Layoffs underway at Walt Disney World

[DougK]

They've clearly hired the bad ones at the Polynesian considering the issues we had there and the fact that I had to ask three different times for a manager and once was actually told I couldn't speak to the manager. I love that resort but that experience put me off from it.

My experience is the opposite. I recently had an interaction with a GEM at the Polynesian and she could not have been nicer, more accommodating or more professional. I really hope she is not among the ones who are going to be laid off.

 

[Brad Bishop]

Spot on sir. It is Love of Disney and not money that drives most of these GEMs that the VASt majority also use to be hourly. So the narrative of hourly good and manager bad is just so lame its almost comical. The majority are great but both do have bad seeds or seeds that have soured. Same for the levels above GEMs

The reality is this: People love Disney (WDW). As such, you can fire just about anyone and replace them the next day with someone who's lined up outside the door.

When I was a kid I dreamed of working at WDW. I thought that it'd be so cool. As I got older I realized the economics of it and landed on, "I'll never work at WDW." They have no need to pay more because there's always someone lined up outside to work and if they're lined up outside then they probably have the love for the company and willingness to "try to do things right" and all that. They'll be lacking in experience but it's a different atmosphere than if I were to open a shop anywhere else. They may want a job but they'd have no love for me or the company and there wouldn't likely be a line of people right behind the first guy. I'd be forced to pay a little more to keep the good ones.

There's nothing wrong with that, it's just how it is.

 

[Dead2009]

Then we have the Staff and Senior leadership of TWDC and that's the crew who sold their souls long ago and dont care about the people who's job it is to create the magic.

YOu seem surprised that people at the top of the food chain dont care about the ones making minimum wage.

 

[Brad Bishop]

YOu seem surprised that people at the top of the food chain dont care about the ones making minimum wage.

Something people never consider: Those working at the bottom of the food chain really don't care about those working at the top, either. You generally care about the people you work with that that's where it stops.

In fact, most of those working at the bottom would feel that someone getting cut at the top probably had it coming and would be gleeful about it.

Those working at the top, from my experience, just see it as numbers. Some of them may consider the human factor but mostly it's just numbers.

Those working at the top, however, have a harder time finding a job because there's less of those types of jobs available than for those working at the bottom. It's not like you can be an executive at Disney, get laid off, and find something later that day. Yeah, maybe you know someone who does you a favor but I've know executives, nice folks, who were out of a job for a year or two and had to use the money they saved to make it by. If you get fired from a minimum wage job you can generally find another minimum wage job.

Again, it's the nature of the beast, but there's the tendency to label those at the top as "evil" and those as the bottom as "noble". You're not "noble" just because you're skillset limits you to minimum wage. You're not "evil" just because you went to school and worked your way to the top. You can be a decent guy at the top or you can be a jerk at the bottom. They're not exclusive to one another.

 

[flynnibus]

I don't even know how you address this in a corporation because you want to keep costs in check and, yes, that means dumping people from time to time, but at the same time you don't want to encourage stupid dumps with bonuses.

You encourage metrics that value cost as a percentage of revenue or other top line metrics... instead of pure abstract costs on their own.

If you're the one manager not playing along with the "look at my spreadsheet! I cut costs!"-game then you don't look good to the company so it becomes a: play along vs get terminated - deal.

You say, I'm the guy who drove the top line number, without hurting our margins in the business.

If your margins are fair... the only reason people go hunting for cost cutting is when the top line number is down, or other expenses are out of line.

If you keep delivering... the expenses to get there are less scrutinized.

 

[GoofGoof]

The reality is this: People love Disney (WDW). As such, you can fire just about anyone and replace them the next day with someone who's lined up outside the door.

When I was a kid I dreamed of working at WDW. I thought that it'd be so cool. As I got older I realized the economics of it and landed on, "I'll never work at WDW." They have no need to pay more because there's always someone lined up outside to work and if they're lined up outside then they probably have the love for the company and willingness to "try to do things right" and all that. They'll be lacking in experience but it's a different atmosphere than if I were to open a shop anywhere else. They may want a job but they'd have no love for me or the company and there wouldn't likely be a line of people right behind the first guy. I'd be forced to pay a little more to keep the good ones.

There's nothing wrong with that, it's just how it is.

