Ariana Hernandez

Jonathan Radocay

UWP 1

11/22/17

Memorial Union Games Area Discourse Community

Introduction:

Part time jobs are often associated with a lazy young adult helping you at a cash register. In the
city of Davis the community is packed with college age students working at restaurants, clothing
stores, ice cream shops, and pretty much any place with a register. At the University of
California, Davis the campus employees hundreds of students in a variety of areas. Students can
assist educational departments, work at the student store, or at one of the three dining commons.
My focus will be on the students who work at the Memorial Union Games Area (MUGA). The
Memorial Union is at a central location of campus where many students come to socialize, grab
some food at the nearby Coffee House, and study. MUGA is in the basement of the Memorial
Union. MUGA contains bowling, billiards, and console gaming. The MUGA reopened in April
of 2017, but hired all the employees in March 2017. There were originally about 20 students
working at the games area, but now about 40 students work at the MUGA. This community of
students qualifies as a discourse community because they share goals and communicate
effectively to obtain these goals. This group may be forced to see each other at work, but has
evolved to see each other outside of work.

Creation of the Discourse Community

All workplaces are a discourse community; they have the shared goals that their work requires
and have a special lingo associated with the work. At the MUGA the goal of the workplace is to
present an acceptable environment for students and community members to enjoy the facilities.
Lingo includes referencing the bowling machinery and the gaming consoles. This discourse
community was created when everyone was hired and began working. The MUGA employees
began working before the MUGA was open. They helped to clean up the area, set up the
consoles, organize the bowling shoes, etc. This is when lingo and communication began between
the employees. One of the employees, Emily Mixer, decided to create a private Facebook page
designed for only the employees. The description states the page is for quick communications,
switching shifts, general organization, and smack talking. This page has a very colloquial feel
and is not very serious. It was made by one of the employees and did not include the supervisor.
This was the beginning of a more informal discourse community amongst the employees.

A Snapchat group chat and a Facebook messenger group chat were created after this Facebook
page for even more access to communication. The Snapchat group chat is sometimes used for
communication for work, but usually is used to send snapchats of coworkers on shift doing
something silly, such as dancing, singing, or using one of the snapchat filters.

What Makes This Work Community Different from Others?

This work community is different from others because of the relaxed environment. There is only
one supervisor, Ferguson Mitchell, who interacts daily with the employees. He follows the rules
and get things done, but maintains a friendly relationships with the employees. He has even been
seen naruto running near the bowling lanes per his employees request. This relaxed
environmental allows friendships to grow freely and outside work relationships to form.
Employees of the MUGA are seen going to the marketplace or the Coffee House to get a snack
together. Through my observations employees come randomly to the MUGA to visit coworkers
or just hang out at the bowling alley. All MUGA employees get the activities provided for free.
According to Kayla Hayes, an original hire, the MUGA employees usually get together in groups
of 2-3 to get food together and organize this through text. After shifts coworkers go out to get
food or go to each others homes to continue socializing. On shift the MUGA employees play
card games, gossip, and listen to music together while the MUGA is not busy.

What Makes an MUGA employee a MUGA employee?

There are three types of MUGA employees: a lead, a CSR, and a mechanic.

A leads job is to be the supervisor on shift if Ferguson is not there. They have to handle statistics
of the bowling alley, set up reservations, and help the CSRs when possible. Currently there are
six leads. Leads were added to the roster two months ago. 5 were promoted for the CSR position,
while one was a new hire.

A CSR is categorized into a Float and a Register. A float has to give out shoes, set up game
consoles, and assist the register. A register simply mans the register and interacts directly with
the customers.

A mechanic fixes the bowling machines when they break down. These machines break down
frequently because they are the original machines from the 1960s. Mechanics were recently hired
as a request from the CSRs who were tired of trying to fix machines they were not properly
trained to fix.

The MUGA employees use specific jargon so that the games area can run smoothly. For console
gaming the register may tell the float to setup Call of Duty on Xbox for station two. This means
that the CSR has to go through the drawer which contains all of their games find Call of Duty for
the Xbox and set the game up for the customer on the left most television on the wall closest to
the register. The float may also tell the mechanic that there is a 180 jam on lane 9. This means
that the rake (bar that sweeps the pins after every ball is thrown) will not reset so the mechanic
has to manually do it.

Original Hires vs. Second Wave Hires

The original hires have a sort of attitude of almost superiority to the second wave hires. The
original hires were hired before the MUGA had even opened so they know the ins and outs
pretty well. The original hires use to work without mechanics and some nights had 9 of the 12
lanes broken down. They speak to them in a sort of back in my day way. But for the most part
the original hires integrate the second wave hires into this discourse community. One original
hire, Samantha Soleta, was seen talking to a new hire, Yuliett Gonzalez, telling her that they
needed to go out clubbing sometime. These second wave hires are more timid, simply because
they are coming into a tight knit community. Most have been added to the various group chats,
but still not all of them have been added.

http://goldenmemorybook.ucdavis.edu/#/about