There were some good points made, but also many questions not answered.
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The end is nigh for the NYC office. Designers need to get their portfolios in place and use the assets provided by your severance package to help find other work. In ES they are already allocating space and renovating areas for the additional headcount. I cannot give more specifics other than it is not large.
It doesn't matter how many hits or awards or gift baskets the NYC office has had. If it has ceased to be profitable then it is a drag for everyone else. Again this is a business. Make profit or cut off the limb.
Management is in "survivor" mode because they heard the end is near. They are turning on each other because only a few will be saved.
The rumors are circulating here are that the Hit portion (which is consolidating into NYC FP office) is going to be moved to the West Coast. Since the Nick business is on a decline and the ding dongs running the office are not bringing in new properties (you have to see the crap licenses we've been pitching for and what we've ended up with), it looks like the era of a powerful licensing arm of mattel is coming to a close. Looks like Tom at toyjobs is going to be getting a lot of calls in the coming months.
The cast of characters that is the NYC FP is beyond belief. You can't make sh*t up half as crazy as the lunatics running that asylum. It will be interesting to see where everyone will be (or not be) in the next few months.
Haters gonna Hate but the NYC has more than carried it's fair share over the years while Barbie has sucked us into a financial black hole and EA has stunk up the pre-school aisle with toys that no one is interested in anymore.
You can churn out a million sku's a season but if it doesn't sell you're just as useless as everyone else. NYC used to be great but let's face, the beached whale and her cronies haven't done a positive thing for your division since her extra wide ass rolled into the office. BTW, don't fool yourself about that ice cream. It might have been "great" but you should have held out for the seven pieces of silver if you were going to sell yourself for a half assed song and dance.
It's really great to see people in other office support each other with encouraging words like "NYC should close already" or "The Company needs to get lean or mean" - what ever that means. Don't forget the # of product and brands that NYC works on before shuting the doors. By the way, the ice cream was great.
The ny office used to impress the hell out of us in EA a few years back. Those folks would come up here and have an enthusiasm like they were shot out of a cannon. Incredible work ethic, willingness to put in the hours and a desire to put out great innovative product. Unfortunately most of them were let go or left the industry altogether. There was a young lady in ny who was a trainer for Plm, structural engineer and a kick ass designer who left to work on websites for a telecommunications company because she was sick of the low morale and company direction. What's left are slugs churning out mediocre work at best. No life left in them. I read posts about talks and ice cream and all I imagine are whining children and directionless upper management. Yeah, NYC should close already but unfortunately all that means is that the ineffective leaders will move upstate. We have enough imports from NYC leadership screwing us up already. Hope that doesn't happen.
Hopefully that office will be closed soon. It doesn't provide enough output to justify the cost of keeping it. The company needs to get lean and mean.
So, what's the future of this office? Honestly?
So lots of lip service and it ended with pornstache buying ice cream for the kiddies. Creepy. Just creepy.
JS wasn't there (I only say that because I didn't hear her voice). Everyone brought up the issues they have with the company but VPs only responded to the softball questions...answers like "we'll make charts so that marketing knows what design is doing" and vague remarks like "we'll work harder so that marketing can better understand design process". After an hour of design saying how butt-hurt they were, M/W took everyone out for ice cream...that solved everything.
What was the meeting about?
Was miss Vertigo chiming in with her bulging eyes just so everyone in the room knew she still existed? So glad I left for Cali. The weather is better and I never have to hear that annoying classless Long Island princess again. I would rather get stuck in an elevator between E&K discussing their not so innovative plans for Barbie.
Cali transplants are so lost, cannot function outside their coastal sandbox
Like what? who's running your design team? A New Yawker or a cali transplant?