Disney Employee changes

[Mickey527]

I just got back from two weeks at WDW and made a few observations.
Cast Members are down. It was noticable how few people they have to run rides etc...
More international students than area residents. I couldn't believe that they had International students working at Haunted Mansion that couldn't even speak English well enough to understand them. No one attempting to scare anyone like in the past etc... just go in, go in..... I know Disney can get away with paying them almost nothing in exchange for room and board but they just didn't fit in at MK or MGM. International students belong only in the country they are representing... Maybe this is why the economy is so bad, workers are being replaced with cheap labor, who don't pay taxes, etc...
Bathrooms are still pretty clean considering what those poor people have to put up with. Every time I walked into one there was an attendant cleaning and flushing messes that people leave. I can't understand how people can leave the toilet without checking that everything is gone. ok rant over.
The parks were packed. I have been at the parks in the summer before but this was unbelievable. How can Disney say they are having hard times, some rides had the 2 hour wait times all day.
What can I say about the Brazil kids? They were quiet most of the time but I am never going to Stunt show in the studios again when they are gathered in masses. I counted 2 yellow shirt groups, a black shirt group, a red shirt group and a white shirt group. They all had those blow up things that you bang together at concerts and between those and the foot banging and yelling I had a headache. Then alltogether they popped those blow up things, it was like the finale of Illuminations, really loud.
Disney really should think about building a park in Brazil. It was hard when they had fast passes for a ride. I caught them just as a huge group was going into EE. The FP line was out the door and down the sidewalk all the way to the FP machines.
some other things caught my eye but can't think now.

 

[Aisling]

My son is there now, and he reported that the Backlot Tour is no longer narrated by the CM, but by a recording. That takes away from the CMs interaction with the guests, and I'm not happy about that.

 

[Sir Robin Hood]

Maybe this is why the economy is so bad, workers are being replaced with cheap labor, who don't pay taxes, etc...
loud.

It's funny you brought this up. We were having the exact same debate in our Human Resources class not too long ago. The textbook used in the course actually has an entire section explaining how beneficial it is to hire exchange/inernational workers and shed away the 50+ age group. It describes in detail the "legal" way of weeding out the older applicants (i.e. you cannot ask how old someone is during an interview, but you can look on their application to see when they graduated college, etc).
Many restaurants in our county are letting go of current employees to bring in international workers. It's not about race, nationality, or ethnic background, but pure greed and $$$. Businesses are in a bind right now and crunched for every dime they can save, so I am not surprised. It's very sad.

 

[manning]

It's funny you brought this up. We were having the exact same debate in our Human Resources class not too long ago. The textbook used in the course actually has an entire section explaining how beneficial it is to hire exchange/inernational workers and shed away the 50+ age group. It describes in detail the "legal" way of weeding out the older applicants (i.e. you cannot ask how old someone is during an interview, but you can look on their application to see when they graduated college, etc).
Many restaurants in our county are letting go of current employees to bring in international workers. It's not about race, nationality, or ethnic background, but pure greed and $$$. Businesses are in a bind right now and crunched for every dime they can save, so I am not surprised. It's very sad.

Now you know why we are in this mess.

 

[DisneyBlonde]

It's funny you brought this up. We were having the exact same debate in our Human Resources class not too long ago. The textbook used in the course actually has an entire section explaining how beneficial it is to hire exchange/inernational workers and shed away the 50+ age group. It describes in detail the "legal" way of weeding out the older applicants (i.e. you cannot ask how old someone is during an interview, but you can look on their application to see when they graduated college, etc).
Many restaurants in our county are letting go of current employees to bring in international workers. It's not about race, nationality, or ethnic background, but pure greed and $$$. Businesses are in a bind right now and crunched for every dime they can save, so I am not surprised. It's very sad.

This is a big reason that our economy is currently in a shambles. I work in a technology field, and over the years I have seen dozens of good people laid off in favor of outsourcing to China and India, purely for the bottom line. It has been a downward spiral, in my opinion, since this outsourcing started in the 90s.

 

[manning]

My uncle's company tried to outsource accounting and it turned out to be a disaster. They brought it back in house....that was in 1960.

 

[Mickey527]

My son is there now, and he reported that the Backlot Tour is no longer narrated by the CM, but by a recording. That takes away from the CMs interaction with the guests, and I'm not happy about that.

I took the tour and actually I like it better with the recording. They still have the same amount of people on the tram, the driver, someone sitting in the front car and someone sitting in the back, but no one doing the speech. However, I did see that they were international students, so I did understand the recorded voice better than if it was an international student.

 

[BCV513]

My son is there now, and he reported that the Backlot Tour is no longer narrated by the CM, but by a recording. That takes away from the CMs interaction with the guests, and I'm not happy about that.

