Worker resistance in the Disney theme parks can take several different forms which to a certain extent are affected by the kind of job under consideration. One response is to ‘switch off’. According to Van Maanen, when feeling too tired to smile but still having to, ride operators simply switch off. Various names are given to this sensation: automatic pilot; going robot; can’t feel a thing; lapse into a dream; go into a trance; checking out. He describes these as passive forms of resistance – ways of preserving an element of individuality and of retaining self-respect. However, more active forms of resistance are also in evidence. One is to become difficult or overbearingly polite. The latter essentially entails exaggerating emotional labour with the clear implication that the worker clearly does not mean it. As an example of the latter, a cast member may respond to a difficult visitor by saying in an exaggeratedly Disney voice ‘It’s been our pleasure to serve you.’ A good example of being difficult while simultaneously not transgressing Disney rules or ways of doing things is the following remark from a cast member:

We have to smile at a guest no matter what he does. It’s really a way of controlling what you’re really feeling. That smile has to be there. But it’s also the one way we can fight back. For instance, if someone’s really snotty with a credit card you can take all the time in the world because their signature doesn’t match. ‘Oh, gee, I’m going to have to see some kind of ID.’ You know.

More outright forms of resistance occur when cast members take direct action against visitors for their mis-behaviour. Van Maanen lists several forms of retribution meted out by ride operators:

• the seatbelt squeeze – tightening a seatbelt excessively;
• the seatbelt slap – the seatbelt is used to give the rider a sharp slap;
• the break-up-the-party gambit – members of a party are separated at the last moment so that they ride on different cars;
• the hatch-cover ploy – used by submarine pilots (this attraction no longer exists) to ensure difficult visitors are drenched when they travel under a waterfall;
• the-sorry-I-didn’t-see-your-hand (foot, finger, arm, leg, etc.) tactic – ‘bringing a piece of Disney property to bear on the appendage’

Excerpted from Pg 151-152, ‘The Disneyization of Society’ by Alan Bryman