Layoffs have nothing to do with750 million loss. Not done for cost reduction. This ceo doesn’t seem very honest, feeding his troops a line of bs.
26 replies (most recent on top)
I mostly agree with the laid off Dir below; I too was a Dir who survived the last layoff, but in my experience, the kind of coaching you describe was more readily available to men. I’m not saying women are always shut out, but there are a lot of leaders (I’m sure still there) who have big blind spots. I left of my own accord because I wasn’t happy to learn my compensation was not only less than my male counterparts, but I wasn’t even paid to the minimum salary for the job code. Happy to have left on my own terms and there’s more to life than a company.
I was a Director who was laid off in the last big round of layoffs.
1st, it took me awhile to land something but now I can look back and realize it was a blessing. My current company actually encourages a work life balance and only wants you to work 9 to 5. They don’t want you to take your laptop home or answer the phone all hours of the night.
2nd, a lot of you have animosity towards Dirs and what they do but sometimes that is dictated before they got in that role. I was in a Dir role where I was able to accomplish a lot. Well I applied for a new role and to my surprise once I filled the role I was told this is a strategy position not a “doer” position. Well that stunk, this is the position I was in when I was laid off. Nike needs all positions no matter how high should be “doer” positions.
3rd, they pushed out many of the wrong lifers. Many of the people who got me where I was have been pushed out. These people were mostly part of the good old boy culture but they always have credit to where it was deserved. They had their flaws but many understood “if my reports look good and do good work then I look good and do good work” instead of taking credit for the hard work of those below them. They always made sure to introduce me up the ladder and always shared a project or campaign that I worked on that that person would recognize.
4th, if someone does not cut it in their role they need to learn to move on not move them to a new position. I had a VP who was Pres then demoted then demoted again. Just let him go.
It's not surprising, they put people that have no idea into Director and leader levels and then they get upset when their staff has more knowledge. If you have been there a while, they push you out but you know what, they got rid of true workers. Now, their team is a mess and it leads to poor performance, no value to the business, and when hard times hit, this is what happens.
I call it karma for the bad leaders, I just feel awful for all the dedicated and hard workers that I know there, they are what makes Nike great. It's a shame, not the same company that existed so long ago, just another big corporation putting leaders in place who are just resume flllers.
This even extends to ETWs. I've seen way too many talented people getting completely di**ed around all because they think there's a chance they'll get an FTE offer based on their hard work. These are people who put in more hours than FTEs but still get reminded of their 2nd class status on a daily basis.
Ever try to do your job when your emails get ignored because the recipient sees the "ETW" in your email address?
Ever be the only person on the team you've been working on for years who gets left out of team events?
Ever go for the rare FTE opening only to realize management uses those as favors and already decided who they wanted?
I understand there's a certain personality type that Nike management favors, but they totally overlook people who can contribute in less brotastic ways. I guess it makes sense that they push aside managers who care more about promoting from the ranks than making their boss look good/competent.
As some one has already mentioned , life after this company is way much better with way more pays.
Review of performance is too far away from equality and people who gets laid off are people that did the right thing and stand up when Sr.director and VP made awful decisions.
People promoted are ones that s—s up.
I just want hard working employees to have better life and deserve what they should deserve.
Not like now where people need to only look up at the management and do nothing.
@1eaj+15Es3lYF
I want to thank you for sharing your experience both at Nike and after. Sincerely, I am glad you are happier. Believe me, if I get laid off I will take that severance package with a smile on my face and even thank them for it - no need to burn any bridges either. It is a small world out there. Personally, I will do whatever it takes to take care of my family and provide for them - nothing else matters to me more than them. Once this COVID-19 settles down, I'll be on the lookout for a career outside of Nike. I have started the search now though opportunities are understandably limited at this time. With all my love and respect to you all out there.
I am enjoying watching this whole ****house start to burn down. I was there for a decade and the best thing that ever happened to my life, wallet, and career was leaving. All got so much better when I realized the life behind the berm was a horror show. Once a VP or Director is deemed untouchable they can do anything to you even if its completely unethical or borderline illegal. I saw "future leaders" make multi-million dollar mistakes and demonstrate zero ability to deliver something competently. Never fired. If you are just a normal employee and take a PTO day to go to the doctor during a "critical project" people start to look for ways to push you out. I had colleagues that reported terrible abuses and harassment from management to ER. They all mysteriously got laid off not long after. What a bunch of awful people hiding behind a phony marketing image. The parts of HR not already farmed out are mostly lawyers there just to make sure the company can crush you legally when you complain. So, my advice is dont fret about getting laid off. Take their money and run! Take the next step in your career with companies that are not filled with terrible humans. I did and Im so much happier now.
Well, zero "sport" at all. Nike is depending on people who buy shoes & never wear them and Karens at this point.
Not having the Olympics this year didn't help our bottom line
Ideally, they should also allow for volunteers to get a severance package and leave. That helps in cutting the fat and saving cost. Lot of people will take up on that offer. Better to use that route first so that people who want to stay, gets to stay.
