It's been a busy week, and ever since I only got to day five of my Short Story Week (as opposed to the day seven I was aiming for) I've been neglecting my blog. Life, what are you going to do?
It's easy to become complacent, particularly during periods of mental fatigue. This year Short Story Week left me on empty. I'm also making a conscious effort to get some Carousel up and running for public consumption, so the girls are almost always in my head somewhere. Also, nanowrimo is coming up. Ye Gods. And, oh yeah, my library's second annual sci-fi/fantasy festival is October 21-23, and that's gotten a LOT bigger than I think we were expecting. I've somehow managed to weasel my way into a predominantly creative role in the development of said festival (writing the promotional spots, game creation, performing). It is a wonderful, exhausting project that I couldn't be more proud to lose sleep over.
But I don't need to go another week without posting a blog. So I banged my head on the counter until something came to the foreground that I thought might be worth sharing. I've casually mentioned in the past that I worked for six years as a Disney character performer, but I've never really taken the time to describe my experience with the company. That sounds like it's worth a blog or two, right?
Walt Disney World isn't the evil corporation you hear it is.
I say that with confidence to anyone who has never worked there. When I mention being a Disney cast member to people who only know the theme parks as a guest or a distant observer, I find that they already come into the conversation with a preconceived notion about the backstage area of Cinderella's bedroom view.
First there are the naysayers, who will say nay no matter what indisputable evidence to the support of optimism is place before them. "I hear Disney is bad to their employees" is their mantra. Did you hear that from a reputable source, or just your own ego's opinion? The truth is, Disney is a pretty damn good company. Flawless? Hell, no. It's a company. There will always be a certain sacrifice of humanity you have to make when you join any company, and in Disney's case that often involves not having much of a life outside of the full time job (and giving the company permission to kill you with hours from September to January). You know this going into the job.
Yes, there are people who suck, and some of them have slightly more powerful positions. That's simple sociology. But as a company, there are a lot of benefits that are easy to overlook. When my car broke down, I had a place to take it on property and a means to get from the mechanic to my work and back. When my mother died, I was taken care of. I mean, they didn't pay her funeral expenses or anything, but by the time I got the phone call they'd already plugged five days of bereavement pay into my schedule with the option of adding in sick pay if I needed more time. All I'd need to do was give them a signature and a future phone call. In essence, they have their shit together. So, no, they aren't bad to their employees, just don't expect to be treated like a celebrity either.
It's also not the Garden of Eden.
On the flipside are the perpetual yaysayers, who love Disney (which is great), often imagine the place as magical (which is unrealistic), and occasionally treat Walt as a figure of worship (which is dangerously close to insanity). Working backwards from the extreme, the Walt Disney you know never existed. The man's public face was a character that he played. Walt was a savvy businessman who was driven by a need to nurture innocence, maybe not by making the world better but at least by making it feel better. And that motivator spread into his choice to present himself as this grandfatherly Santa Claus type who just sort of 'knew' what to do. In reality, the Walt Disney name that gets plastered all over everything is the combined efforts of many, many people who believed in an idea; some of whom have names lost to history.
Now to be fair, the company presents Walt the man as identical to Walt the entity. The company says we do things a particular way because "it's how Walt would have wanted it", not because of something less mystical like: it's a good idea. The company describes positive guest experience as "pixie dust", not as the equally impressive but less romantic: the company provides guests with the tools to create their own experiences. And therein lies the real poetry of the Disney company. People love it. When you love something, your experience with the hardships can be very transformative.
I once saw my hero Weird Al perform at the House of Blues. I stood in line two hours before the doors opened, clutching my first ever purchased bottle of water. Then I went inside and stood with a crowd of people for another hour. We stood through a less than stellar opening act, and then stood some more. I felt like my legs were going to give out, but then Al and the band took the stage for two hours. And I danced for two hours. And sang at the top of my lungs. And I spent the next day crawling around my apartment on my belly because my legs had stopped working. Does that sound like a good or a bad experience? Neither. It was freaking awesome! Because I love Weird Al.
In reality, the Disney company is functional. The backstage area is set up to effectively get you where you need to be to do what you need to do. The park gives you plenty of ways to keep yourself fed, washed, and prepared to deal with blows you can take from the guest area. Disney treats its employees well, but not like they're anything more than employees. You are expendable. They never forget that, but all too often the incoming cast members do.
Should you work there?
If you want to. If you're not sure, do what I did: next time you're vacationing there, stop by the casting center and put in an application. They'll give you a quick and accurate primer on what the job requires of you, and you're under no pressure to ever come back after that interview. Basically they'll say "We've got your information. Call us when you're ready to start training."
From there, think about what you're going to have to give up. Do you have a family? Working for Disney is going to effect them; do not expect to spend any holidays with them for about seven years.
When you work for Disney, they own all of your time. Are you willing to agree to those conditions? Remember, you're human. It may not sound like that much of a challenge now, but at some point you're going to be going in for an eleven hour shift on four hours of sleep. It is up to you to figure out how to keep your brain focused under those conditions.
Are you going in on the college program? Taking a semester off to get some work experience isn't a bad idea. Just bear in mind that working for Disney doesn't qualify you for anything special other than to work for Disney. A lot of college students get hired, and then stay on full time. And that's fine, but then they never finish their degree. And then they're in their thirties and feeling a little restless, but they aren't qualified to do anything but work at Disney. That can be unsettling.
I don't remember if my Disney interview asked me if I had any long term goals. I certainly didn't have any. I just knew I needed to move away from home and grow up a little, and Disney was the perfect place for that. Six years later I put in my resignation, and I still had no long term goals. I just knew that I'd gotten what I needed out of Disney and there was more world out there.
Ultimately, Walt Disney World is a job. It's a good one. But it's a job, and that's the only arrangement it needs to have with its cast members. Some people find a proverbial family at Disney, and that's a wonderful bonus. But you're co-workers first. The job can be very fun and rewarding; and that's also a wonderful bonus. But the focus is always on the experience of the paying vacationers first.
I have a lot of delightful stories being a character performer, some of which I'll tell you about in part two of this blog, but there were also many days where I felt like my life was wasting away. Disney can be a great job. It can also be a dull job. Some days you feel like a kid, and some days you feel like a zombie. You may end your day energized and you may start your day broken. It's a job. Disney won't make you happy, but it will give you a chance to be so. I can't say that about a lot of jobs I've had.
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