SeaWorld Entertainment permanently lays off some furloughed workers

I personally know of two people now that were notified of a layoff/indefinite furlough only to see that same position posted as vacant.

I saw the same from someone who worked as a street performer.

Yup! They have basically opened up a lot of the furloughed jobs at lesser rate. Performers, Tech, Ops. Complete bull**** if you ask me.

Is there anything preventing these folks from, essentially applying for their own job? Outside of your own pride and saying f*** it? (Which, to be fair, would be my take on it. But in these bizarre times a job is a job)

I don't know if they have some "do not hire" policy, but it sure would be hard for me to interview for a job I already had and get paid less.

Oh I agree. I don't think I could or would do it if it were me. But for folks that are desperate, you would think in an interview they would be a no brainer for "most qualified"

There are a lot of people in various industries who have taken pay cuts. No interview for the same job with less pay; just show up tomorrow making less. Option is to leave of course. But for many people that isn't a practial option. Tough times and you do what you need to do to keep going/stay afloat.

Happy Labor Day, I guess.

GoBucks89 said:

There are a lot of people in various industries who have taken pay cuts. No interview for the same job with less pay; just show up tomorrow making less.

I thought this too. That happened to us this year.

Why not just make temporary pay cuts? The only reason I can think of is that your plan is to make those pay cuts permanent.

Yeah, I think the intent matters. SeaWorld isn't the only company bleeding, but how they respond matters. It will still suck, but it would suck less if they said, "Come on back, but we can't pay you as much, probably not until the pandemic is over."

Unskilled labor or not, this is why unionizing a large workforce is so important. You guys saying "this sucks" are the same who always seem to justify lower wages for the "just happy to work for pixie dust" employees. A good union would have negotiated concessions, voluntary unpaid leave, etc.

Let me just clarify that I'm not saying this sucks. I'm saying it's weird.

I'm wondering why a company would go through the hassle of firing and rehiring for the same positions at a lower wage when they're fully justified in lowering wages of the people they're firing.

I can only think of one reason.

Hold on now... there's a difference between acknowledging the value of labor and employers behaving badly.

True... but it seems like that's just about all they do.

Now I'm just going to talk about myself, not sure if it's apples or oranges, so feel free to skip it.

I work for an airline. The airline industry, (yes, even the darling Southwest,) is an extremely hostile environment for both skilled and unskilled labor, unionized or not. Luckily, I fall into both first categories. I may be biased, but I've seen it all first hand for the past 21 years in the industry. I've seen jobs get protected and seen entire departments outsourced to 3rd parties where the same people who used to be company employees are now working for the outsource company at a much lower rate. So yeah, this sort of thing bothers me.

I've worked for both kinds of companies, and even when times aren't good, the better companies will still try to do right by their people as best they can. That tone is always set from the top. When your top is Scott Ross, well, you have SeaWorld Entertainment.

Honestly it's another reason I don't feel bad cancelling my SWO/BGT pass I bought in April on a whim

Lord Gonchar said:

I can only think of one reason.

The market value of those skills decreased?

Tommytheduck said:

...entire departments outsourced to 3rd parties where the same people who used to be company employees are now working for the outsource company at a much lower rate.

Very interesting. In my line of work the complete opposite happens. If you were to go work for the company we outsource work for you will almost always make more money, sometimes a lot more.

Good synopsis of the action lately, with the footnote about desire to unionize:

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/09/08/seaworlds-l...unionizing