Breaks?

[ILOVEDISNEY]

How long is a typical CM's day? How many "breaks" do they get. Where do they go for breaks, and what do they do (other than using the restroom) if they can't smoke at WDW. Several of the threads have mentioned CM's working during breaks and being exhausted. Thank goodness the CM's don't tell you, and sometimes the whole world, they are missing their "break" while helping you like they do at certain large discount chains or supermarkets. Give me a break!

 

[se8472]

I can only speak from attrations. we are suppose to get a 15 every 3 hours or so. Can come early or late. But if you work more then 6 hours then a 30 minute is thrown in...work 8 hours and then another 15 in thrown in so now you have a 15,30,15. working longer will just add to more breaks. We onlt get paid for the 15's no 30's.

Just from what I understand with Merchandise and Foods is that they get there breaks usually in one nice block. So if they work 6 hours they will get one 30 and that is it. Working longer gets there breaks longer and I belive that once they work for so long then there breaks it broken up.

I belive the problem that you are talking about is the one with merchandise and foods where the person that is suppose to break them dose not show up and they become stuck out there.

We at attrations don't really have that problem since we are on rotations and get bumped every 45 minutes or so to another postion and breaks just come and go in all of that. However there are days that things can get behind for us attrations fokes to and you can go a good 4 or 5 hours with no breaks...or get stuck at the same position for a good 2 hours.

Hope that helps some.

 

[ILOVEDISNEY]

Hope that helps some.[/QUOTE]

Thanx. That really helps, but what do you do on breaks? Play cards, read, eat, sleep?

 

[Pixie Duster]

:lol: Sorry that was cute. Depends on the person what they do on their break. Security tends to cookout on their grills, Custodial and the folks over in the water parks tend to play B-ball, folks on Main Street have arcade games and a ping pong table in their big breakroom.

Most of the service roles, as in attractions, merchandise, and food get regular breaks such as the ones described above. Breaks and positions (or tasks) are determined by a computer system that is linked to the scheduling program, that way there is less error in terms of somebody not getting there break on time (theoritically).

Roles like mine, in Research we are given more freuqent breaks and freedom to take them whenever due to the nature of our job.

 

[jackfrost]

Actually they can smoke, just backstage and if they can't well I've seen people breaking the rules.

 

[Pixie Duster]

Just like in the parks, there are now designated smoking areas backstage.

 

[ArchiDanDisney]

Watercraft is on a 2 hour rotation...although the last time i worked, i worked 8 hours with one 15 minute...same boat for 5 hours...but that was also basically a volunteer thing. Not that bad when you're out on a boat if you ask me.

 

[EpcotGrl]

Merchandise gets two half hour breaks (at least where I worked--Epcot FWS) for an 8 hour shift. I *wish* I could've taken the full hour at once... believe me, I'd have been at Marrakesh!

 

[1disneydood]

I guess I'll never get to be a CM then.

I'm a diabetic and can't go longer than 2 hrs. without a BATHROOM break and that's on a good day. :lookaroun

Eh, I think I'd shoot for a production or design position anyway, when I "retire" to Orlando.

 

[kal1484]

Even in the same department: example: outdoor foods, the breaks differ park to park. I get an hour break on an 8 hour shift, 10 hour shifts are either an 1 and fifteen, or a 30 and a 45 minute. At MK, I know it's different though.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Some Attractions CM's (particularly older ones) don't like how the computerized CDS has affected breaks and made them more unpredictable than with the old hand-written rotations. One of our bellhops at Tower (Bruce, if any of you ever see him there) was famous among us for yelling "Where's my break?" to the people sitting in Tower Control, or just as a general means of expressing frustration once it became his "thing." Whenever we wanted to make another Tower person laugh, one of us would just bark out "where's my break?"

 

[tigger248]

When I was a merchandise cast member short shifts like 4 hours got a 15. 6 or 7 hour shifts got one 30. 8 hours or more got two 30's and anything over 12 hours (I think, it may have been 10) got two 30's and a 15. I worked near splash mountain and we had a small breakroom with a tv, vending machines, and restrooms. We also had lockers so we could bring a lunch and lock it up since we didn't have time to make it to the cafeteria in 30 minutes. I would usually just bring a lunch box with snacks and a sandwich along with a couple of cokes so I could have lunch on one break and a snack on the other. Other Magic Kingdom lands had other breakrooms, but for the most part, this was pretty standard for merchandise at least. We were supposed to get a break every 2-3 hours although sometimes the computer would get screwed up and it would be longer. In my area, if you went more than 3 hours, you just had to tell the manager and they would usually fix it. We could take potty breaks in between if we needed to go (it wasn't usually very hard in my area to get someone to watch your area), but I do understand other areas may have been different. If you need certain break schedules for health reasons, they seemed like they would work with you as best as possible. We had one cast member who had to have frequent breaks for health reasons and he just got two 15's and a 30 instead of two 30's.

 

[Pixie Duster]

I guess I'll never get to be a CM then.

I'm a diabetic and can't go longer than 2 hrs. without a BATHROOM break and that's on a good day. :lookaroun

Eh, I think I'd shoot for a production or design position anyway, when I "retire" to Orlando.

You can be a researcher, as long as you can handle the guests saying no all the time you'll be fine. We get 10 minutes every hour and a regular half hour for lunch as well. But that's because the time we are on stage is usually pretty stressful.