Leaving for College program with DD on the 4th!

[mirmatt]

She went to the cast medical place (in Epcot?) and they x-rayed her wrist. Said that it is sprained with a contusion. They put it in a splint and gave her a prescription for motrin. They told her that she should come back in a week and not to lift anything heavy. She went to work tonight and is afraid that the manager is thinking of her as a liability now. I told her that if the manager doesn't want her to work there, she will be able to get placed elsewhere, not a problem. She says that all the cast members are so nice at work, but not her. Have you ever heard of an eight hour shift with no break to eat? Daughter says that she was told that they are expected to eat before they come (4pm) and can go to the bathroom and get water without a problem anytime, but if they want to get something to eat downstairs out of a machine, they must get someone to cover. I think she should double check on this. She was told this by the other hostesses.

Daughter's roommates scared her about the medical facilities, trying to tell her that Disney has alot of secrets about accidents, etc, that they cover up.

Also, today she got it from two of her roommates who told her that she should be cleaning up anything that she sees that needs to be done at all times. DD expressed that she had hoped that they would work out everyones' jobs and responsibilities but hadn't done anything like that so she made sure that she cleaned up for herself. They are right about everyone chipping in, but DD can't figure out why each person can't clean up their own pots, dishes, etc. DD only uses paper goods and is not cooking so she doesn't want to clean their kitchen mess! In terms of cleaning the central areas, they said they are not so organized, so just do things when you think they need to be done! DD wants a good relationship with these girls who have been there ford 4 months already and will be leaving in Aug. and told them that she would do her best to do her part. (She was so concerned that she was running around taking out garbage, etc. I told her that she can't suddenly become their servant. She felt that she was the recipient of their complaints as her other roommate who was new, also, was not there.

This has been a rough day for her and I will call her after her shift (midnight) to find out how things were.

I told her...... welcome to the world of being more independent where you must learn to deal with all kinds of people to the best of your ability. She has already had so many new experiences. She has been thinking that maybe she should stay in her room so there won't be a problem. Even in terms of tv, I will get her one for her room when we go down on June 23 for ten days! (Yes, hooray) It is totally a growing up experience for Mother, also!

By the way, have I told you guys how much I enjoy communicating through this board! Thanks, Marla

Oh yeah...... I did not hear anything about using Commons, but they were talking about not having alot of space.
Also........ security is amazing, there. You need to go through so much just to go and drop off or pick up your kid. She needs to sign you in. (can't do it over the phone) They make a copy of all adult's ids to keep on record, and then they check it when you come in. Phew.

 

[safetymom]

They are supposed to have breaks. Sometimes if they are busy my daughter didn't get a full break. She looked at it as extra money though.

Isn't it amazing how some of these girls act? It reminds me of my daughters first set of roommates. My daughter did clean her mess and tried to stay out of their way.

I was glad to see that security was tight. Usually though I just dropped her off at the entrance to Chatham at the guard shack. Only when we had heavy loads did I drive in.

I am glad to hear that your daughters arm wasn't broken. My daughter had to visit health services and she was impressed with the care she received.

If she continues to have problems at her work location I hope she asks to be transferred.

I understand where you are coming from. We get to agonize over some of the things in our childs learning process with WDW. I know my long distance company probably wonders why I don't have as many calls anymore.

 

[SoonerKate]

I had to go to health services a couple of times (once for a fall in the kitchen, once for a burn), and they took great care of me. Is your daughter on light duty or is she still expected to do all of her regular responsibilities?

She should definitely be getting a break to eat -- she needs to talk to her manager about that. (And if her shift manager doesn't know or just tells her to ask the other hosts/hostesses, she needs to ask the GM of her restaurant.)

She's legally entitled (by federal labor laws) to a half hour break every eight hours.

If your DD isn't cooking or using the plates and silver in the apartment, I would tell her not to worry about her roommates. She's not their maid!! One of my friends had a similar problem when he moved in with a group that had been together for a while. In our apartment, we pretty much had the rule that each person needed to clean up her own mess. It didn't always work, but at the same time we always knew who was leaving the mess so we knew who to gripe at. (There were some legendary battles, though -- but that's all part of living with roommates, isn't it?)

