Originally Posted By TheHoop As a child and even in my college days (first trip at 10 yrs old) I looked to the CM's as a major part of the Magic, afterall, they were team mates with Mickey and the gang. They in themselves were magical in their appropiately themed costumes. The male CM's seemed strong in Disney demeanor while the female CM's would hypnotize with their beauty and soft spoken words. However, I've noticed that in the last few years a lot of CM's (I won't say ALL) blatantly stand around and talk to each other, gripe about work issues (you can see it on their faces while they talk) and don't even seem to have the Walt Disney pride in their jobs and roles. Have the always been this way? I am just getting older and noticing these things? Or was I , am I naive? Weren't they once truly prideful in their roles and jobs?
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Probably a combination of both. I would guess that there have always been a percentage of disgruntled cast members. Yes, even back in the days when Walt Disney himself was in charge. That said, I would say that even in the late 70s, early 80s, Disneyland was a 'cool' place to work for college aged kids in the area. I remember the cast members being very smart, and good-looking too. Today, there are some cast members who are bright, on-the-ball, and good-looking, but not as many. The more you go to Disneyland, the more you start noticing the chinks in the armor.
Originally Posted By fkurucz I too recall that CM's in general used to take more pride in their work. Some will argue that its because Disney pays so little that they are getting the dregs of OC, while the more outgoing and talented people who might have filled those positions in the past can get much better paying jobs elsewhere (after all, it costs a lot to live in SoCal these days). Others will insist that a CM position can be filled by anyone (because they are "unskilled" jobs) and that the low pay is perfectly justified. They might also argue that if DLR were to pay better that the prices will go up dramatically. I think that it also might have to do with changing demographics in SoCal. You are free to draw you own conclusions.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I will say that, once again, on a recent trip to DLR, our expereince with cast members was entirely positive. Especially in Santa's Reindeer Round-Up area, all the cast members there went out of their way to be friendly, strike up conversations with kids working on their cookie decorating & crafts, etc. Though, they did have a couple of real turkeys. ; )
Originally Posted By Doobie In my 8 years of going to DL very regularly from 1995 to 2003 I don't think there was much change. I can remember in the very beginning being surprised that there was some CMs who did stand around and talk to each other and do other things which I knew they shouldn't be (I can vividly remember how annoyed I was when CMs would have loud conversations during Fantasmic). But it was always a small number and was always balanced by CMs who went the extra mile. Over the years things pretty much stayed the same. I can't speak for the glory days of the 70s and 80s, but I don't think much has changed since the mid-90s. Doobie.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Finding quality workers is a problem across all lines of business these days. Unemployment, as measured by the government, is at historic lows. Employees don't necessarily value their jobs because they can find the exact same job with equal pay down the street at any local shopping center or restaurant. Disneyland has to draw from the same talent pool. Turnover is at very high levels in the service industry, and there is very little premium paid to employees with lengthy service or seniority. We have also changed our business model in this country to a standard where employees are reprimanded less frequently and the goal is to promote a friendly work environment. Unfortunately, there is a significant segment of the population that is motivated through fear and negative incentives. Without fear of reprimand or firing for poor performance, some employees have little reason to put extra effort into their job if they see no benefit in that attitude. Besides, the local hamburger joint is hiring down the street at a higher wage, so why bother putting any effort into the job when you can job-hop indefinitely without any real negative impact?
Originally Posted By fkurucz >> I can't speak for the glory days of the 70s and 80s.<< Those are the times I was thinking of. Working at DL was cool and sought after by college kids. My college roommate got a job one summer bussing tables at the Tahitian Terrace and told me that the competition was fierce. No 500 dollar longevity bonuses were needed back then!
