I spent $24,000 on drugs with my Disney corporate credit card. The company gave me a second chance instead of firing me.
Taron Sargsyan
Nov 25, 2023, 8:16 AM ET
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- While working at Disney, I spent thousands of dollars on drugs using a corporate credit card.
- When I confessed, the company didn't fire me — it gave me a second chance.
- I later worked on healing from my addiction and mending my relationship with my family.
I started my first professional internship at Disney in the summer of 2014 in my hometown of Glendale, California. I felt a sense of purpose in planning summer activities and bringing the intern community together. It was the greatest summer of my life. Little did they know I was also struggling with a meth
addiction.
My traumatic experience of coming out as gay to my Armenian family brought a lonely, dark fog over my life. My workplace was a refuge from addiction and my pains. I loved being surrounded by imaginative people. Upon graduating from college, and after my second
internship with Disney, I was excited to be hired as a software engineer on the PhotoPass team. It was my dream job and a haven; I knew I was lucky to have it.
As my addiction deepened, my finances didn't reflect the near-six-figure salary I earned at
Disney.
Most of my money was spent on drugs and on helping out my immigrant family.
He spent $24,000 on drugs using Disney's corporate credit card. The company gave him a second chance instead of firing him. He later went to rehab.
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