Disney employees pushing back on return to office mandate

Disney employees are pressing against an upcoming mandate for them to return to work in-person four days a week, launching a petition to ask CEO Bob Iger to reconsider, The Washington Post reported Thursday. 

The petition that was provided to the Post argues that the plan, which is set to go into effect next month, would likely cause unintentional “long-term harm” to Disney. More than 2,300 employees from Disney’s various businesses, including ABC, 20^th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, Hulu, Pixar, FX and others, have signed the petition. 

More than 200,000 employees work for Disney overall.

Those who signed the petition reportedly argued that the change will force some employees from vulnerable communities — and those who are hard to replace — to resign and will significantly reduce “productivity, output and efficiency.” 

“This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss,” the petition states. 

Disney is one of several major companies that have reinstituted office-work requirements as the country has returned to normal activities coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk told employees at both of the companies he leads last year that they must work at least 40 hours per week in an office. 

A survey released earlier this week showed that offices in 10 major cities throughout the country were half full, the highest level since before the pandemic began in March 2020. 

Iger announced the plan in a letter to company employees last month, saying that working in the office will boost creativity. 

The Post reported that an employee said workers were not consulted about an office-work mandate beforehand. Some employees feel they are being “forced out” by the mandate and others plan to choose to resign, according to the petition.

“There is value in being together, but we also need to look forward and embrace new paradigms that add value,” it states. 

Disney did not return a request from The Hill for comment.