Cut the grumpy CM's some slack

[KellyNY]

Sorry, I disagree. In any profession, if you take a job you are to perform it to the best of your ability, not based upon your surroundings. Take a backstage tour (like KTTK) and you will learn they are held to certain standards. The ones that do not meet those standards are in violation of their employment agreement....it just goes unnoticed by mgmt.

Not agree, when you shop at your local supermarket during slow times there are few cashiers, when it's getting busy, there are more, becasuse people can handle only specific number of customers. Same here, they overlook problems because they do not add CMs, they cut them. Not an excuse for being rude, but I will not complain for lack of "shiny" CMs as well.

 

[KellyNY]

I was raised that it is rude and disrespectful to not speak to somebody when they speak to you. I stand by that.

We all were raised that way, but when they said hello to hundreds people before you, don't you think they may be tired. In slow times they do smile and talk and spread magic around, in busy times they do not have Duracell(sp) inside.

 

[frndshpcptn]

We all were raised that way, but when they said hello to hundreds people before you, don't you think they may be tired. In slow times they do smile and talk and spread magic around, in busy times they do not have Duracell(sp) inside.

I was often tired when I was a CM. It's a hard job and a long day (usually). But, that doesn't mean I treated my 100th guest of the day any different than my 1st guest of the day.

I worked at Alien Encounter and said the same things over and over and over and over again all day long. I was on my feet for hours and had to deal with all sorts of guests questions and complaints. I'd like to think I was always smiling, friendly and approachable whenever I was in costume and on stage where guests could see me. Breakrooms / backstage areas are for sitting, whining, complaining and being grumpy if needed.

 

[doconeill]

I'll generally give CMs the benefit of the doubt (unless they are unnecessarily rude to me, but usually the case ), but if it is your JOB to be friendly and considerate, you need to be friendly and considerate - regardless of the abuse you might take. I know of few customer-facing jobs that would allow otherwise, and I've been there.

Sometimes its fun watching them get more and more upset because you AREN'T reacting in a negative way

 

[Hmk012]

We were there Dec. 13-18 and came across a few rude CMs. I read about it on the boards and honestly my husband and I would laugh at the post saying, "it must of been the person they were dealing with" or "they are just being dramatic". Well we certainly took those statements back after our trip! Some were just out right rude for no reason and we were shocked. We normally visit every 2 years during December. We have both agreed we will not be coming back anytime soon to the parks. We stayed at the GF and that MADE our stay...the staff was amazing and polite! We're talking about instead of doing the Parks going on a Disney cruise for our next trip.
I understand they deal with a lot of stress, but in all the years and visits to Disney we have NEVER had an issue until this past trip!

 

[MNRMommy]

Wow, I started quite the debate. Regardless of how you fall in this issue I hope all of you had or will have a Magical Stay. I would also like to say that there was one CM at the Stone Harbor Club (spelling correct?) that I wish I had gotten the name of because she was what Disney prides themselves on. She was the most amazing CM we ever had. We bought some cereal for my DD one night because we didn't want to expect the club CM's to just get her some if she wanted it and this CM said please please please just let us get that for you next time. No need to waste your time going down and getting cereal when we have it right here. She arranged flowers for my husband to surprise me with and tracked down santa Mickey and Minnie hats. When we go back in May I am hoping she is still there so I can give her a WWWD present. OK, back to the debate and remember we are all entitled to our humble opinions

 

[kaytieeldr]

My son and I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of retired CM's at the Pop Century food court last week. They were a really lovely elderly couple who were forcibly retired from Disney when they hit 65(which they were immensely sad about).

I do believe the quoted poster, but I'd take the original discussion with a grain of salt. To the best of my knowledge, Disney doesn't practice discrimination - including forced retirement.

 

[Pats Dragon]

We had a very good trip during the crowded TG week and it seemed to me that cm's were trying hard to be the old fashioned magical day ones. We even had some amazing cm encounters. On the other hand I overheard 2 elderly cms fussing to each other about 10 hr shifts. The elderly lady went real close to a man in his 30's who was sitting on the railing waiting on the monorail and yelled, "thats a hand rail not a butt rail, get off" I thought that was unnecessarily rude and inexcusable. By the way, as I said on another post, guests we encountered were even more magical than cms. I think DW gets the message and we received surveys to provide feedback.

 

[Melrosgirl]

We saw rude CM's here and there (and lots of rude guests). Honestly there is no excuse for a CM to tell people to "hurry up" when walking in the queue. (not getting onto the ride, but IN the queue.) Specifically the Buzz Lightyear ride. The CM collecting fast passes towards the front (in the line) told us to hurry up. Sounds like nothing when you read it, but it was.

