-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Thunder Mtn Accident Report
- Thread starter Gucci65
- Start date
thedisneyfan
Member
So, first they let her go out and destroy the Disney Stores and then they let her loose on the California parks.....smart, very smart. Disney's cutback in maintenance definitely has to be a factor. When I first heard that the crews were "outsourced" I knew that quality and performance was going to be a major issue with this accident. Because of the potential serious issues involved with maintenance of attractions/buildings/facilities, the budget should never be cut or "outsourced," in fact it should be enhanced, increased, and always internalized!
My understanding was that Jay Rasulo was already beginning to manage her out (along with many of her cronies), but the BTM accident pretty much clenched it.
Yes I knew her when she first started with The Disney Store and she initially came across as this really nice, sincere person (i.e. always hugging people in meetings, etc). I was working at what they called "Home Base" (No, not the hardware store of the same name, but the nickname for The Disney Store corporate office in Glendale...not sure if they still call it that or not). Anyway, my boss was one of her direct reports so I got to know her pretty well and attended a lot of meetings with her. I also filled in as part of the management team at the Glendale Galleria store across the street from Home Base. At the time, this was considered the "flagship" store and was under pretty constant scrutiny from upper management (i.e. It was not uncommon at all for Paul Pressler or Cynthia to stop by the store to see how things were going. And although it never happened when I was personally there, Michael Eisner stopped by occasionally too).
Here's an example of what it was like to work for Cynthia, and why I don't find it difficult at all to believe she was probably a real viper when running things at DL (Note: Some people who read this will probably choose not to believe me, and that's your choice, but I swear this is 100% absolutely true):
When Cynthia took control, she decided the Glendale store would be a "model" of what every Disney Store should look like. Approximately every 3 or 4 weeks, we would have a group of new store managers from various parts of the country come to Glendale for a week of training. They would be put up at the corporate apartments in Burbank and would spend most of their time in training sessions at Home Base. Part of this training included a visit and tour of the Glendale store so they would see what their stores should all look like. What these managers didn't know was that in order to get the store in such perfect condition, we would spend the 48 hours leading up to their visit with our entire management team putting in a minimum of 14 hour shifts. We would also have every employee of the store working during this time and would pay about a third of them overtime in order to get everything done. The manager trainees would show up (with Cynthia and others) at about 7am on the day of their visit, so we would all be there until about 2am the night before getting the last details taken care of. We would all then return at about 6am in preparation for their visit. And although this sounds like an absurd exaggeration, I absolutely swear this is no lie...We were told that we had better appear perfectly alert and energetic and without a single bag under any of our eyes. We were also instructed that, if asked by any of the trainees, we would be fired if we told them what it really took to get our store looking the way it did. We were to tell them that the store looked this way all the time and that it didn't require any additional staff or overtime to get it done. The idea was that these managers would, of course, go back to their respective stores and think, "Well gosh, if a high volume store like Glendale can do it, then I'm a failure unless I can do this with my store."
All of this came directly from Cynthia Harris (and yes, the threat of being fired if we didn't lie was absolutely real). So you can imagine I've never been a huge fan of her's and was incredibly disappointed when I first learned that she had been named Disneyland President (though I'd already left the company by then). If DL managers, leads, ride operators, etc were under similar types of pressure (which I understand many of them were), then I am not shocked at all by the problems DL has had during her tenure.
Sorry for the lengthy rant, but I must admit it felt kind of good to get all that off my chest. I actually hadn't thought about some of those details in a few years.
Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Actually when she first arrived at The Disney Stores one of the first things she did was to cut payroll hours dramatically. This had the effect of making the stores initially look more profitable, so of course her superiors thought this meant she was doing a great job.
aurorajames
New Member
Why would there be such a discrepancy between the two parks safety records? That doesn't make sense... would it be b/c of the employees or the rides themselves?:veryconfu
Completely different management styles between the two. At DL, they had Cynthia Harriss (read my post above regarding an example of her management style) and at WDW they have Al Weiss. I must admit I don't know a whole lot about Al, but from what I have read, it doesn't sound like he is anything like Cynthia.
aurorajames
New Member
I had read where you posted that before, I suppose it just doesn't make sense to me. Even with two different managing teams, doesn't Disney have a certain standard to uphold? How could that Harriss chick get away with running things that way? I guess it's just my naiveté on the way management works... :lookaroun
Anyway, thanks for the clarification!
Anyway, thanks for the clarification!