Pixar. ESPN. National Geographic. Here's what actually happened.
Last week, Disney's CEO Josh D'Amaro notified staff of the company's third major layoff round this year, about 1,000 positions cut across Pixar, National Geographic, and ESPN. He didn't dance around why.
The Memo
It cited "immense technological change," said Disney needs a "more agile and technologically-enabled workforce", and named artificial intelligence directly. That word doesn't usually make it into a layoff memo. This time it did.
Who Got Hit
Pixar lost about 150 people in Emeryville. National Geographic's editorial team took some of the deepest cuts. ESPN let go veteran on-air names as it folds in NFL Network. This is where it stopped being an abstraction for me.
What I See Scrolling
Colleagues begging for an opportunity to work. Not qualifying for health insurance because they don't have enough union days this year. Not knowing how they're making rent this month. This isn't a trend piece to me. It's my timeline. And here's the part that's easy to get wrong.
The Honest Read
This isn't "AI took these jobs" in some clean, provable way, real business factors are mixed in too. But an executive naming AI in the same memo as a layoff is itself the signal: it's now a reason leadership feels safe saying out loud. Which raises the actual question.
My Honest Take
I'm overqualified for a lot of the work that's actually available to me right now, there isn't enough of it for crew, editors, on-air talent. So I'm finding a new way. You can come find one with me.
Come Find A New Way
Disney: ~1,000 jobs cut. AI named in the memo.