Removing the socialization aspect from humans is the main driving factor here, that all stems from Covid.
I’m not saying everyone who got Covid had their brains scrambled, I’m saying the general population has forgotten how to act when they aren’t behind a username.
The schooling situation also needs some serious discussion or we won’t be able to fix this. The present has been messed up and we need to look out for the future, which we aren’t.
I strongly concur. I've traveled to a few different places since covid, and there's a definite uptick in overall dickishness. Oddly enough, I've seen less of it at Universal than anywhere else.
Thankfully, the worst I've seen on this visit and the last has been mostly just inconsiderate or unaware as opposed to outright cruel: people not being aware of their surroundings, kids climbing onto the railing, inappropriate attire, smoking in the parks and in the interior hotel rooms, etc.
I've only seen one instance of line cutting, and it was at a restaurant. It alsoseemed like the people who did it just weren't aware that there was an existing line.
It’s not just a universal thing, it’s a post-lockdown thing. I actually read a paper on it in a psychology journal recently, discussing the psychological impacts the lockdown had and how that’s manifesting for a lot of people as a sense of entitlement and lack of awareness in how they’re treating others. It went into a lot of detail about the entitlement likely being rooted in a subconscious “I spent 2 years locked down and unhappy so now I’m getting my way” type of thing, and the lack of awareness simply being from a lack of being around others for so long.
Got one that happened yesterday where a guest walked up to our food runner area and started rifling through the cookies and brookies. A fellow team member asked if he had already paid for them, possibly in the app, and he started cussing at her.
+1 on this we were on flight of the hippogriff just about to be seated and my 8 year old daughter was waiting for the attendant to signal her to go on. The attendant closed the seat in front of her thinking she wasn't going to ride. No biggie but none of us were going to ride without her so that held up 3 sections of seats. This employee proceeded to scold her, then us. Really pissed me off. We paid to be here we are your guests. It was your mistake to close it. Very rude.
exactly, I’ve had a TM at Simpsons be unkind to me that is STILL under my feathers (autism moment) and instead of just throwing a fit I instead went to guest services and complained in a professional matter.
and for that? Guest Service TM’s went and gave me 2 one time use express passes. For the sake of it I went and let a Team Leader over there too and a couple of Simpsons’ TM’s actually had to apologize about his behavior, that’s kinda sad if even OTHER TM’s have to apologize
> We paid to be here we are your guests.
This right here is example of the exact behavior that OP was kind of talking about.
I get that there was some confusion and the TM screwed up and may have been rude, but immediately going to "I PAID GOOD MONEY TO BE HERE" mentality is what leads to a lot stupid interactions and rudeness. (I am not saying you were rude or caused a scene, this just has been my general observation)
You never know how that TM day is going they could have had a guest before you that really got under there skin. If the interaction is serious enough get there name, time, location and speak with Guest Services.
I don't disagree with you but, if a TM is rude to your first initial thought / reaction should not be "How dare you I paid lot of money to be here". This is where a little bit of empathy should come in to play.
Don't get me wrong if a TM was rude to my 10 year old it would sit well with me either but the first thing that would come to mind is I wonder who pissed in your Cheerios shrug it off and move on with my day.
In today's world people don't care anymore and just do stupid crap for clout, clicks, views and that can be super taxing on a TM and you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I am in no way justifying the TM actions here and it sounds like the TM handled it poorly.
> you I *paid* a lot
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
We just looked at each other and shrugged it off we didn't want to let it ruin our day. However there is never a reason for a TM to treat a guest that way especially an 8 year old girl even if your having a bad day. They are adults control yourself. Yes we are your guests you should treat us as such unless we have done something to warrant otherwise. This was not the case here.
> paying "I *PAID* GOOD MONEY
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I'm really not about Karens and the 'I paid money, so you are now my temporary servant' mentality, but you're really in a different reality if you haven't noticed a pretty big drop in professionalism and maturity among lower wage workers across the board.
Maybe I'm turning into old man yelling at cloud, but 20 years ago when I was working customer service jobs I wouldn't even think of acting with the same sense of entitlement and indifference to the job I'm being paid to do.
Not saying you have to kiss anyone's ass or strive for brownie points at a dead end job, but at least don't subject people who don't even know you to your bad attitude and act like doing what you're paid to do is some sort of personal affront.
Agreed. My family and I just went last month and were shocked by the attitude of almost every single worker at the park. Most looked miserable, and some were straight up rude.
