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Cineplex-Entertainment

Cineplex Entertainment purchased the theatre chain that I was employed by for nearly a decade, in 2011. 
The transition was very fast paced and difficult but with time became easier.  
I was employed as a ‘part time’ or ‘Assistant Manager’.  This is another way of paying its management using a title without any real financial promotion.  
While they claim that everyone is give. A fair chance, tbh if they do not want to promote you they won’t.  As for raises, they gave me at most, a nickel more an hour for a raise.   They ask a lot of their management teams, forcing assistants to often maintain and do as much as those in salaried positions.  God forbid when you screw up.  They will destroy you until you leave.  In 2016, I was diagnosed with a serious life threatening illness.  At first, they worked with me for time off.  Eventually however, they made every chance to get rid of me, even forcing me to come back prematurely against doctors orders.   In the end, my job was threatened and demoted.  I wasn’t paid even a cent to help me through this time and was forced to go on Ontario works to pay my bills.   The GMs are generally very untrustworthy people, constantly gossiping or extremely lazy.  They get bonus’ biased on my work for them and give incentives to others to be cutthroat and difficult.   Regional director was lazy and manipulative and would often work to cover stuff up to protect the illegal decisions of their full time employees.   
Tbh, the company is not very give and take, they just take.   I nearly died of stress throughout the beginning stages of my illness and diagnoses because they would send registered letter threats in spite of doctors orders.   Shame on them, and shame on the way they operate.   
The whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth, and a bittersweet age of memories for me.

I want to start with the positives because there are some. Firstly, free movies and some managers are lenient with cast passes (location specific). Secondly, the work hours are very flexible so if you have school or even a second job, you can always work around that. Lastly, and this is entirely Location specific, but I was lucky enough to have coworkers who I get along with and are very accepting. They actually make the environment fun to work in and exciting.

Now for the negatives. The management is horrible. I believe there is a present disregard for the safety of women at Cineplex. People who are reported for making women uncomfortable face little to no reprocussions and are even working with the people they have harassed. That should not be the case. An individual like this should be fired immediately. Matter of fact, you would be punished more if you're caught on your phone then if you actively make a coworker feel unsafe. 

Secondly, there is a noticeable shift into the realm of disproportionate professionalism and corporate behaviour when compared to our poor pay and no tips (unless you're working in VIP). We have to go to extreme lengths for the sake of customer satisfaction such as giving announcements before the start of a film or following a script when greeting customers. 

Lastly, work hours division can be horrific. Unless you practically beg for hours because of rent, bills or groceries, your shifts are wildly unpredictable. Doesn't matter if you started last week or 5 years ago, you get little to no consistency in shifts. This job is only good as a second job, do not depend on this for a full time minimum wage job.



I had worked at cineplex for a year and a half and it is time I will never get back. I cannot express how horrible this place is in the least dramatic way possible.
For starters, the management at this workplace was foul. Absolutely no respect for their mostly 15-18 year old employees, they gossiped behind everyone's back to management and employees and gave no support. You were seen as a number and nothing else. 

"Promotions" (if you can even call it that) are horrible, you have to apply and then be interviewed by management to see if they believe you will be a right fit, and they will most definitely pick favorites. It is twice the work and responsibility for .50 cents more. Although you get hired as a part time employee, the minimum shift you will receive is 5 hours long with the max being up to 7.5 hours and you will only be allowed a break if you work more than 5 hours at a time. You will most definitely be overworked and underpaid. 

This company does not care about you I cannot stress this enough and it truly starts from the top, when people from head office would come in they made no effort to speak to anyone other than the general manager. Do not expect anything from this place other than a minimum wage paycheck. Benefits from this place is two free movie tickets and discounted food during your shift no other time. Work literally anywhere else.

Working at cineplex is one of, if not the easiest minimum wage jobs you can have. I would honestly recommend this job for any high school kid who's looking for a first job. I have made lifelong friends here. 
However, there are managers, especially the full timers, who are absolutely useless and make our jobs so much harder than it needs to be. When it gets busy, you'd expect your manager to come in and help out and do whatever they can to relieve some of the pressure on the cast, but most of them just watch you from the side, not doing anything, and then criticize the way you greet a guest. They don't realize how stressful it gets and how the way we greet guests is not on the top of our mind. Also some of them stay in the office for almost the whole shift and we only see them a handful of times. Another thing is they love cutting cast members shifts when it's busy, knowing that the remaining cast members will be forced to do more work than what is required of them. The managers do not prepare the cast of any upcoming rushes and get upset when the cast get overwhelmed.
There are many positives with this job, but I think the manager culture needs to change. They can't keep doing this.