This is generally true with jobs that have a public perception of being pretty cool. I had a friend who had a marketing degree but only wanted to work for a professional sports team doing sports marketing. He sat around for about a year after graduating without a job. He had some interviews but no job offers in sports. He eventually got a job for a local team but the pay was literally half what he could have gotten from a non-sports related job and he worked double the hours. The reason is that so many kids out of college want to work for a sports team and be part of that environment. They don’t have to pay well and they can work you like a dog because if you walk there are hundreds of people willing to take your spot. I imagine Disney is similar. So many people who love Disney World think it would be really cool to get to work there. That fantasy rarely lives up to reality.

 

[GoofGoof]

YOu seem surprised that people at the top of the food chain dont care about the ones making minimum wage.

In some rare cases they do. I had a close family friend who was the CFO of a Fortune 500 Company. He told me the most stressful part of his job was knowing that if he screwed up a big deal that not only would he lose his job, but many of the people working for the company under him could end up out of work. For someone at a lower level a screw up usually means at worst they get fired. For an executive a major screwup could jeopardize the livelihood of thousands of people. That weighed on his mind whenever he was contemplating a big deal. I do agree that for many executives their ego is their only concern besides their own compensation of course

 

[Bullseye1967]

Something people never consider: Those working at the bottom of the food chain really don't care about those working at the top, either. You generally care about the people you work with that that's where it stops.

In fact, most of those working at the bottom would feel that someone getting cut at the top probably had it coming and would be gleeful about it.

Those working at the top, from my experience, just see it as numbers. Some of them may consider the human factor but mostly it's just numbers.

Those working at the top, however, have a harder time finding a job because there's less of those types of jobs available than for those working at the bottom. It's not like you can be an executive at Disney, get laid off, and find something later that day. Yeah, maybe you know someone who does you a favor but I've know executives, nice folks, who were out of a job for a year or two and had to use the money they saved to make it by. If you get fired from a minimum wage job you can generally find another minimum wage job.

Again, it's the nature of the beast, but there's the tendency to label those at the top as "evil" and those as the bottom as "noble". You're not "noble" just because you're skillset limits you to minimum wage. You're not "evil" just because you went to school and worked your way to the top. You can be a decent guy at the top or you can be a jerk at the bottom. They're not exclusive to one another.

After I retired I became the store director of a big box chain ( I am not even sure how it happened but it did.) I had 212 employees and we had to let them all go . I, and my management staff found jobs for 196 of them. I ran the store and my people were very loyal to me. Most of them wanted to ride it to the end. It happened around the holidays. I got the text from corporate as I pulled into the parking lot for our black friday meeting.. I was totally blindsided by the company. Our company went down in 3 stages. I was a big winner for the company. I was offered another store 9 times. I saw where it was going. I could not fire another 200 people. Sometimes management does really care.I did not want to fire 200 more. There are many levels to management. Many do care. I have a good friend who is a higher manager with Disney who had to let people go in 2009. It still haunts him even though he has moved way up the food chain. Be very careful with your posts about management doesn't care. There is good and bad at every level .

 

[Brad Bishop]

After I retired I became the store director of a big box chain ( I am not even sure how it happened but it did.) I had 212 employees and we had to let them all go . I, and my management staff found jobs for 196 of them. I ran the store and my people were very loyal to me. Most of them wanted to ride it to the end. It happened around the holidays. I got the text from corporate as I pulled into the parking lot for our black friday meeting.. I was totally blindsided by the company. Our company went down in 3 stages. I was a big winner for the company. I was offered another store 9 times. I saw where it was going. I could not fire another 200 people. Sometimes management does really care.I did not want to fire 200 more. There are many levels to management. Many do care. I have a good friend who is a higher manager with Disney who had to let people go in 2009. It still haunts him even though he has moved way up the food chain. Be very careful with your posts about management doesn't care. There is good and bad at every level .

I completely agree with that. What I was really trying to highlight was your last sentence: There is good and bad at every level.

 

[mikejs78]

After I retired I became the store director of a big box chain ( I am not even sure how it happened but it did.) I had 212 employees and we had to let them all go . I, and my management staff found jobs for 196 of them. I ran the store and my people were very loyal to me. Most of them wanted to ride it to the end. It happened around the holidays. I got the text from corporate as I pulled into the parking lot for our black friday meeting.. I was totally blindsided by the company. Our company went down in 3 stages. I was a big winner for the company. I was offered another store 9 times. I saw where it was going. I could not fire another 200 people. Sometimes management does really care.I did not want to fire 200 more. There are many levels to management. Many do care. I have a good friend who is a higher manager with Disney who had to let people go in 2009. It still haunts him even though he has moved way up the food chain. Be very careful with your posts about management doesn't care. There is good and bad at every level .