Did they have to sign a new roommate agreement? That can help solve a lot of problems. If they didn't have to sign one, I would recommend that your daughter get a copy of one from her RCA and they should fill it out pronto. (And be serious when they're filling it out-- we filled ours with a lot of jokes figuring that everything would be great, and it would have been a big help if we'd had a more reliable one to rely on.)

 

[mickeyc]

Good luck to your daughter in the college program. My son is an alummi having participated last year. He was worked at the AK as an animal presenter. He had a great time an met students from around the world. His first month he had an accident with his car and his friends were very helpful when it had to be fixed.

Sorry to hear your DD got hurt. I am sure things will work out. We made multiple trips last year while he was in the program. He graduated from college this year and will be going to dental school in Florida.

He is leaving this Sunday to work in Disney for several week until the new group of students receive their orientation. The program is great and will be an experience she will not forget.

In addition to college students Disney also employees many senior citizens. Enjoy your trip when you visit and don't forget to ask for the CM discounts when you are with your DD.

 

[mickeyc]

Forgot to mention, anyone working an eight hour shift should be getting breaks and lunch/supper, as appropriate. There are seperate facilities for CM. CM are not permitted to dine in the guest areas while they are in their costumes. Your DD should speak to her supervisor.

 

[mirmatt]

Talked to dd tonight..... boy is she having a rough time. It is hard for me not to go there and Blow!!

At work........ finding out that she was closing the restaurant tomorrow night. Feeling that she needed to watch someone do it tonight, she asked her manager if she could stay and observe another girl do it. (worked from 3-10 without a break at this point!) Manager told her that it is fine but she would not be paid. DD had no problem with that as she still wanted to observe. Well, the girl closing had my daughter doing some of the work, which she did....... but she didn't do all the rooms (picking up and sorting menus) When she questioned dd about why she wasn't doing the work, dd told her that she was just observing and was off the time clock. This girl went to the manager who called daughter in to her office and said that all employees must work together and that this other person was complaining that daughter was not doing her job. Daughter reminded manager that she wasn't being paid and just stayed to observe, but manager told her that it didn't matter. Since daughter wanted to observe, she wasn't ready to close and would be assigned to be with someone else tomorrow. Now shouldn't the manager have respected the fact that an employee wanted to stay and observe if she felt insecure? No, she just had daughter work two more hours (till midnight) without getting paid! NO BREAK! Daughter insists that they are not allowed to break! I wonder if the attitude of this manager is based on my daughter's refusal to sign a statement when she fell, saying that the floor had just been washed, because it was not true, and then trying to tell her that if it is investigated they will blame it on her shoes...(which were flat with rubber soles as she was told to wear!) I actually encouraged my daughter to get a number of someone to see about finding a new work location, but my husband thinks that she should just work with this. I don't know what to do. Can a job location be changed if she is in this kind of a work environment? My husband thinks that they might just have her in something worse, if that's possible. I am not sure what to do. Does anyone have advise?

Roommates........ well, they seem to all talk without dd present as she doesn't get back until 1am while they are all home much earlier. Don't really know anything about an agreement to be signed. When dd tried to ask if they have assigned jobs besides cleaning up for themselves, she was told that they are not her mother! Since she doesn't go to work until 3 or 4, she feels that they leave stuff from the night before and expect her to clean up for them since they have all left for work. She spent two hours cleaning yesterday, and when she told one of the roommates what she had done, she was told that they had done it already the day before. DD said she did what she thought needed to be done, but otherwise, nobody says what they want done. I told her that under no condition should she clean their dishes and pans since she is not using any of that stuff. However, they told her that if stuff is there, anyone who sees it laying there should clean it. (example given.... if you are married, do you have your husband clean his own dishes?) Now, the roommate with the tv put a note on the tv that says she must be asked for permission to watch her tv. Other roommates told her that this girl fights with everyone and don't worry about it, but this girl told her she never wants to talk to her again! PHEW, I'm exhausted! MAYBE I SHOULD CALL DISNEY AND TELL THEM ABOUT THE WORK SITUATION, AND HOW THE MANAGER WANTED DAUGHTER TO SIGN THIS FORM. DAUGHTER WOULD KILL ME, BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY NEED TO KNOW! I wish I could say that I feel better after writing, but I am not sure what to do. Any suggestions, friends, would be greatly appreciated. Marla

 

[safetymom]

Marla, I understand your frustration. Been there, done that when my daughter was a CP.