Originally Posted By juicer I was a seasonal CM in the early 80's - At that time there were many more people applying at Disneyland then there were available positions - Also back then the pay was at least a few dollars over the then minimum wage - which was very good pay for a lowly Plaza Pavilion bussboy could make anywhere else in the area - I even had to go through a physical evaluation at disneylands first aid! I do remember when working there hearing from other CM's about how some of the attraction, foods and tour guide positions only had costumes in certain smaller sizes so larger framed people could not work in those jobs - I feel that Disneyland is going through a weird transition - And like others have said its not the "cool" place for college students to work at - I do feel very stongly the pay at disneyland is way to low now - I know its a publicly traded company now and that the need to show profits (I even own stock at disney) - But in order to retain good employees you must pay somesort of a living wage - I am not talking about entry level CM's making $20hr - I am talking about paying the average hourly of what the area (OC)is paying ($10hr) - I know if I was again 18 - I am not sure if I would want to even work at Disneyland now - However...I love to visit!
Originally Posted By Doobie Does any service business have employees of the same caliber as in the 70s and 80s? I still find Disney park employees to be a cut above just about everything else. But I'd imagine employee quality is down across the board of service companies like Disney, isn't it? Doobie.
Originally Posted By WildHogs Service quality and attitudes have been declining for some time and it's not just Disney. A few examples from this past weekend at the park: I watched one CM reprimand, and not in a nice way, a guest who used the word "hell" instead of "heck". The situation was silly and her behavior completely out of line. The CMs at the Main Street train station running around the lobby screaming and laughing and creating quite a scene. Most unprofessional. The CM at the door to Pizza Port sending everybody through a single line regardless of what they wanted. Caused huge backups for no reason. A rude hostess at Ariel's telling us it was our fault for not making a reservation when we asked about seating (I thought priority seating was just that, not strict reservations). Ok, so at least be nice. CMs arguing between themselves at Pirates loading. Complete and utter confusion at every restaurant we used. To be sure, there were some great CMs this weekend as well, but the number of bad ones was disheartening. I'd say that in general CMs appear to be more indifferent, less professional, less able, more distracted, than ever before.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Ever go to Best Buy or Circuit City and stand in front of a $10,000 TV set and see how long it takes for someone to ask if you need help? I know these folks don't work on commission, so what do they care? But when you can stand in front of a big ticket item and no one in the store cares at all whether you make a purchase, it is just an indication of how some employees in the service industry have become. I don't see any difference between employees at Disney and any other retail location.
Originally Posted By TheHoop I really like how wildhogs put it. I saw the exact samething this weekend!! Loading at Pirates, the CM's were indeed arguing. (I'm afraid to ask at what time you were there, Wildhogs. 10 am Sunday for us) Outside of POTC, the outside Jack Sparrow character's assistant completely snapped at kid's parent for the kids excitingly running up to Jack, bypassing the line...the mother was on it in a timely manner...but she got a sharp tone from the CM. She even snapped back at him. I also think you nailed it to Wildhogs when you said that they seem more "distracted and confused" than ever. It seems they've created so much policy procedures that management only wants the CM's "thinking" to a certain point and they'll take care of it from there? QA maybe? So, why? I understand what richmond -post 6-is saying. Doobie -post 10- as well. but I tend lean toward juicers -9- and wildhogs -11- I believe if you drill it down...it comes to standards. The standards of acceptable behavior has been lowered. What used to be intolerable (CM's arguing in front of guests, for example) is now acceptable. The difference between this scenario and retail industry etc. is that Disney once had a high standard. For whatever reasons, management direction, the yearly numbers, the standards have dropped.
Originally Posted By knoxvelour Heck, that's nothing. Saturday night there was a CM on the mic at Space Mountain saying how a particular football team "sucks" Other than that, all the CMs I encountered were great!
