Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>Honestly though, (and yes, I realize this is not your point) who would want to work at "Mickey-D's" when they could be working at Disneyland? A lot of people. Don't get me wrong, I like my job at Disneyland, but there is an awful lot to put up with there that fast food employees don't have to. The standards there are much lower and so, therefore, is the stress.
Originally Posted By everyyearofmylife ^^True, and I totally acknowledge the fact that CM's at Disneyland have to work their butts off, but if you worked at McDonald's instead of Disneyland you'd smell like burgers instead of...well...Disneyland! I'm sure you're asked this a lot PirateJohn, but is the same thing true for working at Disneyland as at McDonald's? If people who work at McDonald's end up hating hamburgers (or fries or chicken nuggets or whatever), do CM's end up disliking, or at least losing their love for, Disneyland?
Originally Posted By cstephens PirateJohn wrote: > Don't get me wrong, I like my job at Disneyland, but there is an awful lot to put up with there that fast food employees don't have to. The standards there are much lower and so, therefore, is the stress. But there are also rewards that you get as an employee at Disneyland that you don't get as an employee at Mickey D's. It really is a matter of making your choice. I don't understand the people who say that they're not making enough money at Disneyland. Ummm, ok, so go work somewhere else. I don't think it's a case where they offer you one wage, hire you and then change the wage and then force you to keep working there. In the industry that I work in, my company doesn't pay as much for some jobs as do competing companies in the same industry for those same jobs. That's because we don't have to. There are some companies where you have to pay a premium because that's the only way you're going to get them to work there because the conditions are so bad. There are people who come to work at the company I'm at for less money than they'd get elsewhere because of our reputation and the atmosphere. So comparing just the salary you might get at Disneyland vs. Mickey D's doesn't really work. At least for me, it's not just about the money. /cs
Originally Posted By Tiggirl <<Maybe, if we take the time to apologize for being misunderstood or thank them for just being there or even help them with a stroller or two when it's 94 degrees out>> You know, I've run into CM's where nothing I do changes their attitude. When I went to Disneyland for New Years Eve I must have wished at least 6 CM's happy New Year and genuinely thanked them for working on such a big night... and I didn't get one acknowledgement save one eye roll. The other day I was meeting my Aunt who was visiting from out of town so I was going to meet her at Disneyland. I went up to the Entrance CM and gave him my pass and said "Hi!", he said nothing in return and scanned my AP. I thanked him and told him to have a good day and he slapped my pass down and looked away. I *know* what its like to work with the public. I've done customer service for years, worked at Disneyland and even worked for 3 years at an airline complaint department... I always make sure I am courteous to CM's because I know how hard it is to be in their shoes but its pretty sad to go out of your way to be nice to someone only to have is shot back in your face. ( I have to say I do think that pay has a lot to do with it... but in the sense that there are probably a lot of people who would love to work at Disney for the sake of the whole experience and who really get what the whole thing is about... but they can't afford to. I know I couldn't. Just my thoughts. ) ~Beth
Originally Posted By pecos bill Thats just it Beth, the castmembers are only going through the motions, and some are downright surly. Only a select few are really putting on a show, and I would venture to guess that they are probably derided somewhat by other castmembers as being geeks. It just seems to me that there are a lot of cm's walking around with chips on their shoulders, and Joe guest is assumed to be an idiot before any words have even been exchanged.
Originally Posted By MomofPrincess I liked this: >> So my conclusion is this: CM's need to turn their emotions down and park goers need to turn their empathy up.<< That is so true. I mean, as simplistic as it might sound, if more people would refer back to The Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have others do unto you") this world would run a lot more smoothly. This society has gotten really selfish, bottom line. That's what a lot of our problems boil down to: selfishness. I know we have tried to lighten the mood of employees, too, when we see them looking tense. My husband and I both have pretty good senses of humor,so we try to combine a little laughter with a little compassion to help them feel not so alone or stressed out. 9 times out of 10, it works wonders!
Originally Posted By MomofPrincess BTW, not trying to downplay the original poster's complaint. Rudeness is rudeness, plain and simple. In that case, I can't see any way of really making it better (from the park-goer's standpoint)...
Originally Posted By MomofPrincess Tiggirl - Just read your post. It's a shame when you try to make someone's day nicer and it's not appreciated. At least you can rest easy at the end of the day, though, knowing YOU had a good attitude and treated people with respect -- right?
Originally Posted By Tiggirl MomofPrincess, I can certainly feel good that I did my best to make their day better... but I'd feel even better if they tried to do the same for me. ;o) <<It just seems to me that there are a lot of cm's walking around with chips on their shoulders, and Joe guest is assumed to be an idiot before any words have even been exchanged.>> I agree with this. Certainly this isn't ever CM's attitude but I have worked with people at Disney who have this attitude. Granted I haven't worked at Disney since May but my friend who is a current CM told me that he often sees trainers with poor attitudes and it rubs off on the CM's. I've been told he's seen trainers act in ways towards guests that have kind of shocked him. ~Beth
Originally Posted By danyoung >We've gone down this road before, about wages... it doesn't fly...< Wages are absolutely a factor in the size of the job pool that you'll have to draw from. If you can start at $7 an hour working for Disney, or $10 an hour flipping burgers, which employer is going to have more people looking for work? So In-n-Out gets to choose from a larger pool, leaving the other (lower class?) workers to work in DL. Of course some folks will choose DL anyway, and have a great time. But until they raise their pay to be competitive within the SoCal market, they're going to continue to have these problems with personnel. And when all you have to work with is the bottom of the labor pool, all the training in the world isn't going to class some folks up!
