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2026: General Discussion

Poisson said:
I wonder if they can raise an NCR against an external supplier every time they get complaints?
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Theoretically, they could can raise an NCR, fill out a form, or scream into the digital void of the central procurement system. That report wouldn't go to the staff member serving the cold food though. It would disappear into a regional office backlog to be discussed at a quarterly review long after the season has ended. If, eventually, any action is taken, the guest has already gone home and left a scathing TripAdvisor review.

I'm on the record saying that, to the best of my knowledge, the Merlin / Aramark contract is a simple leasing of the F&B units, without a carrot, or stick, for KPIs. Hypothetically, however, if the contract's primary KPI is units sold rather than culinary excellence, serving a cardboard tasting burger isn't technically a breach as long as it sells. Aramark operates on razor thin margins to meet the financial return demanded by the group. If they are hitting those targets, a pile of paperwork regarding customer sentiment will be filed under "Noted" and promptly ignored, turning the Zonal Manager into a glorified data entry clerk for failure.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
In a functional corporate environment, you would be entirely correct. Contract management is a standard discipline and influence without authority is a key skill for any middle manager. Having said that, we ought to look at the specific power dynamics at play here.

The contract with Aramark was negotiated and signed at a Group / Executive level. The SLAs, the financial models and the staffing ratios were decided by people in boardrooms, not by the people on the ground in Forbidden Valley.

The Zonal Manager is being held accountable for guest satisfaction and brand standards. If a guest complains that their burger is cold, overpriced and took 45 minutes to arrive, the Zonal Manager takes the hit on their KPI dashboard.

But... when they go to the local Aramark supervisor to "direct improvement", what happens?

If the Aramark supervisor says, "We are staffing to the level agreed in the master contract," or "Those are the ingredients procurement sent us," the Zonal Manager has absolutely no leverage. They cannot withhold payment. They cannot issue a formal breach of contract notice (that would be a job for Legal / Procurement). They cannot step behind the counter and speed up service themselves.

They are responsible for the outcome, but they have no control over the input.

It is a middle management trap. All of the accountability, with none of the authority.
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You can only reasonably be expected to uphold the standards the other parties agreed to. If there's a problem with those standard's then it is reasonable to expect the person experiencing that discrepancy to flag it so it can be resolved at a higher level, but clearly nobody on site will be able to make Aramark do more than they have committed to do.

FWIW my read of the JD is more that the successful applicant will be expected to ensure their employers contractual partners are doing as contracted; likely by keeping dining areas clean etc. Perfectly reasonable.
 
BarryZola said:
"Fancy doing a job that was carried out by 3 people a year ago? This role is for you"!!
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From what I’ve seen from Thorpe and Chessington on LinkedIn (so we can assume it’ll be the same or very similar) there are a few zonal managers per zone overseen by a senior manager.

It’s not massively different the model they already had, but with increased responsibilities. As far as I remember, the old area (now called zone) manager jobs paid less so they’re getting a pay rise along side the extra responsibilities.
 
WillPS said:
You can only reasonably be expected to uphold the standards the other parties agreed to. If there's a problem with those standard's then it is reasonable to expect the person experiencing that discrepancy to flag it so it can be resolved at a higher level, but clearly nobody on site will be able to make Aramark do more than they have committed to do.

FWIW my read of the JD is more that the successful applicant will be expected to ensure their employers contractual partners are doing as contracted; likely by keeping dining areas clean etc. Perfectly reasonable.
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In a calm office environment, auditing a contract is perfectly reasonable. In the middle of a theme park during school holidays, when the bins are overflowing and the queue for a burger is 45 minutes long, "monitoring delivery standards" is a euphemism for being shouted at by guests for problems you cannot fix.

The issue is the gap between contractual compliance and operational reality. Aramark might be meeting their contractual obligation (e.g. "2 staff members on the counter"), but if the demand requires 4 staff members to clear the queue, the Zonal Manager is helpless. They cannot order Aramark to put more staff on. They can only "flag it". Meanwhile, the guest experience, which they are responsible for, tanks.

Responsibility without authority is the fastest way to burnout.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
In a calm office environment, auditing a contract is perfectly reasonable. In the middle of a theme park during school holidays, when the bins are overflowing and the queue for a burger is 45 minutes long, "monitoring delivery standards" is a euphemism for being shouted at by guests for problems you cannot fix.

