Is CP a good employer?

I've worked Sweeps, MF & Gemini and it's been a while since I've been on this board but I've come back excited for Gatekeeper. I was browsing around and a post regarding unemployment appeals got me thinking… Is CP a respectable or good employer?

My experience was good. Mostly I enjoyed it because I loved just being in the environment either walking the midways or operating a roller coaster which I've always wanted to do. I even really dug Cedars with it's breezeways and 1920's bare necessities charm… especially living right on point and being a few steps from work, not having to get into a car.

There were a couple things I noticed like management going way out of their way to get "points" against their best employee's who had no record to get leverage on them before the season ended I guess. I watched it happen to the best of us and it eventually did eventually happen to me, though I wasn't fired it was just bizarre to be stalked through rotations by an area manager or penalized for a nurses visit when the season is nearly over having never been absent or late… which was my little story to that end.

So I wonder if there is any truth to the rumors of abuses by the CP police or shady firing practices so many people report. It's unusual for a corporation to own it's own police force I guess. The one officer I knew seemed cool and the one manager that clearly went out of his way to harass employees into offense was fired but that could have been because he wasn't stealth enough. Knowing those practices has made me curious about all the other claims we hear.
Perhaps now is a good time in the companies history to expose offensive practices if they are real. Nothing against Dick Kinzel or anything, I am found of him.

What is or was your impression of CP as an employer?

I had a bad time working at cedar point, my manager was incapable of making a schedule on time so I would never know when I was working untill the day before,and then I would only have to work from 11am till 3pm. If I had problems he wouldn't even listen to them. There was no common sense whats so ever when runing the store I worked in the orders never came in on time and alot of the time we wouldnt even have water to sell because the team leader didnt order any on time. The living conditions where horrendous the bathrooms where never clean always had hair and dirt all over them the soap was never re filled and when you have to wake up at 7am to catch the bus to work you dont like being woken up at 3am by drunken people running around or the people above my room having loud sex. Over all I had a bad time and I wouldnt even return as a guest the food is over priced and the other guets are rude

I would say working at Cedar Point was the worst job I've ever had in my life. I'm much happier being a casual guest.

As an employer, Cedar Point gave me everything I needed to succeed. Offered me chances for advancement. Offered me housing, that wasn't always pleasant, but met my needs and at far cheaper prices than anything I could have found around home. But most important, taught me some of my weaknesses, which was eventually my downfall and why I left the company. I'm grateful for the people I met and learned from during my experience there, and still talk to many of them to this day. Granted only via facebook. It will never be the job for life kind of place for most, but it will mature you to become a better adult. And in my case, made me better at almost everything I do now, while leading my current team.

I've taken the good and the bad for my 2 seasons there, most of which I was an area sup, and use it almost daily in my job which I still have today. And use the CP experience as a example of how no matter how bad any situation at work can get, we can survive it if we work together. So if your complaints involve breaks, days off, long hours, pay wages, or even a dirty bathroom, most of that is personal issues you need to fix within yourself. It's a job! And a hard one in fact. But the reward can be great if you use the experience correctly.

CP rejecting unemployment claims doesn't surprise me a bit. Most companies do, and have a pile of paperwork ready and waiting for the hearings. That being said, I've always wondered how they get away without paying those who complete their contract. Granted I'm sure it's in the fine print on that contract, or in Ohio seasonal laws that are interesting to begin with. I mean every job I have worked at is require to post a poster with all the labor laws, and overtime is front and center on that. And we all know, CP don't do OT. Again because of some law excluding them.

I don't know about Cedar Point in particular, but working for Cedar Fair was not that bad. I've had many employers so far in my life, and Cedar Fair was neither the best, nor the worst. It just was.

Cedar Point has a lot of challenges when it comes to labor, one of the being the State of Ohio. Thanks to a constantly rising minimum wage, Cedar Point has to pay their employees more than I think the market might bear without this outside influence from the state. In addition to having to pay a higher rate, working at the park now has the stigma attached of the job being for "Minimum Wage." It seems as though places like Cedar Point continue to struggle to find good employees, while at the same time, the high unemployment rate should make finding good people willing to work for minimum wage easier. Yet we see all of these international students that in some ways have become the backbone of Cedar Point's labor force.

Could the experience be better? Yes. Could the job be easier? Of course. But aside from management, a job at Cedar Point, or at any seasonal amusement park, is not the type of job I would consider a career. It is a great job where if you work hard, you can learn a lot about yourself, and get experience that will help you when you are ready to start a career.

I definitely learned some things from the time I spent at a seasonal amusement park, and I cherish those memories, the good and the bad.

-Sam