Originally Posted By HRM >>a select few [CMs] are really putting on a show, and I would venture to guess that they are probably derided somewhat by other castmembers as being geeks.<< I found this to be an interesting excerpt... I wonder, are certain CMs *derided* or made fun of because of a Disneyland Service mentality?
Originally Posted By Actress56 no. they are not. there are those people that are very gung ho about working at disney, but there are aps that are the same way. yes some are looked upon as different, but not chastized. Again, every cast member knows what is expected of them when they hire in. but you will always come across someone, no matter where you are at, that is there just to get a job. and there are others there because they enjoy it. i agree with what someone else said, you have decided to spend the money to visit DL. that was your choice. it is also your choice to complain or give a compliment. again, it is a big deal for someone to formally write a complaint, but an even bigger deal for someone to formally write a compliment. ps. kinda dont want to say where i work to see if i would get smarties without you knowing who i am.
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>>But there are also rewards that you get as an employee at Disneyland that you don't get as an employee at Mickey D's. It really is a matter of making your choice. Well, for someone like you or me -- and you know me well -- I completely agree. However, there are an awful lot of CMs for whom Disney is merely a job. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but this is the sort of person for whom a fast food job may appear more lucrative. As far as amount of pay goes, I see the problem this way -- if Disney decides not to pay much, then much more potential CMs are going to make their choice... to go elsewhere. And the net result is not only that we're short-staffed, but the quality of new hires leaves much to be desired, since the bar must be set much lower just to meet anything close to hiring quotas. When I hired in in 1996, I felt like I had gone through battle during the interview process. I had been analyzed and scrutinized over a month-long interview process and when I was finally hired, I really felt like I had accomplished something. It not only made me feel good about myself, but made me very confident in the quality of my fellow CMs. When I rehired in 2004, I filled out an application at 3pm and had a job by 5pm. I was far less confident. Not that there aren't many, many great CMs who work at the park now, but there are quite a lot of people who have been hired during my tenure who had no business wearing a Disney nametag.
Originally Posted By goofy4041 Remember the old saying smile and the world smiles with you... That is a good way to look at life and work.. we all deal with things different but the most important thing is you work in a place where its your job to be in a good mood or at least act like it and treat people with respect. I do however feel for you who are CM and have to deal with rude people and for that i thank you for your hard work. and that the million dollar word work (job) And for those CM that dont care i think you need to find another job IMO
Originally Posted By monorailblue Here's to what PirateJohn wrote. I hired in in 1994, 1997 and 1998. The difference was night and day. In 1994, it took 2 1/2 months after I applied to get that magical call from Casting offering me a job. Then, it was another 1 1/2 months before training began. And this to be a dishwasher! Back then, Disney literally turned people down by the dozen every day. By 1998, I actually not only was re-hired in a day, I began re-working the same day. (As an explainer, however, I still had current Attractions knowledge, and it was the end of August--meaning massive overtime in Attractions as CTs left for school.) But how could they go from super-coveted-workplace to can't-hire-fast-enough in just 4 years? And, in that same time, the requirement that a CM be able to speak conversational English was dropped, Disney Look guidelines were eased up (maximum earring size for females, for example, went from dime to quarter), the interview process was streamlined (1st interview was on the telephone), and training was cut down for most areas. How could this be? Simple: Disney quickly stopped being an above-average payor and an above-average employer. What was once a place that compensated the industry's best for the best possible job became a place that skated by with the thinnest possible veneer of good service backed up by low expectations. There was a day when Disneyland demanded superior work--and to get a job there was in many ways a great privilege. But when you decide that integral parts of the Show don't matter any more (for example, FasTrak for Costumes, allowing fundamental Show elements to go anywhere), when Efficiency ($$$) is vaulted way ahead of anything else (ahead of Safety: Columbia, Space, Thunder; ahead of Show: FasTrak, simplified (i.e., ugly) Costumes, Parade of the Stars, DCA; ahead of Courtesy: Pirates movie premiere, demise of package pick-up); when Empowerment is embraced (i.e., NO ONE is responsible for anything)), well, you get just what Disneyland is today, from an employer/employee perspective---just another place to clock in and clock out. It isn't a team effort to produce the greatest theme park experience on earth---it is just a job, like working at the DMV or the In-n-Out or the Kia dealership are just jobs. And it's really too bad, because so many of the Cast and Guests today have no idea what they are not experiencing, and don't care!
