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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/jcmorway on 2024-12-10 23:18:16+00:00.
This story isn’t about me, but about a very smart very sassy union rep I used to work with.
When I was in my late 20s I worked at a large theme park as a supervisor for one of the roller coasters in the park. The safety policies were drilled into our head every week so that if a situation ever came up, hopefully our instinct would be to follow our training for the safest outcome of all parties, customers AND employees. Things like fire drills, ride evacuations, and medical situations were stuff we were quizzed on multiple times a week and could land us in hot water if we answered incorrectly. This is stuff everyone AT EVERY level should know.
One day I was working with a one of my fellow supervisors we can call Jeff. Jeff was a supervisor like me, except with about 10 more years of experience, a chip on his shoulder for management, and the authority of a union position. He was loved by his employees and coworkers, but did not get along with anyone further up the food chain. And he was not someone to be trifled with.
Jeff and I were working together when the fire alarm went off at the ride. The process was:
- Stop loading.
- Kick all of the customers out of the building. -while simultaneously-
- Run the ride so that all the customers on the ride could get off the ride.
- Once everyone is off the ride itself we would stop it and everyone would leave.
However, this day we had a younger manager who was trying to make a name for themselves show up during the process and make the call to stop loading and kick everyone out, BUT not to stop the ride for the employees to leave. This effectively kept everyone, both employees and customers in the building for about 20 minutes longer than needed. Jeff was fuming, but did as he was told.
Once the last customer left the building, the manager smuggly turned to Jeff and announced “now you can follow our protocol” Jeff raised his eyebrows and chipped back “oh now I can? Alright.” He reached over and waited for a few beats before slamming the emergency stop. This ride had 3 lifts (which could easily be reset) and 3 safety brakes (which required our maintenance staff to physically winch the vehicles out of it and to a lift) this badass had waited just long enough for each vehicle to crest its respective lift and catch in a safety brake. He turned to our manager and said “have fun with that. I’m going home. Oh and I’m filing a grievance with the union for you putting employee lives in danger”
The ride was down for about 6 hours after that. When maintenance saw the state of the ride, with a vehicle in every brake zone, they rightfully raised hell. Jeff never got in trouble but did leave the area not long after that. The manager also never got in trouble and I believe they are doing really well for themselves now. But until the day I left that job I told the story of Jeff’s wide eyed expression as he asked “oh now I can?!” Before turning what should have been a hour downtime into a 6 hour monstrosity.
Edit: grammar and clarification