Morale and trust within the Walt Disney World government has deteriorated since allies of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took it over earlier this year, according to many employees who have departed in recent months saying the governing district has been politicized and cronyism now permeates the organization.
More than 40 out of about 370 employees have left the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District since it was taken over in February, raising concerns that decades of institutional knowledge is departing with them, along with a reputation for a well-run government.
“When I first joined the District, I found an organization that strived to be the very best at serving our community, sought the very best employees and valued those employees above all else,” a former facilities manager with three years of experience said in an employee exit survey last week. “I find myself leaving a completely different District. A District that prioritizes politics above all else and will gladly sacrifice its employees, its community and its work if there’s an opportunity to score political points.”
Picking Disney as your hill to die on is so stupid. Especially when Disney is one of Florida’s big money makers. Like, I don’t think the government should be beholden to corporations obviously, but actively antagonizing one just cause you hate gay people is a dumb move all around. Not to mention all of Disney’s “support” for the lgbt community isn’t exactly…sincere.
I rather insincere support over open hostility
Amen. At least insincere support normalizes supporting those groups as opposed to normalizing hate. :(
True but it’s kinda ironic that Desantis is fighting them over supporting gay people when neither of them actually like gay people.
I see them as my racist, homophobic uncles. At least uncle Disney is trying, even if it’s not fully sincere, and since he found out I have gay friends coming for dinner, he’s cut down on the homophobia and keeps his words in check, and smiles.
Uncle Ron is standing on the chair (to look taller) , yelling at my gay friend about how they’re sinners and will all die in a tornado of hellfire, unless they repent and vote Republican.
Yeah, this is kinda where I sit. Disney isn’t our friend, not by a long shot. I’ll take the “support” they’ve shown over what we got in the early 90s, where being gay meant you were either the laughingstock of a sitcom or movie, or a sex-crazed maniac who’s probably also a pedophile.
Not to mention all of Disney’s “support” for the lgbt community isn’t exactly…sincere.
For most companies being “woke” is just marketing to get more people buying their products. To wit: Pride Month for several companies.
Yeah I think it’s known as “rainbow capitalism”.
Which makes “Go Woke, Go Broke” that much more laughable. If “going woke” was so unprofitable, no major corporation would be “woke.” If being “anti-woke” was profitable, Target would stock anti-Trans clothing, Disney would have movies where the only LGBTQ characters are the villains, and all movies would only feature straight, white, Christian men as the leads perhaps with a “dumb but sexy blonde” love interest.
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I find it so funny and sad that Republicans call this “virtue signaling” as if it’s a new thing and that companies haven’t been pandering to the public to increase sales since they’ve existed.
And conservatives have always had a problem with it when it supports progressive ideals.
As I see it, this whole debacle is as much proof as I or anyone should need that DeSantis is unfit to be president.
When the state’s largest employer, one who had supported him in the past on many issues, dared oppose him on one single issue that had taken the national stage (where they could do nothing other than oppose or be seen as discriminatory), he decided to punish them. Not in any way that was even a little bit effective, but in a punitive and immature and ineffective way that has replaced an effective good government agency with a politicized useless committee.
His actions say to me that he is neither a good representative of Florida’s people, nor a wise leader, nor even an effective politician. He is a child who had a temper tantrum when he didn’t get his way, so he tried to smash his favorite toy and didn’t even break it.
We can do better. We have to do better than that, for the good of the nation.Luckily (or unluckily) national Republican voters overwhelmingly prefer tRump
Unlucky. I think Biden is a better candidate than either of them, but I think the American people deserve to have two decent choices to pick from.
I have no particular love for the DNC either or many of the Democratic candidates we’ve seen, but at least they manage to more often than not put forward someone who would at least make a semi-functional administrator who tries to execute some sort of plan.
And Disney didn’t even strongly oppose DeSantis. It was a wishy-washy sort of opposition and DeSantis responded to it with a “I’m going to destroy Disney!”
