I've really been liking my job; it's easy and I have a lot of freedom. The hardest part so far has been trying to understand where all of the different zones are and what they're called. I feel like a freshman in high school again because everyone else already knows how everything works and I'm just trying to catch up and learn everything. My trainers have been extremely helpful and informative, and have always been happy to answer my questions when I've asked them (and I do that a lot.) They've even been so cool that we've hung out after work and they've given me rides home, which is greatly appreciated since the Magic Kingdom bus is such a pain at night. In short, things have been going relatively well, considering the fact that I didn't really know what to expect when I got here.
Now I have some big news! Yesterday I had my training assessment, which, for those of you who don't know, was the deciding factor between whether or not I was ready to work on my own. I wasn't very concerned about how I would be assessed when I was talking to guests, but more about whether or not I knew things like what the different chemicals were used for or the proper protocol for a code V inside of an attraction or something. Sometimes I easily forget things when I'm put on the spot so I was a little nervous about that.
It turns out, I didn't have to be. The first woman to assess us was SO sweet. She was like a mother, telling me about ways to save money here and to always be aware of my surroundings and the people around me because Florida obviously isn't the safest place. We spent about two hours back stage where I answered some multiple choice questions, then we went upstairs so she could show me a few other things.
At one point when we were walking past Casey's Corner, I saw a little princess and decided to make a little magical moment for her by giving her a Mickey sticker. She was so excited when she saw that Mickey was on it and when I referred to her as princess. Then I saw she had a brother who was much younger than her and in a stroller. I walked over to him and said something like "Hello, prince! Mickey told me he saw you earlier and saw you were having such a great time that he wanted me to give you something special!" He LIT UP when I showed him that sticker. I also noticed he was wearing a birthday button and I asked how old he was, to which he held up three fingers. Then his parents said, "But how old are you now?" and he held up four fingers. His dad took pictures of me interacting with them and I told them I hoped they had a magical day and I was on my way!
Later on in the day was when I had my actual guest interaction assessment. A manager asked me a few questions about procedures and she was a little too enthusiastic about it. Then we went outside and she watched me and another girl as we interacted with people. I was more nervous about it than I thought I would be just because I knew she was watching me. After about 20 minutes, the manager told us that we did a great job and that we had passed our assessment!
That means that I've officially earned my ears!! I can finally take off the ribbon I've been wearing!
I didn't have too long to be excited about it because almost immediately I was told to do a trash run on my own. I immediately became a little nervous about it because I had only done one trash run during training and I hadn't pushed the big cart with all of the big trash cans on it before. This cart is HUGE and hard to maneuver. That, along with a large crowd of people who were either ignoring me completely or asking me questions I was struggling to answer, made the task of switching out trash cans a daunting one. I learned very quickly that people don't care if you're trying to steer a large, heavy cart. They'll walk in front of you, stand in front of you, and act as though you're getting in THEIR way. What's worse is that the cart didn't have any kind of break on it, so I had to keep making sure the cart didn't roll away while I switched cans. The only nice thing about the whole thing was that a guest came up to me and told me that I was doing a wonderful job.
After I finished my run, I went back stage and when I told a cast member what I had done, they said that I had done it wrong! I started freaking out because I couldn't believe that I had done something wrong already! But then it turns out another person who had been instructed by the same person as me before the run had done it wrong also. We had been instructed to do the wrong task, so it wasn't my fault. That was a huge relief. So I had to push the cart back to the trash cans that I had already been to and had to redo them all.
After I finished that run, it was time for me to clock out and I was so thankful for that. Although my tasks were simple, they were still overwhelming because people weren't as helpful as they were when I was still training.
I'm not entirely thrilled about doing some things on my own, but I'm certainly not going to hesitate to ask for help if I need it. I'm not even going to take my "earning my ears" ribbon off for a week or so because at least with that, people know that I'm still learning. I really hope to get a handle on things as I continue to work on my own. I'm a little nervous about my shifts for the coming week.
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