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.
48 replies (most recent on top)
It's been over 30 years since Mattel acquisition of Fisher-Price. Perhaps it's time to begin process of slowly letting go of the past.
FP was an amazing place to work. Its culture and approach to developing and marketing products was genuinely principled with one goal in mind, to put out great quality products.
Mattel’s acquisition set forth a slow eroding demise of everything beloved both in culture and reputation at what was once a predominant preschool brand.
May you rest in peace FP…Mattel, karma is waiting at your doorstep.
@30d Maybe Mattel keeps buying failing companies they think they can fix and always unsuccessful. More of a failing to rescue failing companies situation.
Mattel destroyed every brand or company it took over: FP, Matchbox, AG, Mega, Corolle.....
@2wx Imaginext still has toys in shelf, but it’s hard to see if they’re old SKU developed by the Boys Team at EA or new stuff coming out of ES.
What happened to Power Wheels? Thought they were licensed to a Chinese company a couple years ago. There was to be products on the shelves by now?
Heard Mattel ki-led Imaginext after moving it to ES?
Thomas got a makeover and it isn’t selling?
Mattel has done wonders taking over FP properties.
@2f3 You're sad af. Let people rant, it's nice to see we're all on the same boat. Doesn't mean we're not grateful for what we have. This forum is a community and policing what we can or can't write is lame. Expand your world, log off.
Any idea around when the EA campus is expected to be closed? I haven't heard any official announcements about this from management. I assume they'd give everyone a bit of a heads up, but maybe not?
Honestly not even close to leadership. I feel bad for you honestly. If you’re this unhappy and doing nothing about it but crying here behind the mask of a website intended to share layoff details, not daily grievances. I wish you the courage to change the things in your life you hate so much. Best of luck to you, boomer ❤️
Clearly someone is from leadership.,... Maybe figure out how to right the ship instead of bickering with employees on this site
Know wonder the companies a mess... Blaming employees for your mess and theft of The company
@2cx if there are enough chairs and surfaces for everyone
@2cy which is so far out of our control and if you consider this place that much of a he-l hole - why don’t you leave? This is not prison. I doubt you’re under contract. You’re working here on your own free will and rallying for change on a website that will do nothing nor respond to your rallying. Campaign effectively in reality for a benefit you feel entitled to, otherwise you’re just wasting your energy for the sake of a few upvotes. Which I’m unaffected by, but if you’re literally going to do nothing but…this…then the place you choose to continue to work at is just the toxic partner you refuse to leave. Go you. You seem like one of those people who cry for a promotion. You should unpack all of this somewhere else. And I don’t mean behind a keyboard, I mean in therapy.
@2e1 def not ynot or hr. Just very aware that I am more productive and contribute more effectively when I focus my energy on what I can control. Decisions at the top of the ladder, regardless if I agree with them or not, are far beyond my control and I’m realistic about that. Whining about it on an anonymous website isn’t even going to change that lol. I WFH when I absolutely need to and don’t abuse the privilege of flexibility, but if a requirement of my job is that im in office that’s a really easy requirement to meet. The attitude that we’re entitled to anything, including wfh/bonus/those of you still pulling half day Fridays and complaining you’re overwhelmed, is not going to get you anything or anywhere. If you don’t want to play by corporate rules, I’m not sure why you’re on a corporate game board.
If you want to actually change the WFH policy though, I’m not sure why you’re here on this meaningless ineffective website.
@2cr thanks ynot and hr d-mbasses.
Want to increase efficiency? Fire all HR and eliminate all the stupid busy work they create.... goodbye APs and CAP
@2ck The products that were sold during those high profit years of 2020 and 2021 had largely already been developed pre-pandemic. The toy industry boomed during those years because of changes in consumer behavior; pandemic restrictions kept families at home which dramatically increasing demand for toys/at-home entertainment. At the same time stimulus payments and reduced spending on things like travel, dining, and social activities gave families more disposable income to spend on toys.
In short, it had nothing to do with any theoretical productivity gains that WFH might have generated.
@2cr And this mentality is exactly why we’re in this he-l hole. I know the market is terrible and there are thousands of people that would gladly take my job and commute everyday. But do you understand the talent we’re missing out on for the sake of control and status quo? This company’s main attraction comes from nostalgia and name recognition, not the working conditions; and that’s why we’ll never level up.
@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