One Castmember's Decision

This may be quite trivial information, but yesterday, i spoke to the mother of a Customer Relations CM. The mother and the rest of the family are members of our Church, we have met them at WDW before, and occasionally talk Disney.

She told me that for quite a while, her daughter considered Disney her career. But with all the changes My Magic + is bringing, she has decided to leave Disney next month. She believes this is a very good time to earn her Masters Degree, and consider other choices.

Again, this is one Cast Member. But i thought it was interesting enough to pass this along.

Great. Now's it's affecting CMs. I'd love to have her leave a good quote on this site concerning why Fastpass- made her bail.

There's it a lot of career employers anymore period. Most employers don't care for their employees, they are just a necessary expense that they work hard to reduce/eliminate. Labor is really just a commodity..

I am currently trading time for money myself, I make no bones about it, in work or out.

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Originally Posted by Gator

Great. Now's it's affecting CMs. I'd love to have her leave a good quote on this site concerning why Fastpass- made her bail.

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The family has a trip planned in the very near future. And the mother seemed very apprehensive about it. They are not members of any Disney Fan site as far as i know. So i must assume the apprehension is coming from the daughter who is having to deal with guests issues and complaints.

If i get a chance to talk to the CM when she comes home in January, i'll let you all know.

Where I understand this CM's decision it appears that there is more going on than just Fastpass+. The CM is going on to earn a Master's. I would blame Disney's policies, as others have, if the CM was going to Universal and making a career there.

I am pretty sure that this CM is in the veeeerrrryyy small minority that would be leaving due to policy changes.

It seems a little bit of a reach that someone would change their career objectives on the perceived failings of a program during its rollout. I realize that many think My Magic is an earth-endingly bad program/idea but ...

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Originally Posted by gsimpson

It seems a little bit of a reach that someone would change their career objectives on the perceived failings of a program during its rollout. I realize that many think My Magic is an earth-endingly bad program/idea but ...

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.....it's ...perhaps, not the new program / system roll-out alone ...but just one of many straws that piled up to break the camel's back.

...my 24 yr old daughter has several friends that are CM's (got their start thru the college intern program) ...and their communications to her (regarding WDW) have been on the negative side of the scale for quite some time. Most of the issues seemed to be an extreme disconnect between the upper mgm't. (policy makers) and the rank and file CM's that deal with the day to day results of 'policy'.

...several CM's that I spoke with (quite candidly) on our last trip, verified what info came thru my daughter as provided by her friends. I saw a lot of unhappy faces this last trip, and because the CM's are the everyday "face" of the company ...it seems to say a lot about what's going on out of the public eye.

.....also, it's not just those that are working in the parks / resorts or transportation that we see everyday. One friend of hers is ...I guess for lack of a better word, 'an imagineer' working in an art dept ...and he says that morale is not exactly "happy & peppy".

....so ...as I noted ...perhaps the MM+ is just the last straw?

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Originally Posted by JerseyDad

.....also, it's not just those that are working in the parks / resorts or transportation that we see everyday. One friend of hers is ...I guess for lack of a better word, 'an imagineer' working in an art dept ...and he says that morale is not exactly "happy & peppy".

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Then I guess the work environment at Disney World is just reflecting the work environment of many other companies in these tough economic times. Expecting people to do more with less and to roll with the punches. I would venture to say that most CM's probably put up with it, MM+ or not, so that they can maintain their employment and income. It will be interesting to hear what your friend's daughter says, though.

This reminds me of the old saying, "Employees don't leave their company, they leave their boss."

Who knows the details, but to describe a CM leaving as "MM+ is now affecting the CMs" is a stretch.

I know how the CMs feel about the policy changes from upper management that just seem so out of touch. I used to work for a large supermarket chain that somehow always makes the fortune best company to work for list, I remember our manager one day saying at a meeting "if you hated your jobs here, I would know it"... yeah all the employees hated working there. Really, they had no idea what was going on with the front line employees, and all these new programs got introduced that looked great on paper but in practice just seemed make you say "what are they thinking"

To be frank, it really doesn't suprise me that the CMs feel this way, because I too feel the same way as a guest on the subject

I had already started doing DL instead of WDW for the most part because it requires much less effort and planning. Last time I checked, I'm going on vacation aren't I?

But basically, as long as DL does not to MM+, I am not very interested in doing WDW, unless there's an extremely good deal going there. It just seems so confusing and the idea of going here is to relax and just have a good time, why make it complicated?

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Originally Posted by tigmickey

Where I understand this CM's decision it appears that there is more going on than just Fastpass+. The CM is going on to earn a Master's. I would blame Disney's policies, as others have, if the CM was going to Universal and making a career there.

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Aha! How do you know for sure that Uni doesn't require their Team Members to have a Masters Degree?

Just kidding. I saw the opening and thought I'd take it...

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Originally Posted by frozman

I had already started doing DL instead of WDW for the most part because it requires much less effort and planning. Last time I checked, I'm going on vacation aren't I?

But basically, as long as DL does not to MM+, I am not very interested in doing WDW, unless there's an extremely good deal going there. It just seems so confusing and the idea of going here is to relax and just have a good time, why make it complicated?

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The intention all along was to rollout at DL as well once all the kinks & bugs are worked out at WDW.

Unfotunetly many many places are the same. Often the upper management has no idea how it really is down "low". Things can be poop at any job. Sometimes it *is* in the attitude you take towards it. There are things that drive me nuts about my job and the lack of integrity and "know how" of administration.

That said, I love 'what' I do and choose my attitude each day.

That said, there *are* times when it gets to be too much in a job and if you find yourself in that spot then sometimes moving on is the best thing.