I wanted to rush in and do something to make it right for my daughter. But my daughter wanted to handle it. She called me to vent and talk it through. I wanted to fly down and handle the problem for her. My son wanted to fly down and have a talk with the roommates. She did handle all the problems then and I can't believe the difference in my daughter today.

I will have to ask my daughter when she gets up what yours should do about the work location. That manager sounds terrible. It sounds like something else is going on there. I forget all the terms but doesn't your daughter have like an advisor? She should tell him/her about the work. She is entitled to a break and shouldn't be working off the clock. If they had her doing all that work she should have been paid.

The roommate situation I feel your pain. I just don't know how some kids were brought up. My daughter shared everything but the roommates had many things that were off limits. They were another source of irritation for me because they should just all pitch in and help. It sounds like your daughter is the designated cleaner. She should be cleaning her stuff and the rest of them should be doing their own. My daughters roommates woke her several times at 2 AM to go clean something. The roommates may be flexing their muscles so I would say have your daughter hang tough.

Daughter also starting taking pictures so she would have proof when they had to leave. Documenting her room, any damage that was there so she wouldn't be blamed. It did come in handy when she went to leave.

If you would like to talk I can PM my phone number. My daughter may be able to help you also.

Good luck and know that we are always here to listen. It isn't easy sometimes being the Mom of a CP.

 

[SoonerKate]

Marla,

Your daughter needs to talk to an RCA (or whatever they're calling the housing advisor AI's now) as soon as she can about her housing situation. (Like today, and if not today, tomorrow.) There should have been a roommate agreement for them to fill out upon moving into a new place. It's really not fair to her (or the other roommate) to have to move into a group like hers.

It sounds like she was pushed into an already bad situation, and something like that on top of an extremely stressful work situation is not going to give her a good college program experience. My roommate went home during our program because our other two roommates were awful and so was her job. Fortunately, I loved my job and had friends outside of the program I could escape to when the living situation got too stressful, or I would have self-terminated too.

Tell your daughter that she needs to make an appointment with the Coordinator of Training at the Contemporary. This is the person who probably led her resort tour on her first day of training in her location. The number will be on a purple, kind of glossy fold-out card that she received on her resort tour day, and it'll also have her manager's number and the number for the call-in line for her restaurant. She also probably got a business card from the Coordinator of Training, I know I did.

She needs to bring up these concerns with her CoT. By not allowing her to have breaks and by making her work while off the clock, her supervisor is violating federal labor laws. Disney takes these things seriously if you go to the right person, and obviously her manager isn't it.

I am more in agreement with you -- I think she needs to find out about having her work location changed. I never ran into that problem, so I'm not sure who to call, but I'll try to find out for you. "They" claim it can't be done, but I've seen it happen for some people, so obviously it can and the easiest time to do it is at the beginning of a program when just about everything is still in flux.

I've also PM'd you with some other information.

 

[mirmatt]

Thank you for responding. I am taking notes so that I can tell my daughter. I haven't gotten any PM'S. My email is Mirmatt@aol.com. I think that my daughter will be afraid that when she talks to someone, it will get back to the people she is having problems with and it could get worse! She didn't seem to know who to call, especially on a Sunday. Marla

 

[safetymom]

I just sent you an email to your AOL address.

 

[SoonerKate]

I also sent you an e-mail, it's coming from katherine_thorne at hotmail dot com. (Sometimes AOL filters hotmail into spam folders.)

