#layoffs

Disney's September 18 announcement created something important: its first companywide Chief Technology Officer position.

Karandeep Anand, formerly CEO of Character.AI, reports directly to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro.

His responsibilities cover:

• Enterprise technology
• Infrastructure
• Data and AI platforms
• Product
• Engineering
• Technology teams across Disney's business segments
  This is a broad technology leadership mandate.

THREE NUMBERS WORTH WATCHING

66: Character.AI employees accepted Disney employment offers.

$60 million: Estimated annual compensation run rate for the incoming group.

Several hundred: Positions Reuters reported being eliminated across Disney HR and technology on September 29.

The issue isn't that Disney is hiring engineers. It's that technology investment priorities are changing while existing positions are being removed.

FIVE WARNING SIGNS FOR EXISTING TEAMS

1. Platform ownership moves to a centralized organization.
2. Existing engineering projects lose executive sponsorship.
3. Open positions are canceled while another organization recruits.
4. Teams are consolidated without replacing departing employees.
5. Employees retain legacy system responsibilities while also inheriting new AI-related delivery expectations.
   These are organizational risk indicators, not evidence of a confirmed list of employees selected for layoffs.

THE INTERNAL MOBILITY QUESTION

For Disney employees, an important distinction is whether new technology investment creates opportunities for existing workers or primarily brings in external expertise.

Does the new organization have approved positions that current Disney engineers can apply for?

Are employees receiving paid training or dedicated time to move into AI-related work?

Who will maintain existing platforms while technology modernization happens?

And if teams are combined, will job grades, compensation, and staffing change accordingly?

QUESTION FOR DISNEY TECHNOLOGY EMPLOYEES:

Has the arrival of the new CTO changed reporting structures, hiring approvals, project ownership, or platform funding?

Particularly interested in Disney Streaming, Enterprise Technology, infrastructure, data engineering, cybersecurity, and product teams.

The next organization chart may be more informative than the next corporate announcement.

Sources:

Official Disney CTO appointment:
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/press-releases/the-walt-disney-company-names-karandeep-anand-to-newly-created-role-of-chief-technology-officer/

Detailed breakdown of the staffing and AI investment:
https://www.grindhotline.com/disney-tech-layoffs-ai-hiring-character-ai-2026.html

Disney employees should be paying attention to what the company's latest AI recruitment deal says about its changing workforce priorities.

The numbers are now public, including details from Character.AI's October 2026 bankruptcy filings.

THE RECRUITMENT NUMBERS

• 66 Character.AI employees accepted Disney employment offers.
• Approximately $60 million: estimated annual compensation run rate for the recruited group.
• Approximately $180 million: estimated total compensation and retention over three years.
• $30 million: retention pool included in the three-year compensation structure.
• $20 million: separate proposed technology licensing transaction involving Character.AI intellectual property.
  The $60 million figure comes from a preliminary estimate covering approximately 65 offered employees. It includes total compensation, not just base salaries.

The $180 million is a three-year estimate that includes retention. It is not an additional $180 million on top of the $30 million retention pool.

NOW LOOK AT THE LAYOFF TIMELINE

September 18: Disney announced Karandeep Anand, Character.AI's former CEO, as its first companywide CTO.

September 29: Reuters reported Disney was eliminating several hundred positions across HR and technology.

October 2: Anand's appointment became effective.

October 13: Bankruptcy filings disclosed details of Disney's recruitment arrangements.

October 16: Business Insider reported on the compensation commitment.

This is a company reducing positions in some departments while making a major financial commitment to technical talent elsewhere.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR EXISTING EMPLOYEES?

Disney clearly considers some technical capabilities important enough to fund aggressively.

But what happens to experienced internal engineers, platform specialists, infrastructure teams, and technology managers whose existing work remains essential?

Are they being retrained and redeployed? Are funded internal positions available? Or are some teams losing investment while new teams are created?

These disclosures do not establish that the Character.AI hires directly replaced laid-off Disney employees.

They do establish that hiring and layoffs are happening alongside each other.

QUESTION FOR DISNEY EMPLOYEES:

Are you seeing technology vacancies frozen while AI positions receive funding?

