So with this new "mandatory" RTO mandate stating we have to be in the office 4 days a week, how strictly is that enforced? I see many teams who only were in the office twice a week during non-busy times continue to do so, and teams where they rotate who is in the office on what day of the week continue to do that.
Am I correct that they are not enforcing it that hard and it's more just hoping the strong-ish language is enough to get you to waste your time and money on the 405?
@vy My team was forced and now we work less hours since rtw
That policy faded away, it's not really a thing anymore.
Mattel's culture of "failing upward" has been reflected in their stock price for decades. It's undeniable.
GTO isn't enforcing the RTO, so your department shouldn't either.
One of the problems at Mattel is that so much of the “unprofessional “ behavior exhibited allows people to fail upward. This has occurred for decades at Mattel and seen first hand.
Is there a 9-5 rule?? Besides being required to be in the office M-Th, I thought we still had flex time policy?
I think the point is that an arbitrary policy saying that employees need to be in their seat from 9:00 to 5:00 is just unreasonable for many positions within the company. It may work for some but not all... So let them be professional enough to make the decision themselves and don't require everyone to follow that rule because a handful of people might not be getting themselves to the office.
There are plenty of of VP’s that are D/cks. Head of HW Eng. us and always has been. There is no reason working after hours just to work the hours. Just not worth it. Have the guts to say NO.
If you have meetings before or after hours, flex your time to compensate for it. Talk to your manager about it. He/she/it should already suggest that to you. If there's a problem, discuss it with HR. If you're in management, this is the job you signed up for.
Dude, then your VP is a Di-k.
I work with EMEA all the time and we ask them not to schedule meetings early in the mornings for us because it's not that difficult for them to take a call a little later in the morning. They'll be mostly drinking wine by that time anyway. But seriously your VP, no manches, what a piece of work. Tell him it's only toys.
I hope you can get transferred.
@87w I'll be sure to tell my VP to reschedule their staff meetings because it doesn't work for my 9-5 schedule. Good idea. Sounds like you must work in a DC where they have set hours and get to clock out at the end of their shift. That's not how my department works, it's not as easy as declining meetings. And I am in the office 4 days a week, but my work day can often span over 18 hours and that's no way to promote work/life balance. There's no way I'm sitting in the office all day and driving for hours every day, then taking hours and hours of meetings at home.
But if I find a new job, I won't get a package...
Yep, if you’re over 50, you’ll be on the target list for layoffs regardless of the BS they tell you about “fairness,” “equity,” or “ethics.”
And you are at high risk of getting RIFed if you’re over 42 but not yet 50. It’s all about cost reduction and experience is expensive. Plus leadership doesn't give a sh1t about you and the ones who do the work and actually lead teams are so jaded they don't care anymore and just look out for themselves.
Let the place burn down. Stock hadn't gone anywhere in a decade+. Find a new job and live your life.
You know how we spend all day looking for CIPs in our products? You are the CIP. Management has been tasked with stripping the workforce down to the cheapest people possible to achieve at least the bare minimum. You asking for a promotion or a raise is like asking to add a feature to a product that would push its cost above the target.
They don't want to pay for resources. Look around, everyone who was great but expensive has been let go, because they were expensive - it doesn't matter how great they were.
For the company, ideally, they dangle the illusion of promotions in front you so that you work harder and are more productive than they are paying you for, so that if they do ever promote you, they can lay you off having already extracted the value from you.
For you, it's best to do the bare minimum and not try/work too hard. Just have fun with the job and enjoy it. You are cheap labor, make sure they get what they paid for.
What are they going to do? Replace you? That sounds expensive...
People are getting passed up for promotions because HR only allows a certain number of employees to be promoted. God forbid the company reward those who have earned a promotion. It's politics, folks. Your boss will tell you, "sorry, we can only promote one person in the group this year". Meanwhile, your inbox fills up with "join me in congratulating so-and-so in their promotion" from other groups. You can be working hard, doing more than anyone else in your group, doing more than your title/job description states, they'll still need you to 'work on areas for improvement'. Then, they'll change the requirements. HR is so toxic and useless, they had to change their name to "People and Culture Business Partner"
What a crock of an excuse.
Woe is me I have a meeting with another time zone so I don't want to come into the office.
What an absolutely entitled excuse.
Nobody told you to take the meeting.
If you're supposed to be at the office have them schedule it at the end of the day
You know you're only working barely 50% of the time at home if you are at all. Don't even lie that you're more productive.
You just want to be able to go to the gym on work time. And when you get passed over for promotion because you're never seen at the office don't whine about it.
Your one call a week with EMEA doesn't require you to WFH 4 days a week.
Stop making excuses.
You're the one that's ruining it for everyone else.
It's impossible to enforce having people in the office for a 9-5 job when there are offices across the globe and meetings span 5 am to 10 pm. They can't have it both ways and it seems like everyone but the CEO realizes it.
It changed things for the most part. Most of my team comes in 4 days a week now except for one person. She still "works" from home for the most part, but she checks too many boxes for them to do anything about it.
So this is where all the whine bags are! No wonder it takes so long to get answers. Shadddap and quit your yapping. Anyone working from home will and NEEDS to be cut for sheer ignorance and honestly because they’re on here whining. 😂 Your dogs and cats even want you back at work you’re so insufferable. 😩 🤪
@60e Ha ha! Fired for not coming into work? Yeah, right. You can't even get fired for not doing your job. Many teams are still exercising the 2 days a week in office schedule. We have employees that have already taken 20-30 days of vacation in the first 6 months of the year, with more vacation time in the second half.
