Disney cutting jobs

Walt Disney World is cutting 25 management and professional positions, the company announced this afternoon.

The cuts - the result of internal organizational changes - are being made across the company and will not affect the "guest experience," the company said in a statement.

"These changes are designed to position us for future success by increasing efficiency and reducing layers of decision making," the statement said.

The company said it will continue to hire throughout the resort, including professional and hourly jobs. Walt Disney World is currently hiring more than 2,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers for summer.

Is this in any way a result of or related to the changes involved in dismantling the Strategic Planning Dept.? By management types, does anybody know exactly who they are referring to? I would think "reducing (the) layers of decision making" could be a good thing. May help remove the "middle-men" that hold things up from getting done.

CTXRover said:

Is this in any way a result of or related to the changes involved in dismantling the Strategic Planning Dept.? By management types, does anybody know exactly who they are referring to? I would think "reducing (the) layers of decision making" could be a good thing. May help remove the "middle-men" that hold things up from getting done.

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I think the removal of the Strategic Planning department was just the start. I am all for reducing the layers of decision making...

With too many layers, many things get lost in translation....if entry level manager tells low level manager something, who tells mid-level something, who tells senior-level something...chances are each have changed the message slightly.

Messages like "We need to clean the bathrooms more often" become "We need more bathrooms" by the time it makes it through the chain of command.

Iger is really shaping the company into his image. Let's hope it is the right moves. Cutting middle men that hold projects in red tape is welcome in my book...

all I can say is...


FINALLY!!!

I am a cast member and while normally you hear job cuts as a bad thing... finally their trimming off the fat and not touching the good meat. I recently heard a story about a restaurant at disney that needed matches, they only use a single match a day in this restaurant, but they couldnt get a single box of matches, because of the redundancy of management at disney. so this restaurant had to get like an entire delivery box of them and they figured out that at their current usage they will have enough matches to last them for 11,000 years.

...if I am the only one who find this absolutely rediculous, then I have truely lost all faith in humanity, and sanity for that matter.

CTXRover said:

Is this in any way a result of or related to the changes involved in dismantling the Strategic Planning Dept.? By management types, does anybody know exactly who they are referring to? I would think "reducing (the) layers of decision making" could be a good thing. May help remove the "middle-men" that hold things up from getting done.

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I share the same opinion. When too many people are involved in the decision making process nothing ever gets done.

somehow I feel that cutting 25 members of management out of a company with thousands of members of management is not quite enough. I'll wait to see this one unfold though.

speck76 said:

The company said it will continue to hire throughout the resort, including professional and hourly jobs. Walt Disney World is currently hiring more than 2,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers for summer.

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Maybe I can still get out of the character pool sometime soon!

speck76 said:

The company said it will continue to hire throughout the resort, including professional and hourly jobs. Walt Disney World is currently hiring more than 2,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers for summer.

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Not to mention the new "Summer College Program" exclusively for College Program Alumni.

more info

Walt Disney Co. will lay off 25 Orlando workers this week in a bid to simplify operations, the company said Monday.

All of the jobs being eliminated are management or professional positions at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The company would not say which departments will be affected, but said the cuts would come from several different areas and would not affect customer service.

"After taking a careful review of our organization and how it works, we found there are 25 positions that no longer fit into the new organization," said Jacquee Polak, a company spokeswoman.

She said the cuts would streamline the company's operations and increase efficiency -- eliminating an unnecessary layer of decision making.

Polak would not say who would be laid off. However, the job cuts are effective immediately, with displaced workers receiving severance packages and outplacement assistance.

It has been almost 15 months since Disney last laid off workers.

Under pressure to reduce overhead and consolidate production, the company closed its Orlando-based feature-animation studio last year, laying off many of the 260-person crew. Another 50 animator jobs had been trimmed in 2003.

Despite this week's job cuts, the company will continue with plans to fill more than 2,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal positions to handle the summer influx of visitors.

