The end of September marks the beginning of Halloween season, and the opening of haunted houses.
Most people have visited at least one haunted maze, ride or house in their lifetime, paying to be frightened by monsters, ghosts and more. Since these Halloween venues are so much fun, actually working for one sounded like a blast. Teaming up with others, wearing awesome costumes and scaring the masses? Sign me up.
However, the training was unexpected.
While a good portion of it contained advice on getting scares, almost half of it was cautionary words about the customers themselves.
Sure, in any extreme situation, somebody might get hurt. Though the training made it sound more likely than not. People were half-expecting riot gear to be part of our costumes.
Warnings were given that customers may antagonize, grope and even assault costumed workers. Police patrol the area for employee protection. We were given whistles in case of emergency. A person may lash out when caught off guard by a ‘monster,’ but some individuals purposefully seek a confrontation.
Skepticism was high on the first night of scaring, but a few hours later, we were proven wrong.
A friend in a baggy coat was groped by a man trying to discover his gender. Several young women circled through the house several times just to shout abuse at the female workers. Another employee was nearly slapped by a girl just for talking to the customer’s boyfriend.
Excuse me, but on what planet is that okay? We don’t go to other people’s places of work and feel them up. What is it about a Halloween costume that says “please, verbally or physically harass me, it’s perfectly acceptable.”
Adults are hardly better. Many bring small children, and even baby strollers, through the haunted areas. Then they scream at the workers for scaring the kids or waking up infants.
It’s a haunted house, why would parents bring babies and toddlers through a place meant to frighten adults? More importantly, why are we being blamed for your bad parenting? Pretty sure we had nothing to do with raising your kid.
Kids as old as 15 or 16 would get in people’s faces, throwing insults about everything from their looks to their abilities to scare. Others would attempt to worm their way into employee areas to scare other customers themselves. They pulled our hair, pushed us around and tugged at our costumes.
Somehow, in the minds of a few customers, haunted house workers are on the same level as punching bags.
Most people go for the thrill of the scares. The rest go for the chance to harass others without the fear of conflict.
We aren’t meant to touch or harm customers in any way, and teenagers are well aware of this. No matter how awful they are to employees, we aren’t supposed to fight back. All we can do is notify police or other workers in the area.
A child of eight years old was kicked out of the venue for throwing things at the female workers, and calling them every vulgar term known to the English language. Eight years old, can you believe that?
While these experiences were largely unpleasant, scaring as a whole has been a fantastic job. It’s surprising just how much or how little it takes to scare others. Some take extreme effort, and others will scream at the first silly phrase that comes to mind.
We are encouraged to tag-team, chase people and wait for the opportune moment to frighten customers. Veterans told us that scaring teenage girls is equivalent to shooting fish in a barrel, but it’s still hilarious.
Scaring is tremendous fun, but haunted house workers must be on their guard for these few, antagonistic individuals. The irony is just too much, we’re far more leery of customers than they are of us. It shouldn’t be that way.
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