After spending about half a year living and working for WDW I am getting more and more homesick as the days go by. I am tired of the repetitive activities they have for us to do. I can not wait to see the end of this program and go back to my natural daily life. However, even with its downs this experience has had its ups. I have met many magnificent people from many different places in the world. I noticed that people raised in their country are much more friendly then foreigners that are raised in the USA. I have learned why WDW stresses exceptional guest service and why guest expect the best from WDW.
Although being homesick, having roommates that frustrate me and seeing the same thing everyday may take out the Disney magic in me; I’ve tried to keep it alive. In order to keep the magic alive for myself; on my days off I usually like to go to the cast member discount store (property control) and shop. I personally love Disney merchandise especially if I can get it at an affordable price and the item is in good condition. When my family comes to visit the parks I join them and try to have fun. Even though I have been many of times on the same ride they want to get it on; I act as if it’s my first time on the ride inorder to contribute to their excitment. My roommate and I go and eat at Disney restaurant locations where we can get discounts in order to distract ourselves and enjoy the benefits of being a cast member. We go to the special events in the parks like the Spooky Halloween party, the food and wine festival and next we will be going the Very Merry Christmas party in Magic Kingdom because its something different from the usual.
From my observation I noticed that the WDW company keeps the magic alive for CPs and ICPs by doing housing events where they bring in Disney characters and by giving us discounts on merchandise and on restaurants. However, for the permanent full time employees they do it much different. According to my organizational leadership professor he stated that the way that WDW tries to keep the magic alive for permanent full time employees that have been in WDW company for many years is by re-recruiting people based on their attitudes and energy towards the job. They give recognition and rewards to those employees that are doing a good job. They try to put the right people in the right job where the work is meaningful to the cast member. The key points to keeping the magic alive in these cast members is by development, rewards, recognition and appreciation. For example in my location when a cast memeber on the register processes more then 80 transactions in one hour they get a reward such as a free meal, movies tickets or a $5 gift card. They also have $1 paper money that every time you do a good job they give you one and it can be redeemed for rewards; the more money you have the better is the reward. Also the fanatic cards are a sign of recognition that makes people feel good about their service and continue to want to work for a company that recognises and appreciates their hard work. WDW also has the seniority system where they give the most priorities to those that have been a long time with the company. In my location they put sign up sheets for people to sign up to become coordinators and general tellers and sign up sheets of locations needing food and beverage cast members such as the “Be Our Guest” restaurant in Magic Kingdom places that they can grow and develop.
The article ” Why do employees stay? A qualitative exploration of employee tenure” is very accurate on the reason why employees stay in a job. For example there is a full time cast member in my location that is working to save up to buy his dream car. He tells me that from his paycheck he uses only $50 dollars a week to last him the whole week. During break I see him eating chips and cookies from the vending machine or sometimes people just share their food with him. So far he has saved $1500 dollars, his goal is to reach $3000. He sign up to become a general teller and now he is getting paid a little more, which will help him get to his goal a little faster. In this case he is in the job for “financial need to work” as many other cast members are especially older cast members. On the other hand college program students spend their money like crazy because they are not in real need of the job they just here to get an experience.
Irma Matias
Epcot – Electric Umbrella
FOH/BOH
You did an excellent job of providing examples of how your leaders keep the Magic alive. Repetitive work is not often rewarding but is very demanding, therefore, offering the incentives that they do will allow Cast Members to work harder to receive a bonus.
The company itself does the same by creating Property Control. This incentive provides many castmembers with products they would not otherwise be able to buy in such great amounts.
I hope your coworker reaches his goal to buy his car.