I agree that they have historically made changes in September. I COULD agree that on the books, they are showing a lower operating cost for the end of year accounting. However, that's budget moronicy. It's something that is commonly done when preparing for a sale or a large finance change, but it would be sheer stupidity to do it on a regular basis for budgetary reasons.
Take those middle management cuts for example. It costs an estimated 6-9 months salary on average to replace an employee (Society for Human Resource Management). Some studies pin it at twice their salary (a few at slightly lower - as low as 33%). That means if they replace that manager after 3 months, they have LOST money over retaining them. Again, great when you want to sell because you are doing short-term accounting and not trying to leave the company in an operating condition. However for a company on a growth cycle, it's literally cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Now I have to tell you.... I am not the the best there is at what I do. I am a decent manager, but there are people better than I am. Point being, if I know this, I can guarantee you some of those really high payed people at Disney know it 1000 times better. How do I know they know this? Because Disney participated in these studies
and they teach it at the Disney Institute.
For that reason, I HIGHLY DOUBT that they are doing this for purely budgetary reasons. That's a financial loss. You just can't convince me that a company who is recognized for their management training courses teaching the exact opposite of that plan is THAT STUPID. There are likely other reasons why they are trying them to year end. For example, not having to give out bonuses on managers who were going to be turned over anyway. this is the time that reviews are given, and that's when you typically let someone go. They are turning a new crew over and handing out promotions as well. I can think of dozens of reasons why the timing works out. Budget cuts are not one of them unless they truly believe they are over-staffed. And if that were the case, there would be no reason at all to wait for end of fiscal.
So I say to you again... Show me your work where you have determined that it's a money saving venture to cut people for a few months at year end. Because I have shown you mine that proves the opposite.
Reference:
https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/bid/312123/employee-retention-the-real-cost-of-losing-an-employee
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-...rnover-really-cost_b_587fbaf9e4b0474ad4874fb7https://www.enrich.org/blog/The-true-cost-of-employee-turnover-financial-wellness-enrich