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Standards are hard to enforce these days. I have a reputation in my line of work for being a "hard-liner" because I expect standards to be upheld. As a result, I get labeled as "grumpy" and sometimes "mean." At least once in every assignment I have worked in, I have been called in for a session with my boss where I am counseled on the virtues of being more positive in my leadership and less confrontational. It's always interesting when I move on to another assignment and the organization I was previously responsible for falls into disarray because the person who replaced me doesn't uphold the same standards. That's usually when I get the phone calls saying, "Gee, I wish you were back running this place!" That being said, it is very lonely and unrewarding to be the bad cop and standard bearer. In my experience, there aren't too many people out ther who really care to put themselves in that position. It's just not very pleasant having to constantly beat people over the head to do things that they already know they should be doing.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "Does any service business have employees of the same caliber as in the 70s and 80s? I still find Disney park employees to be a cut above just about everything else." Good point, and I agree that Disneyland's staff is generally heads above the competition. However, Disney is selling a premium experience at premium rates, therefore the cast members should be of the highest caliber - in both appearance and customer interaction. I tend to be fairly observant and I have noticed a decline in the overall quality of DLR's cast in the past ten years or so. On my most recent trip I noticed several instances where cast members seemed careless and disinterested in what they were doing. I'll never forget the trip a few years back when I saw a Main Street popcorn vendor wearing his uniform in an oversized "hip-hop" style. I was speechless.
Originally Posted By TheHoop richmond I think your absoluteley correct and Hans hit exaclty where I think this one is going. We could tell stories all night I'm sure but the bottom lines; theres two, are: 1-it is sad to see the Magic, in this manner that we are discussing, disemenating. 2-we are paying for it at the door or in our passes, etc. I wonder what could be done-if anything?
Originally Posted By mrichmondj The most recent DL president was making inroads into enforcing standards to a greater extent. Just from some previous discussion on these and other boards, I got the sense that he was not very popular among cast members and the turnover rate accelerated amongst the cast members who didn't want to be reminded so often about what the DL standards were. It just demonstrates how difficult it is to retain employees in this environment, and how hard it is to get employees to respond to direction. I do think that pay incentives could help the situation, but I wouldn't apply them across the board. There should be targeted bonuses for those that are identified as upholding the standards above and beyond their peers and recognition of cast members who are consistently "on their game." I'm not sure how DL does this now, but those are some small tokens that I have used to get performance from some segments of an employee base.
Originally Posted By hopemax > At least once in every assignment I have worked in, I have been called in for a session with my boss where I am counseled on the virtues of being more positive in my leadership and less confrontational. < My Mom works at WDW, and she's changing areas because of this. She is tired of asking the other CMs to go help a guest, stock a shelf, process photos. The CM's turn around and turn her in for not being a team player. She gets to the meetings, and is told that she is doing nothing wrong, she's the type of employee they want, yadda yadda yadda. She's stayed there almost two years watching all the other great CMs get frustrated and leave for the same reason, but enough is finally enough for her. They are also supposed to do reviews of their managers, and when of the newer CMs (who has a good work ethic) was asking my Mom about what was the point, she asked him to take note of how many times he saw a manager in their area over a week? He was like, "oh, my <insert your own word>." So a lot of the CM's feel, if their bosses are always chatting amongst themselves and make themselves unavailable, why the heck should they do anything. But these are not things that are obvious to the guests. They only see the handful of CM's running around, doing a good job. They don't see the other group of CM's behind the "CM only" doors, and they don't know that after being the "best CM ever" for 15 minutes, they take the rest of the hour as a siesta. However, I think that all things are cyclical. There is so much inefficency, lost productivity, high turnover and the costs associated with hiring new people, that someday businesses will have to do something about it. 25 years from now we might be talking about how Costco's model of employee compensation is the only way to run a business...okay, maybe 50 years after the second great depression.
Originally Posted By pecos bill In my opinion, the Disney company is directly resposible for the current state of it's employees. A company of this caliber has certainly got the formula for optimum employee behavior, and it is doubtless based on money. Somewhere along the line, the accounting wizards have decided that low employee wages are what is best for the bottom line. Management is fully aware of the employee situation and has decided that the numbers warrant it, and there is no Walt to walk through the park firing surly and rude employees on the spot. The buck stops with upper management.
