Age of marshalls?

[Tigger The Bouncing Assassin]

I sit here typing this in a fairly distressed mood, after having just been 'sacked' (fired) from my job as marshall at the rentail site in England. I have been marshalling there for the 11 months. I am 16, but look older. I was told the reason for my 'dissmissal' was that the site only wanted to empoly older marshalls (20/30 years old) as they thought it was easier for older marshalls to cope with 'agressive' players. Now, i ask you this. do you think this is unfair? I am a fair marshall, and in 11 months of marshalling paintball i have only had 2 incidents from stupid ****wits. I loved my job, and as it was cash in hand, i cannot calm unfair dissmissal. They have still offered to let me play paintball at reduced price, paying cost price for paint. I feel really pissed off at the moment.

question: Would you obay a marshalls decision what ever his age, given that he/she had more paintball experiance than you?

cheers,
one pissed off ex-marshall.
eddie

 

[MidgetFista]

Originally posted by Tigger The Bouncing Assassin
I <snip>
question: Would you obay a marshalls decision what ever his age, given that he/she had more paintball experiance than you?
<snip>

Personally, yes. I would obey a command from any marshall. They are there to enforce the rules, and maintain safety for other people on the site.

BUT. there are ALOT of people out they that believe anyone younger then them is wrong, no matter what situation (work, etc). This is part of life, and i'm afriad you've got to accept it.

If there was an aggresive player (that shouldn't happen, but does), do you really thing you could stand up to them? I'm 20, marshall, and i don't like it when people start getting arsey, but its part of working on a rental site. There is always people out to cause bullsh1t.

Bottom line is, if your a prick, you don't like been barked at by a 16 year old.

-Midge

 

[MidgetFista]

Also, i'm not too sure you'll still be allowed those "trade" rates for paint, since you've just named and shamed the site on a forum used by alot of the serious ballers in the UK.

I'd edit it out if i was you.


-Midge

 

[Tigger The Bouncing Assassin]

true

yeah, i'm just not thinking straight. To come out of and hour and a-halfs exam only to find you've lost your job would do that to anyone. what realy annoys me is that it was totaly out of the blue, with no warning at all. I loved my job, and i'm not upset about the money, its just that i loved working in paintball, and now i'm, well, unemployed!

 

[Liz]

I would always obey the marshall no matter what their age, provided they appear competent. It would be quite hard for me to complain about marshalls younger than me as I'm definitely in what you could call the "older generation" of players. You might as well say don't have female marshalls as many guys won't respect them in a "macho" sport. I think the worst problem I had with players acting disrespectfully was a 12 year old boy - I was a fair bit older than his mother!

If I were you, I'd have a look around for another local(ish) site & see if they can use another marshall. There are plenty in the London area so you should find somewhere decent, though it may take a while to get to work there regularly.

 

[GoatBoy]

As harsh as it may sound I think how you look can account for a lot when it comes to aggressive arse hole rec ball punters (and indeed aggressive arse hole tourney ballers ) and I can understand a site manager being concerned that a younger looking marshall may get into difficulties with a team of twats, who might try it on.

Having said that, the site that I marshall at has some very new and very young looking marshals, but we always make sure they are on a team of three ( two team marshals and a Games Manager ) and the other two are more experienced/older. This ensures that if a player kicks off at the younger marshal, he's got back up; particulalry as most of the Games managers are 25+ and have years of marshalling experience.

What I'm trying to say is, it's sounds to me like your site might have a valid concern with your age, but there are other ways round this than simply giving you the boot.

Try another site mate, there must be another local site and in my experience most sites are desperate for as many marshals on their books as poss.

NB - if this site every calls you cos they're short handed and want you to help out, tell em where to stick it... with bells on!!

 

[Tigger The Bouncing Assassin]

thats what i thought, theres about 4 guys my age, with another 4 20/30 year olds. we're never on a field without one or two of the older guys at least! i think he just wanted to get rid of me for some reason unknown to me (read:money). well, now i can play more without worrying about being asked to marshall! still at cost price! wow, i never knew i was an optomist! its just the shock of having everything seem fine and then just have your job taken away from you is a bit of a downer. on the other hand, no more early mornings carrying boxes of paint through the mud, gassing up guns, no more exploding 20 ounce bottles (yes, they have no scales for the bottles ) no more getting shot at without having a sh*t load of paint to fire back them. i got a beutiful girl, i'm young, lifes good. **** their marshalling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Billteamdirt]

As long as the management are willing to suport you there should be no problems connected with age...the refs are there to do a job and as long as they do the job competently being 14 or 45 makes no differance.....if a player gets snippy and doesn't listen to the ref then the ref just tells a manager, and the problem is taken care of....generally with the offending player sitting out a game or two or leaving of course.
ANd our refs knowing that they have support are more confident to make the calls anyway which generally keeps those problems from happening in the first place

you do not want to work for a field that would rather drop you than support you anyway man.....

 

[Tigger The Bouncing Assassin]

well said my man!

its good to hear support from fellow 'ballers, especialy in this time of stress. (losing my job a week before GCSE's is not going to help the results........)

thanks guys, keep it coming!

eddie

 

[Robin Hood]

Glad to see you've chirped up a bit by now!
I can totally understand your situation as I too am a 16 year old marshall (in the Midlands though). I have to say, there has only been 1 experience so far where I've needed the backup of fellow marshalls because of a rowdy customer who just wouldn't listen.

We usually have two marshalls 16 - 18 and always at least 2 people maybe 24 - 40, so the support is always there should we need it. I've found that most people who have never played before do have respect for us though, as they realise how dangerous paintball can be (especially after the safety briefing we give them), they all just want to have a great time - they can get pissy though especially when a newbie tries to do a bunkering move and gets a bit too trigger happy, or the gun breaks down. We try our best though and I don't believe that a 30 year old could do a better job than me in any aspect of it except for that of resolving any conflicts etc.

It was pretty unfair, but your site was probably in a sense just looking out for their own backsides too - I mentioned how some respect us because of the ferocity of the paintballs, but people can also feel insecure with only teenagers running the operation. If they don't know you, you can't blame them. That's probably part of your sites reasoning.

Anyways - you'll get it sorted, and good luck on you're GCSE's mate (just think the impact of paintballs and their velocity etc. when sitting down for the Physics exam!! )