The undercover non-boss

I'll be honest; concessions gave me the most apprehension. I hadn't worked retail or food service since college, and I didn't want to screw up a patron's order or, worse, make them late. Luckily AMC designed the POS system to be easy, and [Alex] prepared me for most potential issues. And lo and behold, it wasn't bad at all. Granted, my shift was an early afternoon on Thursday, but I handled myself well-like I said, waaaay better than [Ellis Jacob]. My second shift in concessions was also at a nonpeak time (Friday 9-11 a.m.), but somehow there were more guests. It was then that I quickly realized the effort involved to maintain operations (stocking, cleaning, engagement, etc.), and shuddered to imagine the scene during a weekend rush. My appreciation for these employees only increased when confronted with that sobering thought. The GM emphasized this to me (reinforced by the supervisors): when you're not cleaning an auditorium, you need to be cleaning a bathroom. OMG. Raise your hand if you've dealt with a bathroom disaster. An AMC training video showed me that in just a few minutes a bathroom can get wrecked like the suite in The Hangover. If you were having guests over to your home, you'd clearly want to make sure the bathrooms were clean. Otherwise they'd get the impression it wasn't a clean house, and therefore they wouldn't want to come back. That's the challenge brought to any facility, especially a cinema. I probably dodged a big bullet here since no vomit or "surprises" were in the bathrooms during my shift-but 1 heard stories. This job was similar to concessions, but with a little more responsibility. I'm referring specifically to the ID check for ratings. From a NATO standpoint, I can't appreciate the effort enough. And as someone who's well beyond the 17-year-old threshold, it's a gear shift to ID patrons-which, for those of you scoring at home, I did. But the AMC policy makes complete sense, and the "If they look 25 or under, card them" directive allows employees to cover all bases. You can never be sure. But the ratings system is there to help, not hinder, the moviegoing experience. I didn't encounter any upset patrons denied entry to an R-rated movie, but I did ID one guy who was one week beyond his 17th birthday. That was the closest I got.