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“I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

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31–40 of 88 posts

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#32
post #6

I'm from a country with public health care, so this comes as an interesting shock - would employees immediately lose health benefits if made redundant / fired etc? Seems to incentivize getting rid of people when they need healthcare the most (eg "I have cancer" -> "Look, we're going to have to let you go, your performance the past few months hasn't been up to scratch"). I assume there'd be a bunch of health related a…

A. If you are a military retiree or military dependent (spouse or child), medical coverage is free and works differently from the rest of the system. This may be ten percent or more of the population, as a hand wavy wild guess. (If that sounds high, a foreign friend used to tell me Americans are rabidly militaristic nutcases with an insanely high percentage of people here who have spent time in the military .) B. You…

Nothing rabid about it, it's very rational if you and your whole family gets to be a Heinleinian Real American Citizen with HealthCare ™ after a stint in the military. Plus the neighbours give you salutes on the 4th of July.

I would do it too under those circumstances.

Also: https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/legal/citi...

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#34
post #6

I'm from a country with public health care, so this comes as an interesting shock - would employees immediately lose health benefits if made redundant / fired etc? Seems to incentivize getting rid of people when they need healthcare the most (eg "I have cancer" -> "Look, we're going to have to let you go, your performance the past few months hasn't been up to scratch"). I assume there'd be a bunch of health related a…

A very significant percentage of employment in the US is contract work. So people quite often need to purchase their own insurance to get a good plan. I couldn't really afford a good plan along with everything else so I just moved to Mexico.

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#35
post #26

It is almost if the United States is a third world country by cutting off healthcare in a pandemic.

The only difference between "furloughed" and "laid off" is whether the health-care benefits continue.

There's a strange detail I learnt, if you're laid-off then COBRA still only helps you if your employer keeps the same plan (i.e if they switch to a high deductible plan, yours changes too).

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#36
post #33

Disney's net income in 2019 was 11.05 billion U.S. dollars, marking one of the highest figures to date.

Does it mean you have to distribute it to employees?

It seems to me that even if Disney earns 100 times that, their employees should not get more than the market rate.

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#37
post #33

Disney's net income in 2019 was 11.05 billion U.S. dollars, marking one of the highest figures to date.

There are extensive government programs to help that were recently passed. Obviously the programs probably won't pay the full salary of an engineer or tech employee, but there is help.

> Any full-time or part-time worker who is furloughed, laid off or had their hours reduced due to the coronavirus is eligible for expanded unemployment benefits.

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#38

From a pure cut-throat capitalist perspective, this seems like a stupid move. Teams like this are not easy to replace, and Disney has plenty of money.

Maybe Disney too got overrun by MBAs, and their optimization horizon shortened to "until next quarter"?

More like their money printer, ESPN, ran out of ink. Theme parks shuttered, movie shoots scrubbed. Theatrical releases delayed to next year. Disney+ is doing great but that’s like saying the orchestra makes great iceberg accompaniment.

They are freaked out and making any decision they can to stop the cash burn, if it’s a good idea or not.

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#39
post #36
post #33

Disney's net income in 2019 was 11.05 billion U.S. dollars, marking one of the highest figures to date.

Does it mean you have to distribute it to employees? It seems to me that even if Disney earns 100 times that, their employees should not get more than the market rate.

Ethically it means you should take care of your employees during a pandemic or any other exceptional circumstance.

You know - the staff that were there for you, building your empire when times were good. Now they are suffering and Disney is posting record income numbers.

You sound like one of the asshole, cut-throat managers who makes decisions like this. I hope people like you die in a fire.

Re: “I, along with almost all of Disney Imagineering, am furloughed without pay”

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A. If you are a military retiree or military dependent (spouse or child), medical coverage is free and works differently from the rest of the system. This may be ten percent or more of the population, as a hand wavy wild guess. (If that sounds high, a foreign friend used to tell me Americans are rabidly militaristic nutcases with an insanely high percentage of people here who have spent time in the military .) B. You…

Nothing rabid about it, it's very rational if you and your whole family gets to be a Heinleinian Real American Citizen with HealthCare ™ after a stint in the military. Plus the neighbours give you salutes on the 4th of July. I would do it too under those circumstances. Also: https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/legal/citi...

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