Thread regarding Mattel Inc. layoffs

in retrospect i have to blame the old guard for creating this sense of entitlement amongst current employees. years ago they plied us with free starbucks coffee, snapple and various free treats and over the years that have dwindled down to non existence buyback. The reality is that this has created an environment of coddled employees with a false sense of entitlement in a fire at will private corporation. big corporations don't owe you anything. your feels don't matter. do your work, be happy your not shoveling crap for a living and just producing cost reduced garbage sonshutnyour collective traps and b collect your paychecks. marketing needs to make comments to validate their useless existence and as a designer you need to shut your mouths and design in cost. if you can't work in the required constraints then maybe you need to find work elsewhere. don't get me wrong, management is awful, useless blobs of waste. overpaid and directionless but that's their problem to get their act together and it's your job (both m&m) to follow suit and step in line and shut your mouths.

Hey, Design Dope who addressed "Marketing Marrauder" -first off, I'd expect more creativity out of sensitive designer than that name. Secondly, where is there a law that says you have to be sensitive to be creative?! It doesn't.

Stand up and fight for what you believe in - it's embarrassing when you don't, which just makes everyone question what you're putting forth. It's NOT OK to just complain DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

as a designer i can't stand other designers who think everything they make should be a work of art. its a business you frakkin imbeciles. you have to cater to the market needs. that's what design is about. youre given a set of parameters and you design to it. stop asking to make a monalisa when all youre being asked for is finger painting. don't be a whiner. no one likes a whiner. take up basket weaving and make your mona lisa basket and get off your high horse. stop comparing yourselves to hasbro. the grass is just as brown. find your own happiness because if you're expecting mattel to give you that you're an even bigger disappointment to your parents than you think. man/woman up.

Name one toy or toy company that DOESN'T put out "dollar store" crap......

Hey Marauding Marketer, this is the toy business, which has always required sensitive creative intellect to achieve great value in toys. But guess what, the dollar store crap we designers create nowadays is directly related to all the pillaging taken place to continue paying out a dividend. Our inability to develop value added products has everything to do with this short sighted mantra of madness. Guess what, this sh-- you marauders spew is our daily dose of reality and because of it, the value of our product isn't even worth a sh--ty cup of instant coffee.

Maybe the world would be a little better if there were even a few Type A Designers. All there seem to be is over-sensitive wallflowers who can't seem to stand up for anything and be noticed.

Hey, Design Dopes - this ain't Apple in case you haven't noticed - and it's the value of the product that drives the profit. A lot more value in an iPhone than in a doll or die-cast car. You need a dose of reality, because this isn't going to be Santa's workshop where we make all the little children happy. Gimme a break and wake-up, or did you pay for your Starbuck's today with a handful of HotWheels cars? Pretentious and over-rated millennial dreck.

If only half of the type A personality marketing morons practiced what you preached you asshat we wouldn't be flubbing numbers and moving marketing dollars to prop up properties to make investors happy and pay dividends with money that will soon dry up. It's starting to smell a lot like madoff in this place.

Moreover, spoken like a true imbecile.

The late Steve Jobs corporate mantra was to infuse as much art into every aspect of ones job responsibilities. This mind set drove success by way of passionate employees who put product first vs. subjectivity and egos.

Let's do what we are being asked to do and work cooperatively to create great products.

Having to "argue and justify your design"...what sort of short sighted uninspiring nonsense are you preaching?

spoken like a true marketing professional who's breath smells like a dumpster

designers seem to think they are creating art. You're not. Do the job, expect revisions (even from Alphas) and be prepared to argue and justify your design. Too many designers are just wimps who won't defend anything and just sulk afterwards. Stop thinking that your SOOOO GREAT that your design is above critique. They aren't.

You work for a company and you get paid to make good, and sometimes great, product. But unless you are prepared to explain and justify your approach (rather than assume no one in the world is qualified to critique you) - if you won't do it, no one else will do it for you. It's called "real life" and its happening now.

I have done the "mistake on purpose" trick many times in documents. I have never had anyone above me find the glaring mistake. That's Mattel.

