How many time zones are there in North America?
What was the world record for the number of steps climbed by a dog while balancing a glass of water on its snout?
What is the world’s largest breed of terrier?
If there is one thing that event staff dreads, its trivia. Not the actual accumulation of basically useless knowledge – that can be fun, but the actual running of Team Trivia challenge. It’s a universal thing, I’m pretty sure every cruise line does it, certainly not just ours. The basic concept of it is simple, guests get together in teams of 1 to 6, answer 15 general knowledge questions, and whichever team gets the most answers correct wins.
That’s how it’s supposed to work. In theory…
In truth, trivia is a blood sport. Its cut throat, and it’s vicious. No one is quite sure of the reasons behind this, it’s just how it is, and how it was, and likely how it always will be. Those of us who run it don our mental and emotional flack-jackets before we enter the room. We research the questions through two different filters, three if we can find the time, and we have back-up questions on hand to throw in at the last minute in case of an emergency. Lines get crossed, emotions get trod on, boundaries get crashed.
People become just plain cruel.
All for a game. A game that is worth nothing except silly prizes that they don’t even want.
I took a hard bash at trivia myself a few days ago, one bad enough that I had a meeting with the CD, EM and DJ afterwards to figure out how best to proceed. It was a simple and stupid thing really one of my answers was incorrect and I lacked a back-up source. Most guests take the occasional incorrect answer in stride, as we offer compensation prizes when we aren’t correct, however, there’s sometimes the one who snaps, who starts screaming, who forgets that under the mental armor and the uniform, you are in fact a person.
It’s easy to forget that. We know it is. Not just those of us who work here on these floating palaces – but every single person who works in the service/hospitality industry. We. Are. People. We have hearts, we have feelings, we have families that we go home to. We are not merely robots placed on this earth to cater to the whims of others. We are employees, not servants. Just because we are in the service industry does not make us someone’s servant.
Remember that please, next time you get angry at a clerk for not packing your bag fast enough, or for asking you a question twice by accident, remember it when you want to scream at your waiter because your food is cold.
There are no keys in our backs…we do not do this for fun…despite the fact that we often love what we do.
And honestly…in the end? It’s all a trivial pursuit…