Originally Posted By DVC_dad I found this posted on a web site and instead of giving the link, (there are hundreds of letters there) I thought I would just cut and paste it here. I like what this kid has to say. But here is the link if you really want to see it for yourself. <a href="http://www.newint.org/easier-english/RReactions/lettersglobal.html" target="_blank">http://www.newint.org/easier-e nglish/RReactions/lettersglobal.html</a> Disney is a good employer My name is Jason Knox and I worked at Walt Disney World for 4 and a half months at the Transportation & Ticket Center in parking lots. I loved my job and I plan on going back and getting a full-time position with Walt Disney World when I graduate from college in about nine months. I felt the need to e-mail you and tell you my opinions on the employment situation at Walt Disney World because I think some of the opinions of this Mr.Cohen were not accurate and were full of unhappiness. First off , the opinions of the so-called placement of certain minorities and groups was so far from accuracy that it isn't even funny. In my department we had older adults, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and someone of Indian descent who were all in positions of high guest interaction and were never placed in a certain area because of one of these unchangeable features that was claimed by the unnamed cast member. I also had two very good friends I met while I was down there; one of Asian descent(from the country of Laos to be exact) and one who was African-American, who were both in the "Tapestry of Nations" parade at Epcot and it dosen't get much more interactive with guests than that. By the way, Roman(the African-American friend) is going to be moving to characters in Epcot soon. This isn't the only minorities and the like in positions of high guest interaction, not by a longshot, this is just a short list of ones that I know personally. Thanks for listening to my side of the coin and I hope I changed at least one person's mind. Sincerely, Jason Knox a.k.a. "The Tram Man" Jason Knox a.k.a. "The Tram Man" (USA) <<i>please see the above link</i>>
Originally Posted By Podhollow While I understand that it is fruestrating when you have multiple people giving you different instructions, please consider the following before you make trouble for disneyland employees, and possibly cost them their job. 1A.) While you may not consider this the "summer" season, Disneyland IS operating under summer hours and park capacity has increased greatly due to spring breaks and the weather improving, so there is a LOT of stress that employees are under. 1B.) They deal with people cutting lines, jumping ropes, switching cars, etc., and to an employee who sees these things on a daily basis (even by young children and adults alike), they may have seen the wrong moment and thought that was what your son was doing, so they probably told him to return to the car for his own safety. 2.) Let me offer this metaphor: If there is a car crash and you have 5 whitnesses, you are going to get many different versions of what happened, none of which will match perfectly. Maybe to these two cast members, the first one saw a car that had stopped and needed to move forward to allow for the rest of the cars to move forward also. And maybe the second cast member saw someone exiting the car before they had moved their car forward. Or perhaps one saw a safety violation about to happen while another saw a runaway child. Who knows. The point is, you just don't know WHY they were telling him to get back into the car. I would bet my paycheck to say that it was more than likely for his own safety and not because the cast member had a personal problem with your son and wanted to ruin your day at Disneyland. That would be childish. Trust that the employees have your safety as their primary concern and that it came from good intentions. 3.) Everyone makes mistakes, and while it sounds like these cast members probably could have handled the situation better and been nicer about it, there just isn't always a textbook telling you how to handle every situation that comes up. (Sidenote: Men tend to be more blunt than women who are a little more sensitive to stuff like this). Being a former cast member (not for Dland but another disney owned event), I know that when dealing with MASSIVE amounts of people in an environment that is loud and hard to control where everything is spinning (or driving) around you, it is very hard to concentrate on every detail of a situation. It sounds like these were two cast members who were caught up in what was going on around them who got their messages crossed. It happens. So instead of causing a lot of trouble for these cast members who believe me, WORK THEIR BUMS OFF dealing with thousands of people every day, know that odds are that it won't happen again. It's in the past, and like you said, your son was able to go on it again, and I'm sure a nice guy like you let him drive the whole way. So why linger on an issue that's in the past? For every fruestrating situation you encounter at disneyland, there are 1000 good ones! And I'm sure dealing with crowded streets after parades or fireworks is worse, but you can't really write anyone up for that. hehe, always the devil's advocate! ~Podhollow
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<please consider the following before you make trouble for disneyland employees, and possibly cost them their job.>> I have worked in retail all my life, so let me also play devil's advocate and say that without customer feedback, a company can't know if they are doing good work or not. That is why all top companies employ secret shoppers, so that management can see where they are doing well... and where they are doing poorly. Customers have a right to praise AND complain about service received. After all, without the customer, there is no company to employ that worker.
