Job Lot: The Movie Usher

By AIDAN RASMUSSEN

Emma Turnbull is a 22-year-old movie usher who works at the Rialto in Newmarket. The Mt Eden resident earns $9 an hour and has been employed at the cinema for 18 months.

What sort of qualities does a movie usher need?

You need to be able to communicate extremely well, which means you have to have good people skills and customer-service skills because you are dealing with such a diverse range of people. You need to be able to get on with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and you need to be able to do this all the time. This sometimes requires a lot of patience, especially when you're dealing with people who aren't happy with something and come up to you to complain.

How do you deal with unhappy customers?

Generally we try and stay as calm as we can and listen to what they have to say and be as patient as we can. It's not easy but we can't exactly tell a customer where to go, can we?

What if this doesn't work?

If we can't calm them down, we'll go and get the manager and let them deal with it.

What sort of complaints do you get?

The big thing at the moment is student IDs. The Student Union at Auckland University went voluntary half-way through 99, and what has happened is that if they haven't joined AUSA, we don't know if they've enrolled this year because they only get issued cards once every three years, even though their card is valid at the university. So we can't tell if they are students or not. So they get very upset. We give them stickers that let us know if they have enrolled this year. Once they show us that they have enrolled this year, they can use it for the rest of the year.

What are a movie usher's duties?

We get trained in all the areas of the job. First, everyone starts off on the floor, where you stand at the front of the entrance to the theatre and welcome people to the movie, tear up tickets and show people to their seats. Then from there you move to the front desk and the candy shop where customers buy their tickets. You make ice creams and all that sort of stuff.

What sort of people does the job attract?

Just ordinary people. People who love movies and like people, I guess. A lot of students tend to be attracted to this kind of work as well.

Why?

Because the hours are flexible.

Why did you become an usher?

For the same reasons, I think. I was studying full-time and needed a part-time job, so I decided to check out this job. Now I'm a full-time usher and I study part-time from home. I do a little study in the morning, then turn up to work about 10:30 am and work a full day, through to 5 or 5.30 pm. I also love watching movies.

Do you enjoy your job?

I do, I do. It's fun, a bit of variety and we get regular customers in. I absolutely love watching the films. I get to know the customers and they get to know you and sometimes you can pick which kind of movie they've come to see.

Are you sick of watching movies yet?

No, not really, because you don't always get to watch movies while you work, especially if you're out the front at the ticket office. Because that's where I am now I don't get to see as many movies as I used to. So, yeah, I still love watching movies.

Have you ever caught anyone getting up to any funny business in the theatres?

I haven't, no. I've found a couple of people asleep in the cinemas after the movies finished, but that's about it.