Mattel Reviews

- Stressful - Sink or swim culture (I did not receive adequate onboarding based on what I heard from my peers and was faulted with mistakes I couldn't possibly have known unless I got proper guidance) - 4x days back in office, no remote work exception. For a company that preaches flexibility, forcing people back into the office is the pinnacle of inflexible. - Very little work/life balance (despite management's lip service to this) - HR leaned towards management and was not transparent. When I could no longer go into the office due to family reasons, I asked for a remote work exception. They denied that and gave me a termination date which they described as a "resignation" date - I had no say in when that date was. HR told me that, in this situation, they would not contest my unemployment claim.. then promptly contested my unemployment claim with the state of California. I would not recommend working at Mattel. The feeling I got was that everyone was replaceable and that the bottom line was the only thing that mattered.

Unfortunately, I have SEVERAL cons to add to the glowing culture and people that I mentioned above. The biggest is that there is really no room for career growth at Mattel for seasoned people with more than 10 years of experience. Take a look at their job listings! It's all for "junior" roles and almost no roles for Director and above. I have never seen something like this for a company of their medium size. It's like they stack teams with 100 junior associates or middle line managers and ONE Director or VP. You will hit a ceiling and be completely stuck forever if you stay at this place. The VPs and above here have been there for 10+ years, and there is no room for anyone else. Some of these VPs and above have only worked at Mattel and know nothing else. I have seen Directors managing 10+ person teams or VPs managing teams of 30+ people. What? This is completely unheard of anywhere else. These people would have higher titles and pay elsewhere for the scope and size of teams they manage. It's almost laughable, but is the "norm" here. Another con is that they did a big layoff in 2023 that was unnecessary. They had ONE 'bad' quarter and over-reacted by laying off a ton of people, probably thinking that a recession was coming (news flash: has it come?). The success of the Barbie movie and how that has transformed the company tell me they should have just waited a few months. Instead, they let go of a ton of good people and don't seem to back-filling those roles now. Read more about what they did to my 401K following the layoffs below. In terms of pay, I have a LOT to say about this. First of all, their bonus structure is kind of awful. I came in with a solid bonus %, and due to them being successful during COVID, I earned my full bonus and then some. However, the COVID years were NOT the norm and one bad quarter in 2022 resulted in them not paying a penny of our bonuses in 2023. Yup. Not one penny. It wasn't like "we're lowering the bonuses to X%." It was no one gets anything. Their 401K structure basically means you won't get a 401K. Here is how. You have to be with the company 3 years to get your company match. Guess when they laid me off? One month before my 3 year anniversary so I lost THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of dollars (like $25K) due to this. At most companies, the 401K is prorated as opposed to this "all or nothing, you must stay here for 3 years to get it" approach. How many people nowadays stay at a company 3 full years? I did and they lay me off one month before my 3-year anniversary and cause me to lose thousands of dollars. I feel like this is done intentionally to not pay retirement for employees.