Convention Attention- Staff Griefers and Bad Staff

[Tsuki Nushi]

We staffers work hard to make a convention, sometimes fighting off sabotage or sacrificing our own money/jobs to put it together. And we do not deserve some of the disrespect we get from guests or attendees.

Except for the handful at every convention who don't do their jobs/ go on power trips.

So post your stories about horrible staff/attendees here.  

[Maruul]

This year at OMGcon we were seriously pissed at this one guy. We had claimed a spot on the floor, making sure it was out of the way of everyone, and were just talking to some people and eating candy. Then this guy came up and told us (in a pretty pissy voice I might add) that we couldn't sit on the floor, that it was against the rules and that we would have to move to the "lounge" area. The lounge was a cold room with no carpet, a nasty floor, chairs and tables that gave everyone splinters and it was right next to the stage room where the various loud noises echoed. So not a fun place. But what really killed us is that he only said it to us. He just left after yelling at us, ignoring the people around us, behind us, and ALL OVER the area we were in. We were the only ones told to move. stare Like I said, we weren't in anyone's way. We were actually between two tables talking to the people advertising other cons and exchanging sweets with them. So yeah, the guy was a d**k.  

[jyrotika]

Yeah. No matter how many cool, hardworking staffers you meet, there's almost always one at a convention that is rude or not doing their job :/

I got one: I once worked with a guy that decided since he was dressed as a ninja, he should jump out of corners with his plastic sword and pretend to assassinate people... Let's just say he's no longer staff sweatdrop  

[Zorachu3_Sendo]

Maruul

This year at OMGcon we were seriously pissed at this one guy. We had claimed a spot on the floor, making sure it was out of the way of everyone, and were just talking to some people and eating candy. Then this guy came up and told us (in a pretty pissy voice I might add) that we couldn't sit on the floor, that it was against the rules and that we would have to move to the "lounge" area. The lounge was a cold room with no carpet, a nasty floor, chairs and tables that gave everyone splinters and it was right next to the stage room where the various loud noises echoed. So not a fun place. But what really killed us is that he only said it to us. He just left after yelling at us, ignoring the people around us, behind us, and ALL OVER the area we were in. We were the only ones told to move. stare Like I said, we weren't in anyone's way. We were actually between two tables talking to the people advertising other cons and exchanging sweets with them. So yeah, the guy was a d**k.

I myself have never had problems with the staff but my friend had some what similar situation only with her costume.
She and some others were just hanging out in the dealers room wandering around when a staff member stopped her and told her that her costume was not appropriate for the con (she was riku from FFX) and that she would either have to change or leave. Then the staff member walked away. Even though there were girls (and i believe a couple of guys) dressed in less than her.  

[tokkitoria]

I haven't had any really bad experiences, just an irritating one. The only one so far was at FanEXPO last year. I went to ask a security guy if it was okay to line up for Derek Stephen Prince yet. I guess people had been bothering him about Crispin Freeman(who wasn't for a while, but was after him), so when I asked him if it was okay to line up for the person who was autographing next he got all mean and was asking to stop bothering him. It seemed like he didn't understand my question but when he was rude with me I was just like forget it.  

[Stop Touching My Fetus]

Much of the tiem, staffers have been absolutely amazing to me.
But I went to Anime Expo in 08 and I was pregnant. (Like, about to go into labor any ******** second kinda pregnant). I asked if some sort of leeway could be given to me because standing in the hot summer sun while pregnant is...well, not good.

The staffer just shrugged his shoulder, laughed and told me to get to the end of the line because he could care less.
So as I was trudging down to the end of the line, someone mighty and powerful (probably on the Board of Directors for the SPJA) saw what happened and he personally escorted me to the front of the line, and demanded of staff that if I needed anything that I get it. He was also witness to the rude staffer and promised me he'd take care of that.

So while I understand that staffers have only so much pull on their policy, rudeness isn't or should be tolerated.

You also have a lot of balls for being a staffer, OP. I'm sure you get your fair share of asshattery amongst the masses.  