Originally Posted By juicer I came back to DL as a CM in 1994 and was assigned to Autopia - When there were two - One in Fantasyland and one in Tommarowland - Back then it seemed that there was a general sence of pride of the job - It was hot, noisy, smelly and crazy all at the same time - When in training (like all disney attractions) it was stressed upon us on how safety was hallmark - That at anytime someone (either a guest or CM) could get hurt if we were'nt completly aware of what was going on all around us - It was a tight ship - But we still had fun too - Like when we were at the turnstiles and doing the welcome spiel - we were allowed to joke a little - just as long as we got proper info out - When Autopia was remodled I made a special trip to DL to see how it was - I was very impressed on how the attraction looked - - - But...I did notice that there was a noticable absence of a management overseeing the attraction - Mind you,I could of just been on an off day - Like the CM's really did'nt have the control of the attraction - It was one of hardest job I've ever had and I am really impressed with the CM's who want to keep the "old disney style of service" alive on autopia with a mostly "I don't really care" kind of staff - If I ever did apply to work at DL (which I can't - the pay is so low) I would request Critter Country/New Orleans Sq attractions again -
Originally Posted By SIR at X-S Tech The letter should be sent- not to get the employee in trouble, but so that Disney is aware of the situation. The current lack of enough employees and the type of working conditions need to be resolved and the more letters they get, the more they will be motivated to do something. The particular employee involved will most likely not lose his job, but perhaps better employees will be hired. This guy will probably just move on.
Originally Posted By berol Yelling in anger, from what I've seen, gets the yeller an immediate break and back they come a little later. I'd write the letter, figuring that the managers are capable of taking the best course of action for the situation.
Originally Posted By SleepingBeauty82 Im with the group who are for writing a letter to management. If nobody ever complained about anything, nothing would ever change. I've read this whole post now and I think the bottom lines are 1) Under uncomfortable circumstances, everyone is going to have a bad day at thier jobs and are likely to snap when yelled at BUT 2) this particular CM had no right to. And 3) Dad needs to formally complain if/when this happens again because that is the only way managers who arent there are going to know how their employees are acting when they are not around.
Originally Posted By bean Mr. Snappy, i would like to urge you to write a letter of complain to the Disneyland resort. Preferably in writing and mailed. At the same time it would not hurt to use the disneyland resort website and also e-mail the complain in. Please give detail information including the day and approximate time as well as the Cm's name that ignored your request to see a lead. I asure you that Mangement in the Disneyland resort or any Disney resort do not tolerate the behavior that was mentioned. It is not a matter of wages, the castmember is paid to do a job and he has the choice to leave if he does not want to abide by his contract. We espceially do not tolerate the abusive behavior towards a child even if it is the simple action of raising their voice. The only way that problems like this can be resolved and taken care of is if our guest take action.