Originally Posted By dresswhites i have to say i worked at Disneyland for 3 summers and i have worked many other customer service jobs. i now work for an airline at the airport. I have to say dealing withe the public is one hardest jobs there is. It is very hard to keep your calm composure throughout a day. Most days at the airport I am fine. But there are truly days I either want to throw my hands up and quit or strangle the passenger in front of me. Disneyland and the airline business are very similar, because you are dealing with large amounts of people from all over and many of them are very demanding. on a given day, i am yelled at least once or twice by a passenger. most if not all the time i am yelled out about things that are completely out of my control i.e weather, them arriving too late to check in, policies that i have to enforce. Some people are downright nasty. it very difficult, it doesn't matter if you are the best customer service person in the world. Everyone has thier breaking point, when facade slips. Yes it would be nice to think, that a customer service rep or cm can completely turn off their emotions, but it just doesn't happen that way. i have encounted some less than stelluar cms at Disneyland, but the majority that i have dealt with are fine or above average. i really do not notice a decline in cms. As to the indy cm, it really seems inplausible that the castmember made that remark. I think somethimes guests, customers, patrons, passengers, take things the wrong way. Many people including me have recieved letters of complaint and in these letters the passengers describe these scenes that did not occur. One passenger wrote that one of my supervisors was belittling her. i was next to him when he was dealing with her and he kept his cool, explained the policy, and in no way was belittling her. But the passenger saw it this way. I not saying the Indy incident did not occur, but i just don't see it.
Originally Posted By Actress56 But when you decide that integral parts of the Show don't matter any more (for example, FasTrak for Costumes, allowing fundamental Show elements to go anywhere), when Efficiency ($$$) is vaulted way ahead of anything else (ahead of Safety: Columbia, Space, Thunder; ahead of Show: FasTrak, simplified (i.e., ugly) Costumes, Parade of the Stars, DCA; ahead of Courtesy: Pirates movie premiere, demise of package pick-up); when Empowerment is embraced (i.e., NO ONE is responsible for anything)), well, you get just what Disneyland is today, from an employer/employee perspective---just another place to clock in and clock out. It isn't a team effort to produce the greatest theme park experience on earth---it is just a job, like working at the DMV or the In-n-Out or the Kia dealership are just jobs. First of all, Disneyland is first and foremost a buisness. So of course they are going to look for ways to earn more money. And i agree that show standards have slipped. but one of the main things about Disney look is that it needs to be inforced. Daily I see, mainly ODV, cast members walk by me and i can't help but think that if I were that person's lead, I would send them home. And Disney still has one of the most rigid look guidelines out there. So relax. And as for your DCA comment, it is the #1 park in the world when it comes to growth in attendence year-to-year. Yes, a big part of it is that it opened during a month where it just down poured, but people are realizing that DCA has a lot to offer, and one of those things is less crowded and a lot of cast members have less of an attitude (at least cm to cm). And why is it a big deal that you can take your costumes home? now i know that i will definitly have my pant size.
Originally Posted By monorailblue Thank you, Beth. <<And why is it a big deal that you can take your costumes home? now i know that i will definitly have my pant size.>> Thus my comment that "so many of the Cast and Guests today have no idea what they are not experiencing, and don't care!" When you enter the Haunted Mansion, you are greeted by a Butler or a Maid, not some guy or some lady in a uniform who lives in a shabby apartment in Fullerton. A large part of Show integrity is making the fantasy of Disneyland into reality for Guests. That is severely undermined by sending CMs out into the world arrayed in their Disney finest. And, besides, FasTrak & vaulted Efficiency have been the demise of vast amounts of Disneyland Costume detail---another key ingredient in the Show mix. Do you remember when Thunder CMs wore brown, clunky boots? Do you remember when Fantasyland stores hostesses wore costumes with a minimum of eight pieces? Do you remember a time before the Tomorrowland area costume? Many (though not all) Costumes have suffered greatly because of the FasTrak/simplify-it-to-save-money mentality. This isn't universally true---Tower and Hyperion costumes are very nice, for example---but is true for enough costumes to be the source of consternation for those who *do* remember. I cannot fault Disney for being a business; it is a very successful one. I can fault the company for moving decisively away from so many of the standards that actually made the company successful in the first place. The 1990s saw an unparalleled rush to abandon many of the tried-and-true ways of operating that made Disneyland the world leader in theme parks for 40+ years. Disney parks still reign supreme, obviously, but, as they say, the old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be.
Originally Posted By monorailblue And, by the by, in my over-the-course-of-more-than-six-years at Disneyland (all withOUT FasTrak), I never once could not get my size in pants, except perhaps once for Fantasmic! Guest Control. Costuming was run as a very tight ship and did a great job. Additionally, I never waited more than perhaps 10 minutes on the very odd day for my costume until the new building (with all new fabulous sytems!) opened. Then, it was a nightmare. Oh, well---who cares anyway? As long as we have FastPass to spare us having to actually wait for something we want, I guess the world is dandy.
