Originally Posted By vbdad55 -em I really appreciate your insiders view on it--- as I can only look at it from my experiences pointof view- which mean little compared tosomeone living it. So you feel if they cut the staff by 10%-20% and put arising pay scale in , turnover would lessen and the quality of the workers/skills would offset the loss of shear numbers. ( did I synopsize you correctly as I don't want to put words in your mouth ? ) I hope someone is looking into that type of change then. I was concerned that lowering workforce could also have an effect on ability to get time off, and lower # of workers in areas ( thinking rodes/ crowd control here )which could also be morale issues - but it you think these are non issues I absolutely defer to you as you would also have insight into how CM's think I do not.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I agree with em that the sheer cost of hiring and training people at Disney is unbelievably high with turn over being what it is. I trained someone awhile back. 3 days of training, one day of assessment, he worked one day and never came back. Why? Got a better job offer down the road for more money. Disney asks alot of its CM's. Long hours on busy days at a sometimes tedious job (stand at Peter Pan's flight for a couple of hours saying "Watch your step"), late nights, early mornings, holidays, huge crowds, angry guests for a starting salary of around $7.50 an hour. The local McDonalds pays $8.50 an hour with less hassle. If a CM felt cared for and saw that their hard work was rewarded with a merit raise, I think you'd find people would stay for the long haul. I think many people come to work for Disney because they believe in the magic. Unfortunately many of them get a jolt into reality fairly quickly. I also think management needs to get on the ball. I was standing somewhere recently and two manager walked thru and didnt even say hello to any of the CM's they passed. That unfortunately is the norm.
Originally Posted By hopemax Like -em, I could tell you all sorts of "management" stories I get from my Mom. But she hasn't been sharing too many of them recently. But it's basically the same stuff as -em. In my Mom's area they don't know what they are for. All they seem to know how to do is when the computer system spits out the wrong assignments (a person not getting a break, breaks back to back, the manager can fix it). Most of my Mom's day is spent doing the things that others wouldn't do because they spend all their shift chatting. Oh, here's a story. One day it started raining. My Mom works in the Splash area, when it rains the ride shuts down, so no photos to sell. There were 4 people at the photo cash registers, the 3 people at the photo pickup area, and one person at the front of the shop, where the other merchandise is sold. A line started forming at the front of the shop for ponchos. Got to be almost 20 people. Ponchos can be sold from any register, not just the single one. Did any of the other 7 CM's go to the line and say, "I can help you over here?" Nope. My Mom came through the area, and was flabbergasted. So she said something to one of the CM's about selling from another register. Then my Mom got in trouble because it wasn't her job to tell the CMs to help the guests, and the union steward gets really upset when people do something that is someone else's job. The same thing happens with learning how to work in the area. When new CM's ask for help, because they didn't learn something in the training, the other CM's won't answer the question because they are not Trainers. And the union backs them up.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 There is an attraction that always has extra shifts open. A friend, looking to work more, asked a manager about being trained there. The response was: there is a form that you fill out in the office, then we look at it and you are put on a list to be trained. The list is updated often and you are listed by full time, part time, seasonal then by seniority. We work our way thru that list based on that criteria. My friend said "Ok, how long will it take me to get trained there after I do the paperwork?" 3 to 6 months. Maybe longer.
Originally Posted By hopemax I forgot to mention about the lack of proper training, my Mom says they lose a lot of people because of it. You might get a good person coming through, but because they want to do a good job and don't get any help to actually do a good job, they feel overwhelmed and quit. And another short management story. Earlier this year, they had a survey for the CM's to fill out to rate their managers. One of the CM's asked my Mom, what the point was. She said, "Kept track over the next week on how often you see a manager." The CM came back after a week and was like 'Oh, my gosh, never!" My Mom told him, "That's why we have to fill out the surveys." Not that it does any good.
Originally Posted By leobloom There are some good managers, but from my experience, they were few and far between. Some genuinely liked talking to CMs, a lot were corporate phonies, and the worst were downright lazy and incompetent. There was nothing quite like working the boat ride at the Land (back when the spiel was live), having a 90-minute line, doing 8 boat trips in a row because of the way rotation was set up. CMs who came back from break and were so unfortunate as to log in and start a new rotation would automatically have at least 2 straight hours of spieling on the boats (more than 2 hours if the rotations were late, as they often were). Hard to give a damn after you've said the same thing for 2 straight hours with no variation and little chance for guest interaction. Do you think management cared enough to alter the set-up of rotations, even after CMs begged and pleaded? Management refused to change it because it was the brainchild of one of our area managers (thus making it infallible by default). And the best part? Managers were, in theory, supposed to be able to do the boat spiel. Know how many times I saw a manager jump into rotation and do a boat trip? Maybe once or twice on July 4 or New Years. To say there was a disconnect between management and front-line CMs is a laughable understatement. I would have liked to have stayed with the company (at that time I only had a Bachelors degree from a well-respected university). But they showed no interest in putting me to good use there in Epcot or anywhere else on property. After six months, I'd had enough, and I dropped from FT to Casual (and then only came back for one spell in December). I think I've read somewhere that the vast majority of front-line CMs leave within a year of their employeement. I wouldn't doubt it. Unless you want to go to the parks on your days off (and after six months working there that was the last thing I wanted to do), there's nothing to keep people working at WDW. Which is sad. It ensures the quality of CMs will only get worse.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 We had a manager come thru one day and offered to help by grouping...a position we pick up during busy times. We went around doing what we are supposed to be doing and come out and the manager had moved the line 10 feet from one place to another. I said...I thought you were going to group? He said...I moved the line from there to here. I said...Thats not grouping. When you group you have to...then explained the job. He looked at me and said...Really?. Hmmmmmm.
