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 T.N on -
Thank you for writting this wrap-up. I am sure that this note is what 99% of employees at Canyon would want to write. They either just leave things behind because it is not something nice they want to go through again, even in just a recall to write down, or they have learn the helplessness during months at Canyon that speaking it out doesnt help at all. Anyway, what you have said depicts correctly what happened there this summer and I am sure that that 80 employees staying there are NOT THAT HAPPY. No matter what the truth is, seeing a helpless boy being fired and treated like a criminal just because of a bag of fries, escosted to interview, and then forced to fly straight home to China in the next two days, can never make you feel HAPPY. Yes it is something not happening to you, but only a heartless person can feel happy in that place after the incident, given the context that you have been with him for time, he is a cheerful and very nice boy, he cannot defend himself at all, he is alone in a country where he is marginal and even cannot speak English fluently etc. How can people do that to him?!!! I have witnessed so many dramas during the time I was there. But I did not blame the manager alone or somebody specifically for what went wrong. I know the way people behave is strongly influenced by the responsibility they are carrying, the stress from their works, and other situational factors. And so I dont make any dispositional attribution. But what happened with this boy put an end for whatever reasons I can generate to give excuse for them. That's heartless. If I was still there, I would have left like our "dorm parents" after they did it to him. For the boy it is not only the financial cost, but also the traumatic experience that he has to carry for a long time after this summer. Feel so sorry for him.
But the other side of the drama, they kept someone there and never fired him till the last day, regardless that he was A POISION in the workplace. He injected the frustration to all workers everyday he went to work, not mentionning about all his misbehaviors, e.g., destroying things, throwing food away, verbally rude to coworkers. They did bad things to good people, and good thing to bad ones.
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Permalink Reply by Cyndi on -
After working in the non-seasonal world for the past 35 years, and under union contracts, I have seen many supervisors intimidate less knowledgeable employees, including myself. While I was covered by a no-lay-off clause, the mistreatment I endured at the beginning of my career caused me to quit a very good paying job. After a year, I went back and was rehired, after explaining the circumstances.
What I am hearing is intolerable. I would think that even tho this is seasonal work, a worker does have rights. I understand that international workers are at a disadvantage due to language barriers, but, I believe that there is a solution to every problem.
I have recently retired and am very interested in seasonal work and will not let posts like this dissuade me from applying for a job. In fact, it gives me even more incentive to find out for myself what is really going on out there.
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Permalink Reply by Connie on -
I find lots of these complaints difficult to believe. I worked for DNC this summer at another location. If I had any problem, I contacted one of the managers or the HR person and got the situation worked out immediately. We had a man from China who spent most of his time playing games on a handheld. After about 5 weeks, all they did with him was move him into scooping ice cream where he couldn't hide and play games. We had a tight knit group of employees and if there were any managerial problems, we supported each other to get the problems sorted out. The managers had lots to do and they did the best that they could in each situation. Yes, I had complaints about the company, but my managers were really conscientious and I feel there may be more to this situation than what we are reading here!
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Permalink Reply by Coly Hope on -
I believe that seasonal workers need to start sticking together to stop this type of garbage. One employee making a complaint will not do much but a group of employees showing up at a location managers office making a complaint might get the point across better. These big companies are not stupid. If they see a potential problem that could cost them money they will be all over it.
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Permalink Reply by aggie71 on -
I missed this post until today...guess I was driving home about the time it was posted. My take on DNC is that they are no better or worse than the other choice (Xanterra). It has to do with your management. If your management is poor it is going to be a long summer. If your management is good (as was my case) you could have the best summer of your life. I worked at Bridge Bay in a small store with a total of 7 employees. We had an excellent store manager who was fair and considerate with us all, and believed in doing the same work she asked us to do. I can't say enough good things about her. Because of the good working conditions in my DNC store I had a blast enjoying the park. I am glad I was not at Canyon as things evidently were not good there. For you seasonal newbies...go into it with your eyes wide open and realize that things can go either way....it's a crap shoot out there. If you have a bad experience, try again the following summer. That will be 2 cents please :-)
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