Thread regarding Mattel Inc. layoffs

I want to see if they're going to be daring enough to put blobie (the fat Barbie) in a fashion show shoot or will that be reserved for the thin counterpart? Barbie as a fashion icon is ridiculous. those days are gone.

Having been at Barbie I can honestly say that there is definitely "classism" and definitely perpetrated by the upper design people who think by wrapping themselves in expensive designer labels makes them better than everyone else. They somehow like to think that they work on a fashion brand. Style has to do with how you treat people. So while they sip champagne in Milan the rest of the crew will wait to see who gets laid off to pay for their trip to fashion week. No wonder Barbie is in trouble. The priorities are screwed.

Competence, talent.,hard work, & loyalty has nothing to do with anything any more at MattHell. All these traits have been superfluous at this company for the last 10 years. Shouldn't be long until the "Final Solution"....... this place gets sold & turned into an LLC.

A few years ago I worked with a Marketing Manager who was sort of "frumpy". Her Director had no shame in talking crap and ridiculing the way she dressed in front of anyone, including me and her co-workers. It was disgusting. She had a family and was obviously spending her income on them rather than herself, but she was perfectly businesslike in her appearance. She just wasn't into the competition with the rest. She was competent at her job, and was laid off. None of this is new at Matt Hell.

Last poster: Barbie folks do feel the pressure to dress well, thanks to the Prada and Loubitin wearing Sr Director and VP who go to Milan and Paris for Fashion week twice a year. They actually look you up and down, and you can feel the judgement in their eyes if you don't look "cool" enough. Oh it's real, and it is so silly.

Its sad to read that some of you think that people are getting better treatment for the way they dress. Really? Now this is just getting ridiculous.

Batteries included?

You don't need a time machine for decent, smart, leadership that makes the proper decisions going forward. Just look @ Lego & Hasbro. No headwinds there. Time machine sold separately, upper mis management not included.

Yes I'm sure the fun and profit times was the no competition, no smart phones, no Netflix, no xbox Reaganesque era.

Start working on your time machine in your new company.

If MattHell is now the "new normal" I'm glad I left, on my own terms, when I did. The "new normal" drove me out as the whole place was no longer any fun. Stress,....... yeah, sure, I can & have taken on stress there with several all nighters, but got the job done & approved. No worries, but what I couldn't take any longer was the continued/sustained ass kissing by no talent so called designers, & the credit stealing bull s..t. & was not a big fan of Richie as he caused much of the miss management, I was there, front row, watched it happen. It's upper & mid mismanagement whose should leave & the people who support the "new normal" should be fired. The hell with the "new normal" cliche & the company needs to get back to the "old fun & profit". I know 2 exMattel employees & many more @ Hasbro who tell me it's a better place there sans PLM & the "new normal". No hate here, just relief.

So true. The negative shift in culture was the leadership. When Neil was given that humiliating F-U and they made stockton the top dog of operations it was a given that the wrong people were taking over. Granted Neil had his share of cronies that were head scratchers, but under stockton? Woof! Sadly it took 5 years of a downward slide and losing many good people to BS layoffs or jumping ship before things started to look up. At least the stock is performing well but I see that as a temporary thing. Once all of the smoke blown the investors asses comes out as a rank fart we'll see the true direction this company is heading. My guess? This is ALL an overinflation for a hasbro merger.

Many people at Mattel loved what they did for many years. They didn't change, the company did.

Where once they were happy working for a company that was growing and fun, they are now working for a company that is withering and a hostile environment.

Maybe these people shouldn't have to change their careers. Maybe the people who changed the company for the worse should be the ones changing careers.

In today's MBA-Speak, less fun and profit trumps more fun and profit. Promote failure, that's the ticket!

It's so easy to hate and complain isn't it. Again I think the door swings both ways. No one is responsible for your own happiness but you. I don't think I've ever had a job that was not stressful or where I did not feel overwhelmed. If you love what you do then it's worth it. If you don't then consider a change of career. The grass is only greener until you get there. There is no going back to the "golden years" and pining for this is a pipe dream. This is the new normal. You can wallow in your own self pity and negativity or you can enjoy your time. Life's way too short to live in fear and tolerate assholes. Say your piece and check your ego.

all you emos should be stressed

Come on folks, if you're feeling stressed, overworked, and underappreciated, just talk to your supervisor, director and HR rep. And there's always the Employee Assistance Program. Mattel's got your back!

I can't agree more with the last two comments. I had a boss who used to have her staff meetings on Friday mornings and read crap that was sent to the entire Company via emails!!!!!!!!!are u f875king me???????? she would waste another 15 minutes talking about restaurants & movies she saw while I have deadlines? Really? And yes, why the hell are we still funding Shame Amsterdamn & the entire useless, do nothing PlayGround Poser Reductions Group even after that POS Dave Voss was given the Bum's Rush? Dickson, what are you doing? Sober up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What has this totally useless group done since it's been employed? Producers? WTF have they produced? This is why Hasbro really needs to buy us. Please hurry Hasbro..... take ownership, please.

meetings. My outlook calendar is a giant swatch of blue, Then I get slammed in my review for not talking enough in meetings and showing ownership? To my f---head of a boss: maybe, just maybe my not speaking up is because like you, I don't need to be a complete waste of space who needs to hear his own voice to validate their existence? Maybe I'm being more productive by not holding everyone hostage so we can get back to actual work?

Can they please dissolve Playground Productions already. It's brand poison. Content should come from pros.