Yeah, right. People can have their quarrels with how Disney operates, but you can’t deny that Disney is a powerhouse. You do NOT want to get on their legal team’s bad side unless your case is VERY good.
Exactly. They are a huge company, they win when they fight, and they are also his state’s biggest employer. Why pick a fight with them at all? It’s stupid. There was no reason for it.
Hell, if DeSantis had two brain cells to rub together, he’d have met privately with Disney and said this is important to me, so oppose it publicly all you want just don’t put any serious action into it, and we can pretend to fight but still be friends. That’s a win-win, Disney gets the credit for being woke, he gets the credit for being anti-gay, they each play their roles. I’m pretty sure Disney would have gone for that. Shady as fuck of course, but far more effective for everybody than the childish tantrum he went off with.
Whoever sits in the oval office should be clever enough to see possibilities like that, not emotional to have a tantrum when he doesn’t get his way.
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It’s the same story over and over. Any government that prioritizes loyalty over competency will find themselves ruling over a disaster. It doesn’t even really matter what the pet ideas are.
It is just better for everyone to hire and support the people who are most capable even if you disagree with them on every single issue.
Without a doubt. But I think a lot of the extreme social conservatives, both politician and populace, are like a dog chasing a truck- they wouldn’t know what to do with it if they actually got what they are going after. Many of those positions are just based on a general sense of fear and dissatisfaction, the religious element is happy to play into that and a lot of conservative politicians are happy to play into both to get votes. It’s a shitty strategy and it’s bad for the country and making it mainstream is one of the worst things Karl Rove did to this country. It’s like McCain legitimizing Sarah Palin, only worse.
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It really isn’t. Disney are a big corporation, and corpos gonna corpo, but Disney does at least pull its weight in some ways that most modern politicians seem incapable of. Meanwhile, the whole region, perhaps even the whole state, is circling the drain taking innocent people with them.
It’s not like Disney is any sort of a malicious actor in this.
i agree with disney being better than ron desantis, he sucks and you’re completely right that he’s wrecking the state.
the statement
It’s not like Disney is any sort of a malicious actor in this.
is untrue, though. the way disney world is run is notoriously bad for employees. here are some articles on the topic.
- workers are seriously underpaid, given how hard the work is and how expensive the area is
- some of employees are homeless
- this is a 5 year old article about the problem
these are the sorts of things they’ve done with the control they’ve had over disney world. they haven’t “put employees above all else” like the person in the article said they did.
Yeah, Disney’s no peach in all this, lest we forget, among other greasy shit, DisneyCorp tried to trademark the phrase “Dia de los Muertos” in order to sell movie merchandise.
That first article, the most recent one, says the unions successfully negotiated a $15 an hour minimum wage - well above the state and federal levels. The other articles seem to be leading up to that $15 an hour minimum. The argument now is that this is not enough because of soaring living costs, which neither Disney nor the unions could have predicted.
Like I say, corpos gonna corpo, but really Disney is far from the worst when it comes to that. They’re shittier than they should be, but they’re also a little unusual in that the penny pinchers generally know not to squeeze too hard, else it will hinder their long term profits.
Disney and Florida taking an L? Pop the champagne!
This is a horrible take that’s shared by DeSantis and his cronies. It doesn’t matter how many people lose, as long as “the right” people lose.
A multibillion dollar media conglomerate getting to run its own local government is bad actually.
I mean, yes. Corporations owning towns is problematic. But the way in which this was handled is significantly worse.
While having their own government generated huge potential for abuse, all signs point toward Disney actually being a pretty good steward. So it’s not like this was some emergency. The takeover of the government could have happened slowly, deliberately, and in a way that did not destroy the district in the process. But that was not the point here. The point was to cause damage to Disney because they dared to disagree with DeSantis.
Notice that none of the other privately-owned towns in Florida are being stripped out. It’s just Disney, and it’s just because of revenge.
Due to the way this was done, an awful lot of people are going to needlessly suffer. Not just Disney employees, either. Disney attracts massive tourism to Florida, and that tourism money ends up all over the state. This is a self-own of absolutely epic proportions on DeSantis’ part, and all of Florida is going to pay for it.
