Posted on 06/18/2015 4:20:45 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
In late May, about 35 technology employees at Disney/ABC Television in New York and Burbank, Calif., received jarring news. Managers told them that they would all be laid off, and that during their final weeks they would have to train immigrants brought in by an outsourcing company to do their jobs.
The training began, but after a few days it was suspended with no explanation. In New York, the immigrants suddenly stopped coming to the offices. Then on June 11, managers summoned the Disney employees with different news: Their layoffs had been canceled.
“We were read a precisely worded statement,” said one of the employees, who was relieved but reluctant to be named because he remains at the company. “We were told our jobs were continuing and we should consider it as if nothing had happened until further notice.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Its Hollyweed.. Pretend nothing happened. No problemo.o.
“Be having yourself a Magical Day!”
publicity. bad publicity.
once the heat is off, they’ll do it again.
The employees are on notice - I’d be finding another job pronto, as though I’d really been terminated.
I think a couple of hundred are already replaced.
Yep.
Bad publicity! I’ve seen several Disney ads in the last couple days! Simply a CYA move!
Disney has discovered that the Indians they hired are useless.
Talk to me when the 200 who were let go in Jan are called back.
35 IT workers might cost them $3.5 million per year. If they saved half that by using Tata contractors, they would only save $1.75 million per year (and possibly less or none depending on the quality of the replacements).
If a visitor spends on average $100 per day, it would only take 17,500 visitors sending nastygrams to change their minds. I suspect they already lost more than 17,500 customers over this news though.
The damage has been done. All employees of Disney have been put on notice. The trust has been obliterated.
They will do it more quietly. A couple of employees at a time every few months.
You can pay people from India $5 an hour to work from a script. That means they look awesome on a spreadsheet.
It does not mean they can do the job.
So which is more expensive?
Getting a job done for (say) $25 an hour?
Or not getting it done for $5 an hour?
Disney is learning the answer to that question.
17,500/365
That’s only 48 people a day that need to care.
Entirely believable.
Just think how bad for Disney it would be if those workers protested somewhere!
Wow. Thankful for the job, but if that was me, I would be looking to get out ASAP! If a company treats you like that, it aint worth sticking around!
Morale must be through the roof.
I'm reminded of an old incident in the Corps: Back in July of 1971, a new CG assumed command at MCB Twentynine Palms. Electronic Schools Bn, 1st FAG, we were all out there in the High Desert. (If there are 29 palms, I never saw them.)
The General was being given a tour of his new command by some groveling staffer, and in passing, The New General mentioned that there was a sh!tload of rocks around.This casual aside filtered down.
At Friday afternoon formation for Schools Bn., it was announced that weekend liberty was cancelled, and that all enlisted personnel would spend the weekend raking the entire base, and policing up all rocks larger than a golf ball.
Thus The Great Rock Hunt was duly executed, in proper Marine fashion, at some cost in heat stroke casualties. Come Monday morning, there were house sized piles in every open area, all over Main Side.
The New CG returned from his weekend at wherever generals go when assigned to The Worst Place in the World in Midsummer, and being no fool, wanted to know where the F--K all these rocks had come from on his base! He was informed that his orders had been anticipated, and carried out to the letter...
Rumor has it that he was not happy, since several hundred of the brightest Marines in the Corps, already trapped in the most desolate corner of the Mojave, certainly could have been better treated.
I suspect that this was a similar incident.
I know this probably won’t be wildly received, but as a member of the “Tech” crowd I’m really starting to come around to the idea of unionization. Unions were originally born out of a need to combat evil corporations during the turn of the century (1900’s). After years of state and federal work legislation they have become essentially useless (to people who aren’t unscrupulous politicians or thieving union leaders), except in some rare instances. This appears to be one of those instances. Perhaps the Disney IT folks should unionize and then submit a set of demands immediately and threaten a strike. This would send a clear message to all of the tech companies that if they don’t treat their folks right they could bring in a new generation of unions.
Key phrase: “. . . until further notice.”
Old proverb - “The best time to look for a job is when you have one.”
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