Labor cost cutting measures begin at Walt Disney World as the company enters Q1

[Lilofan]

Just looking at the fulltime housekeeping requirements schedule alone would make me look for other work: "Full Time requires full availability for any shift, seven (7) days per week, including nights, weekends, and holidays"
Previous experience preferred "Previous housekeeping responsibilities for 14-18 rooms a day" that seems like alot of rooms.

Isn't tourism operations generally open 365 days a year? It would be necessary to advise applicants of this.

 

[Patcheslee]

Isn't tourism operations generally open 365 days a year? It would be necessary to advise applicants of this.

Any shift I take as can't even rely on being strictly 1st and it may change daily or weekly. That'd be rough to plan for anything and work/life balance.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Any shift I take as can't even rely on being strictly 1st and it may change daily or weekly. That'd be rough to plan for anything and work/life balance.

Very much so...and management doesn't seem to care about that aspect, which is a real shame. It's one thing to work all night shifts or all day shifts...it's quite another to be asked to make constant rapid flip-flops between the two.

My husband is a flooring installer, and every now and then, there's a commercial client who has unrealistic expectations that installers work overnight shifts - but my husband's boss will cater to them anyways. In these situations, the employee invariably ends up losing money because they need to sleep in between that overnight shift and returning to work their regular day shift.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

Just looking at the fulltime housekeeping requirements schedule alone would make me look for other work: "Full Time requires full availability for any shift, seven (7) days per week, including nights, weekends, and holidays"
Previous experience preferred "Previous housekeeping responsibilities for 14-18 rooms a day" that seems like alot of rooms.

I can also tell you they’re happy to hire people with no housekeeping experience at the moment. If the applicant has a pulse and is willing to give them open availability, they’ll be hired.

 

[John park hopper]

Any shift I take as can't even rely on being strictly 1st and it may change daily or weekly. That'd be rough to plan for anything and work/life balance.

My wife was a RN nurse(now) retired hospital nurse which required shift work, there are many jobs that require shift work it's not unique to housekeeping

 

[Lilofan]

My wife was a RN nurse(now) retired hospital nurse which required shift work, there are many jobs that require shift work it's not unique to housekeeping

I know some RNs that love overnight shift work and the extra money that goes with it , 530pm-6am, 3 days a week, 4 days off, repeat. It is not for everyone.

 

[wutisgood]

I will point out a lot of the labor shortage is due to companies being decades behind in pay and benefits and saying "shucks I guess we just can't find anyone" after offering a moderate bump in pay.

Cedar point had to almost double their pay to get things back on track and I heard reports that later in the season it was really obvious workers were much happier. The fact that they can afford to do that yet disney is significantly lower in pay is a joke. I do wonder if we won't see some entertainment come back like fantasmic until numbers are to disney's liking.

 

[matt9112]

I've parked in the lots. The farthest thing from my mind is looking at the vegetation at the far reaches of the lots. We are too exited to enter and enjoy the day.

Im not sure why you go out of your way to defend or downplay anything TWDC does. Must own some stock.

 

[JoeCamel]

I will point out a lot of the labor shortage is due to companies being decades behind in pay and benefits and saying "shucks I guess we just can't find anyone" after offering a moderate bump in pay.

Cedar point had to almost double their pay to get things back on track and I heard reports that later in the season it was really obvious workers were much happier. The fact that they can afford to do that yet disney is significantly lower in pay is a joke. I do wonder if we won't see some entertainment come back like fantasmic until numbers are to disney's liking.

A lot of that is not wanting to pass the real cost to the consumer. Europe is considered very expensive by US standards so if the consumer will bear the cost companies will hire at a higher rate but the fear in the boardroom is they don't want to be the leader in hiking the prices.
Get ready for $15 burgers (easy to find now) even at quick serve, $10 Mickey bars and generally increased prices across the board. Not just in the parks but in general life.
After pumping trillions of made up money into our economy it sloshes around until everyone thinks they are worth $20 an hour (and is) for a warm body.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

A lot of that is not wanting to pass the real cost to the consumer. Europe is considered very expensive by US standards so if the consumer will bear the cost companies will hire at a higher rate but the fear in the boardroom is they don't want to be the leader in hiking the prices.
Get ready for $15 burgers (easy to find now) even at quick serve, $10 Mickey bars and generally increased prices across the board. Not just in the parks but in general life.
After pumping trillions of made up money into our economy it sloshes around until everyone thinks they are worth $20 an hour (and is) for a warm body.

When a company posts billions in profits and pays executives exorbitant amounts of money, they absolutely can afford to pay better without passing the cost onto their customers. They just don't want to.

 

[Goofyernmost]

One presumes that Mears will price transportation where they will make a profit ( a wild assumption, I know). Then why does not retain DME and not roll cost + margin into the trip package price? I have a suspicion that the WDW margin for DME will remain in the package price, thus getting paid for doing nothing.

They have been running it profitable for years now (of course, they have a contract rate) I would think it is based on mileage and not passengers because that is the way most transportation works. Now they have to figure it on passengers and that is not controllable. We shall see if that works or not. No matter how they handle it Disney will no longer be carrying that expense and that is what Disney is gaining. Mears will be doing that so if things are light they will not lose money. I'm sure there were times when it was more doable when there were a lot of people going to the resorts then light days, but they were looking at it as a lost leader in a way to get people to pay those high, high prices to stay on property and to make it harder for them to leave the property. That is why I always called it the happy prison bus.