Joe Condo, president of the Service Trades Council, an umbrella group for Disney unions, said he had heard about this week's layoffs but did not have any additional information.

"I would imagine these folks are pretty high up on the ladder," he said.

Sarah Hale Meitner can be reached at smeitner@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5718.

Yea, and guess what. They are already looking at the Hourly cast as well. A while back a new research group was brought in to look at the efficiency of things. Expect more of these cuts to come; only next time it will be the hourly cast.

DisneyFratboy said:

all I can say is...


FINALLY!!!

I am a cast member and while normally you hear job cuts as a bad thing... finally their trimming off the fat and not touching the good meat. I recently heard a story about a restaurant at disney that needed matches, they only use a single match a day in this restaurant, but they couldnt get a single box of matches, because of the redundancy of management at disney. so this restaurant had to get like an entire delivery box of them and they figured out that at their current usage they will have enough matches to last them for 11,000 years.

...if I am the only one who find this absolutely rediculous, then I have truely lost all faith in humanity, and sanity for that matter.

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Well, I'm not so sure it's a "good" thing when people lose their jobs. Maybe some of these managers are excellent at what they do, and just because they are on the level that Disney is trying to cut out, they are getting canned. I think we need to look at how this is affecting 25 families that relied on Disney to put food on their table.

I have always had the dream to work for Disney, but after hearing how they constantly get rid of people and restructure, it does not seem like a good career move.

Thelazer said:

Yea, and guess what. They are already looking at the Hourly cast as well. A while back a new research group was brought in to look at the efficiency of things. Expect more of these cuts to come; only next time it will be the hourly cast.

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I am going to have to call BS, considering they are currently hiring 2,000 CMs for the summer.

Yeah, there could be some re-aligning of non-revenue producing departments, but what company does not do that on a near-continuous basis.

Thanks for bringing in the doom and gloom.

Sad but necessary..

I think it stinks that there are people who are going to lose their jobs, who, quite obviously, were not prepared for it, but as many have pointed out it could be incredibly good for those underneath to be able to do their jobs more efficiently, and with less burecratic frustration. As a cast member I've seen people get frustrated by the amount of people who figure in on the smallest of decisions. I hope the people who have been let go find nothing but opportunity out there! Good luck to them!

too many cooks spoil the soup

speck76 said:

I am going to have to call BS, considering they are currently hiring 2,000 CMs for the summer.

Yeah, there could be some re-aligning of non-revenue producing departments, but what company does not do that on a near-continuous basis.

Thanks for bringing in the doom and gloom.

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I agree with you.

Remember people, this could be a bad thing in some cases. Things like Project Gemini could now easily happen, unlike before, where some decisions were made to stop or suspend the idea. I'm all for progress and new rides, restaurants, and resorts, but making spaceship earth into a thrill ride would just kill me!

Just a thought . . .

Magicot said:

Remember people, this could be a bad thing in some cases. Things like Project Gemini could now easily happen, unlike before, where some decisions were made to stop or suspend the idea. I'm all for progress and new rides, restaurants, and resorts, but making spaceship earth into a thrill ride would just kill me!

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Progress is always going to upset some people.

I think what we CAN look forward to with decisions being made at a lower level is that information from the field (guest surveys and comments) could potentially be given more weight. Therefore, if the vast majority of the guests rate SSE low, and would prefer a more thrilling ride, their input could matter in the decision to renovate or replace...

Considering only 25 were cut, that must mean they had a relatively important position at WDW. I can only hope that the people I know were not effected, and that those who were can find alternative employment quickly and easily.

While I can appreciate those of you who do acknowledge the displacement of those let go, I wonder where all those people are that we saw during the Union negotiations. Those who said that people were more important than the bottom line. While I understand the need to trim departments, cut fat, etc., I too worry about those who were displaced. And I wonder why there isn't nearly the outcry here, and in some cases, pleasure that some in MANAGEMENT have lost their jobs.