The issue is the gap between contractual compliance and operational reality. Aramark might be meeting their contractual obligation (e.g. "2 staff members on the counter"), but if the demand requires 4 staff members to clear the queue, the Zonal Manager is helpless. They cannot order Aramark to put more staff on. They can only "flag it". Meanwhile, the guest experience, which they are responsible for, tanks.

Responsibility without authority is the fastest way to burnout.
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It takes a certain kind of person - you essentially have to compartmentalise what is and isn't possible and be comfortable knowing that things being rubbish is only your responsibility where it actually is. As a Tech Lead I've entered situations where I've inherited resource through a longstanding contract with limited opportunity to make changes. You make the best of what you have, make clear your dissatisfaction with things that could be sorted and clearly set a boundary around the things which are not, ensuring that your line management are on the same page.

I'm not disputing whether this is a good job or not, but I am saying this kind of responsibility is not an unusual feature of a modern JD; whether it becomes a problem or not depends on a few things, not least the culture of the organisation. And if culture is a problem then frankly it doesn't matter how doable the bullets on the JD were because they'll make up expectations on the hoof.
 
s_g_k said:
Deputising for the Resort Duty Manager for £30k-£35k a year? What an absolute joke.

Alton Towers - where the revolving door of management never ends. And for good reason.
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The role isn’t for Park Duty Manager to be fair, that’s usually conducted by the Senior Leadership Team at the Resort. This is for the Duty Management of the new ‘Zones’ within the park, this was done at a departmental level before, whilst in Rides there was a DM in each ‘Area’. What is new is that the Team Leads (formerly Seniors) are expected to cover Zonal Duty Management when needed.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
In a calm office environment, auditing a contract is perfectly reasonable. In the middle of a theme park during school holidays, when the bins are overflowing and the queue for a burger is 45 minutes long, "monitoring delivery standards" is a euphemism for being shouted at by guests for problems you cannot fix.

The issue is the gap between contractual compliance and operational reality. Aramark might be meeting their contractual obligation (e.g. "2 staff members on the counter"), but if the demand requires 4 staff members to clear the queue, the Zonal Manager is helpless. They cannot order Aramark to put more staff on. They can only "flag it". Meanwhile, the guest experience, which they are responsible for, tanks.

Responsibility without authority is the fastest way to burnout.
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Great points.

Working in an engineering contractual environment I’m used to key deliverables (documents, drawings, software, hardware) and milestones based on agreed programs, working to agreed design documents, specifications, access agreements etc.

These are written into contracts and are extremely important, and thankfully tangible things for the most part. And changes to any and all parts of these contracts is managed by project managers, QS and legal departments with support from engineering teams. It is mostly very black and white.

How on earth, as the bird says, this would work in an operational environment, in a successful and meaningful way is beyond me.

Who’s measuring how often the bins are emptied? Toilets are checked or cleaned? To what level of quality? How is that assessed? Who agrees to it? What type or level of corrective action is to be performed? When and how is that engaged? Who ensures it’s been completed?

I appreciate the level of scrutiny in an engineering environment with higher risk is different but applying similar principles to something like this could be incredibly difficult.

And will it result in improving how a theme park is run?…or race to the bare minimum to meet the obligations…

Time will tell.

I wonder if Disney, Universal, Europa operate in this way or have these problems or do they just know how to manage things successfully…
 
Those salaries Towers are offering are a joke - and they wonder why they can't get staff?! It is a case of history repeating itself (from many years ago). Back in about 2004 / 2005 they could not get housekeeping - or indeed ride host staff - so resorted to a lot of agency Slovakian workers, with predictable results. (And this was, obviously long before Brexit). It was hilarious to see, clearly the agency staff had been told it was much higher rank work than it was - they would turn up with briefcases on day 1.

Also nice to see that the huge 50p/hr differential between Ride Host & Ride Operator that existed when I worked at Towers is still in place. Such a huge hourly uplift for the operator who has to try and extract work out of a team of up to 10 or so, most of whom don't want to be there. There was always a motto around in the early 2000's that "you'll always get a job at Towers" - hence the quality of staff it attracted in some cases.

The company I indirectly work for [I'm a contractor] are in the hospitality / leisure industry and they have recruitment problems too. They pay better than Towers and have similar slightly remote locations - but getting staff is difficult.

The problem both Towers & my indirect employer have is the location. You ideally need to be able to run a car, which many of us know costs a fair bit. So in the case of Towers, they are competing against hospitality employers in the "5 towns" that make up Stoke that all pay the same minimum wage. Which option will potential staff take? Job in Stoke with good public transport links [or possibly able to walk to work] or job at Towers with minimal transport links / need a car?
 
