Fanime Staff on a Power Trip?

[Ayanami Rei First Child]

Besides since you're in college it SHOULD align perfectly with the end of summer....unless you have Friday and Sat classes.

[Henry]

Situations like this is actually more common than most people think.

It's obviously not an exaggeration to say that anime fans, like many other passionate enthusiasts of the world, is generally known to be more shy, quieter and not so great with their social skills. The "communication deficiency", if we must call it that, carries over when it comes to convention management, which is a relatively stressful job. It could simply due to the reason that a staff doesn't particularly have a interpersonal skills to relay his thoughts to other fans, and/or that he just got really stressed out.

Anime lovers, in general, are part of a younger age demographics. I don't particularly think younger = crazier, but puberty does equal rebellious and self-searching. The staff, many of them not much older than the con attendees, deal with the same issues, and going through the same phases in their lives. Conflicted inside, to say the least, may also been a factor for communication issues.

Of course, there are definitely those losers in life where they are completely unqualified to be in a management position. Being a convention staff may be the highest position they can ever get in their lives to have some control of something other than themselves. That usually leads them to act like a bunch of police academy rejects and think they can talk down to people because of a fancy walkie talkie they wear.

Fanime is still very new and very young. It'll take sometime to knock its kinks into places.

[Ayanami Rei First Child]

Yeah I can see SOME of where you're going...but if they're going to bitch at us for stuff, they should give LOGICAL reasons. Not to mention there's those staff members who act insanely strict. Playfighting with plastic swords is no reason to get FURIOUS and threaten to take away people's BADGES. That last part DEFINITELY crosses the line :evil:

There's also the fact that some staff members are a lot more lenient then others, which can also make things worse. So like some Staff will watch you doing stuff and think it's alright...while others will get harsh about it...

[Zain]

I'm banning every single person in this thread for even implying that I'm on a power trip  :twisted:

[SohmaYuki]

Otakon's staff has been under fire lately for something similar.

Most of the people that have "power trips" are underlings that don't know much.

Kekekkekekeekekekkee, this may or may not be long according to if my roommate hurries the hell up and we head out on time.

Most of the people don't understand how terrible it is to staff conventions and how thankless the job is. Let's put it like this. The convention is generally 72 hours. Staff members work about 35 of these hours, and sleep about 12 of these hours. The rest of the time, they "have free", they are still on call and being asked to clear shit, do side things, and are being harassed for other stupid crap that someone else should be taken care of.

They invest days outside of the convention to plan and work for a bunch of people to enjoy 72 hours rolling and the floors and beg for pocky. The ones that go off on power trips are the "staffers" that only show up on the convention days and think having a staff badge makes them superior to the "con-goers".

I've had plenty of experience with staff members. I've mentioned fanime staff members harassing me because I found a couple groaping each other near the phone booths on my way outside. They didn't say a thing to the couple groaping each other, but they were ready to kick me out of the con.

I've been shoved out of a room at Anime Expo(he physically shoved me out of the room and slammed the door in my face) despite me being allowed in that room as a helper to one of the persons there.

The stories I have with Ani-magic staff is hillarious but that involved much drama(that I've shared with a few on the admin team of this forum) and what not.

But as attendees, a lot of people seem to not understand lines in conduct. Play fighting with plastic swords, can be a liability. Let's say, a kid walks by gets smacked in the head by a sword. Total accident, but guess what happens? Parent sues the convention, and convention can no longer even allow plastic or fake/toy swords on convention grounds. This was one of the main points I tried to bring up in the "bad things" thread. Most of the staff isn't over the top and power hungry. Even if they are, think about what you're doing.

Just because it is a convention doesn't mean the real world doesn't exist. Cut short, laters...

[Dagger-6]

I agree, playfighting, even with toy plastic swords, is a liability issue and it is understandable that it isn't allowed.

However, it is also wrong for a staff member to get 'furious', even if they are in fact justified in feeling as such.  As someone who is listed as staff, a certain degree of professionalism should be expected when enforcing rules.  After all, if someone continues to violate a rule when told not to by a staff member, the staff member can simply report and have the person removed from the con.  There should be no reason to lose one's temper as that will only be detrimental to the situation.

