Re: MiMs
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:48 am
The cruelty here is astounding.
I figured it out today! I finally figured it out. MiMs is the product of many, many things. One of the main reasons I was upset about it most recently is the way that the implementation of the computer system goes completely against what Disney is about. I was adding 1+1+1+1+1 and getting sixteen. I finally found where that other eleven was hiding.
You look around Disney's bus system, and there is one very large contingent of the drivers, very vocal about the fact that they should just be drivers and not have to do anything else. The more I think about it, the more I can think of exactly the conversation that took place to make MiMs the ugly reality that it is today.
Here is how I figured it out. I went to lunch at Pride Rock, and I was lamenting the fact that it was so difficult to spiel anymore. I was lamenting how if I needed to make an important safety-related announcement, I have to wait a long time and how I don't have any interaction with my guests anymore, as it's all confined to the front door as they board.
One guy, sitting down the table, overhearing what I was saying started laying into me how I shouldn't be talking on the road anyway. I tried to explain to him how I couldn't drive and talk at the same time, just as no one could. I tried another approach, and his next words were, "You can't tell me you can drive and talk at the same time." He went on a tirade about how he's been a Disney bus driver for 18 years (which means that if Disney's been his only job, I have much more real-world commercial driving experience than he does in my eight years... he lives and works in a wonderful bubble), and he got really high on his horse. The fact that I have been trained to drive and be a guide meant nothing to him, and I had decided a fight with an idiot who refuses to listen to anything I bring to the conversation was not worth it.
My next word, and all the words I said to him for a while after that in the conversation were, "Okay."
Finally, he got the clue that I was patronizing him and called me on it. I agreed that I hadn't changed my mind, but I was agreeing with him on one thing. I explained that I was agreeing that I couldn't tell him anything.
Then, he announced that he was a shop steward and must know what he was talking about.
That's when everything clicked. That was the other eleven: The union. The more I think about it, the more I am sure the union convinced the company that it is much safer to have the driver stay silent when driving. Granted, most people should not talk while driving, as they get mentally and emotionally locked up in their conversation instead of watching the road. I have trained myself to almost not even really listen to the conversation I am having with my guests, as I have had the same conversation hundreds of times now. But my guests don't know that. And neither does this shop steward.
But it all makes sense. There is a large contingent of drivers who think they should do nothing but drive, and they are all union members, many are shop stewards and other positions in the union. I am quite sure that they put the spiels in for two reasons: Drivers were not spieling when they were shopped, and the company, I am sure, had the pressure of the union to take that out of the drivers' job descriptions.
I found out yesterday that the new trainees at Disney are not being trained to spiel at all, but just to shut up and drive. Again, this was something I couldn't understand. There are also other things that I was seeing that made no sense when compared to the Disney way of guest service.
When I made that realization, I realized that fighting for my ability to interact with my guests would be a moot point. It is a fight I will never win, and soon the buses will be lost as a place where any special memories can be created. With that realization, the fact of my being so terribly upset has been replaced with a resolve to make something else work...anything else.
So now, I am not so upset, because it makes things make sense. I realize looking back that that was my main source of getting so worked up: I was confused at the fact that I was hearing two messages that so badly conflicted with each other.
I came not to Disney World to be a bus driver, but instead to be a Cast Member. Soon all the bus drivers will no longer be Cast Members in the true sense of the word. And I will not be a bus driver for Disney, but rather a Cast Member. It's sad that that decision must be made, but I am willing to make that decision when presented that way, and I have made it. :)
Cranbiz, sorry if that voicemail is at all confusing. This is the answer.