Are internal employees being offered meaningful opportunities to join the new technology organization?

Or are teams being consolidated while external recruitment continues?

Interested in what people are actually seeing across Disney Technology, streaming, product, engineering, and corporate functions.

Sources:

Disney CTO announcement, September 18:
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/press-releases/the-walt-disney-company-names-karandeep-anand-to-newly-created-role-of-chief-technology-officer/

Reuters, September 29:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/disney-laying-off-several-hundred-employees-variety-reports-2026-09-29/

Detailed analysis and bankruptcy filing references:
https://www.grindhotline.com/disney-tech-layoffs-ai-hiring-character-ai-2026.html

Bank of America's October 14 earnings call revealed some numbers employees should be paying close attention to. This isn't speculation about a secret layoff list. These are figures and statements from the bank's own disclosures.

HEADCOUNT: THREE CONSECUTIVE QUARTERS OF DECLINE

• December 31, 2025: 213,207 employees
• March 31, 2026: 212,134 (-1,073)
• June 30, 2026: 211,304 (-830)
• September 30, 2026: 209,911 (-1,393)

That's 3,296 fewer employees year-to-date (-1.55%) and 3,473 fewer year-over-year (-1.63%).

The Q3 net reduction was approximately 68% larger than Q2's.

Important distinction: these are net headcount changes, not confirmed layoff counts. Attrition, hiring, departures, and staffing decisions all affect the totals.

MANAGEMENT LAYERS ARE GETTING THINNER

CEO Brian Moynihan confirmed that the number of managers was down approximately 5% year-over-year, while client-facing production staffing actually increased.

Think about what that means for internal mobility, promotions, management spans of control, and employees inheriting responsibilities from consolidated teams.

The bank hasn't disclosed how many managers were terminated versus reassigned, retired, or otherwise departed. But a 5% reduction in management positions is a material organizational signal.

THE 2027 AI PRODUCTIVITY EXPECTATION

Moynihan discussed technology development efficiency and stated:

"next year we get 10% more work for the same cost."

Technology development represents approximately $4 billion annually, according to his comments.

The obvious employee question: where does that additional 10% capacity come from?

Faster tools? Fewer vacancies being filled? Consolidated responsibilities? Higher delivery targets for existing staff?

The earnings call did not announce a 10% individual productivity quota or a companywide salary freeze. But the expectations for technology output are unmistakable.

THE CFO'S 2027 STAFFING MESSAGE

CFO Alastair Borthwick said:

"We're going to maintain that management discipline into next year"

He was discussing headcount management as part of the bank's expense strategy.

That matters because controlling replacement hiring can reduce staffing without a large, publicly announced layoff event.

Employees leave. Positions aren't necessarily refilled. Work gets redistributed. Organizational costs decline.

NOW COMPARE THE FINANCIAL NUMBERS

Q3 2026:

• $30.0 billion in revenue
• $6.9 billion in reported net income
• $8.1 billion in adjusted net income, excluding the regulatory settlement charge
• $1.2 billion regulatory settlement charge
• $6.0 billion in share repurchases
• $8.3 billion total returned to shareholders through repurchases and common dividends

These figures don't prove that future layoffs are planned. But they show a bank returning significant capital to shareholders while simultaneously reducing its workforce and emphasizing productivity.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR 2027

There is no confirmed bankwide 2027 layoff target in the October 14 statements.

However, four observable signals deserve attention:

1. Headcount has fallen every quarter in 2026.
2. Management staffing is down approximately 5%.
3. Technology is expected to deliver more output at the same cost.
4. The CFO explicitly expects staffing discipline to continue into 2027.

The bigger risk may not be one giant layoff announcement. It may be continuing attrition, restricted backfills, fewer management openings, and larger workloads for the employees who remain.

QUESTION FOR CURRENT BOFA EMPLOYEES:

Are you seeing hiring requisitions delayed or canceled, managers covering multiple teams, departures going unfilled, or higher productivity expectations tied to AI?

Which divisions are experiencing the most pressure: Technology, Operations, Global Banking, Consumer Banking, Merrill, or Risk/Compliance?

