‘Faith Is Much, Much Lower’ – Ex-WotC Employee Speaks On Layoffs
In an exclusive interview with Commander’s Herald, a former WotC Employee revealed new details about the Hasbro layoffs.
As December rolls on, bringing 2024 ominously closer with each passing day, more and more fallout from the Hasbro layoffs seems to be emerging as the dust from the initial announcement that the toy giant (and parent company of WotC) was laying off 1,100 employees just two weeks before Christmas. And though initially folks thought the company’s sole profitable arm, Wizards of the Coast, would be spared, they weren’t.
Now, two weeks on, an ex-Wizards of the Coast employee has spoken to Commander’s Herald, revealing new insights on the layoffs from behind the scenes, including a glimpse at how leadership views both the customers and their own performance.
Ex-WotC Employee On Layoffs – ‘Clear Disregard For The Customers’
The employee, whose name Commander’s Herald withheld for protection, had some interesting insights into what was going on internally at WotC, starting with the changing temperature on whether the company was doing well or not:
“We had several Townhall Q&As with [Human Resources], Cynthia Williams, and Chris Cocks where this was brought up. In the one with Cynthia, she responded to HR’s comment of “we are killing it” by correcting her and saying we actually were not. She then called out to someone in the back of the group saying “I believe Wizards’ numbers are lower than last year” to which the person she was speaking to said they were actually up. She then tried explaining [this] as Wizards not hitting the numbers needed (what was promised to stockholders) and if not for Baldur’s Gate 3 the company would be in trouble.”
The point about Wizards’ numbers being up but ‘not as up as we’d hoped’ is one that echoes across many industries. From video games and tv/film/streaming, to materials manufacturers, companies across the board are being forced to come to grips with the fact that some growth is unsustainable. And a huge part of that is due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A big part of WotC’s immense boom over the last couple of years comes in part from increased buying during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. But now, those numbers and consumer interests are changing, as they inevitably were going to. People aren’t staying at home anymore, an initial bubble shrinks (even if it doesn’t burst), and the number, despite still going up, doesn’t go up as fast as it did during one of the most catastrophic moments of the decade, if not century. Which hey, let’s hope that it doesn’t get worse!
The employee also spoke about Wizards of the Coast already being understaffed before the layoffs, stating that the teams at WotC meshed well because they had to:
“Teams were so short-staffed and begging for headcount before the layoffs that you didn’t have a chance to clash about anything.”
And now that folks are gone, there are fewer people to do as much, or more, work. But the change in the winds could be felt long before the news of the layoffs came. As the ex-employee explained, faith in the company was dropping:
“Faith is much, much lower. However, this was dropping even before the layoffs happened. […] There was clear disregard for the customers here. Concerns and feedback were constantly raised to leadership, but it didn’t matter.”
You can read more in the full interview.
As WotC and Hasbro head into 2024, the road ahead seems rocky.
