Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
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News Bob Iger outlines the need to transform the Walt Disney Company resulting in 7000 job losses and $5.5 billion in cost savings
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
A departure not likely related to the layoffs...
variety.com
Rob King, One of ESPNās Most Senior Sports Journalism Executives, Is Out
Rob King, a senior executive at Walt Disneyās ESPN who had oversight of much of the companyās sports journalism, has abruptly left the Disney-backed sports-media giant. āAfter neaā¦
variety.com
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Eh, the whole āEverone is a Cast Member thingā is rather stupid. It turns it from a phrase with some meaning to one with no meaning. The credits for a movie or play donāt list everyone involved under Cast.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
Disney is just doing what most other smart corporations are doing - they are finally trimming fat in the white collar ranks. The pandemic shone a very bright light on the fact that there are a lot of middle-upper management people who have rather useless, redundant jobs. It became very clear very quickly who actually was responsible for doing the actual work, versus who sat in the office all day, socializing and screwing around online, who's only responsibility was producing occasional reports and making themselves look busy.
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
There it is! Excellent analysis!
Seems like you haven't walked in leadership shoes?
Yes , rinse and repeat , TWDC is not the only one who cleans house every few years.
DopeyRunner
Active Member
What do you do about the bloated salaries of core development groups, like their tech teams? While there is probably significant bloat at the middle management levels, what do you do with senior and principal level engineers?
That's a good question. While no one is irreplaceable, there is a significant amount of tribal knowledge that walks out the door when you let the those types of tech people go, no matter how much documentation you have.
KeithVH
Well-Known Member
That would depend on two things. Have they maintained and updated their skillsets to account for emerging technology? And if they have, are the technologies they have chosen directly support the corporate mission? I know one guy who became a genius AWS guru. Too bad his company chose to go down the Azure road. Thanos <snap> time.
While we know what TWDCs mission statement is, what about the lower level groups? DPEP, IT, etc. I'd want people who have the skills to deliver, not what Bob wants, but what the people right below the senior VPs have spec'd. When I look at open roles, I see a lot of project manager slots. Shoot, anyone can be a project manager and that ain't gonna impress anyone.
And then I stop and think, well, look what they did to their own animation departments. Logic would drive me to think they covet their long-time senior devs and such the same way but, now that I think about it, I'm not so sure anyone is going to be safe. Not even talking about '41, just 2004 for example.
Highly technical roles get paid appropriately .
networkpro
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Yes they do, but some will stay just not to be annoyed with walking into a new company to start fixing the problems the new company made for themselves. With the non-compete and no disparaging clauses being tossed out, you'll start to hear more dirty laundry that companies just don't want to be aired.
SaintsDisneyFan
New Member
Actually the whole "everyone is a Cast Member" saying is incorrect. I work for the company outside of parks and everyone is referred to as employees.
Cast Members are just employees in the Parks division. They use the Cast Member terminology since "technically" they are part of a show. That's also why the Parks divisions use terms such as Stage Manager for a Leader and On Stage for being in a guest facing location.
Disney Cruise Line employees are referred to as Crew Members and the vast majority of the rest of the company is just referred to as Employees.
Since Parks and Disney Cruise Line largely aren't being impacted by the layoffs Iger using the term employees is actually correct.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
That's such an...odd response to what I said. And incorrect, as I spent over a decade playing the corporate game, so I know of what I speak. In fact, I can't imagine anyone who works at a corporation for any length of time on either side of the ladder who doesn't know these things to be true, even if they won't admit it because they have one of these jobs we are talking about.
There is also a stark difference In the past decade and a half versus the last economic downturn. For one, companies like Disney can't cut the lower level employees any more - they have reduced staffing so much in this time, that they are already running on skeleton crews and the bare minimum to keep things operating from the people who actually produce the work and keep companies in motion.
Then you have the fact that the pandemic and work from home shone a huge bright spotlight on who does what at companies. It became very clear who is actually responsible for what, and who is actually necessary to keep things running and who is not. And what it exposed is what most people already knew - a lot of extreme bloat in middle/middle-upper management/consulting positions that ultimately are overpaid for the tangible benefits they actually bring the company.
These two things together are why all these corporations are making cuts where they are - they can't cut any more below the line without clients/customers revolting, and they realized they don't need a dozen levels of people reporting on people reporting on people reporting, particularly "teams" of people who share what should really only be one actual job, and so on.
This is just one small facet of the massive shift happening right now in the American work force. We are in the middle of a reckoning, and very few are actually safe. Workers on the lower end are demanding to be paid fairly for their work, and corporations on the higher end are finally starting to question why there are so much redundancy in their ranks. Of course, the highest levels are not going to give anything up, CEOs and BOD's are going to...CEO and BOD...but everyone else in corporate land is starting to be judged on the actual value they bring, versus the perceived value of the positions that have protected them up until now.
Corporate game of what you described is what I did. High stress, hours , demanding deadlines , eating quickly at your desk because the markets don't close until 4pm , sacrificing time away from family , at times week long meetings on West Coast then redeye back to NorthEast then straight to office for presentations. Your description of socializing , online etc etc seem like when the rat is away the mice will play. But bonus time was my favorite time of the year!
Of course, the highest levels are not going to give anything up, CEOs and BOD's are going to...CEO and BOD...but everyone else in corporate land is starting to be judged on the actual value they bring, versus the perceived value of the positions that have protected them up until now.
Doubtful. They will still be protected because many are SVPs of entire teams that are redundant and they aren't going to cut their own throat. I don't think Disney is unique in being a show.
If you did a basic SWOT analysis of Disney the list of threats is to the point I really don't know if they can overcome them.
Doubtful. They will still be protected because many are SVPs of entire teams that are redundant and they aren't going to cut their own throat. I don't think Disney is unique in being a show.
If you did a basic SWOT analysis of Disney the list of threats is to the point I really don't know if they can overcome them.
Captain Neo
Well-Known Member
I wonder if Jonathan Majors will now be part of those layoffsā¦.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Well if heās still the Six Million Dollar manā¦then definitely