Three weeks ago Disney announced the suspension of the Disney College Program
in response to the COVID 19 pandemic and that the residents of company organized
housing had four days to vacate the premises. The next day I posted a video
explaining the situation with my thoughts and today I wanted to follow up
on this story with information from a survey I created that was answered by
over 250 college program participants interviews I conducted and information
from Disney itself along with my personal opinions and experience if
you've not watched my previous video I really recommend doing so so that way
you can understand this situation fully. With three weeks passing since the
suspension of the DCP many things have happened
Disney has announced that they will be closed until further notice, cast members
whose jobs aren't necessary at this time will be furloughed as of April 19th, and
the state of the world has escalated so rapidly that both states that the
American parks reside in have officially received a statewide shelter-in-place
order from their governments. With all this being said it is very clear that
the suspension of the Disney College Program needed to happen. Although I
believe the suspension was inevitable considering the state of this pandemic I
do not believe it was handled properly, appropriately, or with much respect in
regards to its Disney College Program cast members until it was too late.
Allow me to explain. Before I get into everything I just wanted to share some
basic information that I gained from my survey. 86% of people lived in housing,
80% were not from the state of their program ,12% were ICPs and 5% of
respondents said at the time of the announcement they had no clue where they
were going to go. First I want to revisit some things I pointed out in my video.
1. We were being paid to the end of the month. Disney has held up their promise
on this. We received it in two separate paychecks, one being the last week that
we worked, and a second one being labeled "lump sum pay" which was our pay till the
end of the month. We were paid on Disney's typical pay day which is
Thursday. Those of us who lived in housing need to be out on Wednesday. This
created an issue for many CP's considering that the funds that they
were expected to use to help move out and potentially return home with were
not being paid with them until the day after they were required to leave. This
is one of the situations that I would consider being helpful a little too late.
2. Housing payments were stopped effective immediately.
Although this is a positive, something I would like to note is that in Walt
Disney World the rent is taken out of our paychecks before they're deposited
and in Disneyland the rent is taken out on Fridays. Although we did receive a
refund for the last week of rent as promised, it wouldn't be returned to us
until after we had to be gone. Personally, I received that payment on March 24th.
3. We were being given a program completion. This still holds true. All CP's
have received a PDF of their certificate of completion, however many Walt Disney
World CP's were told that their program was not being completely ended. What many
CP's in Florida have been led to believe is that if the parks were to reopen
before their original end date of their original program, they could be invited
back to return to their original role till their original end date. This has
not been presented as a potential option for Disneyland. I would like to note that
all Walt Disney World CP's who have reported this have done so from multiple
sources like leaders, the housing service centers, and calling program support.
Disney has not sent out any official word on this so until that is done I
would consider this all to be hearsay and unofficial. Now, I would like to
address the numerous theories and questions about what Disney has or has
not done or said in response to the Disney College Program suspension. Things
I find people to be talking about the most are support and assistance,
legalities, communication, and the well-being of CP's. Support and assistance.
I have heard many claims that Disney is not just "kicking people out" or "there's
no way they could do that". In my survey, I asked "Have you reached out to Disney in
regards in needing assistance of any type since the suspension of the DCP?"
10.1 percent responded with no and I need assistance, 4.9 percent responded
with yes and I have received assistance, and 7.3 percent responded with yes and I
have not received a response. As far as types of help received, the most common
was a free taxi ride to the airport in Orlando. I do want to note that Disney
sent out an email on March 15th to the CP's with a message reading as follows
"Some of you have expressed concern about getting home. If you have a specific
situation please see a cast member at the programs office. Please know that no
one will be without accommodations." I think it's also important to share that
thankfully 59.9 percent of the respondents of my survey said
that they did not need assistance. As for other forms of help, I have heard three
stories where CP's were given the opportunity to stay in housing past the
morning of the 18th. One involved a CP who happened to be in their home state
for a family emergency during the suspension. The Disney College Program
worked with the CP to allow them to fly back at a later date in order to
retrieve their belongings. The CP also reported that "the program housing
did say it was possible to be compensated because of my situation." This
was an anonymous response, so I have no other information
as well as no way to learn more. Additionally, I spoke with someone who
corroborated the claims that Disney was allowing ICP's to stay in housing later
than March 18th. This ICP was from South America and
their country was going into a travel lockdown.
