The Disneyland Job Classifications

Friday, August 4, 2000
by Kevin Yee

This is a good question. My initial articles hinted at the issue, but didn't really tackle it face-on. But before we begin, there's one thing to keep in mind: the Empowerment Evolution of 1995 (and beyond) changed an awful lot of the way things were organized. So I will explain the layout both before and after the Great Change.

From 1955 until 1995, there was little change in the way the system was organized. At the top you had Executive Vice Presidents (Disneyland didn't earn itself a President until the early 1990s in the form of Jack Lindquist), who were in charge of various divisions: such as theme park operations, finance, and so on. At this point, the chain of command breaks down into the backstage administration (where all the infrastructure things like accounting, finance, human resources, hiring, and payroll take place) and the onstage stuff, termed "Theme Park Operations," or TPO. TPO contains most of what you associate with Disneyland — ride operators, ticket takers, custodial, outdoor vending, security, onstage managers and even facilities crafts such as plumbers, electricians, or machinists.

Backstage administration would later be unified under one building, the new Team Disney Anaheim (TDA) location out where the Global Van Lines building used to sit next to the Interstate-5 freeway. TDA is metallic green on one side and canary yellow on the other. I give it credit for architectural creativity at least!

TPO was further divided into the categories which sound more familiar to a Disneyland visitor: attractions, merchandise, foods, custodial, facilities, parking, and a few others such as ticket-takers.

Although there were people in charge of these divisions, the way management in TPO worked was through "Area Managers." There were at least five of these that I know of: Center Stage / Main Street, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, and Adventureland / New Orleans Square / Critter Country. The manager was literally in charge of everything in his / her land, and all the various supervisors in the area reported to him.

What's in the area? You'll have a Tomorrowland Merchandise "Area Supervisor," who reports directly to the Area Manager mentioned above. All the location supervisors in Tomorrowland report to the Area Supervisor. The same structure is used for Tomorrowland Foods (at times also called Tomorrowland Restaurants), or Tomorrowland Attractions.

Those are the big three. Custodial, Outdoor Vending (ODV), Facilities, and Security have their own base of operations for the whole park, and their own hierarchy. But in a way the Area Manager still has to make sure all of it works together in his area/land.

The Empowerment Evolution of 1995 (and beyond!) was ostensibly a restructuring to, as they put it, reduce extra layers of management. It turns out there are more managers now than ever before, but they did begin by removing the Area Managers as a concept. Now locations became key. A shop, such as Pieces of Eight, now was not a part of "New Orleans Merch." Instead, it was part of the parkwide Merchandise Division, and it was expected to perform against its fellow shops. Yup, you read that right: the idea was to maximize performance and profit by introducing competition between the locations. This was the model for merchandise, attractions, and the restaurants.

The problem is, Disneyland is not a market economy. It's an entire experience. Are guests supposed to shop around?

Well publicized at the time was the 1995 elimination of most attraction leads, the hourly managers. This stupid move has since been rectified, and leads are back. They were not an "extra" layer of management. If you ask me, they are the most effective, and necessary, layer of management.

Now each major ride or location is its own "business unit," possibly with satellite business units. The Cafˇ Orleans has the Royal Street Veranda as part of its unit, and in fact the French Market is also part of it. And this is different from departments how? Well, the units are smaller. Each unit has a "manager" (formerly the same person who was the "area supervisor") and several "assistant managers" (formerly "location supervisors"). The result is more managers than ever before. So much for streamlining.

I sense, however, that the original question posed to me was more about the kind of jobs there are. Here are some:

Attraction Host / Hostess
Culinary Host / Hostess
Merchandise Host / Hostess
Custodial Host / Hostess
Outdoor Vending Host / Hostess
Facilities Host / Hostess
Security Host / Hostess
Guest Relations Host / Hostess
Parking Host / Hostess
Ticket Taker
Entertainment

and many, many, many more "departments" / divisions than I've listed here.

The first three — the Big 3, as I like to call them — are sort of default classifications. Each has more specialized options. For example, not all foods workers are classified the same. There are different classifications for bussers, dishups, fry cooks, order cooks, stewards, pantry workers, servers, or chefs, to name just a few. Each might have differences in pay scale, among other things.

The truth of the matter is, if you're looking for a job at Disneyland but aren't sure if they have what you're looking for, chances are they do. And if you don't know what you're looking for, that's OK. They've got somewhere for everyone to go!

Are you a CM or a former CM? I would love to hear and share your stories! E-mail me! Stories and comments you submit become property of and may be published on this site; we normally don't publish last names of current CMs, but if you wish to remain anonymous altogether or do not want me to share your stories, please let me know when you e-mail me. — Shoshana

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in reader-contributed stories do not reflect those of Cast Place or MousePlanet.

CM – Cast member; company lingo for “employee.” 

Empowerment Evolution – The 1995 attempt by newer park management to introduce modern accountability and market forces into the stodgy Disneyland methodology and power hierarchies. The name was meant to “empower” rank and file employees by removing layers of their management, though now there are more managers than ever.

TPO – Theme Park Operations; the division of the Disneyland hierarchy that actually works in the theme park itself.

TDA – Team Disney Anaheim; the name of the on-site administration building.

Area manager – used to be responsible for an entire land, with all business divisions in the area reporting to him.

Area supervisor – the immediate boss for location supervisors who divide up a department of intelligently grouped locations. The area supervisors in turn reported to the area manager. Nowadays all supervisors and area supervisors have been replaced by managers and assistant managers — the same idea, but smaller “business units" than a department; usually just one location in fact.

RFT – “A” status; a full-time hourly employee.

RPT – “B” status; an hourly employee five days a week but just not quite 40 hours usually.

CR – “C” status; an hourly employee who works weekends year-round and five days a week during all school holiday periods (including summer and Christmas break).

CT – a part-time hourly employee who works five days a week during all school holiday periods (including summer and Christmas break). No seniority, so shifts worked are usually quite short.

Locate the employment center to fill out an application, and they will call you for an interview (dress nicely, just shy of an actual suit). Once there, follow these rules, in this order of importance:

1. Smile and be very friendly. They want outgoing people.
2. Do not let the group interview throw you off balance. They want outgoing people who can “perform” a little bit.
3. Do not worry about job (in)experience. They don't care. They want friendly people, not experienced and/or hardened people.
4. Do your best to convince them you already have a Disney attitude: you want to work with people, you're a team player, and you would consider this a dream job (however, don't overdo it on the crazy-Disney-fan side either). Strike a nice balance.
5. Did I mention the importance of a smile?