Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

Is the WSJ article published yet?

I have a wonderful story. Working with a friend at the WSJ for a story on this one now. I was at Nike for a number of years, and had no issues. Never written up, actually received a few spot bonuses for performance. Was terminated for performance recently. Let go at the end of the month, with no severance or anything… less than 3 months after returning from parental leave.

So had a new supervisor come onto the team. They seemed fine enough, and I was due to go on leave for the birth of a child in a few months anyways. I had a handful of direct reports. We had been preparing for my leave, and all was going according to plan. New manager was in the loop, and all was well. I go on leave and enjoy my new baby. I come back and all he-l had broken loose. One of my direct reports had walked in and just quit. No notice or nothing. They had sent me an email expressing that there were some concerns with the new manager, and many inappropriate comments had been made. My plan was to address this with HR, as required by policy, when I returned from my leave. On my first day back, my manager sets up a meeting with me first thing in the morning. So I join the call and it’s obviously contentious. Apparently it was my fault that my direct report quit. I was a little confused by this as I was not working at all during this time. Furthermore my manager informed me that I had failed to prepare them for success… yes I had failed to prepare my manager for success before I left on leave. I kinda chuckled at this as I thought they were joking, but they were serious. So knowing what I was dealing with… an unhinged individual completely out of touch with reality… I made my appointment with HR as my former direct report had requested. I meet with this HR rep and tell the story. Things that were said, things that were done, etc… all inappropriate and nothing that would surprise anyone reading here. I was called fat by a member of leadership (I mean I am, but we don’t have to put that on front street in a conference room full of people) my direct report was chastised for speaking to a therapist (my supervisor told them that “stupid Americans are always paying people to hear their problems.”) As I’ve come to learn… this is just normal Nike stuff. The HR rep informed me that “multiple policies had been violated” and they were so sorry for everything and would follow up. I didn’t think much of this. My thought process was that I needed to be on a PIP before I could be fired… or at least written up first. Yeah, I was wrong. They called me in and fired me around 2 months or so after I spoke with HR. They said it was performance dating back to my initial manager at Nike. Funny thing… we still talk. They left Nike for their own reasons, and they informed me that they never had a problem with me or my performance. This was “typical BAU behavior for this leadership team.” Some Karma has been served though. Strangely enough, my former supervisor has been fired, and the wonderful HR Rep is no longer with Nike as well. I’m sure her situation was much like she explained mine to me “a separate issue, and the decision is final” when I stated that it seemed strange all of this was going down just a few months after I met with HR about my manager.

Good news is there is life after the swoosh. Found another job, much happier without all the fake bullsh-t, and double speak. I did try to work with legal on some sort of settlement, but because I don’t check any of those “protected classes” boxes… it didn’t go far. So with the absence of an NDA and living in a one party notification state… I have receipts for all of the “allegations” made here and in the WSJ article (Recordings, screenshots, texts, etc…), I figured the court of public opinion is the best route forward. My advice to anyone is to know the laws in your state of residence and cover your a-s as much as you can. Nike can and will play dirty. Don’t go to HR for anything unless you already have another job lined up. Better yet… leave the toxic place behind all together… unless you’re one of the lucky few to work with a team full of amazing people. Those do exist at the swoosh, but are exceedingly rare these days.

I just separated from Nike because I was retaliated against. Luckily I had a protected action plus there was some discrimination involved. I felt prepared because I hired an outside lawyer within weeks of being passed over for a very obvious promotion and then promptly put on a PIP once I raised my concerns with HR.
ER did no interviews despite having over 19 witnesses. They conducted no investigation. They let the VP line everything up to fire me. I asked HR to sit in on some conversations because the VP had anger issues and I felt unsafe, HR literally said “I don’t usually do this kind of thing” or “what do you specifically want me to do about this?” Essentially ER and HR helped this a--hole run a playbook against me.

My lawyer negotiated my exit with a chunk of change to go with. As long as you’re not dazzled by the brand and willing to leave, they don’t have much leverage with you. The Nike lawyer was d-mbfounded that I would even entertain leaving a brand as illustrious as Nike. What she didn’t understand is my dignity and principles meant more to me.

All of this is true. All of it. Every post here is accurate and I just concluded my very own version of the same story.

Speaking from personal experience, ER is there to protect the company from being sued. Nothing else. It doesn’t matter what the facts are, or if they pretend to be on your side. They are not.

Retaliation at its finest!