Originally Posted By carribean queen I hate to say this but everything you're speaking of happens in almost every company. Unfortunately we try to hold Disney to a higher standard. But, saddly its no different than every other industry.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 Do companies hire more employees so that the employees have less hours, therefore are considered part-time, and the company doesn't have to provide benefits? Insurance, OT, holiday pay etc.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 Disney has three types of Cast Members. There are fulltime, part time and seasonal. Full time work 30-40 hours a week, part time have to have 2 days availability a week but Disney does not have to work you and seasonal are used during busy times such as holidays and summer. At one time someone had the bright idea that the company could save a lot of money by hiring mostly part time CM's. This way they didnt need to get paid benefits and you had more flexibility in scheduling. Several things happened. People hired for 2 days were working 4 or more days a week with no benefits. Many of the older CM's who were retirees from other companies got mad and quit. They didnt want to work that much. There was also no loyalty at all. A part time person felt no connection to the company. There was also no consistancy day to day because you had a whole different crew each day. Disney hires more full time Cast Members now. They offer them a nice insurance package of health, dental and eye options, vacation and holiday pay. At the beginning of the fiscal year (Oct) schedules are approved for all the operating hour and attendance variables. CM's are now hired based on that scheduling need. Today there is very little hiring going on at Disney. Casting is mostly collecting names of people for future employment. Even part time CM's are unable to move into full time positions because they are not filling those positions much due to the fear that post-Christmas will be very very slow at WDW
Originally Posted By -em >>So you feel if they cut the staff by 10%-20% and put arising pay scale in , turnover would lessen and the quality of the workers/skills would offset the loss of shear numbers.<< Pretty much- >>I was concerned that lowering workforce could also have an effect on ability to get time off, and lower # of workers in areas<< If its done right- it shouldnt. In some areas it would take some creativity... Take for instance my current location- We have a team of 5 at the temp, which is pretty small but in reality for most of the year we can get by with 1 or 2- If they were to globalize our team with the other convention centers we could be used where we are needed instead of our hours being cut when were dead (but yet they could be slammed somewhere else..) instead we come in to a dead convention center and have to keep ourselves entertained for 8 hours... While in someways would be harder I would prefer to stay busy... >>I forgot to mention about the lack of proper training, my Mom says they lose a lot of people because of it. You might get a good person coming through, but because they want to do a good job and don't get any help to actually do a good job, they feel overwhelmed and quit.<< Exactly... and the sad part is even some of the trainers have huge gaps of knowledge so if they dont know something they skip it and so their trainees never learn... Then when you have managers who dont know (or do) their jobs- its just perpetuates the cycle... There was one day I picked up a shift at DAK working Merch- It was my 2nd time working DAK and I ended up on a register inside the shop. Well it got to the park exit time and the crowds started to build- well it soon became apparent that it was me and 4 "earning their ears" CMs who were just out of training. No manager, no trainers, no coordinators, noone who actually WORKED that location... Now the CMs were pretty good but when they had something new pop up everything came to a screeching halt and luckily I was there to walk them through it (which was hard when I was trying to run my register) and one did end up making a small mistake that while easy to fix needed managers numbers to fix.. After we closed and I got them though closing their registers (as apparently that wasnt either covered or covered once) the manager finally showed up. I explained the issue and after her dumb look back told her how to fix it, when she started to tell me off on that mistake I looked at her and said- You dont know me or know my background. For all you know Im a new hire just out of training, be grateful I was here to run your shop and be glad someone was here that was able to help your cast or else you wouldve lost a lot of sales if not more. >> I would have liked to have stayed with the company (at that time I only had a Bachelors degree from a well-respected university). But they showed no interest in putting me to good use there in Epcot or anywhere else on property.<< Welcome to *my* world... >>I hate to say this but everything you're speaking of happens in almost every company. Unfortunately we try to hold Disney to a higher standard. But, saddly its no different than every other industry.<< I know it does, but we hold Disney to a higher standard because for so long *They* held themselves to that standard. The same would hold true for instance if Target suddenly started to run its stores like the Dollar Tree... I've worked for many companies including Walmart- I just call it like I see it... >>Today there is very little hiring going on at Disney.<< Yet we've still had new hires every week... and yet they full staffed our team when they knew we are going to be *dead* all december and january... makes sense...
Originally Posted By hopemax > Full time work 30-40 hours a week < Or 6 days...my Mom gets that a lot, even when other people's hours are getting cut.
