Politics 28000 Layoffs coming to Disney's domestic theme parks - statement from Josh D'Amaro

[FutureCEO]

Layoffs happen everywhere and every company/government plays the blame game. You guys sound like Disney's exempt from layoffs and evil for doing so.

 

[Disstevefan1]

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Do you have this weeks powerball winning numbers also?

This is not magic, it’s just common sense. The known good, proven processes and procedures in use right now at WDW are working. It’s safer in WDW than the average supermarket. I am guessing the progressive folks in CA would be even better at complying with the process and procedures than the average person.

If we can’t trust the known good, proven procedures for staying safe then maybe we should shutdown the entire nation until further notice.

 

[mm52200]

A lay-off that general fans might know just because of her presence on the blog

 

[techgeek]

lol, what are you describing as profitable? seriously. wdw is open but from what I'm reading it's not profitable.

I believe the phrase Bob C used was ‘net positive contribution’. I’m sure there’s some creative accounting involved, but that phrase represents the companies attitude towards P&R overall and individual business units within it. Manage costs to achieve, stay closed if that’s not possible.

This is why the water parks remain closed. This is why menu items are limited. This is why layoffs were inevitable. This is why decisions from park hours to entertainment offerings will continue to be made by a spreadsheet.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I believe the phrase Bob C used was ‘net positive contribution’. I’m sure there’s some creative accounting involved, but that phrase represents the companies attitude towards P&R overall and individual business units within it. Manage costs to achieve, stay closed if that’s not possible.

This is why the water parks remain closed. This is why menu items are limited. This is why layoffs were inevitable. This is why decisions from park hours to entertainment offerings will continue to be made by a spreadsheet.

As long as we overlook a worldwide pandemic and people unwilling or unable to travel at this point in time, the conspiracy you are alluding to makes sense. However, to throw blinders on and attempt to blame accounting for not having anything to account with then all of that rhetoric adds up to incorrect finger pointing. The problem is we are in the middle of a pandemic and the cost of operation has not declined unless they take some temporary moves to put a Band-Aid on a heavily bleeding wound. When one is dealing with billion dollar budgets the extent of expense is also in the billions. This is not your household budget.

 

[peter11435]

I believe the phrase Bob C used was ‘net positive contribution’. I’m sure there’s some creative accounting involved, but that phrase represents the companies attitude towards P&R overall and individual business units within it. Manage costs to achieve, stay closed if that’s not possible.

This is why the water parks remain closed. This is why menu items are limited. This is why layoffs were inevitable. This is why decisions from park hours to entertainment offerings will continue to be made by a spreadsheet.

Point of order... that is not why menu items are limited.

 

[Lilofan]

I believe the phrase Bob C used was ‘net positive contribution’. I’m sure there’s some creative accounting involved, but that phrase represents the companies attitude towards P&R overall and individual business units within it. Manage costs to achieve, stay closed if that’s not possible.

This is why the water parks remain closed. This is why menu items are limited. This is why layoffs were inevitable. This is why decisions from park hours to entertainment offerings will continue to be made by a spreadsheet.

Manage costs? Have you been to the parks lately? Full price for limited offerings. WDW is following orders.

 

[MisterPenguin]

As long as we overlook a worldwide pandemic and people unwilling or unable to travel at this point in time, the conspiracy you are alluding to makes sense. However, to throw blinders on and attempt to blame accounting for not having anything to account with then all of that rhetoric adds up to incorrect finger pointing. The problem is we are in the middle of a pandemic and the cost of operation has not declined unless they take some temporary moves to put a Band-Aid on a heavily bleeding wound. When one is dealing with billion dollar budgets the extent of expense is also in the billions. This is not your household budget.

@techgeek is right and actually quoted Chapek as to his strategy. Thus, that's the opposite of a conspiracy: the principle is announced and followed.

 

[techgeek]

Point of order... that is not why menu items are limited.

