MLB Spring Training

March 2010
ARAMARK       
Major League Baseball Spring Training
Phoenix, Arizona

The 5 W's

Who: According to its website, ARAMARK is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world.
What: Concession stands for baseball Spring Training.

Where: All over Arizona (and probably elsewhere). We were placed at the Phoenix Municipal Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona.

When: The month of March; 15 games.

Why: For MLB Spring Training, ARAMARK hires folks to work in food concession stands, to hawk goods in the stands, to work in merchandise stores, to provide catering services to VIPs, to be overall supervisors for the various stands around the stadium, to work in beer portables and other portable foods stand, etc…Phil was hired to be a Stand Lead in the largest concession stand, alongside a veteran stand lead, and I was hired to be a cashier for a concession stand.

What we liked

• some of our coworkers
• our supervisor, Steve

What we didn't like

• lack of training
• too much responsibility for inadequate compensation for Stand Leads
• too hot in Arizona
• RV parks too pricey in Arizona during the spring

Our Experience
Phil and I applied for this job in December 2009. We didn’t hear back from anyone until February 2010. That alone would have put us off this job since Phil and I appreciate communication from our employers, but since we didn’t have any other irons in the fire at the time, we agreed to give it a try.

We had a lucky coincidence to be in the same town as the person doing the hiring, so we got to meet her in person. This is not the norm, however. Most of the hiring of work campers is done via phone. We liked her a lot, and had warm fuzzes  about the job. Phil was to be a Co-Stand Lead, under fellow named Tim, who had been a Stand Lead for that very same concession stand in the past. I was to be a cashier.

We then tried to find an RV park in Arizona. In the spring, RV spots are few and far between in that state if you haven’t made reservations a year out. We finally found one that would let us in, even though they were a 55+ park. Unfortunately, it was about an hour’s drive away from the stadium. But at least it wasn’t 600 dollars a month like the ones closer to the stadium, who didn’t want us anyway because we weren’t old enough.

One of the first things we had to do for the job was to acquire a Maricopa County Food Handler’s card. This was no big deal, but you do have to pass a test and pay 15 dollars for the card. It is good for three years, though.

We also had to go through TIPS training, which is for folks who serve alcohol. That’s the biggest money-maker at these games, so if you get a job with ARAMARK, it will probably involve serving alcohol. Since under Arizona state law you can be held liable if a drunk you served gets into an accident, this training is very important.

Then we had another afternoon of actual job training. This is where things started to fall apart. Phil’s training consisted mainly of everyone telling him not to worry about anything because the other Stand Lead, Tim, would know what to do. My training was basically me fiddling with a register for about 15 minutes.

So then it was game day. Tim didn’t show. He had quit. Phil was now the guy in charge of our stand and the 26 employees working there. Phil promptly pulled me off the register and promoted me to co-lead in charge of money.  That meant I was in charge of getting the bank in the morning, providing change to all the cashiers, constantly collecting any bills bigger than a 10 from every register and then counting it three times during the day and making three money drops to the security person. At least my job was semi-concrete.  Phil was running around like he was in a taffy pull.

Phil was responsible for running the entire stand, which consisted of training employees, making sure we had supplies, making sure the kitchen staff was getting the proper amount of food prepared in the proper manner, taking care of problems when they arose (and they arose about every 10 minutes, from having to call in the beer guys to change kegs, to having to change syrup or CO2 for the sodas, to people needing him to do something for them). Plus he was responsible for the beginning and end of the day  inventory which had to balance out. It was just a major undertaking for him (and me, but mine was to a lesser degree as I was able to get out of the direct line of fire three times a day because I had money to count), and he just didn’t get paid enough to make it worth his while.

But Phil being Phil took charge and we got through it. I’ll admit that as we drove back to the RV Park the first evening we were both asking if it was worth it to come back for the next game. That first day was just honestly a horrendous experience. But we couldn’t imagine leaving our coworkers to the wolves, so we stuck with it.

Things got a bit better as the games went by. We hit stride about five games in, even though game day was always a bit chaotic. We were told by everyone around us that Phil was running that stand the best it had ever been run. And that was good to hear, but our coworkers on the registers, who were making only 50 cents less a hour than we were, got upwards of 40 dollars a game in tips and had no extra headaches.

If we were to ever work for ARAMARK again at a sporting event, we would try to be in a beer portable with just the two of us. From what we’ve heard, the tips you can make working one of those things are pretty darn good. But we don’t think we’ll ever want to be in charge of a concession stand again, even if the compensation match