Corporations running towns. Versus fascist government regimes running town. Pick one.
True, but a state full of people isn’t. I’m not here to defend a business. I’m here to remind that the point should be about the people.
We should celebrate people winning, not someone losing.
Yes, but we are actually at the point where we have to ask if the alternative is better? In this case… It’s close.
I think they’ve always had one.
Tell me you don’t know what you’re talking about without saying “I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
Okay, I agree with DeSantis then. Disney shouldn’t own a town. His reasons are shitty and my reasons are anticapitalist.
Only at the cost of people’s livelihoods.
I don’t care.
Ron DeSantis: I don’t care who suffers as long as the people I don’t like also suffer!
Sneptaur: I don’t care who suffers as long as the people I don’t like also suffer!
No I just don’t really care when people lose their jobs
Most self centered people don’t, until it effects them. Society requires a level of empathy to remain in tact, and not everyone has it.
They’ll find new jobs. Again: I do not fucking care. I hope they find new employment quickly and that they have savings enough to support themselves and any dependents. If they don’t, they will have unemployment. I don’t expect privileged Floridian government officials to be living paycheck to paycheck, so again: I don’t fucking care.
Unemployment is a joke, especially if you’re supporting a family and lose health benefits. I get you don’t care when people lose their jobs. I’m just saying that’s cold and callus. You’re also downplaying how hard it is for some people to get another job quickly in this economy and job market.
People not caring is how things never change.
Okay
Would be an interesting hell if Disney packs up and leaves the state. Conservatives take over the property and business and rebrand it some kind of conservative Christian family theme park lol.
Have you ever been to Disney World? I’ve been there quite a few times. Packing up and leaving wouldn’t be easy at all.
First of all, Disney World is huge. It’s 43 square miles or over 27,500 acres. Disney would need to find an equivalent sized area in a state that wouldn’t threaten to turn “MAGA Red” and that would have decent weather year round (i.e. no massive snow storms). It would also need to have a major airport nearby.
Next, Disney would need to rebuild all the infrastructure: roads, bridges, drainage systems, etc. They would need to rebuild all of the parks which would be a monumental effort itself. There are tunnels in Magic Kingdom that are used for employees. These would need to be rebuilt. Restaurants, hotels, and shops would need to be built. Employees would need to be relocated (or new employees hired). Animals would need to be transported from Animal Kingdom to the new park.
And while all this was going on, Disney World would need to keep operating. Building a New Disney World could easily take a decade even if everything went smoothly. Disney couldn’t afford to just shut down Disney World for 10 years.
It would cost Disney a lot less money to just beef up their already impressive legal team and donate to politicians likely to take a friendlier stance towards Disney. Disney could likely fund every Democratic politician in Florida from dog catcher to governor and still spend less than if they rebuilt Disney World.
(This isn’t to say that I’m a fan of companies buying favorable politicians. Just that it makes more financial sense for Disney to do this rather than rebuild.)
what if they tried to pack it up in a really big truck though
You’d need at least two trucks. Trust me. I’m an ingineer.
Acurate assessment. As much as I would like to see Disney scorched earth Florida, its not happening in the near future.
The other medium-term solution I could see is to begin winding down operations in Florida and redirecting resources to beefing up the other existing parks. Basically cut back all spending in Florida until the park park is barely breaking even. Let it sputter out slowly while expanding other properties.
That said, you’re probably right that The Mouse really needs to drop some cash in Florida and drastically alter the political landscape.
There are tunnels in Magic Kingdom that are used for employees. These would need to be rebuilt.
Fun fact: it’s not that they dug tunnels (the water table in Florida is too high for that); it’s that they raised the ground elevation of the entire park to above the top of corridors created at the original ground level.
I can already see someone asking for contributions for a Christian theme park and get millions in donations only to later declare bankruptcy due to running out of funds.
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One of the rides will be called “The Crucifixion” where you get to carry a life-sized cross on your back miles before they tie you up to it for hours.
They already tried it once.
