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

[UNCgolf]

And even if they think theme parks have some value, they believe that they are easy to do. Just slap some popular IP on some otherwise uninteresting experience and call it good. Therefore they believe they can simply hire someone else whenever they decide they need someone again, without losing anything of value. Unfortunately, modern Disney audiences have been far to eager to accept this premise too.

Most us have already accepted that "our Disney" has been long gone, but this is blowing up the remaining bridges over the chasm.

Right, that's part of it. I do think they consider the theme parks relatively valuable as a regular revenue stream (in normal circumstances), but they want to spend as little money as possible on them.

And I don't blame them. If, as someone in a senior management/C-suite position, you don't have a passion for the theme parks/aren't interested in them, and you see attendance numbers skyrocketing even as you eliminate entertainment offerings etc., why in the world would you want to invest more in the parks? You don't have any incentive to do so.

 

[TrainChasers]

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Unfortunately, modern Disney audiences have been far to eager to accept this premise too.

Yes and no. Did the Disney public accept Pixar pier? To an extent. But they had already fixed so much of California adventure including adding midway mania to the the pier that the cheap additions didn’t stick out the same way.

The modern Disney audience did not accept California adventure 1.0 for example.

 

[Lilofan]

Waiting to hear back from a few CMs i've reached out to.

One of them is currently 'safe' and still has a job...but naturally he is nervous as the dust hasn't settled just yet.

The others...yet to hear confirmation thus far.



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Hopefully your friends will survive the layoffs. Best of luck to them.

 

[UNCgolf]

Yes and no. Did the Disney public accept Pixar pier? To an extent. But they had already fixed so much of California adventure including adding midway mania to the the pier that the cheap additions didn’t stick out the same way.

The modern Disney audience did not accept California adventure 1.0 for example.

Can they still be called the modern Disney audience? That was almost 20 years ago. Plus, it was in California, which has tended to draw a different type of customer than WDW.

 

[JohnD]

Sad to hear. The only thing I can do to help in this situation is keep my trip which starts in 19 days. But this year was a revenue buster regardless. First being closed for several months. Then opening but with limited experiences. Then after opening, guests making individual decisions on whether to go or not. Many put off going. I can't blame them. All of this combined led to a big hit.

 

[Rteetz]

Here's the OCR story -

"The WARN Act filings also included 411 layoffs at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale."

Disneyland layoffs include thousands of restaurant and hotel workers plus hundreds of Imagineers

The Disney Parks, Experiences and Products division announced this week that 28,000 employees would be laid off.

www.ocregister.com

My understanding is not all of these are full time WDI employees but also includes contractors they had hired and people who were on work hiatuses.

 

[Tomi-Rocket]

I wonder how many top execs are gonna take a pay cut?

 

[TrainChasers]

My understanding is not all of these are full time WDI employees but also includes contractors they had hired and people who were on work hiatuses.

Why would they have to fill out a WARN for contractors?

 

[Lilofan]

I wonder how many top execs are gonna take a pay cut?

Probably won't and after execs are laid off, the ones who survive the cut will have more on their plate of responsibilities.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Lol. Put in applications to where?

That’s always the issue on I-4 when the damn breaks.

I'm not in Orlando so don't know. There are still jobs out there, possibly harder to get into due to the amount of people applying but it's not completely non-existent. Would you rather them have been given 24hrs notice?

Are there?

279 from DVC laid off.

Not to joke (here goes)...but is the genius that thought Caribbean was a good spot in there?
How about the one that failed to build that canal I was promised?

It's funny because you hear more and more anecdotal evidence from reliable park watchers that the parks feel more crowded and busier every week. Yet no change in park reservation system, and people in the know say that no increase in attendance caps have been made.

Follow the money...or lack of thereof...

For those not sure about their job: Don't listen to these comments. There are many jobs out there even in a down economy. Many times you will find a new job that pays higher. Keep at it.

Ever been in Orlando in a deep recession (I hope it’s only)?

The news of the layoffs was not taken as good news for the stock. The market’s view from this is that Disney is doing worse than they are letting on and that internally Disney believes the recovery is going to be long since they let go so many people. The market was up big today but Disney was one of the few stocks down.

