FP is on track to close down soon. Next step is to move profitable brands to ES.
You all in EA should have your resumes ready.
72 replies (most recent on top)
@2cr if I recall the Montreal office was new and smaller, to save money and was not made for a full RTO. Can't speak for the Mississauga location though
Look I love the flexibility and focus of WFH as much as the next guy, but the cold hard truth is we’re not at all entitled to it. This company has physical offices and can enforce RTO as we were pre pandemic. Mattel and FP have been in office m-th for literally 3 years now. There are no special circumstances anymore, Canada included. People in ES have been commuting many hours per day to be back in office. Moving further away from your location is not a good reason to be remote, your commute is your issue to manage on your time, not company time. If you would like to work remotely full time, there are plenty of companies looking for remote workers and Mattel is an at will employer for this exact reason. If RTO is a deal breaker for you, there are so many looking for work that it wouldn’t be a deal breaker for. I hate this comment as much as you do but unfortunately RTO is not something we can control.
2020 and 2021 were highly profitable years, financial statements show this. This was in large part to working remotely that eliminated the BS and “Mattel churn” . Useless meetings with dozens of people in person were eliminated and had a significant impact on operations and consequently profitability. Remember those massive bonuses for 2021. They were significant!
@294 I have no idea why people aren't pushing back. And from the people dunking on that guy down the thread, you'd think they enjoy sitting back and working for the man. It's not about being in a pandemic or not anymore, we've already proven to be more productive and happier working remotely. This is about control. Ultimately, both the employee and employer are losing.
@28h Montreal affected by this RTO too? I thought it was just the folks south of the border
@25p Still hybrid and pretty flexible in Montreal. Which is the only reason we were able to put out so much and create Brick Shop. RTO kicking in per California's orders will slow down everything dramatically
@1zd not sure where you get your information from. Mattel has been RTO 4 days per week for years now
FP has been "winding down" in preparation to move to ES for at least 20 years.
@1zd you guys still haven't returned to office? The pandemic ended nearly 5 years ago.
@1q5 From what we're told and the amount of projected work in the next seasons. There's a RTO policy kicking in in September that will majorly slow down everything though.
@1q5 brick shop is not FP. It's mega in Montreal
@108 is Brick Shop really that profitable?
@1fs
Yes .. it is that bad.
There appears to be something fundamentally wrong or broken at Fisher-Price; I was at a store earlier today that was selling a Little People Super Mario playset. The playset cost $53 dollars, mind you, so not inexpensive, but they apparently cost reduced out the deco for the question mark blocks.
You know arguably the most iconic and recognizable aspect of a Super Mario playset? The question make blocks, they were just blank yellow plastic blocks, with no question mark logo printed on them (if you looked closely they faintly molded in the question mark symbol).
How much does a hit of deco cost on something like that? A fraction of a penny maybe? Are things really that bad that you can’t afford two hits of single color deco on a toy like that? Or digital ink jet, heat transfer, whatever they use to deco stuff like that? Seriously? What the heck is going on?
An oldie but goodie, here we go. East vs West is back, baby
@19k Can confirm. It's shockingly out of touch with the current market. But hey, you're working for a big shiny brand!
@1b3 didn’t comment on those teams because I know nothing about them. Thanks for filling the gap though. Seems on brand.
@19m like the engineering and DPM teams are any better in ES. they have no real technical skills. if Asia stopped supporting them they would be dead in the water. there's no one there that can actual develop product from beginning to end.
Mattel ES is nothing more than a marketing operation... All smoke and mirrors with no substance
@109 which historically has never worked because of the ego and incompetence on the marketing and design teams in ES. Can’t change history.
@108 that’s because they’re not paid fair wages
@108 The OP is implying that Mattel is planning on closing down the East Aurora campus entirely and then moving the popular Fisher-Price lines to California where people there will continue working on them.
What do you mean by next step is to move profitable brands to ES?
From what I know, Brick Shop is what's driving revenue right now and it costs them nothing to operate in Canada.
So sad, Fisher Price was a great company putting out good toys until Mattel entered its world
Only like 5 DPMs left
do we have confirmation that FP got hit?
Half of those 10 are managers, sr mgrs, director, and vp..... probably less than 5 that actual do work
Are there really only 10 designers left in EA?
Mattel destroyed it. Continually exit product lines, impose unrealistic margins, no advertising, continual cost cutting, etc....then are surprised FP is down. Then layoff more people. Rinse and repeat and there's no one left other than marketing and leadership. Place is full of managers, sr mgrs, and directors all getting in the way.
Parking lot is empty.
What happened? I've never visited, but FP must be a shell of its former self.
Only 10 designers left at fp.
Place is toast....real estate is up for sale
Layoffs are happening today.