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Credit: DisneyThe Walt Disney Company is laying off over 100 employees.
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A total of 115 shopDisney employees, called cast members, are being laid off from The Walt Disney Company effective March 24, 2024. The news was revealed during a video meeting on Thursday morning with all 115 employees affected. This was confirmed by reporter Scott Gustin, who shared the news moments ago on X (Twitter).
shopDisney will lay off 115 employees effective March 24. The impacted employees work remotely in guest service roles – most of the positions are part-time. shopDisney will transition guest services to a third-party company with employees across the globe and time zones.
shopDisney will lay off 115 employees effective March 24. The impacted employees work remotely in guest service roles – most of the positions are part-time. shopDisney will transition guest services to a third-party company with employees across the globe and time zones. pic.twitter.com/S5dbYBKQrf
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) January 26, 2024
These layoffs include cast members specializing in Disney parks merchandise guest services, as well as services for Disney’s D23 events. The meeting was led by Richard Childs, who serves as Vice President of Direct to Consumer Retail Operations for Disney.
The Cast Members supported not only shopDisney.com but also Disney Parks Merchandise Guest Services and D23 Guest Services. Sources indicate that these layoffs were done as a “cost-saving measure,” with these cut positions being transferred over to Transcom, a Swedish outsourcing company that specialized in customer service and technical support.
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The Walt Disney Company laid off thousands upon thousands of employees in early 2023, with Bob Iger delivering the news in its 2023 Q1 earnings call. Iger revealed that the company would be cutting its workforce by 7,000 jobs in 2023, a truly unimaginable number.
This move affected employees company-wide and did not target a specific branch of The Walt Disney Company’s workforce. The Walt Disney Company, while extremely profitable, has faced some devastating financial losses over the last few years, starting with the unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. Couple this economic disaster with multiple box office bombs and shaky stock prices. The Walt Disney Company has found itself between a rock and a hard place. Disney’s proprietary streaming service Disney+ has also failed to turn a profit in the nearly five years it has been active, though Disney CEO Bob Iger has made it a top priority to turn streaming around.
Sources report that The Walt Disney Company currently employs over 200,000 employees, with occupations spanning countless industries and job titles, such as theme parks, filmmaking, engineering, animation, and customer service.
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