Please share what you're actually observing, without disclosing confidential information. Distinguishing confirmed actions from rumors will make this discussion more useful.

Sources:

Bank of America Q3 2026 earnings release and workforce data:
https://investor.bankofamerica.com/regulatory-and-other-filings/select-sec-filings/content/0000070858-26-000481/bac09302026ex991.htm

October 14 earnings call transcript:
https://www.roic.ai/quote/BAC-PP/transcripts/2026-year/3-quarter

Detailed employee-focused analysis:
https://www.grindhotline.com/bank-of-america-2027-job-risk-managers-technology-q3-2026.html

Good luck all, what a wild ride. We can share info in this thread.

To the dude (or dudette) that replied that they were perfectly fine with the current inflation levels, are you still good with it?

Including the price of energy going into the winter?

You happy with the increased deficit and debt levels (largely driven by ill-advised policy largely benefiting the real rich)?

Maybe we should reduce taxes some more followed by major reductions to SS and Medicare?

Interest rates working for you too?

Unfortunately, it’s just a matter of time before all of this impacts the economy and consumer spending resulting in ramping levels of layoffs.

Would be awesome if I’m wrong….

I can’t take it no more

Please?

I just learned that AK renamed her org to data and AI. They do neither.

Just a bunch of IT project managers and scrum masters. What a sad evolution from what used to be a good data engineering and data science and analytics org before 2020.

Everyone either quit or moved out of IT.

Requirement to publish the count of US citizens laid off vs H1Bs hired in last 10 years.

Huge criminal penalties for every one participating in this scam and proactive revoke of green cards given to such H1Bs. given in last 10 years.

A Pennsylvania skill games distributor will lay off 81 employees following the state's enforcement of a ban on unlicensed machines. The company also warned of potential revenue losses for businesses. This action comes as lawmakers have failed to reach an agreement on the issue. State Police have established a tip line and encouraged businesses to remove unlawful machines. Vendors have begun removing machines from establishments after a court ruling.

Pennsylvania

https://www.tristatealert.com/81-out-of-a-job-its-just-starting-the-sunday-recap

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/10/18/layoffs-pepsico-plant-cheverly-stunned-workers-area-officials/

As part of its integration following the merger with Direct Line Group, Aviva internally announced on October 14, 2026, a restructuring of its Digital Engineering department, impacting over 67 roles.

Are managers typically informed ahead of time if someone on their team is being let go, or do they find out when the employee does?

Any news on that front?

Yes, layoffs are awful, but show me another company of this size that didn't have major layoffs in the past several years. It's sadly the new normal for all of us in the industry, and frankly, in the entire economy. I still like my job here. It pays well, benefits are still decent, and the culture - at least when it comes to my group - is still good. Yes, layoffs su-k. But that's not the only thing that makes a company.

I'm yet to work for a company with more cowardly leadership than this one. Tell us what's going on, for heaven's sake! We're all big boys and girls, we can take it. Being kept in the dark is ten time worse than anything we might find out, whether it's about layoffs or whatever else.

Layoffs never stop. Yes, the next huge round might be coming in December, but ask around, and you'll see that cuts are happening every day. They're just focused on a few people here and there, and it doesn't get as advertised as the big rounds. Layoffs simply never stop.

What happens to us if we're further hit in the following cuts? Do those who are left get reassigned to other teams or are we expected to pick up the amount of work that is physically impossible to finish even if we work 24/7?

I'm now at the point where I'm hoping to be cut now, to avoid an even smaller package down the road. I used to hope not to be laid off, but the way we're going, it's only a matter of time for those of us of a certain age, so now I've pivoted to just hoping to get the best deal out of it. Sad but that's our new reality.

Pepsi was a small town’s biggest employer. Layoffs left it blindsided.

In Cheverly, Maryland, officials worry about the aftermath from the significant job reduction at a production plant.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/10/18/layoffs-pepsico-plant-cheverly-stunned-workers-area-officials/

We've lost too many people and they're still trying to figure out how to make everything work with what we have left. This is just my opinion, but it'll take at least a few months before they hit us again.