[Maruul]

I feel bad for the good staff people, though, so as a reverse, I'll tell a good story about one. One of the early years of OMG it was god-awful-hot, and we were dying. Then we noticed the guy checking badges at the dealer room had a box of Popsicles. We were like "awww, you suck..." and he was like "Fine, here" and gave us and the people around us popsicles. heart

More on topic, we had a friend who's staff at OMG (he's become full of himself though...). But his first year working there we were trying to get into the elevator that ran between the two floors of the con because our friend couldn't use stairs in her costume, but these people were riding up and down and not letting anyone in. He saw and kicked them out, scolded them, and presented us with the free elevator. But the people gave him a lot of s**t for kicking them out, accusing him of "abusing his position" and stuff. I was really mad at them.  

[Doom27]

Some staff sucks, i was raised among con staff at Anime usa, and they were all cool. Now staff has changed there and at other cons like otakon. There is one big thing that i can't stand if a staff member does. LIE. If something happens, i paided to go, i EXPECT to know whats going on. If a fire alarm goes off, you better ******** tell me why. If an ambulence takes someone away, i have the right to know. I hate bullshit hiding s**t. Its ********. Back in the day if a projector got stolen everyone would know and we'd be hunting the guys.  

[La Ahna]

Doom27

If a fire alarm goes off, you better ******** tell me why. If an ambulence takes someone away, i have the right to know.

While I agree with the fire alarm, since that could have been a serious issue, you do not have the right to know why someone has been taken away in an ambulance unless you are personally connected to that person. As long as they're just a stranger, they have the right to privacy and to keep others from knowing what happened to them. As the relative to someone who has had medical problems in the midst of a con, it's very uncomfortable for the person injured and anyone with them to have the entire con staring them down and asking questions. I applaud the staffers who take the right to privacy seriously and will deny curious rubberneckers information.

Also, medical staff at cons are great. When my family member had a bad low blood sugar (he's diabetic), the staff at Momocon was wonderful, helping take care of him till he was good again and having to listen to my mom talk and talk about what they should do. They also helped get him safely to my car so he could get back to our hotel room to rest.

 

[Stop Touching My Fetus]

La Ahna

Doom27

If a fire alarm goes off, you better ******** tell me why. If an ambulence takes someone away, i have the right to know.

While I agree with the fire alarm, since that could have been a serious issue, you do not have the right to know why someone has been taken away in an ambulance unless you are personally connected to that person. As long as they're just a stranger, they have the right to privacy and to keep others from knowing what happened to them. As the relative to someone who has had medical problems in the midst of a con, it's very uncomfortable for the person injured and anyone with them to have the entire con staring them down and asking questions. I applaud the staffers who take the right to privacy seriously and will deny curious rubberneckers information.

Also, medical staff at cons are great. When my family member had a bad low blood sugar (he's diabetic), the staff at Momocon was wonderful, helping take care of him till he was good again and having to listen to my mom talk and talk about what they should do. They also helped get him safely to my car so he could get back to our hotel room to rest.

I think that what he means is that since he's been "raised as staff" at the con, the staff should have a right to know "Hey, an ambulance left the building. Nothing big, just keep the con goers calm and prevent them from freaking out."

Now while I know that staff don't usually know things like that, its only courteous that they at least keep their staff on the same page. Nothing is worse than having a couple thousand people freaking out because something big happened.

I.E. Comicon 2010 someone supposedly got stabbed in the eye "like the Joker did to that one guy". It ended up not happening like that, but rumours spread and people were freaking the hell out.

Its only a courteous thing to do.  

[dragonacid16]

I've been raised around staff too and have been staff at multiple conventions myself... But I remember the first year I went to sakuracon (not staff) was the first year they had a concert. We were waiting in line for hours because of delays and such. Someone in line got out to hand people water... then seeing how good of an idea it was staff started handing out water too. They even had some staff towards the front to "mark" places for people to go to the bathroom or who just had to get out of the mob of people for a min. People in the "mob" were nice enough to let people get out and come back too.

Though I have had bad experiences with staff too. A couple years ago some girl got her flip flops stuck in the escalator. I was wearing huge fake feet at the time but had been going up and down the escalator all day so was no issue. It stopped instantly and I fell down 3 steps and hurt my knee in the process. I was towards the middle at the time. They told everyone to go back up the the escalator and go around. The girl that did it was fine and people kept yelling at me to go back up. I couldn't move my knee. I yelled to them about it and they were like well go back up. I refused to go up the stairs because I could barely stand and almost fell every time I tried to bend it so they finally let me come down the stairs (which still hurt like heck and I couldn't see why going down was an issue to begin with cause it was stopped and they got the slipper out and the girl was fine. even people at the bottom had to go back up. I mean really?) and asked for a medical person. "Oh they are that way" "your kidding right? I can't walk. Can someone bring one here?" and he just looked at me like "duh huh?" some other staffer did see I was injured in passing though and got a medical dude and an ice pack. He even let me sit there on the floor out of the way for a few min till I could kinda walk. That was the end of my activities friday and I avoided escalators the rest of the weekend.  

