Gary has a cochlear ear implant. This was provided by his current employer. And when asked if Disney would have paid for that he said heck no.
They don’t care about people like they used to.
When I first started at Disney they hired 325 people.
He worked for Disney for 26 years.
Right before the park opened we had to hire 10,000 people in 3 months.
It was 1971.
There were no computers.
So we had a big board in front of the park that listed the trades we were hiring individually.
Then we’d interview people from 6 o clock in the morning until six at night
At the end of the day we’d go into the war room and ask each other how many housekeepers did you hire for instance?
Then we’d subtract that number from the wall
With a grease pencil
To get that park opened we worked 16 hour days 7 days a week.
I think I’m the only person who didn’t go to opening day.
I said screw it I’d rather spend the day with my family.
Fast forward
Now Gary works for Cintas. And he loves that company.
They give people who do the laundry 401k’s and benefits.
And all the managers they’re not managers they’re just regular guys.
When you go by the plant you can’t tell who the managers are. Everybody looks the same. That’s the way it ought to be.
When he started to go deaf four years ago he had a sit down with his manager. He told the manager that it wasn’t fair for him to keep his job and that he’d gladly train someone to replace him. He told them that he couldn’t afford implant himself.
How much does it cost the manager asked him.
The procedure was going to cost 39 thousand dollars and he was 64 years old.
The manager told him that they’d pay for it and they didn’t care if it cost a hundred thousand.
My father after hearing all this and watching this old man work with the dexterity of a much younger one told Gary that his company was lucky to have a man like him.
Gary just smiled and said,
“I’m lucky to have a good job, too.”
