So, as some may know I work for Walt Disney World. I started last year and I'll be ending my journey with this wonderful company in August of this year. I have loved my time here but it's time to move on and in my case grow up... I'm transfering schools for the Fall semester so I have to say goodbye to my home and my family to persure bigger things.
This year has been absolutely crazy though! I started out in a specialty location in the most famous park across the street (literally) from where I did my college program in 2012. I imagined my experience to be just like my program and I was so sad when that wasn't the case. I kept trying to get back to the magic that I fell in love with but for some reason just couldn't get there. I refused to pick up a shift across the street until recently for fear of disappointment. Was I wrong? Yes! I had a blast and quickly remembered how amazing it felt to work in that store. My life changed the first day I stepped foot through the backdoor (get it? cause the front door isn't where we enter the store from). I met my best friend, I fell in love, I fell out of love, I formed long distance best friendships that I still have, I was betrayed and got in trouble for wearing a bright pink bra, and found a close family that I will forever be connected to. I am grateful for that time and though I can't bring it back I can cherish every moment I get to spend in that store over the next 4ish months!!
I touched on not being able to find the magic of Disney again and because of that I grew bored and frustrated in my store. I decided in January to transfer to a brand new position. I now work for the Shop Disney Parks App! I get to learn the ins and outs of the backstage areas of each and every park while I run as fast as my little legs will take me to find all of the products the guests have purchased off of the app. It a fun job and I love it. Unfortunately I transfered at the exact WRONG time. Has anyone heard of the Disney budget cuts?
So, Shanghi Disney is set to open in February 2016!! YAY! Wait... that has passed and it's not open. Yeah. Well, it's taking a lot longer to open a brand new resort than what was originally planned. The new Shanghi Disney resort will open in June and we are all awaiting the opening! No, really, we are counting down the days. This is how poo hit the fan. Disney did NOT fail at budgeting. Remember, this is a multibillion dollar company. They didn't just up and fail at budgeting. They did fail at expectation. The Shanghi Disney resort should have been open just over a month ago and that was all budgeted. Because of the set back, Disney now has to rebudget for a June open date and time.
Let me explain this in a way that makes sense. Lets say you own one store and are paying the wages of five employees. They are part time so they aren't legally obligated to recieve a specific number of hours but you may not schedule them over 40 hours a week. You were expecting a new beautiful store to open this week so you budgeted enough money to pay your employees wages until then. Once the store can stand on it's own, you can pay those new employees with that money and your current with the money you make on the current store and the extra would be profit. BUT your contractor seems to have run into an issue with the deadline and is infact three months late in progress. What do you do to stay afloat? Well, you have enough to pay your employees their hourly wages and continue the work on the new store for one month. So how are you going to stretch that for two additional months? You're going to have to cut a few hours here and there. Instead of each employee getting 36 hours a week they will now get 24. Also, you're eating ramen until the new store opens.
Essentially this is what is happening. Domestic employees including full time employees are getting the minimum number of hours which in my case is 0. Luckily for me I can pick up hours at whatever store I want to. Unlucky for me some weeks are harder than others for picking up based on the number of hours needed for the business. Lately it's been pretty slow but just this weekend we're suppose to see a 13% increase since last year. Hopefully this means more hours.
This has absolutely nothing to do with my reason for wanting to move on. I was accepted to transfer school before the budget changes. I do feel bad for those castmembers who desperately need the hours.
That was a large update but I did have a lot to say I guess considering I haven't updated since the start of this blog!
If there are any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments!
XOXO Kait
