We're on week six of staying home since Disney World closed its doors and week one of our official furlough from the company. It seems like we just closed, and yet like we've been home for months, all at the same time.
As of this past Sunday, April 19, 2020, tens of thousands of other Cast Members and I were officially furloughed. Even though we've been home for weeks, this seemed to somehow make everything worse. We can't reach out to our Leaders with questions anymore. Coordinators won't get emails to their work accounts. Everything is temporarily paused with no countdown to when we can resume.
I am incredibly lucky to be a Cast Member because Disney has truly been looking out for all of us since we shut down. I know that I've had it way better than many other people who haven't been able to work since the pandemic began, but it still stings knowing that things are so uncertain now.
I had friends whose College Programs were cut short. I had friends in my location who I saw almost daily, whose faces I haven't seen in weeks. I had Leaders who looked out for us and let us vent when we had problems, work or personal, who I haven't been able to look in the eye lately. I had an incredible boss whose face was known around the world, who I was lucky enough to see every day, whose famous line, "See ya real soon," now breaks everyone's hearts. Life has completely changed.
In the last class that I took through my Master's program, we spent a week working on poetry and were tasked with writing three unique poems. It just so happened that I chose to write about work for one of them. I never imagined that just a couple of weeks after that, I wouldn't be going to work anymore. So I wanted to share that poem now, as I reflect back and think about how incredibly lucky I am to have such a wonderful work family, and think about how much I miss everyone.
Thanks for reading!
- Taylor