Seriously Disney, What The Heck?

[beaker]

You've all heard about the Disneyland and Disneyworld park layoffs, where more than a thousand salaried employees were terminated.
But, word has it that a lot of these people were long time loyal employees with intimate knowledge and loyalty that cant be replaced.

And when I say long time, I mean some of these people have been working there since the 1950's!
http://minniemousegirl.livejournal.com/38181.html

Over the last several weeks, more than 1,000 salaried theme park employees have been terminated at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. To hear some tell it, those removed were primarily “dead wood”—middle managers with redundant responsibilities who spent most of their time hiding in their offices Poppycock. Many of those released had decades of loyal service to the park. They were providing important functions and, more importanly, possessed fundamental operating knowledge of the park that their successors must now do without. These weren’t all drooling, do-nothing hold-overs from the Pressler regime. In fact, several of those let go had been working at the park since 1956 (coincidentally, the year former Disneyland president Paul Pressler was born and 38 years before his first step inside Disneyland).

In tribute, here are just a few of the hard-working cast members who lost their jobs. My apologies to the hundreds whom I haven’t listed.

* Harold “Mickey” Aronson – the 87-year-old helped launch the first fireworks at Disneyland in 1956 and had been launching them ever since. The park’s old pyrotechnics computer was named “Mickey’s Match,u201D in his honor. Although he technically worked for an outside company for the first 20 years, he was officially hired by Disney in 1976.
* Geri Bumpass – who served as one of the park’s first tour guides in the mid-1950s and, after some time away, has been working in special projects for about the last 20 years. Geri worked at the park so long and knew so many cast members that friends joked she “never missed a retirement party.”
* Rebecca Caldwell – a 20-year veteran of the advertising, marketing, and publicity departments.
* Tom Gardiner – a financial planner for the resort since the 1970s.
* Connie Gohata – a production manager for more than 30 years.
* Ken Inoue – 30-year stalwart of the landscaping department.
* Cathy Jensen – merchandise project manager for the last 15 years, having joined the department 29 years ago.
* Timm Lundeen – the popular “Disney Pinbassador,u201D he was West Coast pin trading project manager who worked his way up from humble beginnings in Foods in 1986.
* Joyce Trent Morgan – manager of creative communications & alliance marketing, the 25-year veteran of marketing & advertising department even helped produce DCA’s opening day TV special.
* Homer Reyes – who oversaw the paint shop for the last 20+ years.
* Meredith Webster – another 30+ year old-timer from the Administration Building.


As one old-timer points out: “They say this is all about cutting fat, but look at (how they’re staffing) the hourly cast members.” He notices that despite heavy crowds, Disneyland is scheduling a minimal number of front-line operators, leaving attractions and other facilities under-staffed or completely unstaffed. The cuts in capacity result in guests waiting longer and receiving fewer choices.

Others leaving over the last few weeks include catering & convention manager Joyce Bramlett, Marilyn Campbell, special events producer Jon Cloward, Jeremy Collins, Kolissa Cope, Pamela Ewing, marketing & advertising filming manager Grace Ishiki, Blake Lennon, Joyce Manning, Michael McManigal, product developer Sarah Quinn, Emily Reed, Bill Rowland, Karen Seals, and special events manager Eric Wiley.

Man, I am glad and proud I was able to sneak into California Adventure and Disneyland summer of 2007. Charging close to a hundred bucks to go into either park, with no discounts anywhere is just insane. Disney owns many major media companies, makes billions through the hard work of Pixar, etc yet they claim theyre not making enough at their parks to justify keeping workers on board?

I know were spose' to be all nice toward the house of mouse since they are appearing to be moving forward for the first time in years with the Muppets property, but still.

Of course, if youll recall even Jim Henson Company when they owned the Muppets laid off a bunch of puppet builders in the early 2000's and Sesame Workshop laid off a bunch of people recently.

 

[Drtooth]

Hey, this whole recession thing is a head scratcher. You mean to tell me not a single company had thought of temporarily LOWERING their prices instead of constantly raising them to make up for losing money because no one could afford it to being with. Hey, GENIUSES... if they didn't have money to buy the stuff when they didn't have to use food stamps, what makes you think they'd spend 10-50% more now? Toys all cost upwards of 10 bucks each, when a couple years ago, you could get the same thing for 5-7. Even Little Debby snack cakes that used to go for 25 cents a couple years ago went through 3 price increases in the last year and a half. Say hello to low quality 75 cent snack cakes. Amazing.

I just can't believe not a single big business was smart enough to take the generous wealthy favoring tax cuts (that caused us to borrow so much money from China, which devalued the dollar, which caused the whole mess to begin with) and invest them, or put them away for a rainy day. Their incompetence and greed won out, and they had "Record profits" by taking the tax money they were supposed to invest in new jobs, and kept them as "profit." No wonder everyone was bamboozled into thinking the economy was so great, when the middle class kept bottoming out.

Disney makes crap loads of money. I understand that they are losing lots of tourists (at least from the US... for a while, we were the discount tourist destination for the rest of the world, thanks to our worthless Funny Bucks) since no one can even afford to go to the movies anymore. But they made so much money everywhere else. They are an entertainment super power, and while Warners and other companies were floundering because of their general incompetence (I know I throw that word around a lot, but it's apt), Disney was making a fortune off of Pixar, Pirates of the Carribean (until recently) and that Disney Channel crap I'm always complaining about. Surely there's enough money there to keep people employed, so they can afford the stuff they don't need. Remember, we are a capitalist system. Only way a capitalist system works is if everyone can afford to buy junk they don't need. Once that's taken away, jobs fall like dominoes.