And I definately agree that unclear guidelines and a double-standard resulting from rules being subjectively enforced is a problem.

[Ayanami Rei First Child]

I never said it wasn't wrong to play fight with swords, merely that the staff person grossly overreated. A lot of times all someone needs is "What you're doing is bad, and you should stop doing it because of x". Only AFTER this do you get to go postal on con members. My friends would have stopped with a small warning.

It's like the time I got pissed off for one staff member on sunday for telling me to stop standing on some chair. On saturday fan staff watched us all night, without problems. On sunday suddenly there was change, and without any reasonable explaination. Later on someone on the forums told me the chairs weren't the most stable and she'd seen people stand on those chairs, only to have them collapse and people hurt themselves.

Well going with the sue thing...I think you need to ban people from showing up drunk to the raves. Since OBVIOUSLY that poses a MUCH higher risk, as I've heard SOMEBODY seems to ALWAYS break their leg or sprain their ankle on the dance floor year after year...

[Dagger-6]

I just want to say it's good to hear this sort of feedback.  Hopefully some of these issues can be dealt with for this year.  :)

[SohmaYuki]

I never said it wasn't wrong to play fight with swords, merely that the staff person grossly overreated. A lot of times all someone needs is "What you're doing is bad, and you should stop doing it because of x". Only AFTER this do you get to go postal on con members. My friends would have stopped with a small warning.

It's like the time I got pissed off for one staff member on sunday for telling me to stop standing on some chair. On saturday fan staff watched us all night, without problems. On sunday suddenly there was change, and without any reasonable explaination. Later on someone on the forums told me the chairs weren't the most stable and she'd seen people stand on those chairs, only to have them collapse and people hurt themselves.

Well going with the sue thing...I think you need to ban people from showing up drunk to the raves. Since OBVIOUSLY that poses a MUCH higher risk, as I've heard SOMEBODY seems to ALWAYS break their leg or sprain their ankle on the dance floor year after year...

Really? If that were true, then I wouldn't have had to nearly beat up some guy who wouldn't stop harassing a friend of mine. There wouldn't be people sleeping inside of the convention center year after year. I've seen staff members politely tell people not to do something only to have them do it again as soon as the staff member left. Sure, maybe your friends woulda stopped, and the correct order would have been to be nice at first. But they were still in the wrong regardless. Now, if your friends weren't in the wrong, and someone got bitchy like that, then you'd have grounds to go off on the staff member.

Not the case though. Don't expect staff members, or anyone to be nice to you when you are in the wrong. Different staff members, different reasonings and rule enforcement amounts. Some staff members don't mind if you break rules, as long as you're not doing anything too bad. Others don't want you to break rules at all. The chair thing, I coulda(and probably would have) argued with the staff member, just to see what would have happened. But that's just me. Know when to pick your fights, and know your capabilities in doing so. If you are clearly in the wrong though, just suck it up.

[LordKefka]

I would be too busy helping this year to take a power trip.... more like a trip to heaven in my sleep after the convention..=\

All sillyness aside, I don't think staff members are assholes, but there might be one or two who are, whether they are staff or not.

[Ayanami Rei First Child]

OBVIOUSLY I would NEVER say all staff members are assholes. The people who let me stand on chairs seemed cool, and I KNOW my friend Moogleborg is an awesome guy. I've never heard of him EVER going REMOTELY off on people.

Sure there's going to be people who are going to break the rules regardless, there's going to be those people. I'm just saying a single nice warning should be a first resort, and then you can go psycho on people >.>;

[1Fireforge]

Not the case though. Don't expect staff members, or anyone to be nice to you when you are in the wrong....If you are clearly in the wrong though, just suck it up.