A real 8 hour work day is doing ACTUAL work 8 hours. At Mattel we have 3+ hours of meetings each day, and they are mostly unproductive and redundant. Also, the indecisiveness borne from a bunch of immature over-thinking leaders creates changes over & over, which creates more work. With fewer and fewer staff, this means Mattel is full of overworked, stressed out people. Below the director level, of course.

I couldn't disagree more with the whacking commenter. fast paced is fine, but the reporting structure is FUBAR. from month to month the reporting structure and what team oversees who is in a constant state of disarray. our leadership is based on an old outdated mentality that is stifling the younger creatives, who may not have the old school chops but do have talent. who cares if they've never done a marker comp? doesn't make them less talented. our current state of doing business does nothing to retain them. we are hemmoraging creativity by the bucketload because our leadership is what is truly outdated and inefficient. stop promoting shmoozers, and people who manage up. a good leader inspires greatness. ours instill fear and misdirection. don't let the stock price fool you. we'll be down to $18 again soon enough.

Really? An actual workday is 8 hours. If you were doing the work of 3 people you would be in the office 24 hours a day.

More like you are now doing a full day's work, and aren't used to it.

YES! Completely stressed out, burned out, doing the work of 3 people, looking to get out!

To the poster who wrote the phrase, "mind whacking." Your super positive spin on the state of Mattel is ridiculously naive and simplistic. I believe you must be in the upper echelon of Mattel to recommend this eager beaver approach. Go away, troll!

Talent & Creativity is not effected by age/experience & It's also not about yearning for the good old days either. It's about the terrible, no talent, can't make a decision, mismanagement here. Technology has made generating product really fast, but true talent & correct decision making is what makes innovative, fun, product. No "one" patient zero either. But many: John Handy, Scott Goodman, Tony Miller, Nathan Proch, Kip Polman, Alton Takeyasu, Len Mazacco, Joe Franke, Richie Wientraub, Bill Kerner, Chris Down, Wrong Way, Dave Voss, Gabe DeLaTorre, Lisa Strom, Steed Sun, Evilyn, Peter Heleneck, all under the blessing of Tim Kilpin.............some gone, some still here.

Is it really that bad? Or are you just mind whacking yourself?

The current state of the company is a test of your agility and flexibility. Things weren't as fast paced around here even 10 years ago, but that was a long time ago. If you've been sitting in your seat too long missing the old days, maybe it is time you move on yourself before someone makes that decision for you. It's a new generation of talent creating product for an entirely new generation of consumers. Revitalize yourselves, try to learn something from the new leadership (as ridiculous as they may be at times) and have an open mind to change.

And embrace PLM already. No, I'm just kidding. I'm optimistic but will admit that setup is absurd.

There are still plenty of talented folks here at Mattel but they are demoralized and have no time to actually be creative. Place sad face here.

Of course there is a patient zero. Tim Parsey. Waltzed from Motorola into Hot Wheels, failed upward to Licensing, failed out to Intel. All talk and smoke & mirrors. No substance, no talent other than taking credit. He set the standard and laid the groundwork for all the current posers.

At some point we started promoting people who were on the fringes of a team with a hit product under their belt. For years we used to take a product that was successful and try to recycle it into as many iterations as possible until it's lifecycle finally came to an end. Why the morons in charge decided that these individuals on the fringes had some sort of magic touch that they could repeat that success in higher positions is beyond any rationale thought. I mean, how many people currently in charge in different divisions lay claim to being a part of Monster High's success? I can't keep count of how many different people in meetings claim that THEY were the conceptual genius. Hell, I know a few that BS'd their way to upper management on such claims.

This isn't news. The few remaining people who have been there more than 10 years can tell you how great Mattel USED to be. The reason Mattel is doomed now is because management's musical chairs has left no one with any power or authority in place who knows how great we were or could be again, so we will never get the opportunity. We are spiraling downward, innovation and creativity have lost out to bean counters and ass kissers. Hasbro needs to come in and clean house up top, take inventory of what little talent remains and restructure our entire organization. There really isn't much Mattel dogma worth keeping. I'm actually glad the Handlers aren't around to see how low we've sunk.

Early '80 were the Golden Years. Champagne parties, awesome Christmas celebrations/floor parties when the US Marine Band would come & play, after hours Happy Hour every Friday, crazy contests, you name it :) ..........., a real creative fun place. Gotta remember this was pre computer days where a true Designer could either draw/render with color markers or not. Zero room for posers as it would be evident & spotted immediately. No room for boot licking non drawing/describing so called designers back then. No one real "patient zero" per se, just a steady decline over the years. Sad but true, just like Rome.

Never had high blood pressure before in my life but that changed this year because of the amount of stress.

When did mattel go from being a fun place to work and like what you did to this? Who was the proverbial "patient zero" in this outbreak of shitty morale and dysfunction? We've always had boneheads in our culture but even the worst of them still didn't make the place such a miserable work environment.

The real truth is that it's the actual non boot lickers with talent ( not in the AKC ) are the ones that are stressed. When I started here this place was actually a really fun place to work and it was just the opposite of what it is now. We had very talented real drawing & rendering Designers not non drawing credit stealers, Sculptors, Engineers, & model makers. Sure there were the usual credit stealers always lurking but everybody knew, including upper management, who really did the heavy Design lifting. All that has changed as fear & stress now rules over fun & talent. Hopefully Hasbro buys us & cleans house as I know for a fact they are reading this blog.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! You're probably getting on in years, your boobs are sagging, looking tired. You're not the hot young boy toy you once were. Mattel is filled with aegist, superficial, douchebags who judge you not by the merit of your work, but the car you drive, your parking spot, the shoes you wear and who you're dirtying your kneecaps for. Mic drop

F¥#%k yes I'm stressed out