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

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

#41
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.

What the fuck? “Should not get more than market rate”?

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

#42

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"?

MBA's and management consultants fucked over the world, seriously. They are like mileage churners, but with people.

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

#43
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.

Agreed, if it causes the company to have severe financial distress or even possibly go bankrupt, hard decisions such as these have to be made. If the company goes under lots more jobs and wealth is lost.

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

#44
post #27
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a law called COBRA that lets you continue your employers coverage for up to 18 months I think it is. You have to pay the entire premium including the portion your employer paid so the price tag is usually a shock.

So on Friday you have good health coverage, and then you get a recorded message on Zoom from your now former job. Now you have to pay for COBRA but you only have enough money reserves for two months of housing/food. So you apply for MediCal. Nope, you have too much money. So the reasonable thing to do is to take no health insurance. Then, you get the coronavirus. Pretty bad. You’re young, so you live through it, but…

If you lapse in payment in your inherited coverage from your previous workplace, and get a new plan, will they take a premium for any pre-existing conditions they deem you might have?

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

#45
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So yeah people totally lose their health care when they lose their job. Typically it runs through the month and then you’re on your own. You can by law keep buying the same plan at full price (employers typically pay between 50-80 and sometimes up to 100% of the premium). However, when you get sick that rate doesn’t go up, so there’s no incentive from your employers standpoint to fire you when sick. Because of the “l…

> Fun bonus fact, employer based insurance was first offered as a workaround for world war 2 era wage controls. Plus, its tax incentivized in three different ways. - The employer can deduct it as a business expense, reducing corporate profits on which they have to pay income tax. In fairness, wages work the same way... - ...but! The employer doesn't have to pay payroll tax on the amount it adds to their payroll. - An…

Companies big enough that "buy health insurance for their employees" is a thing pay insurance companies to administer the plans and they pay the medical costs as well. When an employee of such a company files a claim, the company ultimately pays the cost. I'm skeptical increased payroll taxes are more than these companies' cost to provide insurance. Also, payroll taxes themselves are also deductible.

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

#47
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed, if it causes the company to have severe financial distress or even possibly go bankrupt, hard decisions such as these have to be made. If the company goes under lots more jobs and wealth is lost.

Should Disney be more fiscally responsible so they can pay their employees during hard times?

I agree with your comment if it's a small business that struggles to make ends meet, but this is Disney. I do expect better from them.

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

#48
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.

No, but it certainly means that Disney's employees should understand exactly how much they matter to the company.

There's a junior MBA somewhere bumping their career by destroying others'.

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

#49
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed, if it causes the company to have severe financial distress or even possibly go bankrupt, hard decisions such as these have to be made. If the company goes under lots more jobs and wealth is lost.

they obviously won't go under, they will have a bad year. Companies often cut staff during bad years, but this is a bad year for everyone and a special occurrence hopefully not repeated in the following years. Still, since there are government programs in place maybe Disney should be taking advantage of them by furloughing their engineers that they can't necessarily use to best effect right now.

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

#50
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For the size of Disney empire, they'd have more than enough cash to survive as a whole for months instead of cutting pay to [sic] Imagineering R&D department.
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