Disney Layoffs of 1,000 Employees Are Underway; CEO Josh D’Amaro Says Cuts Will ‘Streamline’ Operations: ‘I Know This Is Hard’

https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/disney-layoffs-1000-employees-josh-damaro-memo-1236721266/

45 Comments

  1. yourfavchoom on

    **D’Amaro wrote in a memo:**

    > “Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney. Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs. As a result, we will be eliminating roles in some parts of the company and have begun notifying impacted employees.”

    > “I know this is hard. These decisions are not a reflection of their contributions, or of the overall strength of the company. Rather, they reflect our continual evaluation of how to more effectively manage our resources and reinvest in our businesses.”

  2. “And by hard I mean hard for you, not me… I am making tens of millions of dollars.”

  3. upnorthguy218 on

    If he cared about these workers they would be reassigned or retrained to fit with the new priorities of the company. Fuck this guy.

  4. CEO – “I have good news”

    Workers- “We’re getting raises?”

    CEO – “Sorry, I have good news for me. You’re all fired”

  5. “I know this is hard… but don’t worry, my little bonus of a few millions dollars will make it better”

  6. I swear to god, someone out there is giving CEOs the **exact same speech** and keywords to hit.

    This is almost word-for-word, concept-by-concept, buzzword-by-buzzword the same exact speech our CEO gave us in his email when they fired us this March.

    Fuck these guys. They’ll get their “performance” bonus after the cuts and move on.

  7. Meanwhile total top executive compensation at Disney is $123M and won’t likely go down.

  8. Bruh this year has been brutal. Like where the fuck are all these people suppose to find work?!

    Companies don’t care because apparently the top 10% are responsible for what? Over 50% of the purchase, maybe more?

  9. Basically said “Some of you may no longer have a job, but that’s a sacrifice that I’m willing to make”

  10. IamMichaelBoothby on

    Every CEO looks like they came out of a factory. It’s literally like a copy paste of the same three designs

  11. the_millenial_falcon on

    Hot take, mass layoffs should be illegal except under the strictest of circumstances and “boosting shareholder value” isn’t a good enough reason.

  12. “I know this is hard… but… we got AI that can do their jobs now, so fuck’em!” -CEO Josh probably…

  13. AlchemistStocks on

    They have nothing better to say under their Million Dollars roof. “I know this is hard”? F$$K off.

  14. LateMajor8775 on

    Shouldn’t have capitulated to the nazis in charge and fucked with Jimmy Kimmel

  15. Admirable-Eye2709 on

    “I know this is hard” for all the low level employees. But this guys stays rich. wtf

  16. I could have sworn I just saw something recent about Disney eyeing a purchase of Epic Games too.

    Fuck these giant corporations cutting off people’s livelihoods for the sake of a higher profit margin. You know the ones still standing will have higher burnout rates too.

  17. Express-Citron-6387 on

    >2025:
    Bob Iger, in his second-to-last year leading Disney as CEO, saw his total compensation **increase 11.5%,** to a total of $45.8 million in 2025.Disney disclosed Iger’s pay package in its proxy statement filed Thursday with the SEC.Iger’s base salary for 2025 was unchanged at $1 million. He also received Disney stock awards worth $21 million, $14 million in stock options, a $7.25 million cash bonus and $2.59 million in other compensation (including $1.85 million for security and $568,670 for personal air travel).
    [https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/disney-ceo-bob-iger-pay-package-compensation-2025-1236638568/](https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/disney-ceo-bob-iger-pay-package-compensation-2025-1236638568/)

  18. Panda-Express on

    “i know this will be hard for you all, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make”. 

  19. OptimusSublime on

    Disney has turned into a hollow version of the very thing that made it untouchable in the first place. It used to run on something intangible, something you couldn’t quite quantify but absolutely felt the moment you walked through the gates. Magic. Now that’s been methodically stripped out and replaced with a system that feels engineered to extract as much money, attention, and patience from you as possible.

    What was once immersive and effortless now feels transactional at every turn. Nearly everything carries an upcharge, and not a subtle one. It’s layered, deliberate, and constant. The experience has been carved up into pieces and sold back in fragments, each one marketed as “enhancing” your visit while quietly eroding the spontaneity and joy that used to define it. It doesn’t feel like hospitality anymore, it feels like optimization, like you’re navigating a monetization strategy rather than a place meant to spark wonder.

    And the planning has become its own exhausting ordeal. A Disney vacation now demands the kind of logistical precision you’d expect from a military operation. You’re expected to map out your days down to the minute months in advance, constantly checking your phone, refreshing apps, racing invisible clocks, all to avoid missing out on something you already paid a premium to experience. Instead of being present, you’re managing. Instead of enjoying, you’re tracking, booking, adjusting.

    It’s the kind of trip that leaves you needing another one just to recover from it. A vacation shouldn’t feel like a test of endurance or attention management. It shouldn’t punish you for not knowing every system, every loophole, every timing trick. It used to be simple: you showed up, and the place did the rest. Now it feels like the burden has shifted entirely onto the guest.

    What’s been lost isn’t just convenience, it’s trust. The sense that you were stepping into something thoughtfully designed to delight you has been replaced with the feeling that you’re being managed as a customer first and a guest second. And once that shift happens, once the illusion breaks, it’s hard to get it back.

  20. greedy fuck. 1000 people are down and out so that he and his c-suite can add another million dollar bonus to their piles. No rhyme or reason, except extreme **greed.**

  21. Historical-Edge-9332 on

    By “streamline” he means, other remaining workers will have to work themselves to the bone for this asshole to make his profits

  22. Express-Citron-6387 on

    Dear Josh,

    I know this is hard but I am boycotting anything to do with Disney so that the vast amount of shares that are part of your compensation tank.

    Citron.

  23. llamasteherethx on

    And they will increase their already exorbitant prices for everything to help make it less hard on their poor bank accounts 🫪🥴

  24. Why don’t companies for once cut or top out executive pay? Why pay hundreds of millions to one guy and fuck over a 1000

  25. Stocky_Platypus on

    Instead of laying people off, why doesnt leadership or the company across the board take a pay cut to save those jobs? Why, because the ones making millions of dollars do not want to take a pay cut at all to save jobs. Capitalism is not your friend, companies dont give two craps about you and the top 10% are truly the enemy of the people. They only care about themselves and dont care about anyone else at the company.

  26. RightSideBlind on

    The biggest problem with corporations is that the people who suffer the most when a company underperforms are the people who have nothing to do with the reason it underperformed. Those people are generally *rewarded*.