 

[Vic Romano]

So sad. How disconcerting too! I mean, Disney parks are a throw back to the good ol' days. Simpler times, better morals and values; and they toss out the very soul of what helps create that? I love Disney, I really do, but this is shameful. No golden parachutes either, I bet. Just "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well I do want to point out, Disney was known for unceremoniously kicking people out even in the 1950s. That's the way powerful companies tend to work.

 

[frogboy4]

I'm sure there were many valued longtime employees that they did keep. More than they let-go. Who knows how and why all these particular decisions are made? The Jim Henson Company has made staff cuts under Jim and after and many of the employees were undoubtedly valued. It bites. It's also how it works.

In order for companies to steer away from bankruptcy they must think in new ways and tighten their belts. This means reconfiguring company structure and that leads to job cuts. Longtime employees likely get nice severance packages, but it's still a sour experience all around.

The challenge is reconciling quality with the bottom line while valuing employees. That's a difficult mixture. Sure, Disney has done some graceless things. I just hope that something at the company improves from these cuts. Something we can enjoy. If it's only about shareholders than this is a rotten deed. I'm still reserving judgment.

 

[beaker]

I'm sure there were many valued longtime employees that they did keep. More than they let-go. Who knows how and why all these particular decisions are made? The Jim Henson Company has made staff cuts under Jim and after and many of the employees were undoubtedly valued. It bites. It's also how it works.

In order for companies to steer away from bankruptcy they must think in new ways and tighten their belts. This means reconfiguring company structure and that leads to job cuts. Longtime employees likely get nice severance packages, but it's still a sour experience all around.

The challenge is reconciling quality with the bottom line while valuing employees. That's a difficult mixture. Sure, Disney has done some graceless things. I just hope that something at the company improves from these cuts. Something we can enjoy. If it's only about shareholders than this is a rotten deed. I'm still reserving judgment.

As Dr Tooth said, here's a genuis crazy...dare I say edgy avant garde concept: LOWER the gate prices!

Disney claims the layoff is because of lower park attentance. Well, maybe thats because families cant afford hundreds and hundreds of dollars so a few of their family members can go in a single day.

There's so many disenfranchised, poverty stricken, and financially struggling people in that whole Anaheim/LA so cal area. Again, as Dr Tooth said, Disney corp never thought of
bringing ticket prices way down?

They announce that Disneyland is $50 to get in, and I guarantee you park attentance skyrockets. Of course, I wouldn't expect them to actually think of the obvious. This, is the company that got rid of the VERY thing that made them Disney: 2d animation.

 

[CensoredAlso]

"People who have a lot of money seldom say no to more."

And I do pray for these people and their families; it's a horrible time for this to happen. The whole recession thing is a continual disgrace on the nation.

I'm more concerned about these people than the condition of the company. Disney unceremoniously removed child actors for the crime of growing up or coming out of the closet in the past. This kind of thing is not a recent phenomenon.

 

[frogboy4]

As Dr Tooth said, here's a genius crazy...dare I say edgy avant-garde concept: LOWER the gate prices!

Disney claims the layoff is because of lower park attendance. Well, maybe that's because families cant afford hundreds and hundreds of dollars so a few of their family members can go in a single day.

There's so many disenfranchised, poverty stricken, and financially struggling people in that whole Anaheim/LA so cal area. Again, as Dr Tooth said, Disney corp never thought of
bringing ticket prices way down?

They announce that Disneyland is $50 to get in, and I guarantee you park attentance skyrockets. Of course, I wouldn't expect them to actually think of the obvious. This, is the company that got rid of the VERY thing that made them Disney: 2d animation.

It must cost an amazing amount of money to run the parks. A figure that is incomprehensible to us. There's also the price of maintenance, insurance and heightened security since 911. That's a lot. I'm sure the bean counters know enough of the park's history to predict how lower entry fees will impact their profits. The parks make up for other shortfalls in Disney sales so it is crucial they remain as profitable as possible and I'm sure they have the best minds working on that. This is just such an odd time all around. I'm still amazed they can secure the location!

By ungracefully sending some of the older Disney park veterans out on an ice flow the company is also streamlining their operations while making way for newer, lesser paid employees to begin their careers (that may be cut short down the line as well) and thus the Circle of Life begins again. It's a raw deal. At least Eisner's gone. Since reading that portion of Street Gang I can't ever like that man.

Would lower prices build up or run down the park? I can see cases for both.

 

[CensoredAlso]

By ungracefully sending some of the older Disney park veterans out on an ice flow the company is also streamlining their operations while making way for newer, lesser paid employees to begin their careers (that may be cut short down the line as well) and thus the Circle of Life begins again.

Thing is some companies recently are instead turning towards unpaid internships for what were previously jobs, even for older people.

 

[frogboy4]

Thing is some companies recently are instead turning towards unpaid internships for what were previously jobs, even for older people.

"Too true." -

I feel the crunch. I really do. Being a creative field I know first hand that many people don't take such hard work seriously unless it's about shuffling legal documents or brain surgery. But to be honest, too many people in creative fields like graphic design are mediocre clip art monkeys. Makes it hard on the rest of us.

I just hope that these Disney interns aren't being exploited and have real opportunity in their future. Heck, listing them on a resume shows an employer that they've more than paid their dues.