#metoo

I worked at NIKE full-time (Former Employee - Anonymous Employee)

Pros

Gym access, decent food, quiet rooms

Cons

It seems it's #TimesUp and #MeToo at Nike this week, with the "retirement" of the brand president and firing of another VP. I don't know what went down, but the fact that the company is now going to open up an anonymous hotline for complaints and is promising some soul-searching about the culture there indicates to me that upper management is aware of a company-wide issue -- one that's pervasive, systemic, and stretches far beyond the C-Suite.

Good. It's about time.

Nike HQ is toxic for women. It has been for a long time. And not in the ways that are easily identifiable -- not everyone is getting Matt Lauer'ed or brushing off lewd comments at an office happy hour. It's far more insidious than that-- and it's not just the entitled, overpaid white men who are responsible.

Here are some ways the environment is toxic for women:

• Getting ignored, marginalized or talked over when trying to present in a meeting. (The standard-issue white male Senior Director will be checking his phone, trust me).

Toxic.

• Leaving early to pick up a sick baby at daycare, feeling the resentment of the rest of your team (particularly childless women) following you out the door.

Toxic.

• Being passed over for promotions as a woman, doomed to tread water in middle-manager-land forever, because you've been deemed either too aggressive or not committed enough because you leave early to pick up said sick baby (see above).

Toxic.

• Checking your email at 3 a.m. because you're up and dealing with a kid with an ear infection, only to discover a brusque, frustrated note from your boss sent at 11:53 pm asking why you haven't turned in a project yet.

Toxic.

• Standing around at an office function, watching the lads and bros (all Senior Directors) shmooze with the VP as you stand off with the other women (managers, "specialists") and wait your turn to try and make an impression on said VP (white, male, usually British) and hope he remembers your name.

Toxic.

Look - some of this probably sounds like standard corporate-America griping, and perhaps it is. But having worked for other Fortune 500 companies, I can tell you that the environment at Nike is unique. Politics, backstabbing, strict adherence to hierarchical, patriarchal norms, and frat-boy/lad culture all conspire to make it a fairly awful place for women, particularly moms. The only women I know who ever made it up the ranks (a double-edged sword, as the job will then consume your every waking moment) are the ones who acted like men to get there -- swaggering about, doling out sports-talk, ingratiating themselves with the right people while stepping on others to get up the ladder, and routinely placing work as the highest priority over family time and/or anything else.

Of all the painful circumstances of working there, the woman-on-woman warfare was the worst. Women at Nike HQ are forced to squabble, scheme and bully each other to fight for position and influence at a company that gives out precious little of either.

Toxic.

I'll leave it at that. #TimesUp, Nike, and not a moment too soon.

Advice to Management

The leaders at the top who have been at Nike for more than 10 years need to retire and move on. Nothing will change if the entitled rich people who benefit so much from this toxic culture aren’t shown the door. Time for some fresh thinking from younger generations who understand what it takes to build a corporate culture for the modern age.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-NIKE-RVW19736239.htm (03.17.18)

(Bloomberg) -- It’s never a good time for companies to grapple with a scandal over s-xist behavior. At Nike Inc., it’s especially awkward given its ambition to target female shoppers.

The world’s largest sports brand expects much of its future growth to come from selling more sneakers and gear to young women. And fresh concerns about a locker-room mentality could hurt Nike’s reputation with a demographic group that it desperately needs.

That risk looms over a company that saw two high-profile executives step down last week amid a broader review of misconduct. The men reportedly stood by while subordinates were demeaning to women and people from other countries -- behavior that brought a painful moment of soul searching to a business that has long touted its progressive spirit.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker is poised to make his first public remarks since the controversy surfaced when he delivers earnings on Thursday.

“It’s an enormous reputational risk,” said Davia Temin, founder of the crisis-management company Temin & Co. “We know millennials want to work for places that have a higher purpose. They are going to put their buying power in the same place.”

The company is especially ripe for being deemed phony and inauthentic, she said. Unlike some other businesses caught up in the #MeToo movement -- a push to improve treatment of women, especially in the workplace -- Nike has marketed itself as a champion of female empowerment, Temin said. Anything that undercuts that image could be a brand killer, she said.

The fresh scrutiny comes at a time when Nike is trying to bounce back from a sales slump in North America. The company has suffered two straight declines in the key market.

“When we became aware of behavioral issues in some parts of the company, we took action swiftly,” spokesman Greg Rossiter said. “We’re taking it seriously, and taking steps to address it.”

Nike pointed to recent internal research done with a third party that showed for every dollar a male employee makes in compensation, a woman in a similar role makes 99.6 cents. And it’s about the same ratio for minority employees versus white workers.