Things like which groups and teams will be affected, which locations, how many people, if there'll be any changes to severance...stuff like that. What's with the lack of transparency?

Anyone hearing about layoffs in Feb?

Last week, Kelly Services celebrated its 80th Anniversary and a new brand. As a return gift, they laid off many employees across many departments. Most of the employees had an AI assessment call with an AI lead 2 weeks ago, just like a meeting to understand their day-to-day duties and workflow, and based on his feedback, they decided what roles can be eliminated.
Well, celebrated the 80th anniversary !!!

It's the end of Oracle. if they think Ai will save them, it's too late now.

Is there lot of hush hush going on with silent layoffs? It is quiet . Is it because of layoffs or re orgs

All of Para-sky's financial woes have distracted me from the other elephant in the room, the purported Oct-Nov layoff. Anybody remember what Skydance's remaining FY27 restructuring budget is?

Do we even know the down AI spend. More AI spend = more layoff

We are making Anthropic, OpenAI and cursor rich

Why has the WARN not submitted yet for the layoffs that happened last week.

Oracle’s AI bet may hinge on two numbers investors aren’t focusing on enough: OCI margin and how much cost Oracle can strip out of the legacy business. Interest alone is running about $5.7B a year, but the ~21,000-person workforce reduction could potentially free up several billion annually to help service that debt—if OCI margins can get into the 25–30%+ range, the AI buildout looks far more manageable; below ~20%, the leverage starts to look uncomfortable.

Wider credit default swaps will increase future borrowing costs so head count reductions will continue. Failure to deliver data centers will put further strain on OCIs margins and we will sink further in debt.

The only way out is a bailout or buyout unless Clay can stop Laughing and get margin way up in OCI

Given the massive wave of VP-to-Director demotions and VP layoffs over the last two years, how are there still VPs in Wealth and Brokerage managing micro-teams? It feels like we have highly paid executives whose only job is to turn their team's hard work into slide decks and showcase it to upper management. Is there a strategic reason for this, or is it just leftover org bloat? What is the actual business justification for keeping this top-heavy structure?

We all know the company is collapsing, automating and outsourcing. Comcast Advertising is laying off everyone at all levels rapidly. Christ they laid off the GM last year and dismantled fulfillment and ad copy. Xfinity and Comcast Business are in turmoil as well. The whole company. If youre an actual employee like I am you know this. Its been crumbling for years. When I started 12 years ago it was at its peak imo. Recently they've been laying off every several months to avoid a mass fallout. Only this time it's going to be massive and unexpected, maybe not this month but definitely when the split occurs and after that point. It is what it is. They are not d-mb enough to tell us in advance. It will be unexpected as it's always been.

Between July and September 2026, Wells Fargo filed seven separate WARN notices affecting a total of 93 employees. The impact was heavily concentrated in West Des Moines, Iowa, where 91 employees were affected across six rolling notices, while a single notice in Helena, Montana, affected two employees. These layoffs are scheduled to take effect between mid-September and late November 2026.

• Company Name: Wells Fargo
• Addr. - : 1919 Grand Avenue
• City: West Des Moines
• County: Polk
• State: IA
• Employees Affected: 10
• Notice Date: 2026-09-29
• Effective Date: 2026-11-28
• Reporting Department: Iowa Workforce Development

• Source: https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/resources/warn/notices

• Company Name: Wells Fargo

• Addr. - : 1919 Grand Avenue
• City: West Des Moines
• County: Polk
• State: IA
• Employees Affected: 35
• Notice Date: 2026-09-15
• Effective Date: 2026-11-14
• Reporting Department: Iowa Workforce Development

• Source: https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/resources/warn/notices

• Company Name: Wells Fargo

• Addr. - : 1919 Grand Avenue
• City: West Des Moines
• County: Polk
• State: IA
• Employees Affected: 5
• Notice Date: 2026-09-01
• Effective Date: 2026-10-31
• Reporting Department: Iowa Workforce Development

• Source: https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/resources/warn/notices