@1qfk+15Es3lYF
Things got so bad since the merge. They created the concept of "Offices of" where each Domain now has an "office of" group. All they do is bombard the STEs and RTEs with request for status reports, "value drops," "flying formation," etc. Each office of has a Sr. Director and a bunch of people who are not qualified as agile coaches or SPCs telling teams how to do their jobs. 90% of the time, they just waste time with all-hands meetings, telling people to plan the PI instead of letting teams plan the work, they make people over commit to the work then get upset when teams cannot operate over their capacity for long periods. They keep promoting their friends. The bottom-line is: it is a sh– show. Do not believe all the hype you hear about diversity and inclusion too. If you are not white and thin then you are nobody; that is why we have so many stupid people in high up positions and doing nothing other than making other people's life difficult. I am done with Nike #f—Nike
Hopefully they get rid of the biggest waste which is at the Sr Director level. They either do nothing or are risk averse and put a stranglehold on creativity so they don’t miss their VP slot.
Jesus Christ, still? I thought they worked out all the redundancies when the tech orgs merged.
There are VPs reporting to VPs all over tech. I assume that a few of those will be gone.
Amen. Nike is not an IT company, but they sink $$$$$$$$ into Tech just to build software that they can't make money off of. Granted, Nike is such a cluster-f that you could never hire a company to build something that would work there without spending $$$$$$$$.
I thought they got rid of most of the Nike lifers over the last couple rounds of layoffs. Not to mention replacing many FTEs with ETWs in the more service oriented areas of Nike (think child care centers).
Who's left?
I'm sure they'll release most of the ETWs and outsource stuff to agencies. And, as anyone who's been at Nike enough to see a few of these cycles, you know how that goes. Agencies will take Nike to the cleaners by throwing their B-team at the work and banking on Nike's churn to keep the money coming in.
It sounds like your Director friend is more of a people manager than one who "manages up". Unfortunately, in my experience at Nike those types are few and far between since you seem to get further making your boss look good over building up people below you.
You can always just bring some more ETW's right? (Don't even get me started on what a culture-k–ler Nike's ETW program is).
@1cey+15Es3lYF and @qnr+15Es3lYF
I, 100%, agree with your analysis; and, by the way, it sounds like you both are active Nike employees. One thing to note that there are indeed Directors without direct reports, which I agree that is a problem, except it is not necessarily a problem with these Directors. They are (many of them) are experts in their fields, hard-working, perform 2 to 3 roles and truly standup for the teams on the ground. The problem is with the reporting hierarchies in each of the domains, HR’s policies regarding span of control and general favoritism for white preppy men and women. I personally know a Director without a direct team (at least at the moment) who is knowledgeable, trusting, empowering and a true servant-leader. This Director should in fact be the Sr. Director. Sadly, I am afraid this person will never be promoted to a position to make true difference and that is where the problem is. This director has helped me in my darkest hour, coached me, mentored me, got me to believe in myself and then offered me a position with 25% increase in pay. Why do we not have more people like him? By the way, he never accepted an ounce of credit either - keeps telling me that it was all me. God bless him (I want to disclose his name but I will not do that to him) - he knows who he is though.
Downturns in sales are opportunities to make cuts and reduce overhead that are not always necessary or needed. Legally it gives Nike more leverage To avoid lawsuits. It also gives Nike the chance and excuse to reduce future payouts (severance pay) and replace those workers with younger, cheaper, and even more external workers (limited liability and costs).
Spot on analysis and I can vouch that there are a lot of well paid people at Nike who are essentially no-show employees. If you have directors with zero people under them, that's a problem. If you have senior management who disappear for weeks at a time, then you probably don't need them.
I want to also add that Nike still has a huge diversity problem despite all of the self congratulatory propaganda around campus and in the media. If you're not white and preppy you are not in the club.
Let's for a moment assume that the layoffs are not because of the loss in revenue. Let's also assume that, finally, the organization is truly ready for flatten out the hierarchies. To do so, Nike will have to do away with years of built-up bureaucracies; that is, they will have to take a hard look at how many people are employed with high salaries yet producing nothing. Even worse, they do not even support their direct reports and empower them to grow. Do we really need that many VPs? Do we really need that many Sr. Directors (they are the biggest waste of money)? Technology alone is full of VPs and Sr, Directors who do nothing strategic - at all. They just ask for "status reports." Do the right thing, Nike, and take a look at where the waste really is and is not.
yeah right. Total bs
I assume it’s both cost cutting and reducing bloat. Can’t project flat revenue growth for next fiscal and keep the same cost base.
Agreed. Has nothing to do with the loss, that’s expected due to Covid. Way too many people doing redundant work - more streamlined organization is definitely the best route to go.
Spot on
Not surprised at all. So much duplication of efforts - I left when the job market was good and now I’m so glad I did. Too many cooks in the kitchen.