The company also said that its global workforce is 48 percent female. Women account for 41 percent of management positions. And a third of Parker’s direct reports are women.

Seeking Women

“We are focused on attracting and retaining more women and people of color,” Rossiter said.

Still, the optimism surrounding Nike was much higher two years ago. At the time, Nike was dominating the industry, and Parker predicted that women would fuel a 60 percent sales increase to $50 billion by 2020.

Since then, a resurgent Adidas AG and the fashion shift away from items like basketball shoes -- a Nike strength -- derailed the company. It’s since had its first major layoffs in years, and pushed off that revenue goal by two years.

“The competition is much stronger today,” said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones. “It’s going to be hard for them to get back to where they were.”

Bad Behavior

With the misconduct problems, the company is now facing an internal crisis that some have compared to the 1990s sweatshop scandal, when it was heavily criticized for using Asian factories with poor working conditions. Trevor Edwards, who was head of the Nike brand and seen as the likely successor to Parker, resigned from the post last week -- just as the company announced it was reviewing complaints about behavior in its ranks. Nike will only say that there were no direct allegations of misconduct against him.

Jayme Martin, who reported to Edwards, also stepped down and is no longer a Nike employee. Unlike Edwards, he did face accusations of improper behavior from people within the company, according to a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the allegations against Martin.

Edwards and Martin weren’t available for comment.

In announcing Edwards’s departure, Parker said he would be staying as CEO beyond 2020, helping soothe concerns about a disrupted succession.

Investors had a muted reaction to the management tumult. The shares are up less than 1 percent since the company disclosed the resignation of Edwards. Wall Street analysts, meanwhile, have noted that Nike has a deep reserve of talented executives.

Investor Calm

“I’m a bit surprised there hasn’t been much of a reaction,” said Laurent Vasilescu, an analyst from Macquarie Capital USA Inc. Investors are probably happy to be seeing Parker staying beyond 2020, when he’s due to turn 65, he said.

So far, the company has said nothing about how it plans respond to the concerns. It also declined to say whether it had hired third-party consultants to help. One step the company has made is publicizing a hotline for employee complaints.

In the wake of the sweatshop scandal, which peaked when documentary filmmaker Michael Moore attacked the company in one of his movies, Nike founder and then-CEO Phil Knight pledged to make substantial changes. Within a decade, the company became an industry leader with increased standards and transparency.

Comeback Bid

Parker lived through that as one of Knight’s top executives, and has the opportunity to steer Nike back toward a leadership position again, according to Temin.

“They can lead on how to do this,” Temin said. “They can do it. Whether they will, or not, is something we’ll all watch.”

Parker also needs to show progress to stop an exodus of employees. Competitors, such as Under Armour Inc., have recently opened major offices in Portland, which is a few miles from Nike’s headquarters.

“It’s definitely a headwind to manage,” Edward Jones’s Yarbrough said. “Will we see more talent running out the door?”

I hope everyone realizes this isn’t just a #metoo conversation. Hopefully the company dives into the NIKE Women’s Org and the toxic, negative, work environment that is the most avoided team in the company.

When the leader says .., “these people need to fear us ... that’s how I was brought up at the Gap” ... you have a problem. Talk to people. Everyone knows.

When we get close to the Cannes advertising awards season there's a sudden interest in world issues or minorities, topics that usually grab the judge's attention. There are also quite a few categories that pump money into "research" in order to come up with some half assed story (usually a short film) on how their category is helping said minorities or contributing to a worthy cause etc etc.

This is obviously all crap, and all they want is the award and to be in the press, which automatically gains the advertising agency more exposure and the brand a lot of free advertising too. The research bit? A script that has been completely approved client-side and we have to go by religiously. Even if that means working overtime, which we obviously don't get payed for.

No it's not WK

S-xual harassment within Pearson Education USA is protected by HR and management

If you call out a manager for it and you get blackballed w no support from HR or management

Also this is a company that obviously doesn't value diversity

Avoid this toxic sick workplace at all costs

Cisco's last couple of quarters: results came out and the stock jumped +6% , hiring went up

Juniper's last 6 quarters: results came out and the stock dropped -6%, firing went up.

Now, rumoredly there is a #metoo issue there.

Well , employees are being sodomised for quite a while now. What about a #metoo on that?!

I would like to be laid off. Where can I apply for the severance package? Would be nice to get some of that sweet sweet cash while I look for another job. That's mostly what I do all day anyway. I'd prefer to do it from the comfort of my home and get paid to do so.