Are we absolutely sure that Alton won’t be able to fill these roles?

All I seem to read at the moment is about how terrible the job market is and how no one can seem to get a role; I get the overriding impression that it’s an employer’s market out there currently!
 
Matt N said:
Are we absolutely sure that Alton won’t be able to fill these roles?
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Not sure I've seen anyone predict that. They might struggle, and end up employing unsuitable people, and have a load of churn which adds yet more pressure... but the roles will eventually be filled one way or another.
 
Matt N said:
Are we absolutely sure that Alton won’t be able to fill these roles?

All I seem to read at the moment is about how terrible the job market is and how no one can seem to get a role; I get the overriding impression that it’s an employer’s market out there currently!
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The boulder will always be rolled up the hill, and it’ll always fall back down to be rolled again.

Apparently Bianca made some good progress in improving the working experience at Alton Towers before the Merlin leadership hit them with a hiring freeze in the 2024 season and has impacted the park since.
 
The fact people think these salaries are low certainly suggest the general career level of forum members is higher than the average…

Also next time nurses and AHP’s strike don’t complain, they start on a much lower salary than this role and have student debt and professional fees to pay as well….
 
Dave said:
The fact people think these salaries are low certainly suggest the general career level of forum members is higher than the average…

Also next time nurses and AHP’s strike don’t complain, they start on a much lower salary than this role and have student debt and professional fees to pay as well….
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I think it’s more that the pay seems low for a role with managerial responsibility.

Yes nurses should be paid to reflect the skill and learning of their work but the issue here is that people being put in charge of other people are not significantly better paid than those they have to manage.

The fact AT are only offering lifeguards 49p an hour over minimum wage seems particularly stingy.

There is an national issue that minimum wage has gone up significantly in the last few years but other pay levels haven’t so much, therefore those with responsibilities are not getting a huge uplift compared to their manager.
 
jon81uk said:
I think it’s more that the pay seems low for a role with managerial responsibility.

Yes nurses should be paid to reflect the skill and learning of their work but the issue here is that people being put in charge of other people are not significantly better paid than those they have to manage.

The fact AT are only offering lifeguards 49p an hour over minimum wage seems particularly stingy.

There is an national issue that minimum wage has gone up significantly in the last few years but other pay levels haven’t so much, therefore those with responsibilities are not getting a huge uplift compared to their manager.
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I’m not saying the pay is right at Towers I am saying pay is low across the economy.

And once a nurse or AHP (don’t forget about those) gets to the pay level of this role they will almost certainly have line manager responsibility as well as their clinical skills, so at the same salary point a nurse/ AHP with their debt and professional fees just to do their job, is probably able to administer controlled drugs (the ones that can kill if you get it wrong), and will have some managerial responsibility (because despite what the papers say most NHS managers are also clinical).
 
NHS pay is lower than private sector.

I don't think this is right, but it's not a shock either. Little point benchmarking the two salaries as they won't be competing for the same candidates.
 
WillPS said:
NHS pay is lower than private sector.

I don't think this is right, but it's not a shock either. Little point benchmarking the two salaries as they won't be competing for the same candidates.
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The issue is more around the fact minimum wage has increased far quicker than general wages. Therefore people that should be receiving significantly more than the minimum, aren't.
 
Unless it's some form of bug in their system, looks like AT have stopped selling 2 day passes for specific weekends and periods through the year.

Eg. May half term, summer weekends and last 3 weeks of August are all greyed out and no longer allow for 2 day tickets to be purchased.
 
jon81uk said:
The fact AT are only offering lifeguards 49p an hour over minimum wage seems particularly stingy.
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My indirect employer lost quite a few lifeguards [that we had trained!] to a local swimming centre named after an Olympic Gold Swimmer. Reason: Location - the swimming centre is centrally located & easily accessible by public transport. Our site is not easily accessible by public transport & the lifeguard pay is the same.

It's the problem the entire leisure / hospitality industry has at present. Relatively low pay (that businesses can't afford to easily increase due to government budget changes) and accessibility. Staff will take the easy option where they can get to / from work for £3 each way on the bus.

History will repeat itself at Towers, with unsuitable staff being recruited out of desperation & a high level of churn. The fact they [Towers] have cut back on staff bus transport & the contract they had for accommodation in Leek a few years back won't help matters.
 
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