Disney Shredding Through Its Remaining Workforce as Layoffs Go Global: Report
The inner turmoil at the House of Mouse is, quite literally, on display for the world to see.
With Disney’s domestic issues suddenly very public and very glaring for all to see, a new report suggests those issues aren’t exclusive to the United States anymore.
Deadline reported Thursday that those woes have now spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa as Disney employees around the world have been told that “their jobs are at risk of redundancy.”
The report said the “most at risk” employees work in the marketing and press departments but other areas — such as talent acquisition, engineering and information technology — also would be affected.
Curiously, despite the ongoing struggles of Disney+, employees of the streaming service were described as “safe from the cuts for the time being.”
This report comes on the heels of Disney dramatically restructuring its stateside operations, axing thousands of jobs in the process.
Deadline said the issues triggering the U.S. firings were the same ones prompting the international firings.
Disney began cutting 7,000 jobs in March, with most of those in the United States, CNN reported at the time.
The cuts were set to come in “three waves,” the report said.
2023 Layoff Tracker: Disney’s Layoffs Top 4,000 https://t.co/HEEuJjDy1v pic.twitter.com/3a5TgspQsl
— Forbes (@Forbes) April 24, 2023
Those 7,000 jobs amount to roughly 3 percent of the media conglomerate’s global workforce.
Deadline said the international cuts will be “proportional” to the American cuts.
Goodbye groomers. We cancelled Disney years ago.
— Bayou Baby (@Bayou_Baby_1776) May 25, 2023
The recent financial woes at Disney have stemmed from a variety of factors, including the poor state of the economy.
Disney was never a “cheap” brand to begin with, and with tighter financial times across the globe, theme parks and entertainment often become the most feasible cost cuts for families.
But while Disney doesn’t have much say over the state of the economy, the same can’t be said about the highly publicized and ugly feud the company has had with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who announced his presidential candidacy Wednesday.
That ordeal began when Disney voiced its opposition to a push by DeSantis and Republicans in the state Legislature to keep sexually explicit material away from schoolchildren.
Since then, the governor and Disney have been hitting each other in both actual court and the court of public opinion, without an end in sight.
But while DeSantis is readying himself for an inevitable showdown with GOP primary favorite Donald Trump, Disney’s biggest battles appear to be internal as it continues to grapple with its own outsized workforce.
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