The Gift of understanding differences....

Even though we took over the Cinema in Næstved in June, the first time I realized to what extent my companies had changed was when I was in a music store just before Christmas buying 85 gift certificates for the employees. To be fair I ended up using only 83 but it made me wonder who these 83 people are and what it is that we, in common create every day?

There is a span of 50 years between the youngest and the oldest member of the staff in the three cinemas, but most are between 16 to 35 years of age. There is also a difference in personalities and qualifications according to which cinema they work in. The ones working in Émpire are very different from the ones working in Bio Næstved, which again are different from the ones working in Reprisen.

I like that people are different, that they think differently and that they behave in different ways, because I consider diversity a gift and it is my hope that I can pass this joy of diversity and enthusiasm for working in a cinema and serving an audience, on to everybody who works in my cinemas.

The employees in Empire Bio are innovators and many of them are bound to go on to do great things. They are first and foremost students (media and communication seems to be the preferred subject) but many of them are trying to make their way in life at alternative routes, becoming musicians, artists or striving for a career in the movie industry.
To work in Empire you have to be “trendy & cool”, a movie-buff, hyperactive but also stable.

The ones working in Bio Næstved are more “ordinary”, but in a way I feel closer to them even though they are the ones I have known the shortest time. I think it´s because the mixture of personalities is like the one I “grew” up with. Students or people that at one point wanted to make some extra money, got fascinated by the pulse of a cinema and never left and last but not least, the ones that actually make a living from working in a cinema and who will, like me, stay there for the rest of their working life. To work in Næstved you have to be friendly, efficient and stable.

The ones working in Reprisen are somewhere in between. But they have one major “extra” qualification; they can handle very smart and very resourceful customers in a respectful but firm way. They might “only” sell tickets or be projectionists, but they can argue and state their cases like professors or company CEO´s. To work in Reprisen you have to have integrity, be brilliant, calm and stable.

There is no doubt that the staff in these different Cinemas mirror their audiences, which I think is one of the great advantages of working in a smaller company because there is room for everyone to be individual and its is possible for me to understand and use the differences when addressing both the staff and the guests.

Writing this I recognise that I have actually succeeded in collecting a group of people with different resources, different skills and different personalities; together they create a unified whole but still retain their individuality. This goes for the administrative staff as well. Realizing this makes me feel both humble and grateful.

It also made me realize that this is one of the advantages of “growing”. We are now a group, not just one “enthusiastic individual” doing all the “right things” but unable to create long-term continuity. We got it all, creativity and continuity – and besides that – we have much more fun working as a group, because we always have someone to laugh with.




A working Empire-woman :-)