In 2022, I visited Energylandia exactly 33 times, and to this we have to add a few more trips in 2021. There were weeks when I had fun in the park in Zator even twice a week, but there were also 2-3 week breaks. My goal was to thoroughly get to know the entire park, each attraction and complete them all in different ways. I managed to achieve my goal, and at the same time I gained a lot of experience and knowledge about the largest amusement park in Poland.
For this reason, I decided to create a series of posts titled „I spent a month in Energylandia„. Part one covers my experiences with people, whom we can meet while having fun in Energylandia. This time I am looking at the work of people we can meet at attractions, gaming arcades, catering points, at ticket offices, or even ordinary toilets. I invite you to read.

Part 2 – „Employees” – „I spent a month in Energylandia”
What would a well-functioning amusement park be without employees? And Energylandia employs nearly 2,000 of them in the high season, and has around 350 permanent employees. From parking attendants, cashiers, security guards, cooks, cleaners, mechanics, gardeners, electricians, artists, lifeguards and operators and servicemen of attractions. They all have an important task: satisfy all visitors, so good that they left Energylandia with a banana on their face. Is that really the case?
The average age is probably 20+
At Energylandia most of the employees we meet are seasonal workers. Employed during the holidays to operate attractions, catering outlets, shops and games. A year later, most of them are gone, because either the job was not to their liking, or they were looking for easy money during their studies. For this reason, to a large extent, among the employees you can find people who have just entered adulthood. Working at Energylandia in the above positions cannot be considered a permanent career, because the park is not open all year round, and outside the holidays many shops, small catering outlets, the swimming pool area and water attractions are simply closed and such a large staff is not needed.
However, there are many positions that can probably count on year-round employment. Among them, you can find office workers, mechanics, electricians, and chief operators.

Responsibility and trust?
Operators and employees at attractions are burdened with a lot of responsibility responsibility. After all, they are ultimately responsible for getting us hooked up and getting the fun started. For deciding whether a given person meets limits and whether larger people are adequately protected. My — guests — we must not only trust the device, mechanics, maintenance technicians or the manufacturer, but above all also to the employees of the attractions.

The low average age of operators often does not help in this respect. I have heard opinions from guests who simply said that „I don’t trust little brats, is it fastened properly?„. Of course, we must bear in mind that employees undergo appropriate training, and at the beginning of their careers they work under the supervision of more experienced colleagues. When they are responsible for the correct protection of passengers and the activation of the device, in the event of irregularities resulting from their mistakes, they will be held accountable before the justice system.

For this reason too let’s not argue with the staff if they think that we or our children cannot use a specific attraction. I have met several guests who argued with the operator thatthey take their child on a rollercoaster at their own risk, That missing 1 cm it’s not a problem etc. Fortunately, the staff eventually asked the quarrelsome parents with their child to leave. And very rightly so! Arguing that if something happens to a child, it doesn’t matter, that it’s the parent’s responsibility. The operator will go to jail for endangering the health and life of a person who did not meet the requirements of the attraction.
Thanks to this attitude of the attraction employees, I have great trust in them and I have no reason not to have that trust.

Artists and rescuers
It is not without reason that I lump artists and lifeguards together. The former make our time more pleasant during animations, perform in theaters, or scare us in houses of fear in the fall. They lead the parades to close the park and, dressed as mascots, they give high fives to children. Energuś, Leoś and Bartuś wear thick clothes that are probably not the most comfortable. On hot days, the high temperature certainly bothers them under the cover of their mascot costumes. However, you can always see that they show great patience and nice interaction with the kids.

I have the impression that a large proportion of theatre performances involving artists, acrobats and illusionists are arranged according to a similar pattern. What I miss is greater variety and, at the same time, less repetition of the same elements. On the other hand, non-acrobatic performances are designed exclusively for small children. Those who are a bit older, as well as adults may get bored after a few minutes. Two words are also due to the artists in the haunted houses. Their involvement in each of the houses is almost identical. I miss more variety in the ways of interacting with guests. If these elements could be refined, it would be perfect.

We can meet rescuers mainly in swimming pool areas, but also on the Jungle Adventure, Atlantis, Toffifee Gold Mine and Anaconda attractions. They keep an eye on the guests sitting, among other things, in the pontoons. If an unruly guest decides to stand up or change seats during the rafting, he will definitely be punished the sound of a loud whistle. Let’s not deceive the rescuers and let’s not stand up in places where we think we can’t be seen. Those employees patiently watch each trip for several hours, sometimes on hot days just to ensure our safety in water fun.

