As a former WDW cast member I valued my job and took a lot of pride in working there, however, unfortunately this is most definetly not the case for all cast members and I have my theories on why this happens which I will explain below, here are the reasons:
1) Unionized Environment
Most full time and part time WDW cast members are unionized which means they are part of labor unions, these labor unions could care less about guest service or "Disney Magic", they are there to make money from hard working cast members and battle Disney at any chance they get making it very difficult for management. On my first day of company orientation a mean-spirited union rep walked into the training room and practically FORCED everyone to join the union. These unions are the reasons why management cannot fire poor performers and cranky senior cast members that have been with the company for 20+ years can practically get away with ANYTHING as Disney management is afraid to fight with the powerful union. I worked alongside cast members that treated guests terribly and didn't give a care in the world because they KNEW that management would turn a blind eye, one time I even witnessed a senior cast member laugh in a managers face when the manager tried to coach him on something he had done wrong, shortly afterwards he requested a union rep and he never heard anything from the manager ever again..
2) College Program
College interns are brought in from all over the world to fill THOUSANDS of hourly positions at the parks, resorts, shops, restaurants, etc. year after year serving short term internship terms and getting paid below minimum wage and living in sub par shared housing, they come and leave like a rotating door with little incentive to shine as it is only a temporary job and for many it is an excuse to escape their hometowns, be immature, get drunk, and party away from home with little supervision. While my time working at the deluxe resorts I saw a handful of these interns get terminated and sent back home for many reasons; being drunk on the job, engaging in inappropriate acts at work while on company time, etc... Go figure..
3) Too many layers of management and Hierarchy
Being a MASSIVE company, Disney has an endless mountain of hierarchy before you can remotely reach a senior upper level manager that actually has the power to make visible changes, below these senior level managers are HUNDREDS to THOUSANDS of line level managers that have VERY LITTLE to NO POWER at all, their job is to "handle" the guests and cast members make them feel happy so that these senior level managers NEVER once have to interact with a guest and much less an hourly-level cast member. While my time working at a WDW resort front desk I faced many situations where guests expressed valid concerns, in most cases the manager on duty would simply give the guest compensation and call it a day, there really was nothing else the manager could do in regards to fixing an issue, they would rather give money away and keep quiet then face their bosses with a valid issue and put their political reputation at risk for being negative or "not magical" ..
These three issues will likely never change as these are HUGE feats and are part of the company inner-culture on how things work and have been accepted as they are by high level senior management for decades. In many cases such as the union issue there are legalities involved that Disney is not going to put itself at risk to resolve, every time union negotiations come around Disney virtually always ends up settling with what the union wants to avoid labor conflicts in the public eye and negative PR, in the long run this will negatively affect guest service and company culture and it is not going to change.