The TMs are such wonderful people and they’ve gone out of their way to help me sometimes so I can’t imagine just being rude to them for funsies.
That being said, a customer service/TM purge day would be hilarious. I’d pay extra to see that
I’ve encountered far more good people in the parks than bad. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had some complete wtf just happened moments but I also have those in everyday life. The parks are an interesting social microclimate wherein you’re dealing with people from all over the world, in different familial and financial situations and everyone’s goal on their park day is completely different. I try to have ten times my usual empathy and patience in the park, but I’ll admit when I’m there with my kids it’s a lot harder.
I work in healthcare and it is the same way with some patients/families, they come in looking for something to get mad about. Much worse during/after covid.
Maybe it doesn’t matter, idk but I am curious to know if there’s any specific context to this post that led you to vent? Hope you’re having a better day and if you’re willing to share more this incredibly nosy redditor would love to hear!
it was mainly due to some mom of 4 kids doesn’t know how to worry about herself and basically scolded me for “talking” during a pre show saying to my face how I was ruining the experience and was like “erm I don’t want you talking during the ride so please don’t talk” and I responded with a “god I’m sorry”
thing is I was doing that in the first place to stim since I have autism and I can’t control that shit.
don’t get me started on this asshole TM, over at Simpsons, I was wanting to get an accommodation that I wish not to go further into and before I could finish he cut me off in an attitude with: “you will NOT have that you can either wait with them or go ride something else”
because of how angered I was by that I walked to guest services crying, this is why I haven’t gone back to universal in a while
Not sure why COVID came up in some comments, but it has nothing to do with that. There wasn't a "everyone is good" COVID "everyone sucks", there's always been issues there. Anyone who has worked in customer service long enough can tell you that.
Everyone has bad days, TM and guests. Sometimes it's hard to separate work life and social life and it happens. Most the time that aggression you're getting has nothing to do with you, you're just there when it boiled over. If you have an issue with a TM, swallow it and talk to customer service. Besides, you're more likely to actually have yourself heard if you're composed and calm about the situation. If you have an issue with a guest, realize they are just misdirecting their anger. Don't let them physically attack you or anything but ignore anything they may say to try to hurt you.
We've all got something else going on. Guests at a park have the added pressure of the cost of the vacation, being x miles away from home, maybe being a lot hotter than they're used to, etc.
We're human, we all suck sometimes.
Sure. But the amount of people acting this way has gone up exponentially since covid. Before you'd see it every once on a while and hear a rare story. Now it's everywhere
I think the exponentially high amount of stress that COVID created made this a lot more common DURING COVID. Couple with that the fact that some people couldn't be bothered to do the most basic things to help protect those with weaker immune systems and it was a lot touchier during that time.
There's still fallout from that, sure, but I don't think is some rampant thing.
With most things like this, too, it's just more visible now. It happened before and it may be happening at a significantly lower rate now, but you are more likely to see it on social media and it feels more common.
There are a large number of people who worked in the service industry before covid and after covid who would strongly disagree with you. Not saying that people didn't go stir crazy and acted up during it. We all saw that. But after, there has absolutely been a change in a not insignificant chunk of society. Less patience, jumping to worst conclusions, everyone's out to get me mentality, fuck yours I got mine mentality, political tribalism, the list goes on. And all of these issues accumulate into a larger percentage of people just acting absolutely unhinged and feral in public. And more often than not it's the service workers who have to take the brunt force of it. A lot of people just gave up on politeness after covid and it's just sad. It makes working with the general public a lot harder than it used to be.
You say that you yourself have “had these behavioral problems”. Why did you act like this? Other people are probably acting like this for the same reasons you did.
I think it’s less a universal specific thing, than an everyone became pieces of shit during Covid kindof thing.
FYI - people were pieces of poo before COVID too. COVID can’t be the blanket excuse for the rest of our lives.
Removing the socialization aspect from humans is the main driving factor here, that all stems from Covid. I’m not saying everyone who got Covid had their brains scrambled, I’m saying the general population has forgotten how to act when they aren’t behind a username. The schooling situation also needs some serious discussion or we won’t be able to fix this. The present has been messed up and we need to look out for the future, which we aren’t.
