Oh no!
We don’t ever like to hear that lay offs are going to happen, because it instantly makes us feel for those unfortunate people about to lose their jobs. We wish everyone had job security, but that’s just not possible.
So it’s terrible that we’ve gotten news that Disney is about to lay off between 200 and 250 people next week, mostly from distribution areas, but people in marketing and production aren’t safe either.
Disney has about 5k employees worldwide, so this is less than 5%. But like we said, any percentage isn’t ideal.
Here are a few of the reasons they’re giving:
Declining revenue from the home entertainment division has been cited as one of the causes (consumers are shifting away from buying movies to renting), as well as piracy.
But organizational changes are also factors, such as combining domestic and international distribution divisions and the growing reliance of Disney on DreamWorks, Marvel and Pixar to fill the movie pipeline.
Such a shame. We hope those who are about to lose their jobs a quick recovery in finding another. Maybe even a better one!
Good luck, everyone!
[Image via WENN.]