Another cast member (I know his name, but won't say it) at Animal Kingdom Park (at an ice cream stand)...I waited in line for easily 10 minutes for ice cream for the kids. It was a long line. It was hot out. I waited. Get to the front. Order my ice cream and he says "cash only." (I had my KTTW card out.) I said I can't charge it to my room? He said "CASH ONLY!" He screamed at me. I said I didn't realize it was cash only. He said my machine broke and I'm waiting on a new one. He was older and I'm sure frustrated, but you know what? No excuse for yelling at a customer. I'm not exaggerating. Trust me, I know yelling. He could have easily told customers who were waiting on line all that time that he was only accepting cash, but never once did he tell the long line of people cash only. (I had no cash on me. Dh had it all and he was on a ride.) No apology, nothing.

I realize that we all love Disney here and so we wear rose colored glasses a lot, but when people just assume that the posters are always the rude ones. You are wrong. There are rude employees, too.

 

[Schmeck]

.
I pay a premimum to visit a Magical park, part of that magic is to be treated nicely with a smile.

Kirsten

You pay extra?

I tend to expect polite behavior, but we all have to remember that the CMs get paid very little to stand out there all day, listening to the guests grumble about everything under the sun. Try standing next to them for only an hour - then judge how they should be. Should they be downright surly? Of course not, but Disney needs to either pay them more, or mix up their day if they want bubbly and perky for 6-10 hours!

 

[PeterPan09]

When I moved down here and started visiting the parks more I started a little experiment. Every time I go to the park I try to find one CM who is not busy and walk up to them and say "thank you". The way I see it, every CM has done something to make some magic at some point in their day and they all deserve appreciation for that.

The sad thing to me is how surprised these CM's are when I do this. I've had them look completely startled and they have to think of a response. Mostly they turn it around and thank me for coming-but the expression on their faces is clear evidence that they don't hear this enough. My hope is that no matter how many people have treated them with rudeness or indifference, they'll remember the one person who thanked them just for being there.

Think of the Magic we could spread if all of us did this every time we visited!!

 

[kbelle8995]

When I moved down here and started visiting the parks more I started a little experiment. Every time I go to the park I try to find one CM who is not busy and walk up to them and say "thank you". The way I see it, every CM has done something to make some magic at some point in their day and they all deserve appreciation for that.

The sad thing to me is how surprised these CM's are when I do this. I've had them look completely startled and they have to think of a response. Mostly they turn it around and thank me for coming-but the expression on their faces is clear evidence that they don't hear this enough. My hope is that no matter how many people have treated them with rudeness or indifference, they'll remember the one person who thanked them just for being there.

Think of the Magic we could spread if all of us did this every time we visited!!

Good for You

Another thing is you can do if you meet a CM who goes out of their way to help you. Remember their name where they worked and let Disney know.

This time of year is very stressful for CMs. Not that they should ever take it out on a guest. But the amount of guests who express their outrage in cost of Disney and the long lines do go up at this time of year.

 

[ogreenlee]

This past week, we didn't run into any really rude CMs. We ran into plenty who were ho-hum as if their job was no different than working at Macy's. We also ran into many who were awesome. The nicest ones seemed to be the middle aged men. The rudest ones seemed to be middle age-older women, especially ones working in the stores. The ho-hum ones were youngsters, for the most part. 90% of our bus drivers were very kind.

Some were in character, some had no character. Donald Duck at the Character Spot left a lot to be desired.

We heard quite a few "Have a magical day"s. Some of these sounded as if Roz was saying them.

The girl behind the cash register at Earl of Sandwich (which isn't Disney, really) was rude, but the girl walking the line there made up for her by a mile. AWESOME sandwiches, btw.

My DD6 and I came to blows after the Lion King show at AK. I was irritable with her behavior and walked off from her and my DH as not to get more frustrated. I went ahead of them to the spot where I wanted to be for the parade. I stopped by the Dawa Bar to get my husband and I a beer... b/c at that point.. boy did I want one. I was walking back across the bridge to meet them and as I got to the middle of the bridge, there were these ropes tied off and only a couple of folks standing behind them. Two men, a CM and another CM who was dressed better were there. I looked at the regular CM and asked if we were allowed to stand behind the rope. He looked at me kind of smug and said, "No, this is for our VIP." Well, I was kind of shocked about how he said it. The other CM immediately stepped in with a big smile and said, "This lady is a VIP", and lifted up the rope for me to walk under. About the time I walked under the rope, my DH and DD walked up. We shared the space with only a few others. I thanked the very nice gentleman and told him that I really appreciated what he did and that I was needing that magic at that particular moment. The other CM seemed a little annoyed, but oh well. I did ask him who the upper CM happened to be, and he said... "Oh, he pretty much runs Animal Kingdom." The parade was great!

