RPG General News - Interview with Ex-Wizards Employee

Commander's Herald interviewed an ex-Wizards of the Coast employee about the layoffs:

Exclusive Interview With Ex-Wizards Employee On Layoffs

Hasbro is not on the good list this year. Wizards of the Coast, the company that develops Magic: The Gathering, has been beset by layoffs from the toy and game giant this holiday season. As such, there is much discontent behind the hallowed walls of Wizards of the Coast's headquarters, and, unfortunately, now outside of it as well. More than 1,100 people were left unemployed after Hasbro went through these layoffs. This amount includes a large number of people now previously under Wizards' employ. We had the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with one of these ex-employees.

For reasons of their protection in the industry within which they are still aiming to be employed, we have omitted our interviewee's name from this article. Without further ado, here is what that ex-employee of Wizards of the Coast had to say.

Was the layoff something that came out of nowhere?
Yes and no. While there were communications that numbers were not where they were needing to be, all conversations pointed to this being due to the toys division of Hasbro and that changes would be taking place on that end. 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. When this was brought up in the Chris Cocks Townhall, he commented about it being more towards the toys division and that changes would be made.

Was there severance, and if so, was it reasonable?
There was, though in looking at what has been offered at other companies, it is definitely on the lower end.

Where are the internal fault lines, both within Wizards of the Coast and within Hasbro in general? Is there any generational divide, for instance?
The employees within Wizards all meshed really well. You 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.

From your experience, were the layoffs targeted at upper, middle, or lower-class employees?
Across the board; the only exceptions were the execs who needed to be held accountable the most.

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Thanks Couchpotato!