Thousands of Walt Disney Co. employees are pushing back against a mandate that would require workers to return to the office four days out of the week set to begin next month.
The Washington Post reports that more than 2,000 of the company’s workers have signed a petition to CEO Bob Iger, arguing the change will “likely to have unintended consequences that cause long-term harm to the company.” Signees include employees from Pixar, ABC, Hulu, FX, Marvel Studios, and more.
The company’s 200,000 employees currently work a hybrid schedule requiring them to work from an office two or three days a week. The change to four days a week would be one of the strictest corporate attendance policies post-pandemic.
“This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss,” employees wrote in the petition.
Since the petition was submitted to upper management last week, there has been no response from the company.
Iger announced the policy change in January, stating that working in person would benefit the company and its workers.
Additionally, the company announced earlier this month that it plans to cut 7,000 jobs in an attempt to rein in expenses. At the time, Iger cited the need to cut $5.5 billion in costs across the Disney company.
