I doubt those days are gone. Such a rise is simply a necessarily exceptional story. To begin with, there are very few positions at the top of the hierarchy, and chances are low that someone will have started at the bottom, stayed with the company for such a long time, and demonstrated the ambition and aptitude necessary to move beyond maxing out at manager or director of their focus area.
I'd say it's much harder/damned near impossible these days because so many of the middle management positions that lead to executive level potential are being posted externally, further decreasing the opportunity for internal talent to "rise up the ranks."
George Kalogridis is a success story, from busboy moving into mgt years later , to exec working in FL, CA and Paris. He was also honored for his achievements with a window in Main Street , MK.
4th largest, UOR is 5th
I doubt he's any less of a bumbler in private. The only way he's more persuasive elsewhere is if he just wields a machete wildly until everyone agrees out of desperation.
Universal staff attitudes compared to Disney cast is no comparison. It is like night and day.
Me too I hate all things Comcast except their theme parks. Every team member I talked to was helpful and most of them were super excited HHN was back.
I will clarify, my comments are targeted towards predominantly the 'younger' employees. Not the older staff.
Disney seems incredibly hard to pull this off at nowadays. They have tons of dinosaurs standing in the way of bright intelligent young people.
WDW and UO both have paths for staff to move up. There is always going to be that argument ( hiring from the outside for mtg and exec level , bypassing current staff for promotion , younger with no experience managing older experienced staff etc etc ). Those stories will never stop being told.
I also found UO cast members very friendly and helpful this past August. Hadn't been there in a long time but everybody seemed to be happy with their job and had a good attitude when I asked questions.