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>but some in this thread have pointed out that they feel money would make a difference in attitude No, what is being said is that higher wages will attract higher quality CMs. If you're offering rock bottom salaries, then you're not going to have much to choose from during the hiring process. When I first hired in back in 1996, I went through an interview process that took more than a month. My final interview was over an hour long and I was asked a lot of difficult questions. By the time I was hired, I felt like I had accomplished something, and had a lot of confidence in my fellow cast, knowing they went through the same arduous process. This time around, in 2004, I showed up to the building at 3pm and had a job offer by 5pm. There is no way they could have known what kind of cast member I was going to be in that brief period of time. But they're desperate for people. And I've had the misfortune of having to wrok with people who had absolutely no business wearing a Disney nametag. No, more money would not make a difference in attitude, but higher pay and better working conditions would have a tremendous impact on the ability of the casting center to weed out the people who have no idea what guest service means and, frankly, couldn't give a hoot.
Originally Posted By englishboy I actually find myself agreeing with the above poster: I think you should send a letter describing the problem--but NOT identifying the individual employee--thereby notifying Disneyland about the problem but not causing trouble for any particular employee. I think Disney needs to know that members of the public are frustrated with the new low standards for CMs. Hopefully this will help Disneyland understand it needs to pay its CMs a higher wage and better benefits, insuring a higher quality of guest service.
Originally Posted By SIR at X-S Tech Why not identify the CM?!! You don't have to ask for his head on a plate, but for gosh sake if the situation is bad enough to complain about, why not give them the tools to decide the best way to deal with it? Believe me, with the situation at the Park the way it is, this guys gonna have to do a lot more than what he did, to get fired. But what's this notion of protecting him from consequences that he's earned?
Originally Posted By Imagineer This >>I'm not the bashing type, but I thought I would give you all a taste of how the current class of CM's aren't exactly "world class"<< Not all CM's are bad. Some are very helpful and considerate of Disneyland's "Guests". You just happened to run into the no class CM jerks that give Disney a bad name! They should have been reported and fired. (
Originally Posted By berol "But what's this notion of protecting him from consequences that he's earned?" For a park-wide employee quality problem as englishboy was saying, you wouldn't have to identify the particular employee. Although, I don't think that that was the goal this time, so the name would be helpful.
Originally Posted By SIR at X-S Tech I understand what your saying Berol, in fact I suggested the letter would be indicative of the bigger problem too, but I also don't see the sense in saying "I had a problem with this CM, but I don't want there to be any consequences for him, just take care of the bigger problem". Guests should report specific instances, and leave it to Disney to see the patterns and trends. You can't go to City Hall and say that overall you had a great time, with only one problem CM, and then say they have a huge problem with many CM's.
Originally Posted By Imagineer This I don't care who the cm is. They don't have the right to take out their anger or frustration on any guest much less a 7 year old kid.
Originally Posted By Imagineer This Stop making excuses for bad cm's that don't really want to work at Disney, don't care about the guests and don't really want to be there. They don't belong. Seek out the really good cm's and thank them for a job well done. )
Originally Posted By Imagineer This If you can't handle the stress then don't work at a theme park. Don't blame all the guests for what the rude ones do. We don't think all cm's are bad because there are a few rotten ones.
Originally Posted By Mr Snappy Sorry I have not kept up, Like I said a few posts ago, I have been traveling for business....need to make more money to go back to DL This weekend, I will be crafting the letter to DLR Management and Bob Iger. I have a nice picture of my boys to include in the mailing. Just a couple of reminders on my original post. 1. I know all CM's are not bad, our experience was mostly positive, especially the CM's on the attractions. 2. Please don't lecture me about "pressure" we all have it in one form or another and that is never an excuse to treat another person, ESPECIALLY a child, with disrespect or anger. 3. This was not during "summer peak", actually, this week was the slowest since early winter and we did not wait longer than 15 minutes for any attraction. 4. I would not post this unless the CM's were WAY, WAY OUT OF LINE. Everyone has a bad day, this was not that, this was incompetence and disprespect. As a side note, here is a troubling outcome of the vacation. When my family or friends ask my 7-year old what his favorite part of the trip was, he says "going to the beach"
Originally Posted By trekkeruss It's entirely possible that going to the beach *was* his favorite part of the vacation, even disregarding the Autopia incident.