Am I to understand that regardless of the level of rule breaking, that we should then expect a harsh response every time? Guess that means no gum under the desk anymore - I might get kicked out. =P

- FF

[LadyKaren]

Not the case though. Don't expect staff members, or anyone to be nice to you when you are in the wrong....If you are clearly in the wrong though, just suck it up.

Am I to understand that regardless of the level of rule breaking, that we should then expect a harsh response every time? Guess that means no gum under the desk anymore - I might get kicked out. =P

- FF

And no running with scissors!!!

[Dagger-6]

OBVIOUSLY I would NEVER say all staff members are assholes. The people who let me stand on chairs seemed cool, and I KNOW my friend Moogleborg is an awesome guy. I've never heard of him EVER going REMOTELY off on people.

Sure there's going to be people who are going to break the rules regardless, there's going to be those people. I'm just saying a single nice warning should be a first resort, and then you can go psycho on people >.>;

But the thing is, being 'cool' is not part of the job.  Enforcing the rules is.

With a large convention and a lot of things to do, you can't sugarcoat every request.  As SohmaYuki said, if you're in the wrong, you have to suck it up.

Of course, a courtesy warning does help relations.  But on the flip side, if you don't take advantage of that warning, don't expect people to pussyfoot around waiting for you to kindly comply.

If someone doesn't comply, that doesn't give a staff member permission to go psycho though.  Like I said before, a degree of professionalism needs to be maintained.  Besides, there should be no need to go psycho when particularly stubborn people can simply be ejected if they continue to insist on their course of action.

The problem with the chair situation was the confusion resulting from another staff member permitting it earlier, which is why staff need to be aware of the rules and regulations in order to enforce them evenly.

As for gum under the desk...don't joke!  My friend lost an eye to that.

But seriously, sticking gum under a desk it is vandalism and just plain rude.  Go to a garbage can, they're out there for a reason.

Personally if I ran across someone sticking gum under SJCC property, I'd ask them to scrape it off and dispose of it properly.  And if they'd rather give lip and play games, then we'll play games.  But really, I'd hope they'd just throw the gum away properly because it would save everyone a lot of trouble and grief.

As for running with scissors, I hope you don't! Because if you fall and got injured, I don't know if good Samaritan laws would cover me as a staff member (we were told to try and avoid it for liability reasons) so you'd have to wait for one of the hired EMTs to arrive.  But if you do run, remember to hold the pointy part of the blades in your fist.

[1Fireforge]

If someone doesn't comply, that doesn't give a staff member permission to go psycho though.  Like I said before, a degree of professionalism needs to be maintained.  Besides, there should be no need to go psycho when particularly stubborn people can simply be ejected if they continue to insist on their course of action.

Yah, that's what I was really getting at =)

But seriously, sticking gum under a desk it is vandalism and just plain rude.  Go to a garbage can, they're out there for a reason.

Ofc, I was just trying to think of the littlest offense that I could come up with.  =P

[SohmaYuki]

If someone doesn't comply, that doesn't give a staff member permission to go psycho though.  Like I said before, a degree of professionalism needs to be maintained.  Besides, there should be no need to go psycho when particularly stubborn people can simply be ejected if they continue to insist on their course of action.

Yah, that's what I was really getting at =)

You can't expect all staff members(or people for that matter) to hold their temper. A lof you seem to not understand what staffing(especially for the higher ups) really means, and how thankless the job really is. Your average staff member will get about 3 hours a sleep a night at a convention, and not by choice. Most of them barely have much "fun" at the convention itself, but do more work. It's expected that some of them get irritable. If you are in the wrong, you are in the wrong. Suck it up, you act like being yelled at is so wrong, when you were doing something you shouldn't have been doing in the first place. Most staff members won't get all crazy and yell at you, some will... deal with it.

If you did something wrong, you did something wrong.

[1Fireforge]

You can't expect all staff members(or people for that matter) to hold their temper. A lot of you seem to not understand what staffing(especially for the higher ups) really means, and how thankless the job really is. Your average staff member will get about 3 hours a sleep a night at a convention, and not by choice. Most of them barely have much "fun" at the convention itself, but do more work. It's expected that some of them get irritable. If you are in the wrong, you are in the wrong. Suck it up, you act like being yelled at is so wrong, when you were doing something you shouldn't have been doing in the first place. Most staff members won't get all crazy and yell at you, some will... deal with it.

