Years ago, I worked for the Big Rat. When Eisner came in as CEO, the company became pretty aggressive about employees NEVER working there long enough to get retirement benefits.
If you work in the park, even as a waiter, you are a cast member, so you ‘audition’ for that ‘job’ every 6 months. Since they like the ‘college freshman’ look, if you started looking older, or not quite in the bloom of youth (tats, weight), then, daggone it, it is a shame you didn’t pass the audition.. try again in 6 months. Further more, it is usually 6 months working for the company and 6 months off.
On top of that, the company receives close to 50,000 (job) requests a day, from people all over the world whose life-dream is to work for Disney. Ol’ Walt sure left a lasting name brand of quality.
I worked at The Rat as well, along with my ex back during the Eisner Regime.
The management philosophy was “at the slightest problem from an employee, fire them - because for every full-timer you fire, there are three new hires eager to do the same job for less money.”
Also, some marketroid came up with the brilliant scam of firing everyone just before their 90-day period was up, so that the company got three months of cheap labor without having to pay employee benefits.
According to the 1995 industry reports, the annual turnover in the hospitality sector ALONE was 150%.
And Disney led the charge.
Walt’s been dead for 50 years. Disney World was swampland when he died. If you have issues with the current incarnation of the company, fine . But laying it at the feet of a man who died when LBJ was president is a little unfair.
CC