Posted by Rick Denney on May 29, 2001 at 07:30:00:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Disney BLAST!s out posted by Joe S. on May 27, 2001 at 21:47:29:
In these days of little or no employee loyalty, one cannot expect employers to offer more loyalty than their employees.
Of course, this is a chicken-and-egg argument. My observation of my own industry suggests that professional (that is--college-trained and hired for their expertise) employees held on to loyalty longer than the companies for which they worked, and remained positively identified with their companies right up until the time they were layed off because of a dip in the quarterly revenue-and-expense statement.
Companies cannot expect loyalty if they don't deliver it, and neither can employees. Few industries have guaranteed employment, and many of those display a lowered quality level to consumers as a result of it.
Before one can judge Disney, one would have to read their balance sheets and see if they are running scared because of reduced profit levels. Guess what? Disney has had poor financial performance in the last few years. That applies pressure to every part of a company, even the parts that are delivering. My own company had to abandon a major research and development effort recently, laying off 20 employees, because the parent company had another subsidiary that was sucking cash and they needed a bigger contribution from us. The board members of a profit-making corporation don't care about the foot-soldiers. Their main interest is calming down their investors before they run away.
Don't think I'm letting Disney off the hook lightly. The real problem in Corporate America is the current dominance in short-term planning and financial evaluation. And you know what caused this problem? Investors who keep too close a watch on their portfolios, who move their money at the slightest whim, and boards of directors with no product experience in the company at hand who judge the progress of the company strictly by quarterly financial reports.
You can bet your bottom dollar that the Disney board members, who set the financial objectives for all the divisions, haven't seen their shadow on the sidewalk of the Magic Kingdom any too often, and probably have no idea whether the music is live or canned. All they know is that their demand to reduce the cost of doing business has been met--or not.
Rick "who has been laid off by a theme park" Denney