I work for all of the major league sports teams in my city. Four of them (plus two minor league teams) are owned by one company, the other team is a different company.
Last night was a special event night at my current company (the other team is a summer sport). Food and Beverage, ushers, ticket staff and even some of our third party event staff got these absolutely gorgeous t-shirts to wear instead of their usual uniforms.
I work in security, so we can’t alter our uniform in any way, shape or form. So understandably, we wouldn’t be able to wear these shirts on shift.
HOWEVER, (and yes, I know I’m talking about two separate companies) Event Security, the department I work in, was not gifted these t-shirts (and they really are nice). With the other league, whenever there was a special event and staff were given t-shirts, the security department also got the shirts. We just couldn’t wear them on shift. I have at least 6 shirts just from the summer.
Our supervisors said they are “fighting for us” to also get the shirts the rest of the facility staff got, but history shows that’s just words. They also said it’s because we aren’t fan facing. . We are THE FIRST people the fans see. We run the mags and the bag checks. We’re on the event level helping the teams, refs and other staff. We respond to emergency calls before EMS. We protect the fan experience by ejecting unruly, overly intoxicated fans per league mandates. We patrol every level of the stadium and arenas to ensure everything is 10-4. But we’re somehow not fan facing?
We have a Workplace (like Facebook – and owned by Meta/Facebook) and there were at least five threads last night complaining that this company that states “inclusivity” as a core value, excludes an entire department.
Not going to quit over a t-shirt, but if my 3rd job winds up giving better hours, and when the summer season starts, I may consider it. No one in our department feels valued by management. It’s a running theme.