I love parking attendants…
There are two groups of employees at Energylandia for whom I have the greatest sympathy and appreciation. I think many people do not notice them and do not appreciate their work. The first of these groups are parking lot. Especially in the summer, they bustle around the parking lot and do everything to pack cars in the parking lot as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible. We can meet them even at the roundabout near McDonald’s, and then at the entrance to the parking lot and every few dozen meters. This group of people leads us almost by the hand to the nearest available parking space. Finally, helping to properly position the car.

It is no different when leaving the park in Zator. When there is a lot of traffic, employees make it easier to get to the exit gates, and others help with scanning parking tickets. The employees wish us all the best as we say goodbye and say „See you„. There are some funny people who make the time more pleasant for themselves and the guests, for example by shooting at us with a barcode reader.
…and the cleaners
The second group are employees responsible for maintaining order in the park, toilets and other places in Energylandia. In this group you can meet a large representation of ladies from Ukraine, but most of them are very helpful. Whenever I enter the toilet and see the cleaning lady, I always bow to her and in return I receive the same. It is probably nice for them and shows that we notice their contribution to the comfort of fun in Energylandia.

Sitting in the restaurant areas or simply on a bench, observe the team responsible for keeping order. It is easy to see that the cleaners are not only responsible for the cleanliness of the toilets and collecting the smallest rubbish from the sidewalks, but even after light rainfall they wipe dry benches and garbage cans.

Attention! Segway is coming!
In Energylandia we can meet employees who we like a little less. Personally I am disturbed by employees moving between different points of the park on electric Segway vehicles. From what I know, these are managers and supervisors of employees working in catering, shops and attractions. Sometimes they accelerate their vehicles to really high speeds and they slalom past guests and running children.The least safe place is the tunnel connecting the old part of the park with the Dragon Castle. Luckily, I have never witnessed a guest or, worse, a child being hit, but I think they should move slower or roads and a tunnel dedicated just to employees should be built.

Bad tempers happen too
Everyone has their better and worse days. At Energylandia I have to admit that most of the employees really do try to always smile at us and show culture. However there are picky employees who „Good morning„they don’t answer anything, or their facial expression discourages you from shopping in the store or riding on an attraction.
I usually attribute this to long working hours, noise, heat, or a rigorous work system. Despite everything, I also visit Energylandia during periods of low guest density. Even then, you can meet girls with a sulk on their face.
Can you make it faster, please?
I have a lot of reservations about the employees of some catering establishments. During the holidays, there can be really long lines to place a meal order. This results in waiting for food up to several dozen minutes. However, in spring, autumn or winter there are no queues for gastronomy. Yes, there are fewer employees, but thanks to the fact that there is no crowd in front of the window, you can calmly observe the work of people in gastronomic points. Unfortunately, several times I happened to observe a great deal of delay in accepting and preparing the order.

One time I was waiting for an order to be placed in a long queue only for 4 people. I ordered a bucket of chicken parts. People before me placed similar orders. There were 2 people working at the counter at the moment. Unfortunately, it took a mere 30 minutes to serve these 4 people, plus about 15 minutes to deliver my order. I am even more surprised that the chicken I ordered was ready and waiting on the feeders.
The long time of accepting orders was, in my opinion, due to, among other things, slowness, but the language barrier had a big impact on this. Both ladies came from Ukraine and their knowledge of Polish was average. For this reason, when the client was not patient, placing an order was complicated because the ladies did not understand every word he said. Thanks to standing in line and listening, I knew to speak to the ladies slowly, clearly, and in the simplest of words.

„Hated” holes
You can find many opinions from Energylandia employees on the Internet. Unfortunately, many of these opinions are unfavorable to the park. They complain about long working hours in the summer, problems with getting vacation and high rigor. I paid the most attention to a punishment system consisting in receiving a „hole” for which an amount of PLN 100 is deducted from the salary. You can get a so-called hole for many things: for looking at your phone, for not hiding during a break, for sitting while working, and, during the pandemic, for not covering your nose.
Many employees dissatisfied with their work at Energylandia mention the holes. They even recall such absurd situations, such as eating meals on the floor during a break, a penalty for having a phone in your pocket, or even a penalty for an employee going to the toilet during her period.
If all the above opinions are true and these people do not exaggerate the conditions of employment at Energylandia, then I am not surprised that employees sometimes sit in a sulk or do not rush to serve meals.
Employee — thank you!
If it weren’t for the hundreds of employees working at Energylandia, the park wouldn’t exist. Their commitment and contribution to the park’s service make us – the guests – feel so good and have fun there. We are safe on attractions, we have clean sidewalks, toilets and benches, and we can eat relatively good meals in restaurants. If you work at Energylandia, I’m telling you from this place the usual „Thank you!„. It’s thanks to you that I enjoy spending time in the park in Zator so much. I especially greet the operator from the Air Show attraction, who has a great approach to children and even exchanges kind words with parents.