I’m sure supply chain issues are some of it, but they are not the reason why a F&W booth that historically featured 4 food choices now has 2.

Manage costs? Have you been to the parks lately? Full price for limited offerings.

Exactly my point. ‘Break even’ management down to the level of which churro carts can be profitable and which aren’t, and experience management to guarantee the exact minimum ‘magic number’ of experiences per day and not anything above that.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Manage costs? Have you been to the parks lately? Full price for limited offerings.

Charging full price has nothing to do with managing costs. Whether pre-pandemic or during a pandemic, businesses always want to manage their costs/expenses.

Just because they're not charging less doesn't mean they aren't looking to reduce their costs.

And, yes, from a customer's perspective, it is galling to pay the same price for reduced goods and services.

However, from the parks' point of view, they can't cram in all the customers they'd like who, in total, contribute toward fixed expenses like keeping the lights on and cleaning and maintenance and depreciation. So, they have less customers covering those costs, which means they can't deeply discount the cost to the much fewer guests that are there.

Think of it this way, if there was just one guest that showed up on a particular day, how much would they have to pay to cover the costs of opening the park for that day?

 

[Slpy3270]

From The Fly:

JPMorgan analyst Alexia Quadrani raised the firm's price target on Disney to $155 from $135 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The stock has "retreated a bit" from the rebound in early September, creating a more attractive entry point, Quadrani tells investors in a research note. The analyst continues to be encouraged by the progress of recovery in each of Disney's businesses.

Good lord.

 

[MisterPenguin]

From The Fly:



Good lord.

Don't know why you're a pessimist about this. From a strictly financial point of view, just about everyone expected Disney's previous quarter to be a huge net loss. However, the income from the linear channels offset the losses elsewhere and the company just about broke even for that quarter.

Yes, breaking even is painful for a company that would usually make a profit of over a billion dollars a quarter, but, they didn't go backwards. And they have billions in reserve and in ready credit lines. So, Disney did a lot better than expected, relatively.

Since then, D+ has grown even faster than it had already been growing, movie and TV productions have restarted, parks have reopened (not necessarily profiting, but being less of a drag on the bottom line), and unfortunately for its employees, giant cuts are being made in labor expense.

Investors looking to park money in a probable recession want stocks in companies that can endure the rest of the pandemic and then recover well after the pandemic. And that's what Disney looks like.

 

[Slpy3270]

Don't know why you're a pessimist about this. From a strictly financial point of view, just about everyone expected Disney's previous quarter to be a huge net loss. However, the income from the linear channels offset the losses elsewhere and the company just about broke even for that quarter.

Yes, breaking even is painful for a company that would usually make a profit of over a billion dollars a quarter, but, they didn't go backwards. And they have billions in reserve and in ready credit lines. So, Disney did a lot better than expected, relatively.

Since then, D+ has grown even faster than it had already been growing, movie and TV productions have restarted, parks have reopened (not necessarily profiting, but being less of a drag on the bottom line), and unfortunately for its employees, giant cuts are being made in labor expense.

Investors looking to park money in a probable recession want stocks in companies that can endure the rest of the pandemic and then recover well after the pandemic. And that's what Disney looks like.

Laying off 13% of the workforce that provides crucial operations to your business, not to mention high guest satisfaction and positive public image, is not endurance nor recovery. It's surrender.

A company that surrenders to a virus is setting itself up for long-term decline.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Laying off 13% of the workforce that provides crucial operations to your business, not to mention high guest satisfaction and positive public image, is not endurance nor recovery. It's surrender.

A company that surrenders to a virus is setting itself up for long-term decline.

WDW is looking at at least six months of reduced operations because even though FL will allow them to 'open up', Disney will (hopefully) continue to be responsible and keep the reduced capacity going.

And now, DL is looking like it may not even be open for a few more months before even opening with reduced capacity.

A workforce can't provide crucial operations if the operations are closed or operating at one quarter capacity.

