Take the Mickey! Even Disney is dejected as staff refuse to return to the office and management warns that working from home could destroy the company’s future
- More than 2,300 employees signed a petition urging Disney CEO Bob Iger to reverse a decree requiring all staff to work in the office four days a week
- Refusal to enter the office threatens to destroy business, says an executive
- Disney will lay off 7,000 employees by the end of the year due to falling profits
Walt Disney’s creative talent has given the world some of the greatest Hollywood movies ever.
But there are fears that the “collaborative process” that helped create gems like Bambi, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Toy Story is being threatened by a generation of employees who would rather work from home.
A senior executive of the Walt Disney Company told The Mail on Sunday that young people’s refusal to come to the office threatens to destroy the company’s future.
Last week, more than 2,300 employees signed a petition, which was handed to Disney CEO Bob Iger, imploring him to overturn a decree requiring all employees to work in the office four days a week starting March 1.
The petition warned that ending the work-from-home policy implemented during Covid would “force layoffs on some of our most hard-to-replace talent.”
Last week, more than 2,300 employees signed a petition, which was delivered to Disney CEO Bob Iger, imploring him to overturn an executive order requiring all employees to work in the office four days a week starting March 1.
The director said last night: ‘Traditionally, some of the best films ever came out of a collaborative process. You put writers in a room, talent in a room, executives in a room. You throw it out, you exchange ideas, you yell at each other – but sometimes you come up with that magical X factor that makes a great movie.
‘Young people nowadays don’t want to work anymore. Bob [Iger] has made it mandatory for everyone to come to the office from Monday to Thursday from March 1, and there is an uprising going on.”
Mr. Iger said, “Creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney. In a creative company, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe and create with colleagues that comes from being physically together.’
But the source said he has received “multiple complaints” from parents who say the work-from-home policy fits in with their childcare plans. He has also received complaints from employees who claimed the new policy was “deeply harmful” to those who describe themselves as “neurodivergent” – individuals with medical conditions such as attention deficit disorder, autism and dyslexia. He said, “I’m going to lose a fifth of my staff because I’ve been told the office isn’t a ‘safe’ space.
Mr. Iger said, “Creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney. In a creative company, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe and create with colleagues that comes from being physically together.’
“There’s so much shaking that I’m afraid to say anything.” Hollywood has been floundering since Covid decimated the global box office. While there have been rare hits such as Avatar 2 and Top Gun: Maverick, many projects developed during the forced work-from-home period have foundered. A Toy Story spin-off, Lightyear, was a critical and commercial flop, and Strange World, a $100 million animated film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, had one of Disney’s worst opening weekends ever.
Even Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans failed to become a box office success.
The source said, “This whole work-from-home thing means that even great creatives like him have been allowed to pursue things that you could describe as ‘vanity projects.'”
Disney is going to lay off 7,000 employees by the end of this year because of falling profits. This represents about three percent of the 220,000 employees around the world.
The source at the company said, “All I know is unless you get people back together, talking together, you’re not going to create magic. Face-to-face interaction is what makes the magic happen