LEGO Reviews

Pros

Name and brand is very powerful. It'll look good on your resume.

Cons

Welcome to the old boys club. You have to know people to get anywhere. Managers have no trust in their employees. Politics beyond belief.

Pros

Everyone loves LEGO. You tell people you were there and their face literally lights up. The products are fun and cool. It is a good product for children that you can feel proud of working on. You can often express yourself creatively and people are really passionate about working there.

Cons

I have never worked in such a nasty, backbiting place as this. As someone else mentioned, they will promise you the moon to get you to sign on, without any intent of keeping a single promise. And if you complain, they just ignore you and figure out a way to get rid of you. They only way to survive there is to be as aggressive as possible and step over the bodies of your coworkers as you climb the ladder. Until someone does it to you...

Most of the people you work with are OK. Until you accidentally displease them and then get on their bad side forever. I saw it happen to all my colleagues, and then it happened to me. A person I worked with tried to get me fired for their own incompetence. Luckily, this was hard for them to do, since they were not my boss but my co-worker. (Seriously, what is wrong with a place where peers think they behave like that...)

Taking the proper channels, I complained to my boss whom I assumed would be appalled. Nope. My boss totally abandoned me and threw me under the bus. Two weeks later, my replacement was hired (I was told this was a new co-worker) and I was forced out. I never even was told what I did wrong. To this day, I have no idea. My boss was forced out after that, so there is at least some karma.

I saw them fire people who had been there ten years without a second look. There are many people I know in the field who will flat out not work with them because LEGO's reputation now precedes them (eg, low balling vendors, firing employees without cause, and generally trying to get out of paying what they owe).

Advice to Senior Management

Do you know how humiliating it is to call a vendor as a LEGO employee and the vendor basically hangs up on you because LEGO is such a pain to work with? Why do you think you should always get a special deal because of your name?

You have a good product, but the culture and the way you do business is nasty and is really messed up!

Pros

Great company culture, which encourages employees that only the Best is Good Enough. LEGO offers a very competitive bonus structure which encourages you to preform. The employee discount is awesome. The ability to execute ideas in your own department is great, but you have to be careful of stepping on other department's toes.

Cons

Some of the employees have a bit of a superiority complex - don't put on airs that you know more than them or can do something better - it's the quickest way to be marginalized. Be prepared to work with humility and respect. Over communicate even to people who may not be even involved.

Advice to Senior Management

Trust in your staff. Stop trying to go into markets and industries you don't need to.

Pros

1) You get to work with the coolest of toys. 2) The work isn't all that difficult. 3) Generous employee discounts (the customers get stuffed).

Cons

District/Regional Management ignores bad store managers and allows them to skip work and make us assistant managers do his work while he gets paid. The store manager kept two schedules-- one for what was really worked and one for payroll. Several days a week the timecard system would be "down" so we couldn't log in. The manager swore he put the hours in for us and blamed corporate. Employees often got shorted on their paychecks. Employees who complained got fired and corporate supported them. I was fortunate enough to read the writing on the wall and find a better job.

Advice to Senior Management

Nope. If you can't figure this one out by yourselves, then you shouldn't be in business! Jergen Vig Knudstorp is doing a great job, but he needs to see what's going on in the US that allows managers to get away with this garbage and rip off the company.

Pros

My positive experience with this company only lasted the first few months I was there. The company has great health benefits for their employees with ordinary pay. "I work for LEGO. Yes, that LEGO." Some of the people are amazing to work with, and they can teach you a lot. The discount wasn't bad, either.

Cons

On the other side, the company has many reorganizations in which they use to get rid of anyone who challenges the ideas of upper management. The focus of LEGO is to have a
"family-oriented" and it's exactly that. Unfortunately, if you're not a part of that small family (or from Denmark) then it is extremely difficult to move up in the company. There were very few promotions, and they recently have taken women out of any upper management roles. The company is extremely political, and very cliquey. They do not seem to recognize the hard work of their employees. The company also did not treat their contractors working for them very well, making false promises of contract to hire and treating them as if they were dispensable. The company didn't care about employee moral or worries.

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend this company to anyone. The constant political battles, rumors spread, and walking on glass trying not to step on any toes can become draining. The worry of always watching your back, and hoping to not lose your job with all of the reorganizations were stresses I wouldn't wish on anyone. This company encourages the ability to express one's opinions, but lash back if those opinions aren't the ones they wanted to hear.

Advice to Senior Management

Appreciate the hard workers within your group and utilize their abilities. Take advantage of hearing the advice from those lower in ranks than you, and appreciate the fact that they felt confident enough to share their ideas/opinions. Also, please give your employees the chance to move up and take on new challenges, and support them as best you can.

Pros

The instant company recognition is nice - it's fun to tell people you work at LEGO. Employee discount is good. Benefits are slightly better than average, though pay is lower than average. The company does a good job of stating quarterly/annual goals.

Cons

LEGO brands itself externally and interally as a warm, friendly, family place, but there is definitely a cold, impersonal underside of this company.

Trust is low, and favoritism abounds Denmark. Few to no women in senior leadership roles. Very bureaucratic company. LEGO is no stranger to layoffs.

Advice to Senior Management

Save the planet, and stop flying people all over the world for meetings that you could do online.

Pros

Discount, product knowledge, world recognized name, working with fun people and customers. Easily a conversation starter ("Uh, yeah, I work for Lego. Yeah, that Lego"). Fun building events. Works around your schedule fairly hassle free

Cons

Mystery shops. It seems like your performance as an employee (as well as a store) is judged simply on mystery shops. Bonuses and raises are issued out accordingly. It greats a lot of disillusionment. Very little hours throughout most of the year.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your teams hard work, it would go a long way.

Pros

Great company, great product, exceptional brand.
There are many things that LEGO is doing right and the new CEO is exceptionally smart. STL in the US is doing a good job and has made NA a growing market. They have worked hard to get back to "core LEGO" values and products and out of trying to create TV shows.
The culture is generally fun and there is a great emphasis on marketing and brand building.

Cons

If you are not Danish you have little chance to make it to the top of the company. As others have stated it is a very cliquey group and if you are not one of the "cool kids" you also have little chance to move up.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the core. Listen to the employees within markets better, they know more than you think they do

Pros

Work environment (wear whatever you want)
Co-workers
Freebies (wellness programs, on-site gym, snacks and coffee all day)
Quality of equipment and
It's a toy company
Discounts (tickets, massages every week, fitness classes, etc.
Opportunity to move within the Company

Cons

Career advancement is heavily dependent on playing the "game"
Lot's of cliques
PAY! (in the contact center...get in here, work you butt off and move on)
Personal/Vacation time (again, in the contact center)

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to invest in your employees

Pros

It will look good on your resume to have that Company name, as it is recognized worldwide.

Cons

There is no upward mobility, once you are given a title, the Corporation will make sure you stay in that position longer than other companies will, they will always bring someone else from outside instead of allowing internal promotions.
Middle Management will use their personal relations to promote personnel under their supervision, as I witnessed during 5 years.
Pay is much lower than other companies in the same market sector.
Management is hand picked by their relationship with superiors, and not by their qualities and capabilities to actually MANAGE.

A lot of back stabbing, and very very thick politics.

Advice to Senior Management

None, they never listen anyways.