Disney Reviews in Burbank, CA

Pros

Entertainment industry, helpful people, career growth opportunities, free perks.

Cons

Entertainment sectors pays a little less.

Advice to Senior Management

Disney is a dream company to work for, I loved my experience and learnt a lot during my time there. The best part of learning came from exposure to different business units such as theme parks & resorts, DIMG, DCP, DATG, Studios. Great people and an excellent employer overall.

Pros

Overall, great company which offers good benefits & experiences to its employees.

Cons

Need for transparency & better communication, at all levels.

Pros

+Free tickets to the parks
+Disney University is a great place to learn business skills.

Cons

Disney seems to have the ability to make the numbers appear to be what ever is expected by the street.

Communication is discouraged for non-management employees who actually do the work and consequently mistakes are made. Typically these mistakes involve transactions between the Disney broadcasters and the Disney distribution division.

The mistakes work to slow down the payments of royalties and profit participations, thereby saving cash reserves for the company in the short term. One can bet that if a mistake costs the company a hit to cash or earnings that it will be discovered and fixed while the mistakes that benefit the bottom line are of low priority. The sad part is that they are in essence cheating their suppliers by delaying contractual payments.

Their approach appears to be that they have more lawyers and the ability to outspend others in legal disputes. This division has been reorganized several times and the name has been changed.

Advice to Senior Management

Corporate management needs to take a better approach to regulating the activities of the divisions and their bonus-hungry mid-level executives who use intimidation and fear to stifle employees from doing their jobs right, the first time and ethically. The tone at the top seems to be like that of a neglectful set of executives living in a dreamworld where their numbers never seem to disappoint investors.

The performance review system is subjective and used by mid-managers to shed their responsibilities onto already over-worked staff. There is very little over-sight of performance reviews.

Management's attitude seems to be that Disney is above reproach due to it's magical image in the public eye. Owning a TV network really helps with public perception.

Pros

Work Life balance is great

Cons

Not exactly a meritocracy, hard to move up fast

Advice to Senior Management

Judge talent more on ability rather than amount of years worked

Pros

The final product, for the most part, was something to be proud of.
Some of the perks are nice. For example, silver pass into the parks, movie nights on the studio lot, lots of knick knacks from premiers.

Cons

The pay is low compared to the industry average and
The politics hinders teamwork and morale. Lack of communication breeds a toxic environment.
Disney Feature Animation is the step child after the company acquired Pixar. They're cannibalizing their own products.

Advice to Senior Management

Cross functional teams rather than just the finance people in charge.
.

Pros

Amazing studio lot/work environment
Great employee benefits
Disneyland Tickets/passes
Numerous weekly events
Friendly employees - it feels like a family!

Cons

Long hours
Corporate culture in some areas
Work balance life can depend on your management

Pros

Work on amazing projects
Ability to move from one division to another as appropriate
See your work on a grand scale

Cons

The environment can be very political
Sometimes difficult for lower level employees to share ideas/opinions
Very minimal negative opinion overall

Pros

The brand speaks for itself.

Cons

Slow upward growth if starting entry level.

Pros

You have GREAT benefits - health benefits are amazing!
You meet and make GREAT friends!
You have access to the Parks for free and can take 3 guests.

Cons

If you want to get ahead, you will need to put your personal life on hold.
Depending on your boss, you could have awful leadership.
Be prepared to play the corporate game.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Leadership Workshops on how team-building with their direct reports.

Pros

Great reputation and worldwide brand recognition; lots of pride in making magic happen for guests and consumers. Among many long-time employees and cast members, strongly expressed desire to keep Walt's dream alive.

Cons

Be prepared to work long hours (not uncommon at many companies, but it's engrained in the culture here). Studios/film business is notoriously subject to not only the economy, but to whether the last few films are flops or hits. Lay-offs have abounded lately.

Advice to Senior Management

Beware of losing too much institutional knowledge to lay-offs and "brain drain." Make sure that the feeling of being Walt's company is not just part of employee orientation, but gets passed on to newcomers to the company, even if they have valuable experience and skills to bring in. Without that inner core, there is a danger of losing the company's identity: its soul, if you will.