I would recommend Cineplex to anyone who is looking for a first job/summer job. It is fun, it teaches you money handling, and customer service skills. If you are lucky enough to be trained in other areas you can learn a lot. 
It is super fast paced, you have to be on top of your game almost all of the time, but it is easy to predict, and as long as you are prepared, the shifts were okay.

Management was okay, but not great. Often they were young, promoted through the ranks, which could create bias towards others. Management had pretty fast turn arounds, so occasionally there was a good group, sometimes there wasn't. 
There was a "fighting" culture surrounding customers. Customers were often argued with, which created a negative atmosphere. Managers would side with whoever they thought would win the battle - even if that meant ignoring policies. 
People were good, lots of high school and early uni kids, which makes a for a great time, provided that they are there to actually work. Understaffing was an issue, which would cause problems. 

Overall, would recommend for short-term.

Starting my first employment of Cineplex was exciting yet a little scary. A lot of families, students, and movie lovers come in and out of the theatre.There is a lot of energy that comes through those doors that sometimes it may be intimidating. All the things that go through your mind worrying about how you can achieve their goals or what they are expecting from you can shake you up. But all that worrying will become your strengths. I know that working for cineplex has made me grow and face my most biggest fears.I have become more confident in myself because of the people that I've worked with, everyone has always made the time to listen and solve things together. The hardest part in this job would be always thinking that "there has to be more to make things better" I've always had this state of mind of " It'snever enough" so i try to exceed for the above and beyond. But the most enjoyable part of the job was being able to share my joy about movies with co-workers, the management team and the guests. I believe that Cineplex is a place of discovery, it's always a great experience!

Honestly, I wish I would have gone somewhere else for employment. This place should not be managed as badly as it is. It shouldn’t be hard to keep consistent scheduling and have better benefits for workers who are constantly abused by management and given no chances to move up or even appreciated in the slightest. No wonder no decent workers want to stay. Higher ups were completely unprofessional and seemed to take out their aggression on part-time staff who already have enough to deal with outside of their job description like taking care of dangerous guests at their own risk without the assistance of management. Managers picked favourites and made the workers they hated run for the hills. That matched with broken equipment (scanners never wanted to work same with radios) made what should have been an easy job unnecessarily difficult. This company would rather manipulate and use up their workers than create a path for them to do better in their careers. What a waste of time! 

Genuinely, when I started it was decent. I enjoyed the workplace and the tasks were very deadset and simple. It's great for a high school job, and it keeps you going. It has flexibility.

However, over time you really get a sense of how corrupt the management is. They protect predators in the workplace and cannot afford to let them go, so they give them second chances even if they are on probation or even a chance to resign to it doesn't tarnish their careers. The management and higher ups implement tasks and rules that make ZERO sense and seem unnecessary all in the name of "customer service," as if they have never worked a day in their life as a cast member and do not understand the duty of staff and the community wants, so they just popcorn ideas out of their pocket in hopes that it works. Majority of the management currently seem absolutely miserable and decide to take it out on their colleagues; the only thing that was worth staying was the coworkers. They truly bring the workplace culture together.

I started working at Cineplex in 2017 and was promoted to assistant manager a year after. I loved working on concession as a cast member, and management has its perks too. It is nice not to wear a uniform as a manager, and to instead wear business attire. Although, I find head office cares too much about cutting hours, and so there is too much pressure to cut shifts each day, resultantly putting more pressure on you as an hourly assistant manager.
Some shifts can be fun and go by quickly, whereas others are slow and sometimes stressful when you consider having to follow guidelines from head office, manage the building's daily tasks, while also having to receive orders, make schedules, create showtimes etc. 
Overall, if you are a good multi-tasker, and enjoy always being on your feet with something to do, this is the job for you.

A typical day at Cineplex would include making sure the butter warmers are on, functioning and filled; making popcorn, changing empty syrups for the pop towers, making sure the ice bins are filled, and ensuring each station has cups, lids, and popcorn bags.

I learned to talk about movies and make recommendations based on reviews from guests and other cast members.

Most of the people in management are young and have a bit to learn. They are good people but I found them to be inexperienced.

My co-workers were great. Everyone was super friendly and helpful.

The hardest part about the job was predicting how much popcorn would be needed for the night without over or under popping.

The most enjoyable part of the job was the guests. I met so many different and wonderful people with varying tastes in movies and needs. To be able to fulfil those needs was extremely gratifying.

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