• Company Name: Wells Fargo

• Addr. - : 1919 Grand Avenue
• City: West Des Moines
• County: Polk
• State: IA
• Employees Affected: 14
• Notice Date: 2026-08-18
• Effective Date: 2026-10-17
• Reporting Department: Iowa Workforce Development

• Source: https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/resources/warn/notices

• Company Name: Wells Fargo

• Addr. - : 1919 Grand Avenue
• City: West Des Moines
• County: Polk
• State: IA
• Employees Affected: 7
• Notice Date: 2026-08-04
• Effective Date: 2026-10-03
• Reporting Department: Iowa Workforce Development

• Source: https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/resources/warn/notices

• Company Name: Wells Fargo

• Addr. - : 1919 Grand Avenue
• City: West Des Moines
• County: Polk
• State: IA
• Employees Affected: 20
• Notice Date: 2026-07-22
• Effective Date: 2026-09-19
• Reporting Department: Iowa Workforce Development

• Source: https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/resources/warn/notices

• Company Name: Wells Fargo

• Addr. - : ---
• City: Helena
• County: Yellowstone
• State: MT
• Employees Affected: 2
• Notice Date: 2026-07-21
• Effective Date: 2026-09-19
• Reporting Department: Montana Department of Labor and Industry
• Source: https://wsd.dli.mt.gov/wioa/related-links/warn-notice-page

Pitting HealthSpring against blue employees seems to be the new strategy. It may not have hit you yet but it’s coming.

Netflix loves talking about freedom, responssibility, radical candor (ouch)... Oh, talent density. This sure as he-l sounds awesome on paper. But... employee reviews keep telling a different story. Backstabbing, politics, nepotism/cronysm/favoritism, never-stopping reorgs, and just about 0 job security. Being liked by the right manager can matter more than doing your job well - being brilliang, delivering and contributing more than anyone else.... A high-performance culture, now do a podcast and write a book about it. If i was to define it i'd say it's 100% corporate political gamesmanship dressed up as excellence.

But I like the $$$. That's the trap - golden handcufs.... $$$ salaries, PTO, great bennies. But also the long hours, burnout, and non-stop anxiety about being the next person out - it catches up with you, sooner or latter.... Then diveristy between teams - Some are great, others are miserable, plain horrible in every sense. Your experience depends 100pct on who you report to - it's similar at other cos but here its more pronounced... i call it a lottery, some get good mgrs, some dont. Some mgrs are plain nuts, but i'll cover that in another post... those golden handcuffs get pretty uncomfortable when you realize what you're putting up with and how much abuse u have to tolerate to take home whatever they give u.

This brings me to the 1K cut that's in focus right now... with MOST (not many, not some) people questioning why experienced, highperforming employees are among those leaving. Here's my Q. Who holds mgmt accountable? When priorities constantly change, teams get reorged, and good people leave, why is it always the employees who pay the price? Does the famous keeper test apply to leadership too???? Or do execs and mgrs get to keep their jobs while everyone else keeps proving they deserve theirs????

The irony is that Netflix still has a large pool of exceptionally talented people. this makes this whole thing even more stupid. You can't keep burning through talent and expect high salaries & free lunches, and a culture memo to make everything OK. The execs and mgmt should stop preaching accountability and start practicing it. Like right now.... Because right now that famous/cherished Netflix culture is starting to look like a well planned marketing campaign for a pretty ordinary corp machine.

Peace out

• Remove corporate cell phones and force on-call employees to pay for cell service and phone.
• Move all positions to Canada/India etc to get cheaper labor, lower salary and medical costs
• Ensure that no employee has a long tenure to limit severance (mainly in Canada)

Some of these already seem to be in progress - list out others that you might think are plausible

After all, I always considered Larry to be the king of vaporware sales. He's been doing that since writing DB software for his very first government customers. Nobody has more experience selling vapor than Larry and yet, somehow Scam's pitch passed the smell test. Go figure.

The guy has to be slipping cognitively. He decides to become a very late entry into an already over-inflated, over-hyped, non-proven, questionable market. Now here we are 12 months later and the economic forces are all finally converging against him - all because of his own poor judgement.

RIP Oracle.
RIP Larry.