I always change it after the proofread but before the final. I'm not interested in trying to throw anyone under the bus, especially if it makes me look like an incompetent boob.

theres an old trick that makes everyone happy, saves time and shows just how crappy the person above you is at their job (if that's the case): Put something glaringly wrong in your design for them to ask you to remove and do it with a smile, they'll think you're a team player and awesome. Most people elevated to management or in marketing think they know it all like a petulant teenager, when in reality they need to make comments to justify their existence because otherwise they're useless powerpoint meatheads. Give them something to comment on, and move on. If they love the crappy add-on, that lets you know that they are a bozo and when it comes time for upper management to say who approved this just point the finger in their direction and hope all the wheels make contact when you throw them under the bus!

Revisions are great if they improve the product.

Revisions are not great if they are used as just a show of Alpha. "Change this because I am above you in the org chart. I can't actually design anything myself so I need to demand revisions to show my skills. Now I can tell everyone above me that I had to micromanage the design team and make all these changes myself to get it right."

Yep, delay the schedule another couple of weeks to satisfy a bully's ego. Don't worry, OPs will make up the time.

I know who you're talking about. It's the entitlement about not understanding that her lot in life is to EMBRACE revisions, not shy away from them. When people who are your customers, ask for revisions, they are:

1) already engaged

2) like what's been already

3) are paying the bill for it

When you start whining about it, it just shows that you think you're an artist where no one should critique "your great work". In reality, your just pumping out molded plastic, and not saving the world, so put it all in perspective and you'll see that people will start speaking with you more and keeping you in the loop.

Design Queens. Gotta love 'em.

The NY Office has the whiniest Millenial with her white girl problems constantly complaining about not feeling appreciated, kept out of the loop, pissy about revisions. I just sit with my headphones on all day drowning out her entitled annoying complaints. It's either that or I smash a monitor over her head.

Hokey 50 year olds? Ageists?! This must be coming from the Millenial Monkeys who can't come up with an original idea because they don't know how to WORK. The entitlement of 20-somethings is just so laughable and offensive at the same time, it's a wonder how they were able to graduate the uber-expensive schools they went to that they'll be paying for, for the rest of their lives because they were too lazy to actually WORK while attending schools.

When unemployment strikes, you won't be able to tell the difference between it and your current state because you don't actually do anything except drink coffee, copy stuff from the internet and complain about the latest gadget you can't afford and want the government or the company to pay for. I wonder, do you even know how to fight for anything? Do you even know how to believe in anything except your own, over-indulged, naïve, entitled, talentless and unambitious selves? Yeah, I thought not.

To think that CS made placed his bet on RD and not TK is just a blinding glimpse of the obvious at what a huge mistake that was. RD is nothing of substance, as he was when he was at Mattel before and how he was at Jones New York. He can only talk a good game, but can't actually deliver the goods (same as ol Sid).

Mattel has been shopped around the block for over a year and there are no takers. They either have to dramatically improve profits, or lower their asking price - both are nearly impossible. Just plan on getting a front row seat for January, when they announce RD is moving on to new opportunities. It's coming......and all the lackeys like SL who have been riding on Mattel's and RD's coattails for too long will be exposed for the non-talents they are and be outed. 2017 is gonna be an awesome year!

To the HR troll who started this thread:

People ARE quitting, and you know it. You've also allowed a number of people to go to other facilities without backfilling them in NYC - a clear sign the office will be minimized. No one wants to work for a company who has poor leadership, despicable employment practices and is in a death-spiral of profitability that they can't get out of, unless some other company is foolish and risk-taking enough to buy Mattel and take it private. Their high paying dividend is unsustainable and they are running out of time before there is a run on the stock.

anyone who has had a job long enough knows that HR is not on the side of the employees.

not everyone here complains but there are a few of the same laid off embittered ones that have obviously too much time on their hands.

And if you are saying everyone here is miserable then you've just outed yourself too you troll.

lastly if i wanted to give positive feedback to the company it probably wouldn't be on a site that was about layoffs.

man you're kinda dumb aren't ya?

I spit in it on the regular.

Almond milk from the fridge. Nobody steals Ms Vertigo's Almond milk.

What did ol vin steal that got him the boot from NYC?

JM quit. Personal Leave just sounds better than having a senior exec quit.

No one cares because since day she was a NON ENTITY. Absolutely useless waste of oxygen when it came to the betterment of our overall brand. They should bring back GS. She's doing real estate now and probably killing it but that woman had a head for numbers and a take no crap attitude that commanded your respect.