Anyway, there's no noticeable difference or increase of in office employees. Maybe because it's summer time and vacation season.
What is happening with this? Anyone get fired for not coming in to work?
But hey el segundo you get a pep rally and a beach day so quit your bi--hing
Since our initial RTO (Return to Office) mandate, many service‑group team members have been working in the office five days a week—yet these same teams often receive little to no recognition for their efforts. Meanwhile, higher‑profile groups like marketing and design continue working from home and frequently push back when asked to come in for product reviews. They say things like, “Tuesday isn’t our day in the office.” This disparity in expectations is creating real frustration.
Ppl here acting like they’ve really never heard of a hybrid workforce before? 🤣
@240 go away, ynon
Remember, peeps, Mattel is an at-will company. Go back to work and keep your mouths shut or you'll be on the unemployment line.
@1xx What protest? Any details for non-LA people?
Wishing todays 1st floor Tower protest was the RTO peeps walking out and protesting it.
The policy had been a four-day in office week for a while, at least a full year, maybe two, just very loosely enforced.
When we came back from pandemic, it was mandatory Monday with an additional day you (two days). Work that out with your manager. The plan was to have the other days of the week 'assigned to brand', Tuesday Boys group, Wednesdays Dolls, Thursday Wheels, etc. After about a year it went to three days a week in office, again 'work with your manager'. Then a four-day week. But since this was all loosely enforced and even managers were not present to enforce, now it is mandatory.
The entry gates were installed to "take roll". Remember when you could just walk out without badging? Well, people were swiping in and leaving after an hour. So they added a swipe to leave function. That way they can tell if/when you left and whether or not you came back. People abused the system and now they made it mandatory, regardless of the amount of work being done.
Not sure which building was bringing down the numbers. But the CEO is in the Tower and rarely visits the other buildings. Even some of the SVP/VP that complain about lack of attendance are not seen on campus. So there you have it.
Don't forget to downvote this comment
@xc
Mattel is a great place to work according to Forbes. Apparently all the grads want to work here.
Never seen anything this full of cr-p. Keep dreaming. News is out that this place is full of sh-t, treats employees horrible, and continually lies and steals from you. Didn't believe what they tell you when your hired.. All your benefits will erode continually and you'll never make much money.
Just because I have a basic, common sense understanding of unemployment law and you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about doesn’t make me “HR”. 🙄
@x7
Thanks again for the HR response. Not like we didn't already know you're a bunch of baffones hiding out in your walled offices or kissing leadership's a-s to justify your useless existence.
Employment at Mattel (and pretty much every other company) “at-will”, meaning Mattel employees can quit at any time, and Mattel can change policies (such as their WFH or remote work policies) at any time.
As for the supposedly “problematic inequity” you keep mentioning, like I said, this is just nonsense. Companies do this all the time. It’s called a hybrid workforce. There’s nothing problematic about it, full stop, and it’s certainly not something that “has the makings of a large lawsuit.”
So...as much as I agree with the anger over the RTO mandate here, is anyone gonna answer the OP's question? Are they actually enforcing it or are most teams more or less ignoring it?
@t0
Problem is they hired people under the lure of flexibilityand now it's gone. Not saying there is a law against this but the inequity is problematic. How does one not grant remote status to one and not to another. The unequal treatment is a liability. Then throw in if someone is of a projected class and you have the making of a large lawsuit.
@s7+1jxjh9988 This is complete nonsense, a company can have a mix of remote and in-office workers and obviously many do.
There’s no law that requires all employees to have the same work arrangement.
Remote employees watch out. Start looking cause there coming for you next. You can't fairly have remote employees and then strict in office requirements. Mattel will get sued for the inequity. HR will have to eliminate the remote work soon or face potential lawsuits from in office employees.. It's already in process. There's already recent hires lawyering up to sue the company due to false pretenses of flexibility when hired.
You've been warned.
@jg do you even know what the he-l you are babbling on about?
FFS is this the whiniest thread or what??Your divisions are showwwing El Segundo.. How’s it going destroying the company? Whaa I can’t work in my shorts and eat chia while waiting for emails and watching my bitcoin plummet. Boo frikken hoo. Leave it to you simpletons to still whine even when you have everything you want for doing nothing. Sit back and collect a check like everyone else until the ticker runs out. Either way, shut it. No one cares about your “workie day at hewm” daddy issues. Both you and your issues are irrelevant which is why you’re whining here. Fist-bump office bros.
The current state of working conditions is increasingly unbearable with morale at an all-time low. Employees are being stretched thin. Contractors like HCL see the writing on the wall and don't care anymore. RTO won't help boost morale or productivity.
Senior IT and security personnel who were once the backbone of the keeping technology running have either been laid off, resigned on their own, or are on the chopping block but just don't know it yet. The few remaining decently talented IT staff will quit because of RTO. We'll be left with workers who can't get hired elsewhere.
To make things worse, everything is getting downsized, outsourced, or shipped to India. Imagine 2025 layoffs x2. The remaining malcontent, mediocre talent will barely be able to keep things running day to day, let alone deliver any major technology project. And Lord help us if we experience a cyber attack.