Imagine working at a tourist attraction where there are some people who work on the floor answering questions and assisting guests, but the supervisors work in the control room where they can monitor the cameras and radio in any issues that need to be resolved.

What would you think if management decided to flip all the roles and put the supervisors on the floor while the regular floor staff mans the control room? Would you expect this to be a good idea or a bad idea.

In this story, management did this exact thing, but it didn’t go as expected at all.

Keep reading for all the drama.

Short staffed? No problem.

I work for a visitor attraction in London. Generally we are out on the floor answering questions etc.

We had a dedicated team that worked in the control room, usually supervisors or those that wanted to become supervisors. Normally one or two people in the control room. They were never ever on the floor if they could help it.

They watched the cctv and controlled the breaks, lunches, etc. For instance if a visitor sets off an alarm they would call us and we would investigate the alarm.

But everything was about to change.

Management decided to pull the supervisors out onto the floor and train floor personnel to be In the control room.

Good idea on paper but in practice?

Supervisors didn’t want to go on the floor and those on the floor didn’t want to go into the control room.

Some of us already worked in the control room as we relieved them for breaks, lunches etc. Basically if you were in the control room you stayed in there.

Management assumed training would be easy.

First training week went something like this. Someone that knew the control room training 3 or 4 of the floor people.

Needless to say that put us short staffed on the floor and management had to go on the floor to cover. As “how hard could it be”, it will only be a week then I can go back to my cushy desk job.

First day I was training 3 or 4 floor staff and management/supervisors were on the floor. Management told me treat them like normal floor staff. Ok no problem.

I asked everyone that I was training “normal floor staff” we all got big smiles on our faces.

There was a problem almost immediately.

Not even 10 minutes goes by and radio call. “Can one of you bring the keys for the front door so we can let the public in?”

It’s a 5 min walk from control to the front door. I radio one of the management on the floor. “Come to control and pick up the keys and take to front door.”

I get a phone call ” just have so and so bring them over, there’s 4 of you in there”

As per procedure nobody is allowed out of control room.

There were more problems.

Management take 5 min to get to control and then take the keys over to front door. So we are late opening.

Next radio call. “Which key is it?”

It’s number xx . They open the doors.

Alarm goes off. “Control why did alarm go off” You need to call control to let us know exactly when to take alarm off. Procedure

There were even more problems.

All of this is written down. Procedures must be followed.

Now that the public is in, alarms start going off for various reasons. The public loves going through doors that say ‘Door is Alarmed’.

Normal stuff.

I start radio calls to management on the floor. “Charlie 3 go to door x” , “Charlie 3 go to door x” etc etc. “Delta 4 relieve Charlie 3 for their lunch”

Even taking a lunch break was a problem.

Lunchtime, I get phone calls from people who haven’t been relieved for thier lunch on time.

Management hasn’t figured out that travel time between your post and the break area is NOT included in your lunch/break. If you have an hour lunch and it takes you 10 min walking time to get there then basically your lunch is 40 min. 10 min to go from your post to break room and 10 min to go back to post.

Normal control room staff knew this and would start lunches early to give everyone as much as possible a full lunch.

There were lots of things to check on.

More radio calls “Charlie 3 can you check the tiolet, report of water on the floor ” “Charlie 3 can you go to x Visitor wants to use a voucher”, “actually Charlie 3 go to door x” but “I’m with a visitor “, ” Doors take priority Charlie 3″

For the rest of the day we ran management crazy.

Everything in the procedures was adhered to. Count the empty spaces in the car park. Check locks on the emergency gates. Check toilets, mens and womens to see if they need to be refilled with toilet paper. Look for lights out, Fill in your task book. etc

OP’s coworkers kept up the same shenanigans.

Next day needless to say i wasn’t in the control room.

Didn’t matter. The tone was set. Didn’t matter who was in there. The rest of the week went by the same. Everyone that followed me ran management nuts.

Management to thier credit changed some things after that.

There really were a LOT of changes.

Black sneakers can now be worn.

More break rooms closer to posts have been opened. Procedures have been loosened up.

Control people are back in control and floor people are on the floor.

Everyone is now trained in the control room but they only have to work it if they want.

Still was a glorious week!

Things don’t always work out the way management expects. It sounds like the rules loosening up made it all worth it.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This is true.

It was a good way to make everyone aware of the problems.

It really did work out well.

Here’s a theory.

One person admits to enjoying training.

Annoying changes can sometimes lead to positive results.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.