Originally Posted By westsideCM99 Hi All, As a former CM from 98-02 and currently a seasonal "Mystery Guest" I was saddened to see that in 2008 many of my co-workers no longer work there and have probably moved on to bigger and brighter careers. I was even more saddened to see the massive decline in CM quality, this year more than any other year. Here are the top 10 incidents that I reported in 2008, enjoy!: 10. CMs caught ordering food in costume at an onstage food services venue. 09. CMs failing to give safety speils on attractions requiring safety spiels. 08. GC CMs physically manuvering guests against the guest's discretion. 07. 9-10 CMs observed not smiling while in direct communication with guests and not utilizing the 2 finger point but rather pointing with one finger. 06. Outdoor Vending CM was not properly trained on register, made a comment that his trainer was a jerk that left him alone all day. 05. Food Services, waitress vocalizing frustration and anger, in a language other than english, to co-workers onstage(Main Street) in regards to a mock-incident designed to test the time efficiency of the cooking staff. 04. CM in costume sat down halfway through a river attraction in a guest seating area and proceeded to send text messages on his personal phone. 03. CM inititated a ride stop and proceeded to loudly and harshly blame a guest, onstage, for their inability to load within the proper time constraint. 02. CM caught racing another CM up the exit stairs bumping into a guest on the way up resulting in the guest verbally disciplining one of the CMs. 01. My fav.. I tried to bypass the line for innoventions by telling the CM at the attraction's exit that I just stepped out to use the bathroom. The CM said "No" and when I asked why she said "It's just the way it is". I waited 10 minutes and came back but this time I put on my backpack and a cap. Remarkably the CM just stepped aside when I came back the second time, I didn't even need to explain myself. My point is that the things that CMs would have been ding-ed for in the past don't seem to apply anymore even though Disney issues out a guest service policy guide to Mystery Guests that states they are still in effect. "Theming" is totally non-existant now especially the fact that many CMs don't even seem to know the storylines of their attractions or even play along with the theming of their area. When I was a CM back in the day my phrase always used to be "What are we.. Knotts??". Let's just say that back then it was a joke, nowadays I'm not so sure. Ironically the best customer service comes from Security and Custodial.. because they are paid the highest hourly. Maybe Disney should re-evaluate the rate of pay that their 1-5 yr cast members receive.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones How do you know the cast members were not dinged? Also, paying leads poor wages leads to them not caring what the CMs under them do.
Originally Posted By Moon Waffle ^And an oppressive state and local government leads Disney to not be able to afford to pay their CM's what they would like.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Are you telling me that Disney WANTS to pay cast members more, but the State of California and the City of Anaheim is somehow causing them to not be able to? Please explain.
Originally Posted By Mr F You wanna know why CMs act like crap? Because Disney treats them like crap and pays them crap. If Disney really cared about having GOOD employees, they would treat them better, pay them better, and be more strict about who they higher, instead of just taking anyone off the street to work their. Lets face it, working for DISNEY is not what it use to be, and having DISNEY on your resume doesn't do jack when you are trying to find another job.
Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains If you don't like what they pay or the way you are treated why work there. Making excuses for bad employees is wrong.
Originally Posted By oneyepete I do believe it wouldn't matter what they got paid, they would still act poorly.
Originally Posted By SleepingBeauty82 The act poorly because they get away with it. It's like little kids. If you aren't serious about disciplining them when they misbehave, what's the incentive not to?
Originally Posted By submarine-maniac I do not understand why everyone says that CMs get treated poorly by Disney. Whenever I go into work, I feel very happy to be there. I look forward to working. And honestly I have never been treated better by a company I have worked for. I don't know if it's just a Photopass thing, but I feel we get treated very well. Also, I feel I get paid the right amount for the work I do. As it has been said before, most Disneyland jobs are not meant to become a career. By the way, I HATE it when CMs do not point with 2 fingers. Bugs me big time.