They had to go to the airport early in order to get a flight that would get
them into the country before the lockdown went into effect. After this ICP
returned home, they then received communication from the Disney College
Program about assistance if needed. Unfortunately, I have not received any
survey responses or heard of any other stories from ICPs,
especially Italian ICPs, about whether they were allowed to stay in housing or
how Disney provided them assistance. and I have looked far and high, I'm not saying
that it did or did not happen all I'm saying is that I have no evidence to
prove either side. So, yes, Disney did offer assistance, however it
was too little too late for many people. Luckily it seems that many CP's were not
completely stranded, and actually 67% of people who responded to my survey said
that fellow CP's or cast members offered them assistance in this time of need.
Nonetheless, it's still heartbreaking to read responses with phrases such as "my
leaders were basically non-existent" and "I asked for help and Disney laughed."
Legalities. "There's no way they could do this." Yes, there is and we all actually
signed a paper giving them permission to do so. Code 1 Section 6 of the Disneyland
Resort Community Codes of Residential Housing and Code 3 Section 1 of the
Community Codes form for Walt Disney World States "I understand that Disney
may in its sole discretion terminate my living experience of the housing
properties for any reason whatsoever or for no reason with or without cause... If
Disney exercises this right hereunder, I shall immediately leave housing
properties in accordance with the terms hereof." Although there may be renters
laws about giving 30-day eviction notices, that was nullified because of
what we signed. As for us losing our jobs, most CP's were still under their
probation period, including myself, so we had no rights there either. The main
point is that although the way that Disney handled this whole suspension
wasn't fair or right, it was legal. Communication. When asked on my survey,
56% of CP's said that they felt that Disney's communication with the
suspension of the Disney College Program was either poor or very poor. The biggest
complaint that I've heard from many CP's is that they felt blindsided. To be
honest, I think all of America was blindsided by this, however something
that I feel is that the Disney programs could have been more transparent. Looking
at this whole situation from like a PR standpoint I understand
that you might not want to let your not yet permanent, young, and excitable
employees know that one of the largest entertainment companies in the world is
ceasing operations, but you also don't want to tell anyone that they're gonna
be fired before you know for sure. Rumors spread like wildfire and in the age of
social media the world would know in a matter of minutes. That is not what I'm
suggesting should have happened. However, after hearing these words
DIRECTLY from a cast member within Disney College Program leadership, the
Disney College Program knew many days before the announcement was made that
the DCP would be ending. I highly doubt it took multiple days for them to write
the single page email to let us know that we were losing our jobs, our program
was ending, and we had four days to get out. While I'm on this topic of emails, I
would love to talk about the DCP emails: the only formal communication we
received at CP's. From the announcement of the suspension until now I have received
12 emails from the Disney College Program. 2 being duplicates, and 4
being about free pizza being offered in the programs office one day, and donuts
the next. 4 out of the 12 emails had pertinent information in regards to the
suspension of the Disney College Program and procedures following. I received
quicker communication that there was more pizza in the program's office
rather than knowing that if I needed assistance
I could ask. Then go ahead and add all of this poor communication on top of how
Disney communicated with their cast members that they were going to be out
of work. I would like to reiterate this. Disney informed the public that the parks
were going to be closed before they informed to their cast members.
It took them days to update our internal website, and for the record that update
said" talk to your leader." The Well-Being of CP's. If the Disney College Program had
allowed their residents to stay within Disney College Program housing during
the entirety of the shutdown of the parks, it could have become a breeding ground
for toxic environments, and frankly this lethal disease. Although Disney has a lot
of control over us, I have yet to find anything that says they can force us to
stay in our apartments. There are also plenty of people who are not taking this
pandemic seriously, or to stay at home order seriously, as so precisely
represented by the thousands of spring breakers on the beaches of Florida that
graced the news so recently. Roommates might have differing views on social
distancing, or varying amounts of respect to those guidelines and sanitizing
habits, I speak from personal experience. With all this being said, I think it was
necessary to send all of us CP's home. I have never said that this wasn't the
correct move, just the way it happened was wrong. Although this overall decision
is what was best for our physical health, the way in which was done and the
effect it has had, has taken a toll on the mental well-being of many CP's.