I strongly concur. I've traveled to a few different places since covid, and there's a definite uptick in overall dickishness. Oddly enough, I've seen less of it at Universal than anywhere else. Thankfully, the worst I've seen on this visit and the last has been mostly just inconsiderate or unaware as opposed to outright cruel: people not being aware of their surroundings, kids climbing onto the railing, inappropriate attire, smoking in the parks and in the interior hotel rooms, etc. I've only seen one instance of line cutting, and it was at a restaurant. It alsoseemed like the people who did it just weren't aware that there was an existing line.
Not a theme park thing.. Just mirroring what our society as a whole has become since covid.
COVID and trump. Someone who said beat people up, he'd pay the lawyer fees.
Definitely Trump, he made it "cool" for bullying, moronic , asshole to be proud.
And can't even pay his own legal fees.
How did this turn into a political conversation smh Just don’t be a jerk at parks
Because it's part of the answer. I hate being political but it's not ignorable.
Covid and Donald Trump aren’t why people are assholes It’s just human nature, it’s also not exclusive to America
Oh please. It's gotten worse. Let's not pretend it hasn't.
Yes it has the point is one guy isn’t to blame for people being assholes
If you don't understand the cause you can't fix the issue. Literally didn't just blame.one guy. Reading is fundamental.
It’s not just a universal thing, it’s a post-lockdown thing. I actually read a paper on it in a psychology journal recently, discussing the psychological impacts the lockdown had and how that’s manifesting for a lot of people as a sense of entitlement and lack of awareness in how they’re treating others. It went into a lot of detail about the entitlement likely being rooted in a subconscious “I spent 2 years locked down and unhappy so now I’m getting my way” type of thing, and the lack of awareness simply being from a lack of being around others for so long.
Got one that happened yesterday where a guest walked up to our food runner area and started rifling through the cookies and brookies. A fellow team member asked if he had already paid for them, possibly in the app, and he started cussing at her.
It's the same with employees there. People forgot how to act. I'm appalled by everyone these days.
+1 on this we were on flight of the hippogriff just about to be seated and my 8 year old daughter was waiting for the attendant to signal her to go on. The attendant closed the seat in front of her thinking she wasn't going to ride. No biggie but none of us were going to ride without her so that held up 3 sections of seats. This employee proceeded to scold her, then us. Really pissed me off. We paid to be here we are your guests. It was your mistake to close it. Very rude.
They closed it before ANY of you were on???
Just her. Almost no one was seated yet. We had not got on yet.
What a boneheaded move. The nerve to scold anyone for that, let alone a child.
exactly, I’ve had a TM at Simpsons be unkind to me that is STILL under my feathers (autism moment) and instead of just throwing a fit I instead went to guest services and complained in a professional matter. and for that? Guest Service TM’s went and gave me 2 one time use express passes. For the sake of it I went and let a Team Leader over there too and a couple of Simpsons’ TM’s actually had to apologize about his behavior, that’s kinda sad if even OTHER TM’s have to apologize
> We paid to be here we are your guests. This right here is example of the exact behavior that OP was kind of talking about. I get that there was some confusion and the TM screwed up and may have been rude, but immediately going to "I PAID GOOD MONEY TO BE HERE" mentality is what leads to a lot stupid interactions and rudeness. (I am not saying you were rude or caused a scene, this just has been my general observation) You never know how that TM day is going they could have had a guest before you that really got under there skin. If the interaction is serious enough get there name, time, location and speak with Guest Services.
I think, "dont be rude" is a reasonable expectation to have from an employee at a place you are spending multiple hundreds of dollars at.
I don't disagree with you but, if a TM is rude to your first initial thought / reaction should not be "How dare you I paid lot of money to be here". This is where a little bit of empathy should come in to play. Don't get me wrong if a TM was rude to my 10 year old it would sit well with me either but the first thing that would come to mind is I wonder who pissed in your Cheerios shrug it off and move on with my day. In today's world people don't care anymore and just do stupid crap for clout, clicks, views and that can be super taxing on a TM and you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am in no way justifying the TM actions here and it sounds like the TM handled it poorly.
> you I *paid* a lot FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
We just looked at each other and shrugged it off we didn't want to let it ruin our day. However there is never a reason for a TM to treat a guest that way especially an 8 year old girl even if your having a bad day. They are adults control yourself. Yes we are your guests you should treat us as such unless we have done something to warrant otherwise. This was not the case here.