Originally Posted By ecdc I think Disneyland is a great microcosm of this phenomenon, but it's just that--a microcosm and hardly endemic to just that locale. All throughout the service industry, particular in retail, poor behavior and service is more the norm. I'm not quite sure who or what is to blame, and I suspect it's a complicated issue. It seems to boil down to two schools of thought: 1) People don't have any work ethic anymore and they don't take pride in what they do, or 2) Corporate greed demoralizes employees to the point where they work just hard enough to not get fired. I'll confess I'm more partial to the second school of thought. My grandfather worked on a dairy farm in Utah as a kid and never graduated from high school. He worked as a welder in a steel mill his whole life. He was far from rich, but he was the living epitome of the working class, blue collar employee. He was able to provide a modest home for his wife and three daughters. He was loyal to the company and they were loyal to him. I doubt if he ever took a sick day. He was able to retire and live on what he got from them and his social security, until he died a few years ago. In short, he had every reason to be proud of his work and to have a good work ethic. Today, his life is nothing more than a myth. Supporting a family on that blue collar income is simply impossible. People are frequently treated like statistics by companies. They are given no reason to be loyal and no reason to work extra hard. I simply reject the common arguments that if you work hard, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, all will be well in America. That was 40 years ago; it's not today. People seem to think that employees should suffer all manner of abuse from both customers and the company because they "volunteered" for it. Somewhere along the way, employees became one of the quickest and easiest ways to save money. Hire teenagers or immigrants who are willing to work for a lot less; lay off when necessary to continue to report a profit; blame low-level employee performance on poor company performance. On and on it goes. Ask yourself: what's more likely to cause you to have a bad vacation experience at DL - a CM who orders food from an onstage vendor in costume, or closed rides because management decided a different refurb schedule would be cheaper? A CM who doesn't smile at you when you get on POTC, or POTC going 101 because maintenance has been cut back by management to save money. A CM who points with just one finger, or stale parade and fireworks offerings because it's just too expensive to produce new ones? I'm as frustrated as anybody at the poor service I frequently receive. I happily pay more money to get better service. But do not make the mistake of ignoring the huge role corporate greed has played in shaping innumerable aspects of our current culture. Poor employee morale is only one of them.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "If you don't like what they pay or the way you are treated why work there." And many cast members are thinking just that. The average tenure for a Disneyland employee used to be years. Now it is months. Most cast members don't complain about it. They just quit.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Unfortunately those that quit include many who were formally dedicated employees but were beaten down over time and they determined that it wasn't worth it. The fact of the matter is that Disneyland is not a premier employer anymore, and people are starting to realize that.
Originally Posted By lesmisfan i love working there,although i work at california adventure. I always make sure to be a good cast member by being polite knowing what is going on in the resort, my story, and of course using the two finger point. I have noticed other cast members doing the above things and telling them not too but of course they don't understand show since this is like any other job to them.But there are plenty of us who love our jobs, come in everyday to make those magical memeories for guests and cast alike. and i have to say that i feel that my management and lead team are terrific! i swear they are the best i have worked with since i worked at disney world! they always give us both positive feedback as well as things that need improving, and that whole we are not knotts joke does still run true in our department. They also do wonderful things for deserving cast members like attraction walk throughs or mousecar moola, kinda like tokens you collect and can turn them in for gift cards. They always give us some sort of certificate of recoganition when a guest gives us a compliment. And i believe that i work with some of the best cast members around.
Originally Posted By dresswhites maybe i am just lucky, but when i visit the park, usually once a month, i have never had a bad cm experience. most of the cms are really friendly. i have been especially been impressed with the cms who work Matterhorn, Indy, Storybook, Subs, and pretty much everywhere.