I have been overwhelmed with the amount of responses I've received with comments
such as "I loved my job and I can't wait to go back", "I found my family and my
calling", "regardless of how badly Disney treats me as an intern I will always
return to this role if given the opportunity because it has been the main
source of my happiness since my program started." 58% of the
people who responded to my survey said that they moved to the DCP with intent
and staying on after their program. For many people this was their dream come
true. To work for the Walt Disney Company. Obviously I am well aware that Disney
did not intend for this heartache to happen with their decision. They would
not have closed the parks if it wasn't absolutely necessary. They made the right
decision for all parties involved, no matter how poorly it was executed. But I
just wanted to take the time in this video to shed some light on the
emotional side of the suspension. I personally think that having a job and a
roof over your head is much more important than working your dream job or
whatever this DCP was to people however, it doesn't mean that the loss of some
dreams is an easy pill to swallow. My heart goes out to all those CP's who were
living their dream and got it taken away. It sucks. There are a lot worse things
happening right now, I am fully aware of that, but that doesn't mean missing your
graduation, not being able to go to prom, postponing your first concert, or
anything else that is not a "life or death" situation less crummy. To be frank,
I was shocked to hear that anybody would want to so passionately return to a
company that has treated them this way. 80% of survey respondents said that they
would want to go back and work for Disney in the future. I spoke about in my
last video about how I felt that Disney did not value the Disney College Program,
and their actions surrounding the suspension solidified that for me. So to
hear after all of this, that people so desperately want to go back. It's
fascinating to say the least. Some responses to my survey that really
stuck out to me it go as follows "the cast members who are part of the DCP are
obviously not considered to be real cast members and can be and were easily and
immediately thrown away", "I feel betrayed and unsure of the other goings ons that
are also shady", "I feel disposable". All these things are
things I want you to remember the next time you're able to visit a Disney park.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of people who work for this company that
they feel does not value them, that they don't even care about them, however they
still want to come back. They live for any sort of magic that
they can get their hands on, and help create. One of my hopes was sharing this story is
that people might be more kind and respectful to those cast members working
in the parks. We put up with a whole lot more than we should just to make a
magical experience for one person. One overwhelming similarity that I have seen
through these different survey responses and interviews that I've done is that
it's the people that make these CP's love their jobs and their lives. It's not
Disney. They're just the thing that brings the people together. I've shared a
lot of information in this video and I have more, but it just won't fit. If
you're curious as to what other info I've learned through my research, my interviews,
and my survey, I've made a post laying it all out that you can view with this link.
Now it's time for my final thoughts. First, I do not believe that Disney is
evil. (Shocker) They are a company who I think has a lot
of good people that work for it, however sometimes those good people don't get to
make the right decisions, or handle the tough ones. Like I said in my last video,
I am NOT saying boycott Disney. All I'm asking is to criticize the actions of
these big corporations and remember how they acted in this time of crisis. Keep
them accountable, and don't forget the DCP. Share our story. Secondly stay home
if you can. As we've learned over these past three weeks, things are aggressively
getting worse, and the only way things can get better is if we work together.
Like I said before, don't let the loss of our jobs, thousands of other people's
jobs, and the loss of life as we know it be in vain.
Flatten the curve. Donate if you can, here are some causes I would recommend
supporting. Look out for one another. Social distancing should be physical
distancing, not social isolation. Stay connected, write an email. Have you ever
gotten an email that wasn't from a company? They're delightful. As for me
personally, I'll be posting a separate update video on that because I don't
want to take up any more of your time here. For now, I'll just let you know I am
healthy, I am safe, and I have a lot of great people supporting me. Everyone
who has contributed to this video, to my survey, who I interviewed, who has shared
this story: Thank you. To those of you who have spent any of your time hearing me
talk about this, your time is invaluable and I appreciate you. and just as I end
all my videos, stay beautiful, have a marvelous day, and I'll chat with you in
the next one.