The Big Lie At Delaware Park.

There is is thing that I've learned in my many years in the work force: management lies.Especially when it comes describing it's workers. At Delaware Park the upper management seemingly takes a dim view of the slot attendants. We're never quick enough,friendly enough or fast enough when it comes to the patrons. If the patron is demanding,insulting or downright rude, we're to smile,be insanely cheerful and take it. Well, not me. If some jerkass patron treats me as if I'm a pile of horseshit, I won't be rude or nasty, but I won't fawn all over him and pretend to like it either. That's not in my job description.

Which brings me to what happened in November. I was having a really crap crappy day when I was called over to a jackpot by slot control on my radio. As I approached the patron, he was calling and waving me over to him the same way you would call a cat or dog. Since I'm not a domesticated pet(at least the last time I checked I wasn't), I didn't appeciate this guy's rude behavior. I explained that he didn't have to call me because I had already been contacted by slot control. I paid him his money and he gave me at tip.

Well, one of the upper management muckity mucks struts over to me and asks why I wasn't nicer to the patron. I explained my side of the story and was given a lecture about how being nicer to the patron would help increase our tips( which have gone down dramatically since the machines have been programmed to pay out at $1200.00 as opposed to $400.00 and up).

I thought this was the end of it until I saw a posting at one of the cash booths that went like this: A customer hit a $1600.00 jackpot turned, saw an employee a few rows away and called out for assistance.(Lie number one: I was heading in his direction after being called on the radio and wasn't standing around with my hands in my pockets playing a rousing game of "pocket pool".)The employee responded but did not show a sense of urgency or congratulate the player on their win. Instead the employee proceeded to "explain" to the customer that there was no need to call out for an attendant because one would be sent by radio. (Lie number two: to reiterate, what I actually said was he didn't have to call out to me because I'd already been contacted by slot control.) Needless to say the player's mood changed,they lost a considerable level of excitement and did not tip the employee.(Lie number three: I received a $5.00 tip from Mr.Rudeness.) This missive full of falsehoods ended with the admonition that if I had rushed over and joined in on the celebration, the patron's level of excitement would have continued and the potential for the employee to receive a tip would have increased significantly.(But I did get a tip. Remember?) The letter ended with a stern: THE ABILITY TO CHANGE THESE TRENDS IS IN OUR HANDS.

The funny thing is that the upper manager who took time out of his busy day to write a lecture to the slot attendants about good customer service used to work at another casino as head of the security department. What? He's never worked as a slot attendant, has never had to put up with rude,demanding and impatient patrons and he's climbing up on his high horse to pontificate about what he considers good customer service? Unf**king believable!

The bald truth is: no matter how nice you are to the patrons or how much you do for them,some tip and some don't. Unless of course,you're ready to vigorously kiss their ass and that's something I'll never do. End of story. I do my job and I do it very well without bowing and scraping to anyone. I don't remember signing a paper when I came to work at Delaware Park agreeing to leave my dignity and self respect at home.

The real pisser is that the lie was repeated at a recent Town Hall Meeting when a slot attendant dared to raise the issue of the lowering of our tips. One of the upper management at this meeting went into a tirade about how the slot attendants don't show enough enthusiasm when paying off a jack pot(I guess he expects us to run over whooping and hollering while clapping our hands in excitement. Yeah. Right. Like that's ever gonna happen.).

Of course, the story of how a sweet and wonderful patron was mistreated by a mean, nasty slot attendant was dusted off and offered up as proof as to why the slot attendants tips were low. As this sorry sack of lies was regurgitated once more,the entire room erupted into groans of disapproval. Too bad the real story didn't get equal time.

If I didn't need my job and didn't give a shit in a bucket as to whether I got fired or not, I would have gotten up, walked up to that little bastard, called him a liar to his face and then told the roomful of employee's what actually happened.

In other words:the truth.