 

[Zeebs]

When I moved down here and started visiting the parks more I started a little experiment. Every time I go to the park I try to find one CM who is not busy and walk up to them and say "thank you". The way I see it, every CM has done something to make some magic at some point in their day and they all deserve appreciation for that.

The sad thing to me is how surprised these CM's are when I do this. I've had them look completely startled and they have to think of a response. Mostly they turn it around and thank me for coming-but the expression on their faces is clear evidence that they don't hear this enough. My hope is that no matter how many people have treated them with rudeness or indifference, they'll remember the one person who thanked them just for being there.

Think of the Magic we could spread if all of us did this every time we visited!!

We were waiting in line for BTM and handed our fastpasses to the CM she told us to have a great ride or something similar, and we replied with thank you. She was shocked and actually told us she had been doing the job for an hour or so that day and we were the first people to say thank you.

I was very surprised at this, as for us it is just a instant reaction.

Kirsten

 

[KellyNY]

You pay extra?

I tend to expect polite behavior, but we all have to remember that the CMs get paid very little to stand out there all day, listening to the guests grumble about everything under the sun. Try standing next to them for only an hour - then judge how they should be. Should they be downright surly? Of course not, but Disney needs to either pay them more, or mix up their day if they want bubbly and perky for 6-10 hours!

Absolutely, it is management problem not CMs.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

This time of year is very stressful for CMs. Not that they should ever take it out on a guest.

Exactly! This time of year is stressful for just about any job that deals with the public. My companies employees are under mandatory on your day off overtime until mid January, if they call in one day they face the potential of being fired (sick or not). And to top if off we got struck by that unusual freak snow storm last week and have a small percentage of employees without electricity (still) and living in hotels. So take all that into account on top for extremely busy and annoyed customers: do you think we would cut them any slack if they are rude to a customer? Nope they could be fired just like any other day, Christmas or stress does not give them a free pass to not do thier job.

Part of the CM's jobs is being nice and courteous to customers. We have never personally ran into any rude or indifferent CM's but that could be for various reasons, but if we ever felt we were being treated rudely by a CM we would stop at guest services and advise them of the situation. If I expect Disney to give me great service, they will not know I am not great service unless I tell them. They can't fix what they don't know about.

 

[KellyNY]

Part of the CM's jobs is being nice and courteous to customers. We have never personally ran into any rude or indifferent CM's but that could be for various reasons, but if we ever felt we were being treated rudely by a CM we would stop at guest services and advise them of the situation. If I expect Disney to give me great service, they will not know I am not great service unless I tell them. They can't fix what they don't know about.

That is the point, I also met only 1 rude CM in all of my trips and I do go in busy summer and 4th of July times. I saw some indifferent CMs but I never expected anyone to go above and beyond even so it happens a lot to us at Disney. I believe it is all about how you see that. Not everything is rude.

 

[kaytieeldr]

This past week, we didn't run into any really rude CMs. We ran into plenty who were ho-hum as if their job was no different than working at Macy's.

That sounds more like the stress of working ten, twelve, or more hours a day.

 

[rotlex]

We might just be lucky, but in all of our trips, I don't think we have ever encountered a rude, or even grumpy, CM. To be honest, I'm usually amazed at just how nicely we are treated by just about everyone.

I know for a fact I could not do a public job at a place like WDW, and stay "magical" for an entire shift. I also can't believe the average pay for these folks is sub $10 per hour. With the money Disney is making, and the image they wish to portray, they should double that as a minimum for even the smallest job. Heck, any job where the public has to be dealt with directly should be higher paying than a top exec, LOL.

 

[DWGal210]

I guess I come from the point of view that most of us see this behavior pretty frequently at home (grocery store, shopping center, gas stations, etc etc etc); perhaps we tend to notice it more at WDW since our expectations are higher?

I'm not saying that you shouldn't have an expectation of great service at Disney, but it just seems to me that rudeness is everywhere; if you dwell on it, that's all you'll see. I just figure, why let it "rain on your parade". I'm not excusing bad behavior, but it's WDW, folks; not a perfect Utopia in the middle of FL where everyone is perfect.