I used to Work for an Escape Room, I also lived upstairs in the same building. The building is owned by my employers as well.
Big mistake.
I became convenient, but I was tired of having to take $25.00-$50.00 Ubers to get to work quickly because an employee was a no show or did something wrong and now I have the Owners breathing down my neck to get there (regardless if it was a day off). Moving into the building came with a pay raise, I went from $15.00 to $18.00/ hr. With my pay raise came an obligatory, “you must show up once a day everyday to make sure everything is running smoothly and encourage the employees”.
Now when you run an Escape Room with the prestige we had- (I’d made it number 5 to number 1 Escape Room in Atl thanks to previous managerial and design experience)- you also have little add-ons such as events. We did Birthday, personal, and Corporate events.
Now, with my position as Manager, I had to be there for EVERY EVENT. No exceptions. If it was a day off- not anymore, if I already had a shift that day-oh well it’s an event you HAVE TO BE THERE.
Well, after running myself ragged for 3 years, and a year and a half of that was as manager and the other year and a half as District Manager, Lead Designer, and Event Manager… I finally convinced the Owners to hire a second Manager!
I was so excited to get a work load off. I mean, Our Escape Room ran from 9:00am-to the last game that STARTS at 11:45pm. So, I was always there from 7:30am to 1:00-2:00am. I would open and close the Rooms, put away/fix/replace clues, and close/organize the office and send reports at the end of the night.
So, it was after we’d booked 150 kids from a school and ran 5 games for 3 rounds, and the kids had taken/broken clues. I had to write reports, clean up the event space, inventory, make sure the Team wrote up the Team Building reports for all 15 games with 12 kids per report and After All That-
I get a call from the Owners… they’ve booked a last minute Team Building Event with Coca Cola and Georgia Power on the same day! I had bagged both companies because they remembered me from my last Escape Room and I sold them on our services. They were my biggest ticket customers who always splurged on the total event package! I was tired but I was Excited! They always tipped me $100-$200 and we Never ask for tips so it was hush hush 🤫
That night, I went for my usual mentally clearing walking to destress and when I came back to the building… all 13 floors were dark and the doors didn’t require a fob… the electricity was out apparently. Which means the elevators aren’t working either.
Goodie.
I call a maintenance tech to fix it. Be there in 15 mins.
Cool.
There’s never any security at the desk past 5:00pm unless there’s an event so the entry way was empty.
I take the stairs in the dark.
Midway up the stairs I get a call from a friend who lives in the building- she wants to hang out and check on me and give me food.
Why would I say no?
So I get off on the floor she lives on and I’m walking down the hallway, she opens her door and her grin falls flat.
I say, “ what’s wrong?”, she says, “do you know the guy behind you?”.
I calmly say, “no”, she says, “he’s following you”.
I pick up my pace and I don’t look behind me- I’m no Hollywood damsel in distress and I have seen my fare share of violence.
I get to her door and as I turn to lock the door, I see him. He’s a hairy, shirtless, drugged out dude with no shoes on! As soon as I slide the chain and lock the door he starts banging and hollering on the door! I dang near got assaulted.
So, we call the cops, they’d already gotten 3 calls and were on the way. I’m also in charge of the event right? So I had the buildings keys that lock up all the alcohol and food in the kitchen as well as key and code access only doors.
Now, I’m receiving calls from the Owners to go to other people’s floors and let them in their rooms and check on certain areas and report them. After much urging and many threatening calls from them, I begrudgingly leave my friends room and go to other floors cautious not to run into the violent man.
Every floor I go onto, the cameras are broken, the kitchens are ransacked, and the contents of the storage closets are strewn about!
I pick my way through each mess and quietly sneak through each hallway and stairway.
I get a call from an Employee, a crazy man is breaking all our event stuff and spare clues in our storage closet. Darn Employee had left it open when it’s supposed to be locked at all times.
I give instructions to lock themselves in the office and extend the customers times in the games. I don’t want the crazy guy to attack anyone and I could care less about the props and inventory over someone’s safety. Solved.
I get another call, a maintenance tech has finally shown up (only took an hour and a half) to fix our perpetually breaking elevators.
Great.
I get call from the Owners about the problem at the Escape Room, I explain I already solved it and per their urging, explain in detail how I solved it.
Done.
I get a call from the front desk lady who works during the day- we don’t have night front desk or security- she informs me the police are downstairs and want to take my statement.
I go downstairs.
They’ve apprehended the crazy guy.
The police inform me that the guy entered the building intending to attack me and when he couldn’t get to me, he flew into a violent rage and had attacked others on his way back down the stairs. That’s how he got to the Escape Room, the doors weren’t locked to the stairs- they are supposed to be locked and checked Every night. Darn Employees.
Police leave.
I get a call from the Owners. It’s about those blasted Events. They want to know if I finished doing XYZ for the events tomorrow morning and evening.
I hadn’t because I’d nearly gotten attacked and the whole affair was a huge deal to me and I was exhausted.
I asked if I could come in extra early to finish the job and open up the rooms. They didn’t agree.
I had to go back to work and finish the event prep and then go to my room upstairs and TRY to sleep.
Morning comes with a sleepless night, I’m feeling like trash, tired and frazzled.
I manage to get through the event with Georgia power and get them to there final area where they’ll hold a meeting, eat food, and do power points, till they radio us with courtesy walkie-talkies to leave. They don’t leave till 5:00pm, it’s 1:00pm. My second manager shows up and takes one look at me and asks me if I want to take a break. I must look as trash as I feel. I take them up on their offer.
I go upstairs and crash. Hard.
I wake up at 8:00pm with 32 missed calls and 80 text messages.
It’s all about, “why wasn’t I there” -from the Owners and , “I need your help, how do I do/ fix this? Nvm I figured it out”, -from the Employees.
I go downstairs and check on them and they say everything is running fine.
I go back upstairs and call the Owners, they chew me out.
Why wasn’t I there, the second manager isn’t qualified to run events on their own, I had to always be there.
Overwhelmed and crying, I tell them I was just down there, and they are fine, and that I just want to sit this one out because I’m mentally and physically exhausted.
“You can take your break, and we’ll call you when to schedule you for your next shift”.
They never called me and I never called them.
They took my last paycheck, which was well over 100 hours with $18.00/hr rate I went to the front desk lady and asked about my final paycheck, and she said it went to rent. Rent is $745.00, so I knew they stole it. They evicted me and I lost my job.
I met my now Husband at my next job and life is good now, but there is a lot of things I wish I’d done differently.
TLDR: After working 3 years as Manager at an Escape Room, after working myself ragged and nearly being assaulted by a man after hours, I crashed and burned and got fired/quit with my last paycheck stolen by my Employers.