Mattel Reviews

Pros

Great benefits and perks. 1/2 day Fridays!

Cons

Decisions take too long and it holds them back from being first to market.

Pros

Amazing people who are passionate about the brands, are smart & truly care about making kids happy

Cons

A senior leadership team who sits around and count their money rather than thinking strategically about inspiring & motivating their workforce

Advice to Senior Management

Move on -- let a new group take the helm.

Pros

Great perks, generous time off, pay seemed pretty fair.
Lot of charitable opportunities.
Onsite gym and cafeteria.
Emphasis on corporate culture.
Had good training programs.

Cons

Don't let the toys fool you, its pretty stuffy.
In the one year I worked there - there were 4 layoffs!
In IT, you are most definitely a second class citizen.
Cut-throat business, things get grim when there is a bad quarter.
Shareholder, not end customer - seems to be the focus.

Advice to Senior Management

If there was not 80% turnover since I left in IT, it is darn well close. There seemed to be no firm direction, one week - thousands of dollars of training, next week - half those people are laid off. Hybrid outsourcing model is just not working. Spent millions on outside consultancies to say what the busboy in the cafeteria already knew..

Pros

Senior management takes the company's "Play" values seriously, resulting in an ethical company that respects its employees.

Year round half-day Fridays are even better than they sound!! Imagine working overtime and still leaving the office at 2pm!!

Great brands that you can that you can get excited about and in an industry that is comparatively resistent to economic downturn.

A very fast paced, dynamic company culture that gets addicting. Once you are at Mattel, it is hard to leave.

Growth internationally shows promise for some cool career opportunities.

Encourages internal rotation.

Cons

A past history of lay-offs leaving things a little too lean at the lower levels.

Political in some areas, but has improved over the last few years.

Hard to get in.

Advice to Senior Management

Communication is king. So many of the recent moves are the right thing to do, but may be misunderstood. Keep your employees in the loop with the "what" and the "why" and they will support you.

Avoid any significant workforce reductions at all costs. It really is a morale killer.

We need more new brands like Monster High!!!

Pros

Work/life balance
Good hours (Half day Fridays)
OK benefits

Cons

Lots of reorganizations
Political atmosphere
Ideas take a long time to implement

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership would do better if they showed more interest

Pros

With early closing every Friday throughout the year, it's no secret that the Mattel Work Life Balance can not be beat.

Cons

There are limitied advancement opportunities and significant job level inconsistencies throughout the different locations. Also, the workload imbalance can become frustrating and hard to ignore at times. Typical of a "top-heavy" corporate environment.

Pros

It's on Fortune Magazine's top 100 places to work in the USA for a reason... Leadership, respect given to employees, willingness to change if requested and alot more than that.

Cons

Being employed by a toy company isn't something worth boasting to friends & family. Other than that, nothing else was bad!

Advice to Senior Management

Please make it easier for loss prevention to do it's job by putting up sensors at the door and more video cameras. There are so many blind spots in the store that it's so easy to steal!!

Pros

good product, good people, community oriented

Cons

division between hourly and management

Pros

The benefit plans are competitive and very practical for every lifestyle. Working in a retail, toy environment is inherently fun and stress level can be low.

Cons

There is not enough diversity in some of the store affiliates, such as American Girl. There need to be more minorities in upper management position to help promote a more culturally diverse representation.

Advice to Senior Management

Send more corporate trainers on a frequent basis to educate the store management team on diversity and leadership training. Problems can occur if those leading a group of people are not able to relate to one another or not aware of cultural differences.

Pros

good balance for work and personal time, good benefit packages, good number of holidays, discount for the product pricing, good colleagues,

Cons

sometimes the management does not share enough information to update their people. lack of leadership in a certain deparments in the company.

Advice to Senior Management

nothing