@4gkh - there are two separate issues at play here (and Nike does both, all the time)

Let's use the gal from Social Media who's super vocal on LinkedIn as an example. Right now she's terminal at Director and won't get promotion (or likely even a lateral move). She's ruffled too many feathers and broken Nike orthodoxy by attracting too much attention. This is not retaliation (it's awful, but it's not unlawful).

Even if she was fired / laid off, it still wouldn't be retaliation (because she's not engaging in a protected action).

If however she was consistently advocating for parental rights that Nike was violating, and then was laid off, that would be retaliation, and she could sue.

What's kind of shocking is that there's a lot of stuff that falls into the protected category (folks reporting unwanted advances/as--ults and then reporting it, then getting laid off). Nike just offers very large severances knowing that 99% of the time people will sign them and just go away, rather than pursuing legal recourse. Gross, but it is what it is,

Nothing to say here other than to add that retaliation at Nike, from HR or otherwise, is a longtime and ongoing problem.

I know the official corporate line is that “retaliation will not be tolerated against people who submit complaints.” Problem is, if you are deemed a trouble maker and you make work life difficult enough for the wrong people, you cannot count on being protected or spared from retaliation.

For starters there may just not be any interest in protecting you. And second, actually being able to PROVE you were retaliated against is very difficult. Retaliation doesn’t always mean being fired. It can take many forms. Maybe you start being shunned or ignored by colleagues or managers. Maybe you get passed over for raises or promotions. Maybe you develop “a reputation”. All of these things can happen and hurt your career. But good luck providing actionable proof that your complaint caused those things to happen. Even if you know that’s exactly what happened.

I’ve seen a bunch of retaliation during my time at Nike. It’s never blatant to the point where the victim could sue. Mostly it’s people getting passed over for opportunities and promotions, or their work lives being made so difficult that they eventually develop stress or mental health issues and quit. They know they’re being retaliated against and most people “in the know” recognize this person is being retaliated against. But again…knowing this and being able to prove it aren’t the same thing.

Before ever filing any complaint at Nike or even getting involved in someone else’s drama it’s important to know the risks. Just because you’re on the side of being right doesn’t always mean you won’t get the short end of the stick. I’ve seen way too many people learn this lesson the difficult way.

I’ve been in the room multiple times when MM has made significant personnel or exception decisions based on race or se-ual orientation. Happens all.the.time. She can be absolutely heartless. I’m thankful she likes me. DA wasn’t great, but at least he let a little merit come into play to combat the blatant discrimination or favoritism MM brings to the table in basically every.single.meeting. It’s exhausting. MM doesn’t care at all and she hasn’t cared since she took the seat. HR is a scary place right now even for those of us that check some of her favorite boxes.

@1xnb hit it on the head. I think a lot of peoples behavior slipped through the cracks in 2018 me too movement. Lots of people were getting fired for “small” or “petty” situations. However, in HR, that type of behavior was running rampant.

Some of those people are still in power to this day, but are keeping lower profiles. I’m curious if they’ll survive the next round.

More on the previous Chief Diversity Officer (the most recent one that left in a hurry last November, not the four or five other people that have also held that role over the last few years)

Before moving across to DEI he was part of the Talent Acquisition team and reported into the Head of TA (one of those thoroughly unlikable Nike VP’s that’s managed to cling on for 15 years despite being incompetent and broadly despised by her team)

He was already exhibiting the type of extremely bad behavior (that ultimately got him fired) when he was part of TA, and multiple folks made reports to the Head of TA that this was really egregious conduct. Not only did the Head of TA continually turn a blind eye to the misconduct, but she laid off all the folks that had leveled the complaints.

Retaliation happens all over Nike, but it happens a lot across the HR team.

@jcq+

Nail on the head. I’ve seen some pretty egregious examples of retaliatory behaviors at Nike, but that one takes the cake.

(and that’s my opinion as someone in HR…)

Retaliation at Nike is pretty commonplace - there have been some really egregious examples. Even people that you think would be safe (ie the initial whistleblower against the last Chief Diversity Officer) ultimately got laid off.

So keep everything documented (copies of the email, the calendar appointment with ER etc) and, if it comes to it, you can use those as leverage to negotiate your severance.

Or you could not accept the severance and sue them, choice is yours (I would recommend seeking legal advice so you understand the pros and cons of whatever decision you make)

I’m so sorry that by ‘doing the right thing’ you now find yourself in this situation.