I didn’t make that comment to excuse CM behavior, but to explain what could possibly be going on with CMs. Also, do you work in customer service, serving hundreds of people per day? That should be taken into account here. If CMs are struggling, they should be actively looking for other work and quit when they find it though.
I wouldn’t say the pay is competitive at all, unless the current pay rates have skyrocketed since I was a CM ten years ago. I don’t keep up with current rates and it’s entirely possible that I would find them competitive now. I was making I believe $9 an hour in 2011.
I don’t think it’s shortsighted, given that I know and have come across dozens of people who work or used to work for Disney in various capacities other than Disneyland and have mostly all shared very similar negative experiences working for the company. At that point, it’s not a coincidence, it’s not just a direct management problem, and something is wrong. It wouldn’t hurt Disney to reconstruct their business practices that would trickle down to better management, one that doesn’t want to make your employees hate coming to work, give them anxiety, etc.
Disney definitely sees to it that their CMs get good customer service training. At least when I was there. However, I would argue that it becomes ineffective when it becomes micro-managed (a supervisor constantly coming up to the CM to tell them to smile, for example) and when the CMs’ own well-being isn’t taken into consideration (had a co-worker who was slapped by a guest and management did pretty much nothing about it). I worked at Universal as well and not only was I trained on good customer service there, but they emphasized that team members’ well-being shouldn’t be compromised for it. Because of that, I was never anxious on the job, was better at my job, and was overall happier. In turn, the guests were happier and more pleasant. I felt that Disney expected near perfection from us and I remember some of my other co-workers expressing the same sentiments.
The Main Gate pass is a nice incentive, but personally, it’s not enough to put up with an unhealthy work environment. For the CM that has no problems at all with work and loves the parks, it’s an excellent incentive and well worth it. It depends on the person, for sure.
As a graduate student, I supervised a group of undergraduate English tutors for the writing center on campus. I of course emphasized that the students who sought out our services needed to be treated with great service and helped in the best ways possible, but I never let that compromise my tutors. The work environment was both professional and pleasant. I never let students disrespect my tutors and stuck up for them. I actually listened to the problems my tutors brought to me, gave them time off when they needed, never once scheduled them for work on days they requested not to work (unlike Disney), and made myself available. In turn, my tutors were happy to come in to work, sometimes on their days off, and our students were always pleased with the tutoring. We even got compliments from upper management on how good of a job we were doing. It’s basic and common knowledge that a professional, but pleasant and healthy work environment breeds happier employees and in turn, better results.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of you are noticing poor CM service. I agree with you that customer service is not for everyone, and I’ll repeat that any CM who isn’t pleased with their job should actively be looking for other work and should quit as soon as they find it. Guests do matter and they do notice things. They shouldn’t be subjected to poor service simply because CMs are unhappy or are having bad days. But I stand by what I said about the company as a whole. Some things need to change.
I also agree with you that a career with Disney can lead to some wonderful future opportunities. I can and always also acknowledge that my experience working for Disney is solely mine. My uncle was head of security for the Walt Disney Studios for decades. He hated it and complained about the same things I did, and he warned me about working for the company years before I joined it. But he always told me that I needed to have my own experience and see for myself, and I’m glad I did. I do the same in return. I never discourage people from pursuing work with Disney, if that’s what they truly want. I tell them to make the best of their time with the company and I hope they have a much better time than I did.