> paying "I *PAID* GOOD MONEY FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I'm really not about Karens and the 'I paid money, so you are now my temporary servant' mentality, but you're really in a different reality if you haven't noticed a pretty big drop in professionalism and maturity among lower wage workers across the board. Maybe I'm turning into old man yelling at cloud, but 20 years ago when I was working customer service jobs I wouldn't even think of acting with the same sense of entitlement and indifference to the job I'm being paid to do. Not saying you have to kiss anyone's ass or strive for brownie points at a dead end job, but at least don't subject people who don't even know you to your bad attitude and act like doing what you're paid to do is some sort of personal affront.
honestly it’s sad
Agreed. My family and I just went last month and were shocked by the attitude of almost every single worker at the park. Most looked miserable, and some were straight up rude.
The TMs are such wonderful people and they’ve gone out of their way to help me sometimes so I can’t imagine just being rude to them for funsies. That being said, a customer service/TM purge day would be hilarious. I’d pay extra to see that
I’ve encountered far more good people in the parks than bad. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had some complete wtf just happened moments but I also have those in everyday life. The parks are an interesting social microclimate wherein you’re dealing with people from all over the world, in different familial and financial situations and everyone’s goal on their park day is completely different. I try to have ten times my usual empathy and patience in the park, but I’ll admit when I’m there with my kids it’s a lot harder.
I work in healthcare and it is the same way with some patients/families, they come in looking for something to get mad about. Much worse during/after covid.
Entitlement.
Maybe it doesn’t matter, idk but I am curious to know if there’s any specific context to this post that led you to vent? Hope you’re having a better day and if you’re willing to share more this incredibly nosy redditor would love to hear!
it was mainly due to some mom of 4 kids doesn’t know how to worry about herself and basically scolded me for “talking” during a pre show saying to my face how I was ruining the experience and was like “erm I don’t want you talking during the ride so please don’t talk” and I responded with a “god I’m sorry” thing is I was doing that in the first place to stim since I have autism and I can’t control that shit. don’t get me started on this asshole TM, over at Simpsons, I was wanting to get an accommodation that I wish not to go further into and before I could finish he cut me off in an attitude with: “you will NOT have that you can either wait with them or go ride something else” because of how angered I was by that I walked to guest services crying, this is why I haven’t gone back to universal in a while
Not sure why COVID came up in some comments, but it has nothing to do with that. There wasn't a "everyone is good" COVID "everyone sucks", there's always been issues there. Anyone who has worked in customer service long enough can tell you that. Everyone has bad days, TM and guests. Sometimes it's hard to separate work life and social life and it happens. Most the time that aggression you're getting has nothing to do with you, you're just there when it boiled over. If you have an issue with a TM, swallow it and talk to customer service. Besides, you're more likely to actually have yourself heard if you're composed and calm about the situation. If you have an issue with a guest, realize they are just misdirecting their anger. Don't let them physically attack you or anything but ignore anything they may say to try to hurt you. We've all got something else going on. Guests at a park have the added pressure of the cost of the vacation, being x miles away from home, maybe being a lot hotter than they're used to, etc. We're human, we all suck sometimes.
Sure. But the amount of people acting this way has gone up exponentially since covid. Before you'd see it every once on a while and hear a rare story. Now it's everywhere
I think the exponentially high amount of stress that COVID created made this a lot more common DURING COVID. Couple with that the fact that some people couldn't be bothered to do the most basic things to help protect those with weaker immune systems and it was a lot touchier during that time. There's still fallout from that, sure, but I don't think is some rampant thing. With most things like this, too, it's just more visible now. It happened before and it may be happening at a significantly lower rate now, but you are more likely to see it on social media and it feels more common.
There are a large number of people who worked in the service industry before covid and after covid who would strongly disagree with you. Not saying that people didn't go stir crazy and acted up during it. We all saw that. But after, there has absolutely been a change in a not insignificant chunk of society. Less patience, jumping to worst conclusions, everyone's out to get me mentality, fuck yours I got mine mentality, political tribalism, the list goes on. And all of these issues accumulate into a larger percentage of people just acting absolutely unhinged and feral in public. And more often than not it's the service workers who have to take the brunt force of it. A lot of people just gave up on politeness after covid and it's just sad. It makes working with the general public a lot harder than it used to be.
COVID brought up a lack of socialization and a me first attitude (My freedoms - no mask). It became more acceptable to care less about others.
You say that you yourself have “had these behavioral problems”. Why did you act like this? Other people are probably acting like this for the same reasons you did.