Pros
Being part of the entertainment side of the park can be fun on good days. Some coworkers are supportive and make the environment more bearable and I’ve met amazing people along the way.
Cons
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has some of the worst working conditions I have ever experienced, especially within entertainment management. The pay is extremely low for the physical, emotional, and time demands placed on employees. We were constantly understaffed, overworked, pressured to perform at unrealistic levels, and made to feel replaceable at all times. As a female employee, I personally experienced inappropriate behavior, grooming, and harassment from a direct manager. I was not the only one — multiple female coworkers experienced similar treatment. There was a clear abuse of power, and boundaries were consistently crossed by management. There was also a culture where managers and higher-ups openly pursued or engaged in relationships with subordinates, creating an unsafe and unprofessional environment. HR was made aware of multiple issues and did nothing meaningful to protect employees. Reports were minimized, ignored, or buried. Retaliation was always a fear, and many employees stayed silent because they needed the job or felt nothing would change. The emotional toll of working here was immense. The constant pressure, lack of support, poor pay, favoritism, and unsafe culture made this an extremely damaging workplace, especially for young women.