Disney layoffs

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Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 28, 2001
I just read in my local newspaper today that Disney is going to be laying off an additional 1000 people, with the 'greatest impact' of all of their additional cost cutting measures being on the parks.

Does anyone know why Disney is continuing to have problems (is it the general economy or specific to Disney) and why do they continue to target the parks? Usually companies cut back in areas where they are not doing well and it seems, from my visit in April, that the parks are bringing in a whole lot of revenue! I couldn't believe the amount of money being shelled out by the throngs of people.

Is anyone concerned by the impact the current round of cutbacks will have on the quality of the parks? There is no way to tell if there will be subsequent cutbacks and, if so, how many. I guess what concerns me is that the economy is not really doing that badly... we are not even in a recession. So what would happen to the parks if the economy really took a hit. Would the quality of the experience erode to the point where it is not so magical anymore? What safeguards are there to prevent this from happening?

... still wondering why the parks are taking the brunt of this...
 
Sounds like Michael Eisner needs to be layed off too by the board of directors.
 
Disney, like most companies, is feeling the pinch in the slowdown in the economy.

The goal of Disney is to return a profit to its shareholders, nothing more. A reduction in force is not lightly undertaken but if reducing their staff will enable the Disney Corporation to be profitable, that is unfortunately what they will do.

If the long term result is reduced revenues due to customers staying away because of poor service, they will most likely re-hire staff. And at a reduced hourly rate. Isn't this the American way?

There is an indirect possibility that our investment in DVC could diminsh due to a reduction in force and any resultant reduction in the quality of service. But that is very remote. Disney's investment is much greater.
 
Before we get alarmed at the Disney layoffs,take a look at the rest of the Fortune 500. Everybody is cutting workforce's. Stockholders demand profits.If the product can't generate the numbers,then you cut expenses. Percentage wise,Disney's layoffs are well below those of other major corps. Another thing that is very popular is to eliminate full time jobs and then hire part-timers, sometimes the same people you just terminated. The hourly wage is usually half what a full benifit package costs.We were there in May,didn't notice any shortage of CM's.
 


For the first time ever, we noticed a cm shortage. Examples:

We arrived at the new Aladdin ride at 9 a.m. expecting a long line. There wasn't a long line -- there also wasn't enough CMs to run it. The one there (who had NOT been adequately sprinkled with pixie dust) said it might be 10 minutes and it might be 2 hours before the ride was up and running. She was very rude and proceeded to tell us that all the CMs hated that attraction and didn't want to work it and she was leaving disney herself in a week. It was about 15 minutes before enough CMs arrived.

We arrived at Rock 'n Roller Coaster first thing on an early entry day and asked to do child swap. The CM said they hadn't had time to get the fast pass machine up and running yet, so we should go on through the line. The next CM needed a bit more pixie dust and expressed his displeasure with what the first one told us. I believe the fast pass machine situation and the second CM's harriedness were staffing issues.

My two younger kids tend to make friends with other kids at the pool. Interesting thing this year was that they kept befriending kids who were NOT staying at our resort. They were just visiting Storm-Along-Bay to swim. Even though it was Memorial Day weekend, there was no CM checking IDs like there was last year.

We also ran into more staff members who seemed to be inadequately trained.

Nevertheless, Disney still does everything better than any other entertainment company we've encountered.
 
Originally posted by tar heel
For the first time ever, we noticed a cm shortage. Examples:

My two younger kids tend to make friends with other kids at the pool. Interesting thing this year was that they kept befriending kids who were NOT staying at our resort. They were just visiting Storm-Along-Bay to swim. Even though it was Memorial Day weekend, there was no CM checking IDs like there was last year.

We also ran into more staff members who seemed to be inadequately trained.

It's funny you mentioned this. My children made friends with two children at the OKW pool who I later found out were not staying at OKW. Matter of fact they were not even staying on property, they were Florida residents. Apparently they have AP and go park at the TTC and then go for however long to whatever resort they want to swim at that day.

I think that if they are going to be so strict on pool hoppers they should crack down on these people who are not even paying resort guests. From what I understand from the CM I asked is that it happens a lot and that they indicated that the more popular pools have at any given time from 10 - 35 people that are not even paying guests of any resort.

The other reason I decided to post was that when we completed our Princesses breakfast in the castle on Friday AM we went out back where they were preparing to open Fantasy Land and they introduced 50 cast members that were starting just that day. If they are laying 1000 people off why did these 50 just start? Wouldn't they be required to call the ones they have layed off back first?

:bounce: :(
 
Also on another note the news channels in Florida indicated that attendance at the DW restorts and parks were up 12 % during the first Quarter. Okay who is managing the money? :pinkbounc
 


You would think that the employee contracts would stipulate first fired, first hired, sounds like Disney is trying to hire people at a starting salary instead of workers that have worked there longer at a higher rate.

I just read something pretty gross in yesterday's newspaper, it seems that Disney was making employees wear personal undergarments that they turn in each day with their costumes/uniforms, they mentioned dancers jock straps and other undergarments, it seems that they filed a suit that was just settled because employees were catching lice and scabies from these garments because of poor sanitizing on Disney's part.

Disney now has to give each person their own personal pair so the employee can take them home and wash them.

Here is the link on the story


http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010607/14/disney-clean-underwear
 
The costumed characters and Disney workers from five other unions vote next week on the new contract, which covers about 25,000 of Disney World's 55,000 workers.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read a while ago that the parks themselves are not the big profit centers for the company and that the hotels (which are directly linked to the parks) and the motion picture and TV divisions are where the bigger money is made. Is this still true?

This news of a CM shortage and bad morale with CMs is unsettling. They are one of the keys to what sets Disney parks above the "competition".
 
The 1000 CM company wide that are left to be laid off are that portion of the 4000 they anounced would go but didn't take the severence package. These are not additional lay offs, but simply the planned ones. 3000 or so took the packages and now they have to find where to get the other 1000. Even if they ALL came from WDW it seems it would take a lot to cause a noticable shortage of CMs.
 
The other point to notice about the layoffs, is that (from what I remember) the majority of them were supposed to be in the Leads & Management positions, rather than the front lines. This makes basic sense, since it's a lot easier for one person to manage 2 teams than for one person to run 2 positions loading rides.

Sarangel
 
L.A. Times article these layoffs are due to the declining profits of their feature animations department.

Also, among the hardest hit are expected to be the Anaheim and Orlando theme parks (like stated above) with a reduction of 1650 workers.

I remeber that salaries within various areas will be cut between 30%-50%.

I just hope in the end this does not wipe out the high level of maintenance, general detailed quality of appearance, and professional CMs these parks exemplify and that we have grown accustomed to for years now.
 
The salary cuts were to come in Animation. There was a run up in salaries a few years ago because of competition from Dreamworks, Pixar, etc. The demand no longer justifies the salaries. A lot of the reductions at WDW were/are in mid level jobs that are not even in the parks themselves. They put a halt to or slowed down to a lot of IT projects and such and cut back in that area. (Of course it might mean it takes them longer to fix those pesky biometric finger scanners for AP's :p )
 
I look at every CM lanyard I see so I talked to many CM's during my recent trip. They all said that the layoffs affected only management and that no hourly workers had been laid off. They have cut hours on some counter service food places and in other areas...
 

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