Disneyland General
Topic: The Quality of Disney CMs - 2008

#	Author	Message
1	westsideCM99 Mon 12/1/2008 2:30p	Hi All, As a former CM from 98-02 and currently a seasonal "Mystery Guest" I was saddened to see that in 2008 many of my co-workers no longer work there and have probably moved on to bigger and brighter careers. I was even more saddened to see the massive decline in CM quality, this year more than any other year. Here are the top 10 incidents that I reported in 2008, enjoy!: 10. CMs caught ordering food in costume at an onstage food services venue. 09. CMs failing to give safety speils on attractions requiring safety spiels. 08. GC CMs physically manuvering guests against the guest's discretion. 07. 9-10 CMs observed not smiling while in direct communication with guests and not utilizing the 2 finger point but rather pointing with one finger. 06. Outdoor Vending CM was not properly trained on register, made a comment that his trainer was a jerk that left him alone all day. 05. Food Services, waitress vocalizing frustration and anger, in a language other than english, to co-workers onstage(Main Street) in regards to a mock-incident designed to test the time efficiency of the cooking staff. 04. CM in costume sat down halfway through a river attraction in a guest seating area and proceeded to send text messages on his personal phone. 03. CM inititated a ride stop and proceeded to loudly and harshly blame a guest, onstage, for their inability to load within the proper time constraint. 02. CM caught racing another CM up the exit stairs bumping into a guest on the way up resulting in the guest verbally disciplining one of the CMs. 01. My fav.. I tried to bypass the line for innoventions by telling the CM at the attraction's exit that I just stepped out to use the bathroom. The CM said "No" and when I asked why she said "It's just the way it is". I waited 10 minutes and came back but this time I put on my backpack and a cap. Remarkably the CM just stepped aside when I came back the second time, I didn't even need to explain myself. My point is that the things that CMs would have been ding-ed for in the past don't seem to apply anymore even though Disney issues out a guest service policy guide to Mystery Guests that states they are still in effect. "Theming" is totally non-existant now especially the fact that many CMs don't even seem to know the storylines of their attractions or even play along with the theming of their area. When I was a CM back in the day my phrase always used to be "What are we.. Knotts??". Let's just say that back then it was a joke, nowadays I'm not so sure. Ironically the best customer service comes from Security and Custodial.. because they are paid the highest hourly. Maybe Disney should re-evaluate the rate of pay that their 1-5 yr cast members receive.
2	SpokkerJones Mon 12/1/2008 2:39p	How do you know the cast members were not dinged? Also, paying leads poor wages leads to them not caring what the CMs under them do.
3	Moon Waffle Mon 12/1/2008 3:00p	^And an oppressive state and local government leads Disney to not be able to afford to pay their CM's what they would like.
4	SpokkerJones Mon 12/1/2008 3:38p	Are you telling me that Disney WANTS to pay cast members more, but the State of California and the City of Anaheim is somehow causing them to not be able to? Please explain.
5	Mr F Mon 12/1/2008 3:49p	You wanna know why CMs act like crap? Because Disney treats them like crap and pays them crap. If Disney really cared about having GOOD employees, they would treat them better, pay them better, and be more strict about who they higher, instead of just taking anyone off the street to work their. Lets face it, working for DISNEY is not what it use to be, and having DISNEY on your resume doesn't do jack when you are trying to find another job.
6	gottaluvdavillains Mon 12/1/2008 3:55p	If you don't like what they pay or the way you are treated why work there. Making excuses for bad employees is wrong.
7	oneyepete Mon 12/1/2008 7:55p	I do believe it wouldn't matter what they got paid, they would still act poorly.
8	SleepingBeauty82 Mon 12/1/2008 9:15p	The act poorly because they get away with it. It's like little kids. If you aren't serious about disciplining them when they misbehave, what's the incentive not to?
9	submarine-maniac Mon 12/1/2008 9:34p	I do not understand why everyone says that CMs get treated poorly by Disney. Whenever I go into work, I feel very happy to be there. I look forward to working. And honestly I have never been treated better by a company I have worked for. I don't know if it's just a Photopass thing, but I feel we get treated very well. Also, I feel I get paid the right amount for the work I do. As it has been said before, most Disneyland jobs are not meant to become a career. By the way, I HATE it when CMs do not point with 2 fingers. Bugs me big time.
10	ecdc Mon 12/1/2008 10:41p	I think Disneyland is a great microcosm of this phenomenon, but it's just that--a microcosm and hardly endemic to just that locale. All throughout the service industry, particular in retail, poor behavior and service is more the norm. I'm not quite sure who or what is to blame, and I suspect it's a complicated issue. It seems to boil down to two schools of thought: 1) People don't have any work ethic anymore and they don't take pride in what they do, or 2) Corporate greed demoralizes employees to the point where they work just hard enough to not get fired. I'll confess I'm more partial to the second school of thought. My grandfather worked on a dairy farm in Utah as a kid and never graduated from high school. He worked as a welder in a steel mill his whole life. He was far from rich, but he was the living epitome of the working class, blue collar employee. He was able to provide a modest home for his wife and three daughters. He was loyal to the company and they were loyal to him. I doubt if he ever took a sick day. He was able to retire and live on what he got from them and his social security, until he died a few years ago. In short, he had every reason to be proud of his work and to have a good work ethic. Today, his life is nothing more than a myth. Supporting a family on that blue collar income is simply impossible. People are frequently treated like statistics by companies. They are given no reason to be loyal and no reason to work extra hard. I simply reject the common arguments that if you work hard, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, all will be well in America. That was 40 years ago; it's not today. People seem to think that employees should suffer all manner of abuse from both customers and the company because they "volunteered" for it. Somewhere along the way, employees became one of the quickest and easiest ways to save money. Hire teenagers or immigrants who are willing to work for a lot less; lay off when necessary to continue to report a profit; blame low-level employee performance on poor company performance. On and on it goes. Ask yourself: what's more likely to cause you to have a bad vacation experience at DL - a CM who orders food from an onstage vendor in costume, or closed rides because management decided a different refurb schedule would be cheaper? A CM who doesn't smile at you when you get on POTC, or POTC going 101 because maintenance has been cut back by management to save money. A CM who points with just one finger, or stale parade and fireworks offerings because it's just too expensive to produce new ones? I'm as frustrated as anybody at the poor service I frequently receive. I happily pay more money to get better service. But do not make the mistake of ignoring the huge role corporate greed has played in shaping innumerable aspects of our current culture. Poor employee morale is only one of them.

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