Your Disney Career: Moving Up in YA

Your Disney Career: Moving Up in YA

I recently got another reader question:  

"with that tie shouldn't it be assistant manager mcgee?" 

(re: A Typical Day in the Life of a Counselor )

And I thought it would be a nice opportunity to talk about the different levels of of dominance jobs in our Youth Activities department!

For the uninitiated or unschooled in Disney lingo, this is no longer to be called your job, it is your "Role". Most people start off their Roles in YA as a Counselor at the very bottom and, if the Cinderella story goes perfectly, will gradually progress onwards and continue getting stepped up until they attain the role up top, which is the MYA, or Manager of Youth Activities. Here's a little look at what I call:

"The Evolution of a YA Counselor"

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The progression from not only increases in privileges, but also pay and overall happiness!

Starting Roles

NURSERY COUNSELOR: Not technically the "bottom", but Nursery counselors do not necessarily make as much per paycheck as other members of the department. In addition to this, the duties of a Nursery Counselor are much less than that of an ordinary counselor; their space is more confined and the range of activities is very limited. Often Nursery Counselors do not get to see the programs or interact with the Disney characters and often feel separated from the rest of the staff. Nursery counselors wear light blue and are usually left to remain on board during every Castaway Cay day.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES COUNSELOR: The most basic role where the majority of the staff are. It is from this Role that you may "step up" and move into different specialized spaces in the department, into a performance position, or progress into a managerial stream. Often Nursery Counselors who've had enough of the babies and wish to take on more duties will progress into a Counselor Role and learn all of the additional procedures. Usually Counselors will be made to work in either the Oceaneer Club or Lab environments during their first contracts, and then made to work in the other space before moving forward. In the Counselor role there is a sub-hierarchy of Counselors with varying responsibilities and abilities I'll go into more depth further down. Most people that you will meet and work with will be in this Role, and most people who will quit or be terminated will also be in this Role.

TEEN COUNSELOR: Usually after a few months working as a Counselor in one of the spaces (or less, depending on a combination of lucky timing and persistence) a Counselor will be asked to move into a new role in the Edge or Vibe spaces on board. Teen Counselors typically have later starts (10am onwards) but often  much later finishes (12am- 2am). It is not uncommon for Teen Counselors to not be able to "go out" or socialize as much as their Counselor friends for this reason. However also for this reason, Teen Counselors may be exempted from cabin inspections to allow them extra sleeping time. In addition, as a Teen Counselor, a lot of the strict rules about watching for injuries, making sure children are carefully signed in and out of the space via wristbands, making sure they are fed, etc. are not taken to as extreme a level in the Teen spaces since they are older and much of these rules don't even exist in those areas. Teen Counselors are even often capable of convincing their kids to leave the space and bring them food to eat - since managers aren't as present as they are in the Lab/Club spaces. 

Teen Counselors also have more ability to be able to run their own games and programs and freely move around their spaces, as opposed to the Counselors who must remain in fixed locations during their scheduling. (See A Typical Day in the Life of a Counselor )

Because of these added perks, there is usually tough competition to snag one of these Roles. Usually a lot easier for guys to get it as they typically pick even amounts of male and female counselors for the teens (and there are always about 9:1 females to males in Youth Activities). If all else fails, crying and persistently asking for it every week seems to do the trick, and Managers have admitted in the past.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES ENTERTAINMENT HOST (YAEH) : A step up from the Counselor position, The Entertainment Host, or Ent Host Role may be also applied into directly. Requires an audition involving the memorization of a script or two from the programs we do, strong microphone skills and stage presence. This comes with a pay increase and immediate removal of the 'dirtier" parts of the Counselor roles such as taking out the trash or performing opening, closing and daily bleaching and cleaning. Also removes the duty of serving any meals in the space and eliminates the risk of having to sign children in or out. Ent Hosts do the majority of interaction with Disney characters and engage the kids in programs like science, animation, storytelling, dancing, etc. Ent Hosts are fitted for several different costumes that they will perform in, and are often given hours of "script/rehearsal time" to learn and memorize at their leisure (and if they were already memorized, this became paid naptime). Compared to the standard Counselor Ent Hosts have it much easier; during my time as an Ent Hostess I was able to use the long hours of prep time I had before and after programs to sneak away to my cabin or to go have a snack, something most Counselors weren't able to do! Many Counselors view this as incredibly unfair by comparison on top of the increase in pay. In contrast, there are some Ent Hosts who also may not have been humbled by the Counselor role and feel entitled to their additional privilege.

*From the Ent Host Role, moving upwards may be into Ent Host management as in the newer ships, or a common trend is to progress into Cruise Staff.

ASSISTANT MANAGER: Normally stepped up from the Counselor Role after they have successfully been able to perform several contracts in many, if not all of the spaces on board. Will usually be pulled from Counselors who have moved into a Trainer Role. Formerly responsible for the creation of the daily schedule, now is responsible for overseeing the flow of scheduled activities, overseeing the floor, and dealing with challenges as they arise. Assistant Managers wear what they affectionately call "bus driver" suits across all 4 ships that don't do too much for your figure unless you're a sturdily built male. Assistant Managers generally include the Training Coordinator (TC), Ent Host Manager, and Nursery Assistant Manager (NAM) in the wearing of this suit and their expanded Officer privileges which includes the Officer's Bar and Deck food as well as a pay increase. They still however have to share the same sized rooms as Counselors with a roommate. 

