philanthropy manager

Heritage Park

The best part of the job—by far—was my coworkers. Everyone in the entire park is very friendly with eachother. I felt like I met so many new people, and was introduced to people all across departments. I loved showing up to work and knowing I was going to be working with awesome people! They were also very good about trying to hire similar-aged people per department. Retail was mostly teenagers/young adults, which made relating to your coworkers even easier, and forming friendships really simple. The pay sucks, but that’s just a given for minimum wage. 

In terms of management, it was a little iffy. It depends on what department you work at, but in the retail side of things, I struggled with management, which is why I was tempted to rate this a 3.5/5 stars. My manager was a little bit too unprofessional. They engaged in (and started) gossip, and would laugh at my coworkers and I when a task was done poorly/wrong in place of professionally telling us so. The workplace just felt a little demeaning when my manager was either gossiping about me, gossiping about an employee to me, or laughing at employees/communicating in a backhanded sarcastic manner to us. The managers are usually very inexperienced and young, so be prepared to having to deal with that as an employee. It does vary from department to department, though, and I’ve heard some are amazing. 

*Split shifts: 8-4; 10-6
*Start at 8am, prep the bus: pre-trips, fueling, washing
*Start the first run by 8:30.
*Chat with the staff and volunteers while getting them to their sites.
*By 10:00 the first Special Needs Guests (mobility challenged) request the bus.
*We welcome them to the park and chit chat about their interest and give them suggestions on what is happening and where to visit within the park.
*We explain how the system works and check on them throughout their visit with a wave or a chit chat as we have time.
*Top speed on the park is 15 km per our so it is very laid back and relaxed.
*We can get pretty busy and will have to prioritize our pick up and deliveries.
*The hardest part of our job is saying goodbye to our guests at the end of the day.
*I love talking with the varied guests from around the world.
*Every guest from the youngest to our oldest guests teach me to see things differently, even when I see them every day.
*Day ends for me at 4:00.
*Drivers split shifts so little overtime.
*Park closes to guests at 5:00 pm but we stay to get the staff out and are done by 6:00 at the latest.
*Sometimes we are request to drive the bus for functions: Lots of fun and craziness.

The banquet department can act as a clique and there can be hostility to other departments within the company. Within the banquets department there are issues with training. Training typically is partnered with another staff and they train through your first 1-2 shifts. But different staff have different ways of working, a more consistent training method is need. Shifts are typically under staffed or one good partner with more than one staff who doesn't do their job. Management rewards good and bad staff the same due to lack of staffing.
***BEWARE OF BANQUET CHEFS IF YOU ARE A FEMALE, there are specific chefs that are inappropriate 
***Recently came under new management, and hopefully some of the issues change 

Our team was very close; we spent a lot of time together through training, the work day, team meetings, and clean up at the start and end of the day. We got two half-hour breaks for each 8-hour work day. You would be paired with a coworker of your choice for the whole day to work with, and the sense of community was strong. There was variety every day which made sure we didn't go stir-crazy sitting at one ride all day. The downside was no matter the weather we had to work. Only if a rainstorm got to a certain degree of intensity could we shut down and even then we had to stay on-site in case the weather cleared up.

Worked at the Selkirk Grille during the summer.
Was promised full time hours, worked maybe 15 hours a week.
Was promised a serving position, was stuck as a host the whole time I worked there. 
Management played favourites, super inconsistent hours, many people left in the time that I was there. 
Never got a single break. 
I wasn’t paid for over a month and when I finally was, it wasn’t the correct amount. I never received promised tips. 
Management had high expectations for the dress code. They expected us to buy new clothes without giving us an allowance or paying us. 
Heritage Park as a whole is a lovely place, but the Selkirk Grille is a disaster. 

Banquets usually have more year-round work which can pay well.  When it pays.  Upper management are destroying the park's potential, with the exception of the president.  She works hard and is very friendly and well-spoken.  Otherwise you see some cool things, for instance we host the prime minister annually.  There are a number of venues on the 125 acres which keep it interesting.

Heritage park is not a good place to work. Everyone is overworked and underpaid. The upper management does not care about the employees (especially their mental and physical well being). They want to squeeze the most out of their employees so they can get the most money. Even though they are a non profit organization “profits” are the upper managements main concern. There is limited regulation/protocol around safely. And the ONLY main focus the upper management cares about is how “historic” everyone looks. 

The management does not care, or at least does not act like it cares. Voicing your opinion is only safe if you're prepared to be fired. Wise employees have been hushed and the safety in some of the sites is nonexistent regardless of how many complaints filed.

Duties-prepare sandwiches, wraps, salads, fruit platters, vegetable platters, food safety and hygene certificate is required. Experiance in a kitchen enviroment is an asset. lots of different areas to work in such as the banquets kitchen to a food venue in the village. The people i work with are nice and respectful and fun to work with. the best part of this job is the people i work with and the customers i serve.

Heritage Park was my first job and overall it could have been far worse -  Taking on a historical role through costuming was fun, it was relatively easy to request days off and vacation time, and the older employees were very kind and supportive.  The upper management was a bit far removed and trying to reach to my boss was consistently challenging (and required having to constantly advocate for my needs) but I'm hopeful this will improve over time. 

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