Escaparium

Before even starting, I have to say that the people you work with, and meet will be amazing. Most of the friendships I have come from Escaparium and I am so grateful for that. Even management at Dorval that I’ve had have been amazing. 

When it comes to everything else, run. There is no structure, no support, and no accountability. You sign a contract thinking the job will be simple and it’s not. “Simple repairs” become major repairs. On the bright side, you’ll learn all about Arduinos and how the games work but even the games are broken beyond understanding and the management team puts zero to no effort in fixing the games. You charge teams a lot of money to play a game that is damaged, and you must do everything in your power to ensure that the game goes well. There are even games that have had puzzles missing for years. After you make this terrible game look great and whether the customers have anything to say about it, you have maybe 20 minutes if you are lucky to reset your room, get your customers, explain them the rules and start the game. To add to that, if the game goes wrong, all the backlash goes on you from the customer angle and from the management side. Most customers show up late or right on the time of their reservation which means that if there is a busy day, don’t count on getting a break as well as enjoying taking over two hours to finish a sandwich. 

The big issue is ownership and the fact that they just don’t care. As long as the games are making money, there is no need for anything to happen in their books. It is completely unethical and knowing what I know now, I would never pay for a game at Escaparium. The games make money because of the hard effort of the staff. The job is draining, emotionally exhaustive and horrible. 

It is quite sad as this place has extreme potential to be something amazing, but it was cursed with horrible ownership who you’ll maybe see twice a year and probably not even. But hey on the bright side, no bosses around. If you like a stable environment to work in that has structure and support and accountability, DO NOT WORK HERE!


Let me begin by saying the job itself is decent, you put your players into the game, make sure it runs smoothly, give hints, and at the end of the hour take your team out and reset the room. You're allowed your phone, so time passes decently quickly...

If the games work...

When the job application specified "must be able to improvise", i wouldn't have though it meant "must be able to make clever excuses for broken games". You will constantly have to cover the owner's inability to properly fix the scenarios. Worst of all, I don't think they are planning on fixing them at all! 

However, the biggest issue is the (lack of good) management by the owners, creating a multitude of problems that greatly affect the enjoyment of coming to work.

This includes:
-Constant understaffing issues

-Being blasted for "incorrectly" running games, even after thorough documentation and justification of our actions (blocking games because of short-staffing, giving hints by walkie-talkie because the audio hints don't work, etc)

-Woking long hours (sometimes over 15) with no breaks or overtime

-No overtime after working past 40h a week because the company wants to pay overtime only after 80h every 2 weeks (not that you're gonna get it, you'll always have suspiciously less hours every other week).

-Being fired, and finding out only when the schedule comes out

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the incredibly unprofessional behavior the owners have.

As for workplace culture...

 Is laziness a culture? 

Most if not all the good employees have already quit because of the owners.

The only reason I stayed so long was the amazing friends I made there.
Y'all were the best!

Please, do yourself a favour, apply elsewhere, literally anywhere else

-Work load can be stressful and busy depending on reservations
-An incredible lack of structure at work 
-Later on, Game Masters have responsibilities pile on not initially explained in interview or hiring process
-Receding quality of games and puzzles result in increased difficulty while operating games
-No job description; day-to-day duties seem inconsistent and ever-changing
-Unreliable method of tracking hours: pay is unclear and difficult to follow
-No scheduled breaks
-Benefits
-Pay hardly changes no matter the duration you've worked
-Many safety concerns (both for clients and Game Masters alike)
-Dishonest company values and unclear goals of company often times leave employees feeling uninspired, uninformed, anxious about responsibilities and hard to stay customer oriented
-Low urgency on changes or fixes needed to be made (both for in-game issues and legal resolutions)

There is lots of things that you aren’t told about during the interview or when you get hired. You think you’re hired as a game master but you end up fixing and repairing everything from small details to big arduino/electronic problems. If the internet is down it’s your job to take care of it. It’s also your job to answer all those phone calls while you’re watching games and giving hints on a walkie. 
There is no breaks so if you plan on eating it can take you 2-3 hours to finish a sandwich. 
You better be good at handling kids because you will have lots of games with 8 of them running around, screaming and destroying things which you’ll have to fix later obviously!
You’re almost always understaffed and can’t block any open slots because the owner wants to make money even if that means you have to run 3 games at the same time.

Bosses are condescending and require us to fix electronics, run multiple games at once, they provide no support, and will call you out in the group chat for public shame. The games are breaking down, and we constantly have to run around and try to fix things before the next game.
We don't get paid overtime, no breaks on shifts (some shifts can be from opening (~9AM-10AM) to close (1-1:30 AM). 

on the other hand, the coworkers are great and are willing to help each other out. You also get to play free games at all the branches.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people are awesome and super friendly

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management constantly breathing down your neck and shaming you if you mess something up despite it being their responsibility. They expect you to do far more tasks than you are trained and prepared for.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Sometimes over 12 hrs a day with no break in between, sometimes 4 hours a day, there is no im between.

Management is better in restaurants, and values employees more now than before. It makes employees feel more encouraged to go to work. Pay is okay, should be better though

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