ORLANDO — “Dear Cast Member,” the late October layoff notice began.
Flaviana Decker, 44, retreated to her living room couch and tried to stop her tears before her eldest daughter, due home from school any second, burst through the door. Her 14-year career as a Walt Disney World waitress was over.
“I’m crying,” Flaviana texted her fellow servers. “Is anyone else?”
“I’m angry, so I haven’t gotten to the crying phase,” responded one friend who felt hurt by Disney’s decision to restore temporary cuts to its top executives’ salaries just weeks before axing more than 28,000 of its lowest-wage workers. Others were stung that their years, and in some cases decades, of service to a company that they loved had ended with an impersonal email.
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