This. I've managed software engineers at various software companies for the past 15 years. I've had to implement several rounds of layoffs over that period. Every time I've had sleepless nights before and after thinking about the impact that it has on the people affected. I understand how necessary that layoffs sometimes are to make a company healthy or keep it going, but it still haunts me.every time. I hate, hate, hate having to lay people off, but being in the position I'm in, its not something I can avoid. I've also worked with different CEOs and CFOs responsible for the decision to lay off.. Some.have been fairly indifferent and look at it as a pure numbers thing. Many others though (and this is the majority at least among the ones I've work with) hate doing it and really recognize the impact it has.

 

[Jedi Stitch]

If this RIF is treated like the RIF in the military, then The guy with 25+ experience will be laid off, while the younger guy with 10 years of experience will be asked to fill the roll vacated and the mid level position will fall away so you have a high up over seeing the rank and file. Like the military they will give a 2 week right seat ride for the 10 year to watch the 25+ do his job and ask questions. Then the 10 year will be in the drivers seat while 25+ shadows him to make sure he got the job down, but the 2 weeks is quietly witted down to not even a week. Typically it will be day to day that is trained on, and never the situations that need the high level of experience, and those are the situations that become news feeds, or at least stories on this board of the not so magical moments. I see a lot of posters saying it will be a good thing, and I can see that, but my experience with RIF, it never is the best and brightest kept, over reducing the budget. Even in my company I was working for, they canned a P.E. to keep a woman designer, who in turn left for a better paying job with in two months my old company deciding to keep her. Everyone knew it was to keep the records for having veteran, disabled, and female employees on the book.
I want to hope the Disney RIF is for the better, but I have yet to see one that forces the experience employee out that knows things that never find in the hand book. Hey just my Opinion.

 

[spacemtnfanatic]

There will be no "watch the guy getting laid off" time for those who will pick up extra slack. Folks will come into work one morning, be called into a meeting, and be off the property within a half hour

 

[MisterPenguin]

So, how many hours until the news about cast member layoffs to follow this news?

Looks like the Dis Co is giving 125000 employees the $1000 good will tax cut bonus. I guess that means layoffs are coming.

Walt Disney World to Hire 3,500 New Cast Members This Spring

#ThanksBonus #ThanksShanghai

 

[larryz]

Walt Disney World to Hire 3,500 New Cast Members This Spring

#ThanksBonus #ThanksShanghai

From your link...
"Bus Driver Online Job Fair – Held online through May 31, candidates interested in joining a team that’s always on the move can apply for available part-time and full-time roles."

I wonder why they're interviewing bus drivers with the impending Skyliner system...

 

[DisneyOutsider]

From your link...
"Bus Driver Online Job Fair – Held online through May 31, candidates interested in joining a team that’s always on the move can apply for available part-time and full-time roles."

I wonder why they're interviewing bus drivers with the impending Skyliner system...

I would say that the arrival of the Skyliner in no way means they are looking to get away from bus transportation.

 

[ABQ]

They need more unsubstantiated rumors to be spread? So they need new bus drivers?

 

[mikejs78]

Walt Disney World to Hire 3,500 New Cast Members This Spring

#ThanksBonus #ThanksShanghai

Too bad Disney is just an evil, heartless corporation who just keeps cutting back staffing at every turn to maximize their quarterly bonuses. #FordWasRight

 

[Driver]

They need more unsubstantiated rumors to be spread? So they need new bus drivers?

You know that's just not funny and I take offense to it. Can you stop that please!!!

 

[Driver]

I would say that the arrival of the Skyliner in no way means they are looking to get away from bus transportation.

As I've said before the Skyliner is not the do all end all for transportation. They have been short of bus drivers for years. Right now could easily use about 200-300 more!

 

[Liberty6]

Walt Disney World to Hire 3,500 New Cast Members This Spring

#ThanksBonus #ThanksShanghai

This is typical summer hiring needed to replace natural attrition. The layoffs last fall were at the Director/General Manager/ Vice President level not hourly CM.

As well they have been short bus drivers were a while now. The “Minnie Van” sucked a lot of staffing away. As well bus drivers are limited by DOT rules which limit hours. Other roles you can scheduled OT if needed to meet staffing but Buses you can’t. The Skyliner probably pull from the existing transportation cast members but should have a small staffing effect overall.