 

[mirmatt]

Well, talked to dd this morning and passed on info. She is worried that if she is to keep working where she is, that if she complains, it will get to her manager and it will be that much worse, if that is possible! She said that one of her roommates (one of the two from the previous day who gave her h-ll about her responsibilities in the apt. told her that fewer than 50 percent of the cp's actually make it to graduation because of their treatment at Disney, and that she should just "kiss ......" if you wants to stay. This is what my dd thinks she is already doing. How do we spell UNHAPPY! It is terrible hearing the sound of her voice and how bad she sounds. When I asked her if there is someone at work who she can talk to, she said there wasn't. It sounds rather cut throat! Due to traffic she got to work late last night and one of the other employees signed her in and wrote that she was late. The manager called her in and didn't want to know what happened. I asked my dd how to make this so it won't happen again and she said she'll have to take the 12:00 noon bus and will wait in the cast cafeteria for 3 hours, until she has to be at work! If she relies on their bus and it gets there late, now that is her problem too. The new thing now is MY MOTHER who thinks that it is terrible that I am not having daughter come home! I want this to be a learning experience, but there should be joy somewhere, shouldn't there be? OH the joy of being away from being able to knock some blocks off! I thought being a high school teacher in the inner city was hard!! Marla

 

[jk1]

Marla, I am sorry to hear that your daughter's WDWCP is starting off so bad. I have no advice for you as my daughter works in Attractions. But as far as the roommates go, she should push for a move. There is no sense in putting up with what she has so far. And the work schedules sound like she will always be the odd man out.

I'm down at WDW right now. Anything I can do for you re: your daughter's situation? My WDWCP alumni daughter is also with me. In fact, they put her on the schedule to work a few days while we are here. Email me or pm me if I can do anything to help you.

 

[mirmatt]

Well, before she went to work today, she went to visit a friend, who happens to be a manager at a food place at AK. DD was able to tell someone about all this stuff and was told to call a few diff. places. She was told to call in sick today, but dd chose to go to work. I gave her the number of a couple friends from this board (recently made friends, thank you) Don't know if she called yet, but she did go to see the coordinator of training for her job. This person told dd that she might have a position in the food and game place and she would check it out, but told dd that as far as a break during her job, in this position, the time that she is not seating someone and is waiting at the podium for the next person to be seated, is her break! I asked dd how long there was that she might stand at the podium, and she said maybe a couple minutes! That is some break! And that is from the training coordinator in the place! She was told about the way the manager was treating dd and she thought it was wrong. In the meantime, dd is going to go to casting tomorrow to look into this. This coordinator is only involved with this one resort so that is all she can work with....... maybe someone else can do more. DD feels that she would be happy to do anything if she could work for a better manager! I hope things work out. Luckily she is off the next couple of days so she can have alittle relief in the job area and can maybe get a change. Marla

 

[safetymom]

Marla, I can't believe that they are insisting that standing around is a break. I think she needs to talk with someone else about all this.

Maybe she can discover some of the Disney Magic on her days off that will help her and you deal with this. She needs to go to the parks, ride the rides and get to take the time to discover new things in the park. Then she needs to call you and share the magic. Then she should have the strength and energy to deal with her work and roommates.

Please keep us posted. We understand and are always ready to listen.

 

[SoonerKate]

Marla, Miriam called me today before she went to work. What a sweet girl! We talked for about half an hour, and then she had to go to work.

I think she's going to go down to the housing office to at least get a roommate agreement. That'll help the roommate situation some -- not as much as her avoiding the one girl giving her the most problems, but some. If nothing else, if they need to bring a third party in to mediate anything, there's something written down that they can reference. (It's a nice thing to have -- I only wish my roommates and I had filled ours out seriously, but that's hard to do when everything starts out all rosy.)

The work situation sounds like she's starting to get it resolved, at least partly. It's just so hard to find a starting place with situations like that, but she's definitely doing a great job.

I told her to go to the parks and go hang out, even if it's just for a little bit. It helps so much to go into the parks and kind of bring back the feelings that brought you down there in the first place, even if you just go on one ride.

 

[mirmatt]

I am so glad that she called. I gave her the number that you left and didn't know whether she would have a chance. I am going to wait to hear from her tonight and I hope things were better or atleast that she was more comfortable. Thanks again, and we'll hope for the best. By the way.... how are her roommates going to take to this contract. Four of them have been together at Chatham for 5 months and they had to move to Vista.... the same day that Miriam arrived. All of a sudden, a new kid comes in and wants this done...... how does this work? Does everyone do this? Just wondering. Marla

 

[caseymaureen]