LAB/CLUB MANAGER: Oversees either the Nursery/Oceaneer Club space or the Vibe/Edge/Oceaneer Lab spaces and the programming in each. A step above Assistant, the Manager is also he signing authority on your performance reviews and your discipline. On that note, to be stepped up or promoted into this Role would usually require a fairly clean record card and a considerable amount of experience on more than one ship on the fleet. Sometimes hired externally much to the chagrin of long-time Counselors/Assistant Managers looking to progress. Managers wear full officer whites and striped epaulets denoting their position, and enjoy a higher salary with a slightly larger cabin. Often in charge of resolving day to day issues and guest recovery/dealing with complaints and Counselor issues. Also usually the person to go to when needing Dining requests or Excursion requests to be signed.

MANAGER OF YOUTH ACTIVITIES (MYA): The head honcho of the department, the most effective ones are those who have spent the time and moved into the Role from a lowly start as a Counselor. You'll quickly learn that the terrible ones will have stepped into the job without having ever worked as a Disney Counselor before and make stupid mistakes repeatedly. Depending on their personality and leadership style, may either often be on the floor helping out and alleviating busy periods as needed, (good MYA) or will confine themselves to their office and hang around the teen spaces from time to time (bad MYA). Usually being called to their office is a big deal as everyone will know (since you won't be in your scheduled location at the time), and more often than not will either indicate a change of Role on board, termination, or transferal to another ship. It's important that more Counselors prepare themselves and work hard to progress into this role in order to have really good and effective MYAs to lead the department! In addition to having a really nice paycheck, they also get private guest staterooms to themselves along with requisite room service and a personal office.

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THE THREE LEVELS OF YOUTH ACTIVITIES COUNSELOR

Within the realm of being a Counselor, there are three different types, which tend to correspond with seniority and competency at the job. The decision to move you into these duties will be made by the Training Coordinator typically based on how well you're doing and how long you've stuck around at the current position. That said some Counselors can work for years without ever moving up if their computer/management skills are pretty crappy.


At the first level, basic Counselors spend a lot of time learning things, making crafts, participating in programs, and really just having a fun time on board. This is the happy period of the job where none of the many associated risks of becoming terminated are readily evident because many things don't apply to you yet. Also time for Counselors to be scheduled on serving food or standing next to the restrooms more often than not.



 

DESK ANCHOR (DA)
After a while, you might be paired up with a trainer when management basically decides that you should be trained to operate the front desk (and might have something to do with the fact that 5 people who were all desk-trained quit last week). This includes signing children in and out, and interacting with parents and their issues. Becoming a "multitasking expert" is just a nice way of saying: keeping a Disney smile on while everything goes to shit around you simultaneously. Sometimes involving actual shit. As it says in the diagram, it is usually in this stage of employment that most people leave the job due to the tediousness (once you are trained to be on Desk, life almost immediately changes from happy-go-lucky freer times to one spent stuck there for hours on end. This almost seems like a very hyperbolic exaggeration.....but just wait til it happens to you).
It's not always bad up on Desk, depending on the people who you're scheduled alongside, and sometimes the parents you meet are very friendly. On the other hand, it also gets very stressful and busy and sometimes the guests are incredibly rude and you have to pay VERY close attention to who exactly is passing through your gates alongside the desk each time you unlock it.

IF YOU MAKE ANY MISTAKE ABOUT ACCIDENTALLY FORGETTING TO DO ANYTHING WHILE AT A COMPUTER MAY MICKEY HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL.
Really though, every error, no matter how minuscule is treated with such crazy severity it's insane. Almost ridiculous how stressful your life becomes for these things. Prepare for it, I've warned ya! Don't screw up! Oh and for all of this extra responsibility on your back, there is no raise or promotion. Congrats.


GROUP ANCHOR (GA)
Now after a considerable amount of time slugging it out as a Desk Anchor and doing a good job, the management might decide that it's a good time for you to move up and become a GA (not because 3 of the people who were GA-trained also got fired the previous week or anything) , whose responsibility it is to make sure people are standing in their correct spots every time there is a rotation each half-hour and also deal with every injury, potty accident, protein spill (vomit), angry parent, kid dispute, counselor issue, phone call, allergy and medical alert. You are however awarded the ability to roam around the space freely in order to accomplish these duties. With great power comes great responsibility after all. Even though being able to walk around shouldn't really be considered a great power, it's a pretty liberating thing to be able to do after a few months working as a Counselor. Normally not too bad of a job but if shit hits the fan - let's say a Counselor serving food accidentally gets the kids with 10000 allergies and you didn't pick up on it, or the Desk Anchor accidentally lets a parent leave with their child without scanning their wristband, or an activity isn't running at its scheduled time - guess whose fault it is? THAT'S RIGHT - YOURS!

You gotta deal with it now, you're basically the manager of the house and just as liable to get disciplined if you don't deal with it well, since you weren't able to manage the Counselors properly. You're the one who has to make phone calls and make sure people have woken up in time for work, you're the one who has to hunt down people around the ship if they're not at their scheduled spot, and in the event that anyone's not picking up the slack...look like you have to step in for a while.  And again, for all of this lovely extra duty and burden placed on you....no additional pay raise or promotion. Just extra work. Yay! Well done!


TRAINER
And if you've successfully managed to survive long enough to remain a Counselor at GA level with a nice spotless record, you might be eligible to become a new Trainer in the department based on your skill and merit (and not because a handful of our staff Trainers all quit together after their friend got fired). Trainers have the duty of being assigned to a hapless Counselor as you prepare them for the role of Desk Anchor or Group Anchor and hope they turn out well because it's your butt if they don't learn how to do things properly.

Oh,and for this little promotion in the department, you don't get higher pay, but instead a nice pin!

Worth it.
*Update* Maybe worth about $20-$40 to be exact:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313&_nkw=disney+trainer+pin&_sacat=0&_from=R40



And that's the general job progression in Youth Activities. Though I probably sound more cynical and less upbeat about it at this point, should also speak volumes about how encouraging the whole thing is! Until next time!