Go to HR? please they are part of the problem. 1 of them is never there and the other only cares about which show/concert she is going to at MSG and how much liquor she can purchase on FP dime.

It's surprising nobody seems to care where JM is...I have been sitting on this 3rd floor since we moved and I've seen her maybe twice. My best guess - she knew she was about to get let go and took a leave. Now she gets paid and FP/Mattel cannot touch her.

We've all been hanging tough for so long, and it's getting harder everyday. I love my job, the brand and the business but the chaos is really impacting things now. The survey revealed over half are looking for a new job. I wasn't one of them but know now that I have to be.... Super demoralizing.

Well said...good for you...hang tough...

Quit? Me? I was here doing good work before Chris and the rest of the carpetbaggers arrived to try and fleece the company, and I will be here long after they are gone if there is anything left when they are done.

Post ID: @JZ5tlS5-1kcd. Hey ageist, get a grip on your ridiculous self, or not. Like others ask, why are you even on this site? Thanks for the lecture...good luck to you...our opportunist CEO is 66...and the Govenor of CA is 78...so tired of ageist idiots...go play with your phone...grow up...are you an intern?

I'm guessing this person has been at FP no longer then 3 years. Maybe it's there 1st jobs out of school and they have no real responsibilities out side of work. If that is the case then I agree......FP is a great place to work and if you ever lose your iPhone in the bathroom HR will let you know in a mass email. Funny thing is if you lose your iPhone in the men's room hey still email all the women in the office as well.

#SoundsLikeATool

hey brainiac, most people on this site have been "laid off." the real question is: why are you here in this den of bitterness? who asked you to be mattels max steel? go play hero somewhere else. you're about as welcome as a vapid west coast transplant in a ny office.

Wow! 'HR monkey'...that's a good one. I'm amazed at how disgruntled all of you are. I know, it's hard for you to believe that someone could be happy here. I feel bad for you. Don't get an ulcer getting all worked up about it, it'll be ok. I don't have anyone working for me. Didn't talk to HR about someone under me. What else do you have to make up and be all angry about? Any thing else? Why do you still work here? You haven't given any good reasons. Give me one.

Ha! They keep a few hokey 50 year olds scattered about the business to avoid that. They even keep a couple in EA as VP's to show that not do they keep older people employed they advance them in the company. Regardless of how useless they've proven to be. Unless of course we're talking g-- men's fashion trends, then they're the tops!

Let's be clear Boy or Girl Scout who started this thread: You are an HR monkey masquerading as a hard working employee.

Secondly, instead of trying to convince us of how great Mattel/FP is, why don't you stand up for the age discrimination that has been going on for 2 years and put an end to it?

please we all know it's BS. i'm sure 80s hair chick in ny is typing away furiously trying to put a spin in their favor in any way possible. no one trusts her.

It's amazing to hear people stick up for HR. The HR propaganda is priceless...... Obviously written from upper management trying to justify how great FP has been for them - forgetting how much it drains from everyone below them. Being an adult and realizing that HR does nothing for you is the first step in learning how to navigate through FP. To the person who said that they had to have gone to HR on several occasions sounds like a snitch complaining about people under them.... Those issues will always get worked out through progress reviews and layoff. Keeping in mind how toxic FP is I would never brag about complain several times to HR AND all issues being resolved. I can't imagine how many worker bees were laidoff because of your complaints.

Yes HR at FP was SOOOOOOOO helpful that they allowed an alcoholic to bully you and others for YEARS, PROTECTED them, then went ahead and PROMOTED them. Guaranteed their file shows NOTHING about being an alcoholic bully. Same guarantee YOUR file shows you are a complainer. Have you been promoted?

I'm sure someone gave you a shoulder to cry on. Too bad they didn't fix the problem.

I found HR at FP to be helpful and supportive despite knowing nonsense happening at the higher level. I found them approachable, honest and caring for my wellbeing in a highly toxic and abusive direct report situation that lasted about a year for me. My boss was an out of control alcoholic bully with boundary issues but also protected and has since been promoted.

If you are being mistreated or witness something you know is wrong, you should report it and ask for help. HR will help you navigate.

If you just hate the company to hate the company, move on. You'll be happier once you let go and make a fresh start. If you're stuck to the area, try to find peace in what you do and don't bother with the ups and downs. Do the job asked of you, clock out and live your life Dino-gator.