Hi Marla,
I'm SoonerKate's roommate who terminated! (Hi Kate!) Reading about your DD's situation really brought back some memories. At Port Orleans food court (and all the others I ended up working in) we were told that when the ice built up in the bottom of the soda machines we should get a cup of water from the coffee machine and pour it on the ice. This usually worked out fine and I never really thought about it too much. The one day I was getting the cup of scalding hot water to pour when a guest bumped my arm, spilling the contents of the cup across my hand. I quickly went to my manager who tried to say that I was fine and that he didn't think I should go to Health Services, but if I really wanted to I could. I decided better safe than sorry since it was already blistering. My hand ended up being bandaged like a big boxing glove and the nurse gave me a note saying that I shouldn't be working around any heat for at least a week. As soon as I got back to PO I gave the manager the note, and he promptly told me to go work in the pizza station getting pizas out of the oven. I mean, am I crazy or does the oven qualify as heat? So here I am with this boxing glove trying to avoid touching the food or the pans or anything, which is just about impossible. The next day I was at Animal Kingdom Lodge, where the manager wouldn't let me leave to get to Health Services before they closed to get my bandage re-done (I was supposed to come back every day.) Health Services isn't a problem, it's the management who really doesn't care why you're not working, all they see is that you're not being productive and that you're causing trouble.
As I'm sure Kate remembers, we also had problems with our roommates and the TV's. At the beginning of our semester we were thinking of jointly buying a TV to put in the common area, but one of our roommates said no, she didn't think we should because she never really watched TV, so she would just put hers in the common room. About halfway through she changed her mind. This is more of a problem than you might think at disney, where some people's shifts end at 2PM and others at 2AM (Kate.) When I woke up at 5:30 to get ready for my breakfast shift and wanted to check the news or whatever else, Kate had just gotten home from ESPN at 3 or 4 and needed to sleep. It ended up being routine for me to get up and carry my TV to the common room in order to watch TV in the morning.
Don't even mention the dishes and food...but they definitely ended in some major post-it note battles (communication problems...)
I ended up leaving in a combination of frustration with our other roommates who didn't know how to think of anyone but themselves, and my work location. I liked PO, but I ended up spending more than half of my time at AKL which I hated. After they made it clear that no matter how much I didn't like it or who I talked to, nobody cared, I just gave up. I got tired of having to fight every manager every day for a little bit of consideration. I got tired of explaining to our other roommates why it wasn't okay to have 5 or more boys over at 4 in the morning right outside my door when I have to work at 7. I actually ended up with a stress-related illness after it all. I wish I had some real advice for your daughter, but the best I can think of is to make it better now. I kept thinking that if I waited a little bit longer it would all straighten out and it never did. Make sure she talks to her RCA, possibly her manager's manager, and everyone else she can think of. Make sure people know she's not happy with what's going on or they won't care. Disney doesn't like people who make a fuss, but that's just because it's a lot easier to ignore an unhappy person who sits around quietly than a person who lets everyone know what's wrong until it gets changed. I hope everything gets better for your DD, and if she ever wanted to talk feel free to PM me, I'll give you my phone number so she can vent to someone who understands how it is!

 

[mirmatt]

I hope that you had the support of friends on this site as I feel that we have, like yourself! How long did you stay in the program? I hate to see dd give up, but at the same time, I don't want her to be miserable. Hopefully she will have spoken to some others in the next two days and hopefully..... changes can be made that will make things better for her. Again, I am waiting to hear from her tonight. Send your number to me and I will send it to her. Mirmatt@aol.com Thanks, Marla

 

[princesstommi]

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter's problems. It makes me so sad to hear that your daughter isn't having a good time. I had the most wonderful time on my program, and so did DH (we met there ).

I did my program Fall 2000, and never had any problems with work. I worked in merchandise at the Studios, I don't know how different food is. And of course there were dumb roommates, but that wasn't such a big deal because I was never there (I practically lived in DHs apartment. His roommates were way cooler).

My only advice is to have her talk to her RCAs since management at her resort is not helpful. They will be able to help with the roommate situation and hopefully have ideas about work. Or at least know who she can talk to about her situation. I know one of DH's roommates was moved from the Emporium to the World Traveler at Epcot because he just wasn't cut out for the craziness, but the managers there were great. DH worked at the Emporium, too.

I really hope your dd can get things resolved. It can be a wonderful time if you can get into the right situations. My heart goes out to her.

:missing Vista Way: