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News Disneyland Laying Off 100 Salaried Cast Members
- Thread starter Disney Analyst
- Start date
Disney_TX_Guy
Member
There are rumors that character actors who play the villains will no longer appear regularly. The villains will be around during the Halloween season. I wonder if these are some of the people being laid off.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
These appear to be salaried positions, Entertainment CMs who play characters are paid hourly.
Figments Friend
Well-Known Member
Trimming the payroll fat a lil’.
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Disney Irish
Premium Member
My guess is middle management across different groups, like HR, Marketing, etc., ie more corporate side than operations.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
"Salaried positions"
The maintenance guys who do the actual work with their hands are skilled union members, not salaried.
These layoffs would be TDA cubicle folks being replaced by AI and technology, probably most of whom were working from home in their pajamas now and rarely showed up to TDA anyways.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
That's true. And they once said the same thing about the people who made buggy whips.
But in 2025, if your "work" involves sitting at home in your pajamas with an occasional Zoom meeting, then AI is coming for you fast. Perhaps learn a skilled trade?
denyuntilcaught
Well-Known Member
Come on, this is a sweeping generalization and a fallacy. I work from home, but the work I do isn't easily supplemented by AI. I understand that there's a generational divide here - the old-school thought of equating physical labor and proximity to the office to quality of work, but that's no longer the case here. On one hand, you can't sit on the internet and use it's latest technologies at home then question it's use when scaled and applied to the workplace.
Not to mention, the world only needs so many plumbers.
Unfortunate to those who have lost their jobs. What's going to be even more unfortunate is when companies realize the human cost of these jobs lost - meaning, when customers feel the impact of losing the human touch as part of the process. With a company as people-driven as Disney, I anticipate that moment will come sooner than say an Amazon.
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TP2000
Well-Known Member
I've recently read a few articles recently that claim anyone who is working from home, and thus creating product that is mostly unseen and unheard by actual humans, is at jeopardy of losing their jobs to an AI program within the decade.
But people who create products with their hands; whether plumbers or welders or electricians or carpenters or mechanics or Disneyland ride operators and crowd control flashlight wavers and balloon salesmen, have quite a few decades left before a robot who can access a 3rd floor apartment to replace the water heater can replace them. Much less before they invent a robot to stand in the Hub waving a yellow flashlight bellowing "STAY TO YOUR RIGHT!!!!".
Notice how these layoffs effect "salaried positions" and not unskilled entry-level CM's or skilled tradesmen?
I understand that there's a generational divide here - the old-school thought of equating physical labor and proximity to the office to quality of work, but that's no longer the case here. On one hand, you can't sit on the internet and use it's latest technologies at home then question it's use when scaled and applied to the workplace.
Not to mention, the world only needs so many plumbers.
Certainly. We can't turn everyone into plumbers. But we can turn an entire generation of 20somethings headed into a $75,000 a year job as a cubicle drone into skilled tradesmen/women of all stripes headed into a $125,000+ job in the trades. Plumbers. Electricians. Welders. Carpenters. Mechanics. Graders. Machinists. Pipefitters. Boilermakers. Etc., etc.
At least until 2075 or so when the robots take over even those jobs. But 50 years of a well paying career in the trades means a comfy retirement in 2075 for the high school class of '23.
No one is arguing this isn't unfortunate to lose ones job. But based on some of the human interactions I've had with big companies in the past 15 years, with people who barely speak English or who can't understand nuance or wit, it might be best to hand much of this work off to the AI machines. I'd rather deal with a precise and succinct AI program speaking clear English who knows via AI learning not to ask me "Have you tried turning it off and back on?" in a heavy South Asian accent I can barely understand.
Honestly, as far as HR goes, as someone who saw the rise and dominance of HR in corporate America in the first two decades of the 21st century... I'd be happy to see those smug, charmless HR managers replaced by AI chatbots who have had the smugness and charmlessness programmed out of them. There's nothing HR can do that an AI chatbot can't do better.
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TP2000
Well-Known Member
I had to Google that name.
Ah, yes, the TDA President Du Jour. No one has really mentioned him since he arrived. I remember commending him for his dapper Business Semi-Formal attire. But he doesn't seem to be resonating, or making a difference.
No one here mentions him. He's got no buzz. No impact. No story. Certainly no legacy. Pity.
Mr. Mazloum seems to be another random and useless TDA President Du Jour. Far less impactful than Matt Ouimet, or even the few months we had of Josh D'Amaro. What was that TDA Prez blonde lady's name who wore the skintight pants to the office? She was my favorite of all the recent TDA Presidents Du Jour who had no impact, just because she regularly Instagrammed her ineffectiveness and her willingness to wear very tight pants. But now the kids are wearing bell-bottoms again.
Does Mr. Mazloum have an official Instagram, perhaps followed by some bored AP's and a few dozen virgin CM's who have no dates in Fullerton this Saturday night?
truecoat
Well-Known Member
The question is, who's going to be the consumers if AI is doing all the work?
DLR92
Well-Known Member
That why I advocated a ban of using AI replacing workers.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Disneyland's union plumbers and electricians?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
That's about as effective as banning refrigerators to keep the Iceman employed.
Or as effective as banning word processors and email to keep the girls in the steno pool employed.
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
AI shouldn't replace a doctor but it can look at literally millions of medical cases in a split second and see how it correlates to a patient's symptoms. A doctor should still review and make the final determination though.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
AI is and will be used for analytical purposes, for example analyzing medical imaging to look for abnormalities that would otherwise be missed by human eyes.
So it won't be used to outright replace all medical professionals but it will replace many of the medical techs who read scans now.
Its a tool, and it should be seen as such, to help take labor intensive tasks and make them easier. This has been happening for the last 50 years of computers, this is just the next evolution.