[Tsuki Nushi]

Stop Touching My Fetus

You also have a lot of balls for being a staffer, OP. I'm sure you get your fair share of asshattery amongst the masses.

Thank you, and yes, yes I do. In fact I'm dealing with one as we speak. the con I work at is taking a hiatus this year due to the chairman trying to fix what the old one ruined when he left. But we were thinking of having like a mini-con or gathering this year to let people know we're not dead. The key word being thinking.

I get on Facebook, and someone from my department has posted this on her wall. She and her mom have connections to all the major anime fans/groups/clubs in the valley. I go to correct her saying, it's not really a convention, and her friend pops up and gets all in my face about how it's still a con.

And I am trying my best to be nice to this chick's friend and explain to her how calling it a con lead to confusion and problems. She fights with me every step of the way, and then does the approximation of calling me a b*tch and gets off of Facebook.

stare There is no respect anymore. And that's just staff. The attendees can be much much worse.  

[Maruul]

Wow. That's... really unprofessional.

Oh jeez... I just remembered, I had my own moment of giving the staff a hard time. Last year I bought a paddle at OMGcon. It's very pretty. Anyway, I had no problem with it that year, and no problem at other cons I brought it to. But then this year suddenly paddles have to be peace bound, and there's no spanking allowed, even if it's requested. I was like "WTF were people beating each other with them last year?!" I refused to get it peace bound, because I didn't want some tacky piece of yarn screwing up the beauty of my paddle (it's very decorative), and I told the staff who was telling me to get it bound or it would get taken away that if they touched it I would spank their face. I ended up putting it in the car for the rest of the con. *sigh* Normally I'm very understanding of the staff and rules, but this really pissed me off. It's a freaking paddle. "Well, it's technically a weapon..." "Well my shoe is technically a weapon if I beat your head with it, do they need to be peace bound, too?!" I'm embarrassed now, but then I wanted to hurt people...  

[Osiris Wolf]

Speaking of paddles... At Kawaii Kon, it's also required that all weapons (including paddles) be checked and peace bound, and against the rules to use the paddle.

If I remember right, it was back in 2008, I was patrolling in the Dealer's Room, when I noticed that a girl had just bought a paddle. So I politely ask her to please have the paddle checked and peace bound at the Security desk, and if she'd like me to show her the way. She told me that she knew where it was, and that she'd get it checked once she left the room, so I smile and thank her before continuing on my route. A couple hours later, I'm patrolling the main area with another staffer, when I happen to see the same girl with a group of friend, USING the paddle. I quickly stop the commotion, and inform them that if I caught them doing that again, I would confiscate the paddle. Then I turn to the girl, inform her that if that happened she wouldn't get it back until the end of kon, and firmly remind her to get it peace bound. She says okay, and we walk away.

About 20 minutes later, patrolling alone, and I see them again, this time in the off-limits hallway, doing it again. They see me, and try to quickly pack up and run. So I call it in with my radio, and luckily my friend who was also on patrol was already heading my way on the other side, so he stopped them. Once I caught up, I confiscated the paddle, reminding her that she could get it back once kon was over. She turns to my friend and complains that she never knew that it had to be checked and she never got a warning beforehand, and all her friends vouched for her. He looks at them and asked, "So why were you guys running away?"

To end the story, they were each warned that if they misbehaved again, we would take their badges and escort them off the premises. For the rest of the weekend, we were to keep a close eye on each of them.  

[Stop Touching My Fetus]

Osiris Wolf

She turns to my friend and complains that she never knew that it had to be checked and she never got a warning beforehand, and all her friends vouched for her. He looks at them and asked, "So why were you guys running away?"

OWNED!!!
rofl

Sorry, but I do love me a story on groundbreaking stupidity and ignorance.

I'm glad you put them in their place.