Also, the parks can hire and rehire and train and retain as needed once things are back up to operational capacity.

Also, your post that I'm responding to is in reaction to the stock of the entire company, not just the parks. The company has income sources outside the parks.

 

[techgeek]

Laying off 13% of the workforce that provides crucial operations to your business, not to mention high guest satisfaction and positive public image, is not endurance nor recovery. It's surrender.

A company that surrenders to a virus is setting itself up for long-term decline.

Bob I has been on record as saying the company needed to loose a significant headcount prior to Covid. A surrendering Disney was never really an option, but if it were it would look dramatically different then the actions of the company today. Probably involving looking for a buyer, or splitting off and selling whole business units.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Everyone has been freaking "boycotting" for that past six months. Not necessarily willingly, but the results are the same. People have to realize that, especially for a place like WDW, that they are short millions of dollars every single day that they were closed or even only partially open. You want the parks to continue, but at the same time you feel that Disney should just continue to pay the help with no return of income. No matter how rich the company is, there is a limit. Fixed costs don't go away, however income did, in huge amounts.

Boycotts are willing. The past six months have NOT been a boycott. No one set out to organize a boycott against Disney and the entire travel industry. My point was that genuine boycotting today is no more than a cancel culture tweet that leads nowhere. And in the context of my comment (i.e. people boycotting Disney because of some of their employment cuts), people will be angry yet still show up.

 

[MrHappy]

To recap/put things into a perspective from things I've heard, the following departments were impacted drastically at WDW today:

- Photopass
- Guest Relations
- DVC reps
- Mid-level management, the Guest Experience Managers (aka front-line's bosses)
- Backstage data operations

Lastly, according to peeps, the Minnie Vans are no more, as in the entire cast who wasn't management was laid off.

Thank you for a useful post. Putting aside the sad news of real people losing there jobs for a moment, I was wondering the impact on the park experience.
Seems like they been trying to rid themselves of photopasses photographers for a while, trying for the auto kind.
Guest relations has always been great when I needed them, having less means waiting a little longer depending on the day and need.
DVC reps, are these the people working the kiosks and soliciting and such? If so... I’m good with it.
What would the impact be of a front line boss and backstage data ops?
I never used Minnie Van, Uber always worked well.

 

[mm52200]

Hoop de Doo was just cut.

 

[412]

Bob I has been on record as saying the company needed to loose a significant headcount prior to Covid. A surrendering Disney was never really an option, but if it were it would look dramatically different then the actions of the company today. Probably involving looking for a buyer, or splitting off and selling whole business units.

Why do people keep suggesting that Disney will look for a buyer or sell off business units? Disney's entire strategy over the last 15 years has been to scale up so that they can be one of the few big media companies that survives. They've arguably executed that strategy better than anyone.

Disney's core value proposition is that they have valuable brands that they can monetize better than anyone because of synergies between film, linear television, streaming, consumer products, and parks. Theme parks are a key part of that strategy.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Boycotts are willing. The past six months have NOT been a boycott. No one set out to organize a boycott against Disney and the entire travel industry. My point was that genuine boycotting today is no more than a cancel culture tweet that leads nowhere. And in the context of my comment (i.e. people boycotting Disney because of some of their employment cuts), people will be angry yet still show up.

This is what I said.... Read the whole thing please.

Everyone has been freaking "boycotting" for that past six months. Not necessarily willingly, but the results are the same.

So we should boycott every business that downsizes because the economy sucks or no one can safely travel or go outside. They should just keep sucking up until the well runs completely dry. I will admit the cutting value will not save anything, but boycotting at this point is like spitting into the wind. It will not maintain the source, but will just make the situation worse. I'm not going to Disney right now, but it has nothing to do with cut experiences or layoffs. It has to do with personal safety and having things operate at 100% will do nothing to bring me running to the gate. I will reserve my judgement of the situation until the all clear has sounded and it would make sense to open completely up. Then if they don't reinstate I will call management stupid, but not until then.