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Dorney park will rehire special needs worker after outcry


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According to the story I saw, they made him participate in a group exercise with four other applicants without receiving an accommodation required by his special needs. Predictably, he failed to participate effectively, so someone decided based on that failure that he was not a good fit for employment.

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According to the story I saw, they made him participate in a group exercise with four other applicants without receiving an accommodation required by his special needs. Predictably, he failed to participate effectively, so someone decided based on that failure that he was not a good fit for employment.

 

If that's the case then the park could be trying to cover their behinds and avoid a lawsuit. Either way, someone clearly wasn't thinking here.

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Yet if they didn't follow the reasonable accommodations required the ADA.... Not a lawyer just work with a lot of special needs families and help point them in the right direction.

Plus what sort of upsets me is the fact they made the special needs person clean bathrooms. Obviously they didn't want him interacting with people like a ticket taker or even a sweeper.....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Back to the original story, why on earth is he still being subjected to a rehire interview after 12 years of employment? And an employee who's worked there that long is suddenly not a good fit now?

Diaclaimer - in no way is this stated with park hiring knowledge or any perspective for this situation; just my personal experience hiring in an unrelated field for general hiring.

Every company is different in rehiring procedures. I've only rehired one person. Even though he was a great employee and I personally knew him and what he had been up to while he was gone (grad school and lots of volunteering), I had to interview him again per HR. When I worked seasonally during OU breaks, they had to redo the background checks every time as I had been gone too long. We have a few seasonal jobs here that my team will do in addition to their normal job, and the hiring supervisors always come over and asks - any reason not to hire them? They too have to go through the application process. If someone from another area applies for my job, I have to do the full interview process as I would an external candidate.

While it seemed a bit excessive, in my situations I understood it as HR wanting to have the most current information that the hires were appropriate. Sometimes people get burned out and is reflected in their work the last season. Or there were disciplinary issues that led them to not be eligible for rehire. Maybe their skills that make them great in another area aren't the skills needed in a different position.

But every company is different for rehiring. This is different from the federal laws of things that can and can't happen/be asked during interviews, what can and can't be considered, and accommodations that have to be made if needed.

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Back to the original story, why on earth is he still being subjected to a rehire interview after 12 years of employment? And an employee who's worked there that long is suddenly not a good fit now?

We all go though the rehire interviews every year at the parks.

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This is a PR nightmare, the park immediately offered him a job, but only to enrage more people. Because most people believe the park is only reaching out to rehire Chris is to cover their own tails, and to clear up the negative attention it brought unto the park.. ( Which my gut feeling tells me that's the case. ) It's a pretty sad situation for someone like Chris who seemed to really enjoy to work at the park, after 12 years be treated this way..

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I am not close enough to the situation to know the intent of the park or interviewer, but would like to give everyone involved the benefit of doubt.  I am hopeful the park will correct any errors in the hiring process going forward.  Also that Christopher and park management can find a path to forgiveness and amends for both sides.  Hoping to hear he does come back to the park this summer, doing the job he apparently loved for several years.

 

On the subject of special needs workers (not sure of the special needs in this case) . . all I can say is the joy and enthusiasm I have witnessed from some special needs workers at our local Kroger, makes my day better.  I love interacting with them and I go out of my way to be in their checkout line.

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