Respectfully, but I disagree.  Fatigue, long hours, and thankless work do not warrant nor excuse rude conduct, especially on the part of someone supposed to be in charge.  Fanime, like many other organizations, is volunteer run, and there are never enough volunteers to go around, which results in situations very much like what you describe above (yes, I speak from experience =).  One thing that truly marks a good staffer is the ability to grit one's teeth and at least be civil in these instances, even if running on only two hours of sleep over as many days.

- FF

[SohmaYuki]

Respectfully, but I disagree.  Fatigue, long hours, and thankless work do not warrant nor excuse rude conduct, especially on the part of someone supposed to be in charge.  Fanime, like many other organizations, is volunteer run, and there are never enough volunteers to go around, which results in situations very much like what you describe above (yes, I speak from experience =).  One thing that truly marks a good staffer is the ability to grit one's teeth and at least be civil in these instances, even if running on only two hours of sleep over as many days.

- FF

And how many staffers are actually like that? Very few. But the fact of the matter is, this is NOT business run. So they do not have to follow and conduct rules, or anything like that because it is not a professional business. As you said, they're volunteer. If I was volunteering to something, and the attendees of the convention that I VOLUNTEERED MY TIME TO HELP treated me like crap, or disregarded my instructions, or did something to piss me off... then why should I be nice? Why should I be professional to idiots that cannot follow basic rules. I'd call actual security, take their badges and tell the to get the f*ck out. If a staff member asks you to do something, and you're breaking rules, don't be suprised if you get yelled at... simple as that.

This talk of "what should" be done is completely pointless, because you're breaking their rules. Hell they don't even need to say a word to you realistically, they can just take your badge and call security to have you removed. Would you much rather prefer that course of action?

Basically, you are stating that people should not be allowed to put emotion into something when they are not being followed as an authority.

Some people don't listen to authority when authority is nice. Staff has a right to do it, and you bitching doesn't change that. You think staff should be nicer? I think attendees shouldn't be idiots. When my problem is solved, I'm pretty sure your problem will be solved.

[Ayanami Rei First Child]

I think your position is too extreme. If you're too harsh with the fans, then they WILL leave. That's happened before. The power of suggestion is powerful. People kept saying how there wouldn't be a bunch of high quality cosplayers....and I noticed a lot fewer quality cosplays. Not as many professionals in 06 as there were in 05. So what happends when more people start talking about leaving? I'm not saying give people a free ride...but don't go on a power trip. Although that might be hard since it sounds like you're already on one Yuki.

[SohmaYuki]

I love how some of you choose not to read at all. Do you guys seriously try to completely miss the point of everything that is said, read 1 line, and go "I know exactly what he means"? Seriously...

You should note how I say that I say the majority of staff will not do it, and are usually calm about it.

You should also note that I say that in the case it does happen, usually the staff member is justified, because they are in the right, IF the person on the receiving end did something wrong.

You should also note that I SPECIFICALLY SAID that it's usually for the people that DO NOT LISTEN(like you seem to be doing) to what the staff member says.

But please, if you're going to say that people didn't come in '06 compared to '05 because of maybe 3 incidents of "staff members having a power trip"... then AX members should have atleast decreased by half.

This is totally rediculous. You expect staff members to be perfectly calm and professional, despite attendees acting like 4 yr. olds and defying authority when they are breaking logical rules? If some guys are doing something that the con can get totally busted for, some people might stop if a staff member asks them to stop, some won't... how do you get them to stop right there? Be angry. If they know you're not joking around and you are dead serious about it.. they will stop. Oh they might feel a little offended, but frankly, that's better than something bad happening and the convention getting sued, or someone breaking their leg, or some other crap like that. You are young adults -> Adults... you can take a few harsh words, ESPECIALLY when you are the one that's wrong.