Walt Disney World General
Topic: yelling

#	Author	Message
41	vbdad55 Sat 11/15/2008 8:04a	-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.
42	sjhym33 Sat 11/15/2008 9:27a	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.
43	hopemax Sat 11/15/2008 9:39a	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.
44	sjhym33 Sat 11/15/2008 9:48a	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.
45	hopemax Sat 11/15/2008 10:08a	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.
46	leobloom Sat 11/15/2008 10:14a	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.
47	sjhym33 Sat 11/15/2008 10:38a	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.
48	carribean queen Sat 11/15/2008 12:57p	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.
49	bobbelee9 Sat 11/15/2008 1:36p	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.
50	sjhym33 Sat 11/15/2008 1:50p	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

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