They do that on the boat ride at The Land now too. No more CM narration. I hate it.

 

[wendy46001]

They do that on the boat ride at The Land now too. No more CM narration. I hate it.

And on all the buses

 

[GeorgeG]

I guess we're starting to know how the Native Americans must have felt a few hundred years ago.

 

[JoiseyMom]

I guess we're starting to know how the Native Americans must have felt a few hundred years ago.

Bringing in cheap labor that are here on work visas and going back to their country have what to do with Native American's??

 

[Stitchfans]

It's funny you brought this up. We were having the exact same debate in our Human Resources class not too long ago. The textbook used in the course actually has an entire section explaining how beneficial it is to hire exchange/inernational workers and shed away the 50+ age group. It describes in detail the "legal" way of weeding out the older applicants (i.e. you cannot ask how old someone is during an interview, but you can look on their application to see when they graduated college, etc).
Many restaurants in our county are letting go of current employees to bring in international workers. It's not about race, nationality, or ethnic background, but pure greed and $$$. Businesses are in a bind right now and crunched for every dime they can save, so I am not surprised. It's very sad.

This statement really scares me since we are in the 50+ group.

 

[Quiksilvr]

I hope the change to the Backlot tour isn't permanent. I always enjoyed the cast member speech and interaction. I hated that change to the Land. I know some might say this is overreacting, but I probably won't go on the Backlot tour anymore because of that change.

I've never really felt strongly about that ride one way or the other, but I did like the CM interaction, so we'd try to go on it when at MGM. Now... I guess I'd say I'm completely indifferent to the ride, so I probably won't ride it.

 

[Feralpeg]

Bringing in the ICPs is a definite win-win situation for Disney. They get the kids for minimum wage. They work them extended hours with no benefits. The kids pay the majority of their earnings back to Disney for housing.

Most of them get to spend very little off time in the parks because they are working extended hours and really have no money left for leisure activities. I've talked to many of these kids and my sister trains them. Many of them live on junk because they can't afford anything else. It often turns out not to be the experience they were expecting when they signed up.

 

[Aisling]

And on all the buses

Yes, that too.

I really enjoyed having the bus drivers speak directly to the guests as we were driving. Sometimes they'd do trivia or just ask how everyone enjoyed their day. Now they're just quiet. It takes away a bit of the magic.

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with foreign-accented drivers, since as far as I remember, it was always a perfect-English-speaking person driving.

 

[Carl]

I really don't like what I'm hearing. The first time a recording ruined a ride for me was when they replaced live people with recordings in Amsterdam on the boat rides there.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yes, that too.

I really enjoyed having the bus drivers speak directly to the guests as we were driving. Sometimes they'd do trivia or just ask how everyone enjoyed their day. Now they're just quiet. It takes away a bit of the magic.

On the other hand, from a professional driver's daughter POV, they are more able to concentrate on *driving*.

 

[Jeafl]

Bringing in the ICPs is a definite win-win situation for Disney. They get the kids for minimum wage. They work them extended hours with no benefits. The kids pay the majority of their earnings back to Disney for housing.

Most of them get to spend very little off time in the parks because they are working extended hours and really have no money left for leisure activities. I've talked to many of these kids and my sister trains them. Many of them live on junk because they can't afford anything else. It often turns out not to be the experience they were expecting when they signed up.

When we were there last week we talked to quite a few cast members who were there for a year. One girl in particular talked to us for quite awhile at the AKL. She was stationed out by the animals and she was fascinating to talk to. She pretty much told us exactly what you said.

She said she was there for a year, and had already been there for 8 months. We asked her if she was anxious to go home and she said very much so. She said they feel underpaid, overworked and it was not quite the experience that they had originally presented to her in her interview. She did say that she met some wonderful people, including her roommates which were also in the college program.

What I thought was interesting is that she said she didn't really have much time to spend in the parks since she was working so much. She said she and her roommates spend what little time they have off sleeping and doing chores such as laundry.

She did say however, that although it wasn't what she thought it would be, she doesn't regret getting the chance to see some of America. (She was from China by the way)

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I could be way off base, as I just came back from a trip to WDW at the beginning of this month, but I didn't see a noticeable change in the CM pool. The student/international CMs have seemingly been around for years, and definitely never encountered one who I couldn't understand giving the spiel at an attraction. I don't mean for this to be a defense of WDW's hiring practices, I just haven't noticed anything different lately.

 

[declansdad]

We have never had a CM on the land attraction, it has always been narrated. The narrated Backlot tour was started before the downturn in the economy, that isn't new. We have also have still had bus drivers talk to us since they created the automated announcements for the buses.

International students have been around for a long time and I think they belong in more that just there country in the World Showcase.