gave five years to a company that continuously let her down. And if you'd like to label me as an instigator for sticking up for people who weren't in a position to stick up for themselves...I'm perfectly ok with that. But I have no interest in picking fights and I assure you I was more than happy to NOT be the center of attention. But I wasn't raised to sit by while people are mistreated and I wasn't raised to be walked all over by inexperienced management.
That you can claim that there are 80 other employees who are happy just goes to show how out of the loop you are. I watched almost every one of my friends (and people I wasn't close to) be brought to tears at work because of mistreatment and frustration. I sat there in awe as our "dorm parents" packed up their things and left in the middle of the day after an honest, hard-working kid was fired for "stealing" left-over cold fries that had been sitting in the fryer for an hour. People aren't happy there. I imagine if you are under the impression that they are then you are probably one of the few people there that employees don't trust enough to come to with their feelings.
I agree that stealing isn't ok. But I never saw one person steal from that company. People took spoonfuls of ice cream, left-over fudge, a few fries here and there. And you know who those people were? management. If employees copied their behavior I hardly call that a valid reason to be fired.
I KNOW we don't carry purses. Who carries purses at work? Come on! It was a purse that we sold.
I do not like to cause trouble. I avoid it whenever possible. But you tell me what I should have done when Chinese students come to me and ask why a manager is allowed to leave marks on an employees arm and not be fired? These kids love the US and have high expectations when they come here. They just don't expect this kind of thing to happen here and neither do I.
(and by the way...I chose not to name names or make this personal. the fact that you did just goes to show the kind of maturity DNC fosters and "promotes". oh, and people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones: you made horrible, disgusting racist comments at work in front of guests and frankly you're lucky that you weren't reported. you came VERY VERY close to being fired and THAT had nothing to do with me! )
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Permalink Reply by Shannon on -
I don't know all the details so not going into that part. If you put the company on an application, by law they can not give out any information besides the dates you worked there. If they do and you can prove it, they can be sued.
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Permalink Reply by Kate on -
I applaud anyone who is experiencing conditions like these in their standing up and in a profesional manner, like yourself, EXPOSING this!!! Just becaus the economy has gone south does not mean we employees should be treated this way! This isn't just a case of one or two incidents either.... it's a HUGE problem, it sounds like. Any recourse BUT to sue? The phrase" who do you go to when it's management being inappropriate" is EXACTLY the problem...there doesn't seem to be any recourse... have you gone over their heads? Is there anyone at Corporate level who will take action? Multiple witnesses, as well, will help more, so they don't think it's just one "complainer". Enough people speak up, perhaps something will be done.
...Hang in there, there ARE good employers in the seasonal world!!! :)
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Permalink Reply by DNC veteran on
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I tried as much as I possibly could while I was there. There are 1-800 numbers to call but other than that, not many other resources. Our HR department was not very helpful from what I heard from other people.
and I agree...there ARE good employers out there. And if you don't expect too much you can even find them in Yellowstone. But DNC crossed the line this summer and I would hate to see anymore people suffer because of it. Maybe because Xanterra is a bigger company they don't get away with as much? Not sure.
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Permalink Reply by akscootr on -
These are the reasons I broke contract this year at Yellowstone and will not work there again; Abusive pieces of sh** who mess around employees (A manager from Old Faithful DENIED me a paycheck until I went to personell and fixed it by complaining. Of course she later denied it....) This is the reason Xanterra has a clause which essentially protects them from lawsuits; They are abusive and they revel in it. It is disgusting; Most people I met in Yellowstone were awesome. I was hugging a crying Chinese gal one day because of the abuse she had to take from a supervisor who later stole thousands from some Russian ladies (yes, he got reported); I get angrier every time I see a post like this.
How about we as seasonal employees start suing or doing something about this kind of employer and PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!! Is this the kind of image we AMERICANS wast to show the world or will we STOP the abuse Xanterra and other well-known vendors are so happy to dish out? If it were not for for employees employers would not exist...
I love Yellowstone but not my former employer and because of their abusiveness I have a bad reference now. Why? Because I would not tolerate their abusiveness(and their denying me a paycheck I have earned)....
I love seasonal work and I love Coolworks.com, but it is time for such companies to start being held responsible for the lousy way they treat employees. How about a letter-writing campain to Pres. Obama from ALL who have had enough of mass abuse from some companies like Xanterra? Maybe then there can be some accountability...
mary im not nice?... the name says it all. If some of us veteran employees are disdruntled, it is for good reason! I have worked through Coolworks since 1999 and I have both good and bad employers; Yellowstone employers NEED to get exposed for the lousy way they treat their employees! We are not Slaves; We are the reason employers can exist! ENOUGH!!!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Eva Busova on -
They do. I worked for Xanterra two summers and can't say a single good word about them. I experienced similar problems with management incompetency, mistreatment of employees, getting written up for irrelevant or made-up stuff etc. When we complained to the corporate management, they didn't take any action and basically hushed everything up. I'm sorry to hear that all this happens in Delaware too, especially because both Xanterra and Delaware are the largest employers in national parks and if people want to spend their summer in one, they are pretty much forced to work for one of them..
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Permalink Reply by Syed Rahmani on -
Sue they're pants off!!
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