By Nyk Miller
LifeAtStart.com reporter
I work at a trampoline park called Get Air. I’ve been working there since July, before the park even opened. We helped put trampolines in and various other things that weren’t the best experiences, but were still fun. There were plenty of parts that weren’t fun at all: calloused hands from springing trampolines, cut skin from pulling silk covers over foam blocks, stuffing crash pads into tight covers, filling pits with hundreds of blocks, and plenty more. But there was plenty of great moments, pushing each other into foam pits and helping each other in a very stressful environment and in the end making some great friends and co-workers.
While I do enjoy my job and being there can lift my mood, it’s extremely stressful. As someone who can do every job necessary, I’m constantly running around, and work a lot of 9-12 hour shifts nearly every weekend. And unfortunately, I deal with a lot of angry customers, screaming at me for things that aren’t nearly my fault but rather the company. I know, I know, angry customers are just a part of any job. But take an angry customer and add their child, sometimes even nine or ten children. It’s hectic and a place where it’s hard to keep calm considering the arrogance and attitudes that are encountered.
Working front desk is probably the most fun part, being able to interact with all of the customers can be great, until they come back and scream in your face for a refund because they started jumping two minutes after their jump time had started, there’s also having money and credit cards being thrown at you and being cussed out, rude parents and kids, as well as people who talk way too low for the volume of the music and get upset when you keep asking their name.
Then there’s lifeguarding, which is mainly just boring and only gets annoying when people don’t listen and break rules on purpose. And maybe the worst of all, party host.
I love hosting parties, when the people are nice and I don’t have three others going on at the same time. Party families are usually all around rude and rarely tip, however the nice ones can make up for it. With an 11 hour shift and eight parties, the last thing you want is a parent yelling at you because they came late and they forgot to fill out their waiver. Speaking of that, the worst thing about the job, other than cleaning up blood and vomit, is waivers. People just don’t seem to understand that EVERYONE needs a waiver, no matter how much we tell them. Creating anger, holding up lines, and pretty much a whole headache, if it weren’t for the people I worked with, I’d probably quit, There’s a lot of experiences I could share about this place, but hey, come visit me, I work every weekend