Bob Iger Makes Huge Change at Disney Following Return

Staff morale at Disney was reportedly already low under former CEO Bob Chapek, Bob Iger's latest move could exacerbate that condition.

Disney CEO Bob Iger is making some big changes to the company's work culture in his return to the Mouse House's helm. 

Iger sent a Memo to Disney  (DIS) - Get Free Report employees this week stating that hybrid employees must return to the office for at least four days a week starting March 1. 

"As you’ve heard me say many times, creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney," Iger said in the memo, CNBC reported. 

"And in a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together."

Disney has been angling towards a mass return to the office for some time now. 

In June 2021, the company announced a phased return to the office for employees who were working from home during the pandemic. 

With the company's theme parks division suffering mightily during the worst of the pandemic, Disney mandated that all employees and cast members take the covid vaccine to remain with the company.

Working From Home

As of September 2022, 16% of companies worldwide were fully remote, growing 91% over the past 10 years and by 44% over the past five years, according to CodeSubmit. 

At the start of the pandemic, when the physical office use rate at one point plunged to 10% in March 2020 from 95% in February 2020, the study found the value of U.S. office property fell at an even faster rate, at 45%, according to the report, citing security firm Kastle System’s keycard access swipe data.

The office use rate has since recovered to 47.5% in a 10-city average, according to Kastle’s latest data. New York's recovery is in line with the nation's at 47.2%.

As of summer/fall 2022, 17% of full-time employees with a bachelor's degree or higher are working fully remote, 41% are full-time on site, and 42% have a hybrid arrangement, according to WFH Research.

While Disney will technically remain part of the hybrid arrangement crowd, the company's new rules are stricter than most arrangements. 

Iger Remakes Disney

Former CEO Bob Chapek was gearing up to make changes at Disney before he was fired despite signing a three-year contract extension earlier in the year.  

"There are other things that we'll need to transform and we'll need to evolve," former CEO Bob Chapek said at the WSJ Tech Live Conference in October, weeks before Iger's return was announced.

While Chapek's comments mostly praised the company's past -- he noted that only 0.01% of company's ever reach 100 years in business -- there have been numerous reports about Iger's resistance to those plans.  

Staff morale was already reportedly low under Chapek, so it is unclear how employees will handle a return to the office.