(3/11) Well it’s quite obvious that I have woken up this morning only to waste my time! I recently applied for a job at ESPN Zone, and just my luck, I got the job…or at least I thought I did. Remember how I recently posted that I would reveal what really happened while I was on the Disney College Program?…Well this is that time! In late January 2010, I participated in an internship with Walt Disney World…I also particpated in the internship last year (I successfully completed my program) and thought that I could go back and do an even better job than my previous year. My roommates this time around were pretty cool and the people that I met down there were amazing. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing for the labor part of the program. I’m not going to make excuses for myself, because I did make a lot of HUGE errors during my first couple of days on the job. I was very anti-social with my trainers (who were very fucking odd). I forgot their names as quick as I could…matter fact as soon as I decided to walk away from the program I forgot about em. My 20 million managers were almost the same as last time as far as communication goes. They were very distant and awkward to speak with. But I digress; I’ll talk about the shitty managers in a while. I had two trainers…one was a guy who farted and just let them linger in small compact places and sang and danced for no reason…WHILE ON THE JOB! He was your typical redneck and he even called me “Boy” once. But me not wanting to look or become the typical over-reactive dude, I stayed cool. The other trainer was a lady who smelled like old cigarettes and dust, her teeth looked like the Crypt Keeper’s and she loved to talk in my face with her amazingly atrocious breath. In many ways she reminded me of that stereotypical old lady who has gone absolutely mad and lives in a dirty house with dozens of cats. Neither one of them were my cup of tea, in a nutshell, a walnuts shell. My work location was Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom…I must say that I was a bit upset that I could not return to Frontierland which was the place I had worked at during my last internship. But oh well, I took the good with the bad and kept moving. At least I could say that I was still working in the same park. My job assignment was to do the Buzz Lightyear Attractions, which were an insult to me considering I had come from THE WILDEST RIDE IN THE WILDERNESS! “BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN”! The Buzz Attractions were basically kiddy rides, but I took the good with the bad. Training was uber early in the morning, and I mean the rooster wasn’t even up at this time of morning! I made my way up to the park and got cracking on this training thing! I fell asleep all the time in classroom training because I had already known all of the safety policies and I thought that the safety procedures were a JOKE! I just remembered my trainer’s names just now…thank you hot chocolate! Their names were John and Donna…uggh. One day, in the classroom I fell asleep in front of the management team and then one of then decided to talk to me briefly…his name was Kirk. Kirk said what he had to say, and then we kept going with the last hours of training. The very next day, I made it a point to try and stay awake. I did absolutely everything in my power to keep myself awake. I ate hot packets from Taco Bell, I stood up and read the manuals, I sang songs in my head, etc. But for some odd reason Donna and John decided to run and tell Kirk that I was sleep…and this time it was even worse…they had said I fell asleep while operating the ride…WHICH IS TOTALLY FALSE. I have too much sense and respect for the company than to put potential lives in danger, but they thought otherwise. Kirk came into the room, my trainers and the other person I trained with left the room, and I was alone with Kirk. The bald-headed son of a b***** put his finger directly in my face and began to yell at me. I just could not take any more of this bullshit so I reacted! I pushed his finger out of my face and told him that he will NOT ever speak to me like that ever again. He asked me to calm down and slowly but surely I calmed down, I didn’t want to get fired for scaring the living shit out of my manager. We sat and talked about why he had to talk to me AGAIN…and then he requested that I sign a statement which basically said that I would agree to admit that I fell asleep while operating the ride. In the words of Madea (Tyler Perry Movies)…”HELL TO THE NAW!” I told him that I refuse to lie on myself for the sake of the company. I did however admit that I fell asleep while in the classroom. With that admission, Kirk asked for my Disney ID and suspended me (with pay, so no complaints here) until further notice. Being escorted out of the park, I began to think of all the things I could be doing if I weren’t down in sunny Orlando, Florida. I could have just quit and flew home right then and there, but I didn’t; I wanted to give my mind a fair chance to evaluate the situation. I got home and immediately called my family members, my girlfriend, and my closest friends and told them that it was a possibility that I might be heading home that week, whether the company let me back or not. I just really wanted to be back home. It was unfair to me, my roommates, and my past roommates that I was trying to make this experience greater than the previous year. I talked it over with everyone time and time again for the next 3 days; it was a failed and very inconvenient meeting with my managers that ultimately made my decision to go home. They wasted my time, and they were an hour and a half late to a meeting that I was EARLY to, where’s the courtesy and respect there? I got home and bought my train ticket, told my roommates what was what, and told the IMPORTANTS that I was coming home. That’s the end of that story. I have been meaning to publish this little experience for quite some time now, but I have not had the proper inspiration until today. ESPN is a branch of the Disney Company, a branch of Disney that I would love to eventually climb and see the top of. However, my leave from the program this year could have possibly hindered my chances of being an employee at the ESPN Zone in D.C. I was not fired or anything of that nature. I wasn’t even on the program for 3 full weeks. It a damn shame to feel like a certain company will never want you. But fuck it, I’m bigger than that and I’m not going to let a few assholes in the road slow me down.