Meh...minor dip. Disney will be REWARDED for the layoffs by next week. My prediction.

I know these layoffs are employees that are not necessary due to lack of demand/work outside of the resorts themselves, but I wonder if this is a foreshadowing on significant increases in dues. Outside of higher cleaning costs, there is also decrease in rentals, and I believe additional costs associated with wage adjustments mandated by States for unemployment etc. are passed on to owners.

I would imagine it’s more sales/logistics/etc. probably a chunk of management too

Well, there's late breaking news the the House has agreed to hold off for another day on voting on the Democratic stimulus proposal in order to give Pelosi and Mnuchin more time to agree to a bill. So maybe we'll still see something tomorrow? Who knows at this point.

The grand game is really being played there. More layers to that onion than can be counted.

Some of the last big-name imagineers went out the door today...

Any specifics?

That’s what I’m wondering...that’s a hell of an ambiguous “dart” to throw.

 

[Rteetz]

Why would they have to fill out a WARN for contractors?

I know within WDI some are hired on a project by project basis rather than a full time full titled position within WDI.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I wonder how many top execs are gonna take a pay cut?

I know it’s nice to think it...but that doesn’t address this problem at all.

 

[WDW Guru]

But were they the right ones?

This isn't the time to further an agenda about the parks. Approximately 400 people just lost what was possibly their dream job due to circumstances out of their control.

 

[lazyboy97o]

My understanding is not all of these are full time WDI employees but also includes contractors they had hired and people who were on work hiatuses.

Why would they have to fill out a WARN for contractors?

Contractors aren’t part of the notices because they’re not employees. We saw this after the opening of Shanghai Disneyland where some large number of “Imagineers” were let go but the WARN notice was significantly smaller. The difference was contractors and project-specific hires whose term had ended.

 

[TrainChasers]

I know within WDI some are hired on a project by project basis rather than a full time full titled position within WDI.

They are either contractors or employees though. Contractors wouldn’t be included in the 400. I’m not trying to nit-pick on words though.

And honestly it doesn’t matter, people out of work are people out work. I don’t feel more sorry for yeehaw Bob then I do for the French chefs or Japanese Drummers. They are all talented people that Disney cut in a cold hearted and short sided way.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

This isn't the time to further an agenda about the parks. Approximately 400 people just lost what was possibly their dream job due to circumstances out of their control.

They did...there’s no way to put a positive spin on it.

For us...it indicates imagineering will be “restricted” for some time. Which hurts the internal morale and gives the customers less to look forward to.

Sad.

 

[Disney Analyst]

They did...there’s no way to put a positive spin on it.

For us...it indicates imagineering will be “restricted” for some time. Which hurts the internal morale and gives the customers less to look forward to.

Sad.

I'd argue we've known since March that things would be restricted for a long time to come. Once this virus is behind us, I certainly hope many talented people will be hired back and progress can continue....

 

[SoFloMagic]

Why? There hasn’t been a Covid spike tied to any open theme parks in America so far. That should have been the green light for CA, seeing how it can certainly be open safely with minimal Covid spread.

Just an FYI... Florida doesn't do contact tracing, so it's gonna he hard to pin a spike on a Florida business.
That said, California seems to be following the advice of public health experts, waiting til its actually objectively safe to open so they can truly open.

If anything, Orlando's half-assed opening has cemented the need to cost-cut.

 

[MaryJaneP]

You mean when there’s 100,000 cases and 3,000 deaths in US (the Washington model) and wdw will be a distanced restricted park filled with Florida residents not UNDERWATER?

FTFY

 

[techgeek]

For us...it indicates imagineering will be “restricted” for some time. Which hurts the internal morale and gives the customers less to look forward to.

Sad.

In terms of project pipelines... I see this particular cut as telegraphing the company’s intentions for new experiences in the foreseeable future. Not only does this affect the projects of ‘today’ that we already know are cut, this sets development and blue sky planning back years, stalling ‘tomorrow’s’ projects from getting the green light.

Guardians, Rat, and Tron better have some staying power, because I fear those are the last new major attractions we’re going to see in Orlando for a long time.