Years back the nyc office was filled with enthusiasts who loved toys, had shelves of their personal collection lining their office walls (DP being a prime example with his star wars collection) and would push for innovation. They were disruptive designers who would make the most boring brainstorm delightful exercise in creativity. Then came along the processes meant to better streamline and the imports from out west deemed their disruptive nature to be not in line with the mattel mindset (DP was long gone at this point). PLM, silly reviews, and extensive cost reduction exercises in asia slowly but surely pushed them out one way or another and what was left were mediocre designers regurgitating the same price point tub toys for different licenses. Marketing rationalized it all with their metrics and decks and the west coast buffoons nodded their bobble heads like mindless sheeple going along with the program. I don’t feel bad for the NYC office closing because what’s left isn’t the cream of the crop, it’s the lame ostriches who’ve kept their heads buried in the sand not wanting to be noticed or critiqued and playing the CYA game for as long as possible to collect another paycheck. Your demise is your own fault NYC employees. I’d wish you the best of luck but that’s like wishing a turd the best as you flush it down the bowl.
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you need them for the under-schooled millennial that have no clue as to how to get their hands "dirty" because they're all expecting praise and trophies just for showing up every day.
I swear sometimes it seems like half the NYC office are very Roger Murtaugh-esque.
How many people in the NYC office were a year or two away from retirement? How many got the royal shaft?
I love how everything with mattel when it comes to bonus or cost of living increases we get the "slice of the pie talk" when we would out perform the other divisions. Now we are the scapegoats and are being closed. There are other locations in NY that we can operate out of but the lowlifes in ES have decided not to pursue keeping a well oiled highly functioning operation to move everything to the west coast where politics and backbiting are the norm. Pathetic.
Don't put this on the NYC employees.
The talented people here fight hard in the trenches every day. It isn't our fault that engineering and design are given ridiculous price points to hit from marketing, and then when it comes to it we wind up selling half the quota we were originally given.
I'll never forget, recently (past 2 years or so) SG came out here and met with most of us. He said we need to make the hard decisions to make great toys, not just hit margins. Anytime we tried to do so, we received pushback. We wound up CIP'ing out the magic of most toys because we were 1% over cost or something stupid like that.
We have ridiculous quality and safety requirements that none of our competitors even hit, but yet we force our toys to meet - contributing to schedule delays and cost overrun.
We churn, and churn, and churn. It is a too many cooks situation. Design by committee is NEVER a good thing. I haven't seen it work in ANY INDUSTRY.
I'm guessing because marketing, engineering, packaging, and finance can't do their jobs without there being a toy created by a designer first? Oh wait, that's pretty much how we got into this mess. Everyone else thinking they were more important than the actual product.
Why is this post so Designer focused? You almost sound like you think the sun rises and sets on design - it doesn't.
The truth is everytime a NY designer went to EA or ES neither division could keep up with the work pace of their NYC counterparts. No thank you ES. it’s not worth the grief.
Person who said two and a half months in 2009 is totally lying. It used to be 2-2 1/2 WEEKS for every year of service back in those days and I heard it's a week per year of service now.
Also Mattel never matched 10% in all of its history and I worked there a looooong time. It was 4% match for every 6% you out into your 401K and then anywhere from 3%-5% extra kicker depending on age. Now I guess it's reduced but no idea to what %.
NYC is one of the most talented offices Mattel has ever had. beyond that, people are tight knit with good working relationships, not much politics, entrepreneurial teams, happy licensors, collaboration between functions. ES just churns and churns and is overstaffed beyond compare, with full time designers working on iterations of Barbies left finger or some obscure licensed subset of HW die cast for 1 market. NYC entry level designers and marketing AMMs run entire brands and licensors and get the damn job done. Every ES implant that has come to NYC has been totally unqualified and inexperienced in comparison. The company offered tons of relocations to ES and no one wants it. who would want to go where everyone hates each other, brands and licenses go to die, and you have to work in a dirty warehouse and take a bus to go to meetings? No thanks
In 2009 they were giving approximately 2-1/2 months or 10 weeks per year? Seriously? Which company are you talking about. So if you had 20 years you would get close to 4 YEARS severance. That is ludicrous. We’re you a c suite person???
back in 2009 we were given 2.5 months for every year with outside placement and a 12 month insurance salary coverage. What are they offering now. Does mattel still match 401k plans up to 10%?
Y'all seem to know so much. What amount of severance is being offered now vs 'triple' back in the day?
If the OP left a while back then their severance would be twice if not triple what’s being offered now. Make your cost of living adjustments for time but the way we stay afloat is a head scratcher.
To the last poster...speaking as someone without an axe to grind, I will stick up for the OP. You must understand that these "rants" are from people who worked hard and cared deeply about what they did. To have to sit by with your hands tied and watch your work be destroyed by greedy hacks who only care about their own bank accounts and then skip town is maddening. This site helps people vent. If we didn't care, there would be nothing to post here.
My favorite memory was when they had Barnes & Noble downstairs from the NYC office, you could sit there and research anything and get inspired. That was a magical time for FP.
To the person who commented here; “Personally I'm keeping my head in the warm cozy sand until December. Then I'll figure out a plan or get pregnant”
Try getting knocked up by one of the famously philandering SVPs at ES before you get whacked. The child support payments at their level could be quite lucrative. That’ll make for a nice severance. Might not want to wait until December at the rate we’re going, though.....
“No, I have been taking the pill! Don’t know what happened! Did I tell you I’m Catholic?
OP sounds bitter that he left nyc office without a nice severence. Hopefully your rant gives you the closure you need for the obvious grudge you've been holding on to all this time.
It was a lot of things, process changes (Agile...), SL bringing in many new brands but not staff to support. People were overwhelmed. I think it got too much, and many good people left. The staff turn over ended up very high, and knowledge of the best development practices was not retained. Can’t blame the newer staff; Mattel didn’t offer adequate support to keep things on the right track. Things became more disorganized and chaotic.
Despite what this site will say, there are STILL amazingly talented there, and up to the closure announcement, it was still possible to have the rare good day at work. NYC is a lot less political than the other campuses. Work could be stressful, but I’d still have positive things to say about people outside of sometimes difficult work relationships. I don’t think many will take the transfer offer, but I hope things work out for all employees despite the terrible shape the company is in. Things will get better, even if that means parting with Mattel.
I haven't worked there in quite a few years but I recall the NYC office being a fun place to work. What happened that turned it to doody?
KUDOS!! Anyone remember Kudos? Or as they were called in NYC screwdos!
To the OP: Talk about hitting the nail on the head (while doing so in such an entertaining way)! You have a way with words my friend. Clearly YOU are an actual designer because your talent shows in the way you made your point. Kudos to you. The Mattel machine does have a way of grinding successful products and people to a pulp. All it's ever made were cheap toys, so everything it acquires ends up dumbed-down to that level. Sad for all of us who once loved our jobs and took pride in what we did. Silly acronyms (W O N D E R) can never generate those feelings. Think these "geniuses" with their MBA's would figure that out.
Sadly anyone who would've said anything during this whole debacle would have been put on PIP, then axed. Personally I'm keeping my head in the warm cozy sand until December. Then I'll figure out a plan or get pregnant,
Awww aren’t you so smart stating everything after the fact.