Originally Posted By EmmaJayne When I was there in July, I was actually very shocked at how friendly, polite and willing to please the CM's were.. all except one very rude woman loading Peter Pan.. she was snappy and snarly and almost ruined the ride for me (and the lady with a baby in front of me) Otherwise CMs were fantastic.. went above and beyond what I expected on numerous occasions. Reading your list really disapoints me and I really hope that those incidents aren't becoming normal.
Originally Posted By Zwitek One of the other reasons for poor employee morale in the service industry is the absolute sense of entitlement that some customers display. Some customers are outright aggressive (I've seen it at Disneyland) and vent at the employee with the knowledge that the employee cannot respond in anything but a passive and appeasing manner. I swear, some of the behavior I've seen would warrant a rap on the beak in any other environment, yet people get away with it because they are only berating the "help." It sickens me, and as a long term service industry manager, I've seen plenty of excellent employees leave, not because the pay stinks (although it often does), but because of the outrageous behavior of a segment of the population. So, the next time you feel slighted, don't be silent, but try to remember that the person in front of you is not the CORPORATION, but a real person who is just trying to do the best they can, with what resources have been provided them. So be polite, get your message across clearly and without hyperbole, and you might just be amazed at how well you are in turn treated, and how the overall environment is plussed. Employee behavior can be managed even in a low wage environment, but only if the supervisors above them take a real interest in the development of their reports, and in them as people. If the managers treat the employees as just help, then the help will not likely care. I guess this is just management 101, but thought it might be pertinent.
Originally Posted By ecdc Zwitek, very well said. I remain constantly stunned at some of the things I observe or hear about from my employees on a daily basis. It's truly shocking (and a little disheartening, frankly) to see just how mean-spirited and cruel (forget rude - we're well beyond that) people can be to a fellow human being. If we're going to bemoan a lack of employee responsibility or work ethic, we cannot do so without also discussing the sheer lack of decency so many people seem to exhibit. They're a minority, to be sure, but one that stands out and can ruin, even devastate, an employee's day.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<and having DISNEY on your resume doesn't do jack when you are trying to find another job.>> Don't tell that to the College Program crowd (especially in WDW). They will insist that it opens more doors than an Ivy League diploma.
Originally Posted By dresswhites i can vouch for what zwitec is saying. i work for an airline at the ticket counter. people can be very rude and mean. i have been called stupid, slow, i have been accused of ruining people's christmas, thanksgiving, easter, birthdays, weddings, pretty much every event out there. i have co workers who have been called racist. one lady who was too late to check in, told my manager that she hoped his mother would die in a plane crash. another passenger who was also too late to check in, said she needed to get on the plane because her mother was sick and dying and if she didn't get on this plane, and her mother died, it would be on my supervisors head. i could write a whole book. the paying public can be very rude and mean.
Originally Posted By iamsally Whenever a topic like this comes up I am reminded of when my sister lived in SoCal in the late 60's. I asked her why she did not get a job at Disneyland and her answer was, "There is a 6 month waiting list." I believe the pay back then was substantially above minimum wage. (Some of you more knowledgeable may know what it was for sure.) I do know that I NEVER encountered a rude or even severe CM back then. When we took our son in 1997 he said, "It's just not natural for people to be so happy all of the time!" Most of my experiences have been wonderful. DH and I are the type who start up conversations with CM's and are proud to refer to some of them as friends. Still, in the past 7 years (the first was in 2001) we have been treated rudely when we were NOT being demanding. I have been ignored by CM's texting/talking. One thing I noticed that I don't remember seeing before is CM's *out of uniform* i.e.. half dressed walking through the tram and parking areas. I have been in tears because of treatment in the Parks. Not because I am all that sensitive but because it happened at Disneyland. Call me a Pollyana but it is my happy place. I love Disneyland and my personal opinion is that there are fewer old-timers and more teenagers who don't care about anything but the paycheck. When working was a privilege, people took more pride in keeping up the image. I have also had encounters with extremely rude guests at Disneyland (and just about every other public place.) I feel this is a reflection of society as a whole and it scares the life right out of me.