Reminds me of something they tried to do in my home state of Ohio, up around Indian Lake. The San Juan Amusement Park was built by George B. Quatman in the 60’s, ran for 20 years, and was alcohol free. All that remains of it now is a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Russell’s Point.
Disney would quite possibly literally salt the earth before they left.
This is what happens when you can’t help but use the apparatus of the state for your petty business squabbles. Florida is becoming unlivable, and this is where the state government’s priorities lie.
“Florida is becoming unlivable.”
I mean, yeah, sure, but there are Trans people out there! We have priorities! Florida has alligators though and they’ve survived for millions of years so Florida will be fine. The United States has only been around 200 years, those Trans people are the True Threat!™©®
Still wild to me that a company can just own a town. This isn’t the 20s or South Korea.
There’s hundreds of special districts in Florida.
And the law that was written was very carefully drafted to affect only Disney. DeSantis wouldn’t want to piss off The Villages.
Damn, never thought of that!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
More than 40 out of about 370 employees have left the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District since it was taken over in February, raising concerns that decades of institutional knowledge is departing with them, along with a reputation for a well-run government.
The Republican governor and GOP-dominated Florida Legislature took control of the district in retaliation after Disney publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.
It previously was named the Reedy Creek Improvement District when it was established in 1967 to provide municipal services like road repairs, waste collection and firefighting on the 25,000 acres (10,117 hectares) that make up Disney’s theme park resort in central Florida.
The new board members, though, have been accusing the previous administration of cronyism while at the same time hiring politically-connected associates to positions in the district or awarding them contracts, the former facilities manager said in his exit interview last week.
Last month, the district authorized a $242,500 no-bid contract to update its emergency-calls network with a company whose chief executive had served with Gilzean on the Florida Commission on Ethics, where both were DeSantis appointees.
Disney has sued DeSantis and the members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board in federal court in Tallahassee over the takeover, claiming its free speech rights were violated.
The original article contains 970 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Gators
Poor guys have low morale and getting paid for doing nothing.
Reddthat user having a bad take what a shocker
Disney deranged the commission authority before they left, so they really don’t have any authority, yet are still paid by the state.
Disney gave free gifts to RCID employees totalling near 0.5 million USD which is same as bribery of govt officials.
Special district laws DID NOT apply to RCID since Walt negotiated for Disney few months before his death in 1967 or whenever for a special special agreement with Florida that was untouched by later Special District laws that DID apply to all Non-Disney projects! Disney was abusing their power granted by the govt of Florida …
Republicans saw the weakness of Disney’s special privileges and as usual waved a stick at Disney … bait which Disney took …
All Disney had to do was focus on making movies and making money.
“put a chick in it and make her lame and gay!” is what has sunk their entire business.
Edit: Disney LOST their Court-case against Florida. The downvoters and Naysayers are WRONG :-D Corporations ARE NOT PEOPLE. Legal Entities need to be DELETED from Existence if they commit crimes. :-D
So them expressing an opinion you don’t like justifies them being attacked like this? How American.
Florida is on the wrong side of history here. And if Disney leaves it’ll be too late to say sorry.
I watched that South Park episode as well.
It is strange people support Disney which has extended copyright laws beyond reasonable to protect their ability to abuse said copyright laws, fail to pay any writers dues if at all in a timely manner, while having more privileges than Universal or Warner or any other entertainment company, and somehow Disney’s “opinions” matter ? wut ?
I didn’t defend Disney, I just pointed out that your point is satirical at best. You would have made a much stronger case if you just left the last sentence out.
I didn’t say anything satirical. “Put a chick in it and make her lame and gay!” HAS NOT BEEN SATIRE! ? :-( Disney, KK they really went all-in for that ESG and DEI scores ! They made “artistic” decisions in the board room to “pander” for ESG and DEI funding from “activist” investors / investment firms.
Disney has been abusing writers and creators for decades with anything and anywhere they touched.
Disney-BAD for many decades not just the last M-She-U thing.
Wow you have an even worse take. Bravo, dipshit