 

[JoeCamel]

When a company posts billions in profits and pays executives exorbitant amounts of money, they absolutely can afford to pay better without passing the cost onto their customers. They just don't want to.

I don't limit this to TWDC, it is a culture change to cater to the workers rather than the stockholders. It requires a long term view of what is best for the company rather than what is best for the next quarter and a belief in your abilities to motivate people.

 

[flynnibus]

When a company posts billions in profits and pays executives exorbitant amounts of money, they absolutely can afford to pay better without passing the cost onto their customers. They just don't want to.

Correlation is not causation though.

Imagine Joe the employee comes up with a great way to increase productivity and the company profits go up because of it. Does that mean random employee Jane deserves a pay raise simply because the company is making more money?

Much of the 'massive profits' people talk about come from massive horizontal scaling. When you look at actual MARGINS, not profits, one can tell a much better story of what companies can afford to do or not. And customers love to say "oh I'll happily pay more for Jane to make more money..." because it's usually an isolated case. They'll happily pay another 20% for that burger... but when faced with a 20% cost in all their expenses... they suddenly start changing their tune.

 

[Lilofan]

Im not sure why you go out of your way to defend or downplay anything TWDC does. Must own some stock.

I've got concerns too, but difference of opinion is normal in these forums if you haven't noticed. If you haven't heard, your money works harder than you do as a long time investor in the markets

 

[Freshee61]

As long as it’s Covid related it’s justified rightly so

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Correlation is not causation though.

Imagine Joe the employee comes up with a great way to increase productivity and the company profits go up because of it. Does that mean random employee Jane deserves a pay raise simply because the company is making more money?

Much of the 'massive profits' people talk about come from massive horizontal scaling. When you look at actual MARGINS, not profits, one can tell a much better story of what companies can afford to do or not. And customers love to say "oh I'll happily pay more for Jane to make more money..." because it's usually an isolated case. They'll happily pay another 20% for that burger... but when faced with a 20% cost in all their expenses... they suddenly start changing their tune.

It's all excuses.

 

[DisneyNeighbor]

They have shortages in very specific roles - kitchens and housekeeping primarily. Most guest facing areas are not a problem.

Expect to see cuts in the usual places, like number of CMs in stores etc.

Are they going to add self-checkouts in the stores?

 

[wutisgood]

A lot of that is not wanting to pass the real cost to the consumer. Europe is considered very expensive by US standards so if the consumer will bear the cost companies will hire at a higher rate but the fear in the boardroom is they don't want to be the leader in hiking the prices.
Get ready for $15 burgers (easy to find now) even at quick serve, $10 Mickey bars and generally increased prices across the board. Not just in the parks but in general life.
After pumping trillions of made up money into our economy it sloshes around until everyone thinks they are worth $20 an hour (and is) for a warm body.

What are you even talking about? Europe might be more expensive but tipping is actually a bonus vs a requirement. Also since most places in europe haven't crapped on workers for decades they don't have as drastic ground to make up on pay that they would need to bump prices that much.

Disney is already the leader is prices. What would they be afraid of apart from execs making slightly less? I would reiterate it was substantially cheaper even with food to visit disney paris vs the US disney parks in 2019. Cedar point did not greatly increase prices after the raises and they are in the US and substantially cheaper. Also labor is often a smaller percentage of actual cost than people people think which is why they don't need to raise prices as much as you think to cover those costs.

 

[JoeCamel]

What are you even talking about? Europe might be more expensive but tipping is actually a bonus vs a requirement. Also since most places in europe haven't crapped on workers for decades they don't have as drastic ground to make up on pay that they would need to bump prices that much.

Disney is already the leader is prices. What would they be afraid of apart from execs making slightly less? I would reiterate it was substantially cheaper even with food to visit disney paris vs the US disney parks in 2019. Cedar point did not greatly increase prices after the raises and they are in the US and substantially cheaper. Also labor is often a smaller percentage of actual cost than people people think which is why .

Labor is the leading cost in most business today and one that can be manipulated

 

[ImperfectPixie]

What are you even talking about? Europe might be more expensive but tipping is actually a bonus vs a requirement. Also since most places in europe haven't crapped on workers for decades they don't have as drastic ground to make up on pay that they would need to bump prices that much.

Disney is already the leader is prices. What would they be afraid of apart from execs making slightly less? I would reiterate it was substantially cheaper even with food to visit disney paris vs the US disney parks in 2019. Cedar point did not greatly increase prices after the raises and they are in the US and substantially cheaper. Also labor is often a smaller percentage of actual cost than people people think which is why they don't need to raise prices as much as you think to cover those costs.

These companies like to pretend that a revolving door of "expendable labor" keeps costs down, but the reality is that it's cheaper to give pay raises to good employees and keep morale up than it is to train new hires, which generally costs between $12-20,000, depending on the position. Not to mention that happy employees are more productive employees because they actually care about their jobs.