Working at Nike has been the strangest experience – the longer I've been around, the less anyone seems to care. It's honestly the worst job I’ve had, ever. You'd think sticking around would earn you some respect, but it’s the exact opposite. The appreciation just disappears over time.
6 replies (most recent on top)
I just wanna know how I get some of that exec $$$ into my pocket. I'll be as d-mb as you want me to be and Aspiration my a$$ off!
John Donahoe, is that you?
Idk - depends on what your expectations are. I worked at a place way worse than this.
My prior employer, good luck sniffing a promotion if you aren’t from a certain country. Good luck anyone listening to you because you’re just a drone.
At least here, I have some things I can control vs the other which I somehow stay for 6 years through that abusive relationship. Can’t tell you how many times I worked the weekend and never even got a bonus. Best was they told us the business wasn’t doing well and didn’t give us a salary increase for 2 years in a row. After I threaten to quit… all of sudden I was given 3k to stfu basically.
Trust me, there is always worse places to work.
So true @fjc+1usU6DD6
There used to be a strong respect for veterans and the deep knowledge they gained from working with this brand, which had a unique philosophy revered by everyone in the company. That changed around our first major reorg. We replaced veterans with “elites” who could create flashy decks and sell visions of shiny futures, but never delivered real value. They didn’t truly understand—or care about—the business, the brand, or how to navigate the matrix to achieve meaningful results.
Instead, they told nice stories, always said yes with a smile to their bosses, and shared only what leadership wanted to hear, all while avoiding the real difficult issues. Their focus was either on the quickest path to the next promotion or doing everything possible to cling to elevated roles they had no business occupying in the first place.
While the past wasn’t perfect, there was a much greater emphasis on the collective "we" and the brand as an entity. Now, leaders are more concerned with their personal gain, putting on a facade of being team-focused people leaders, without actually putting in the hard and gritty work necessary to build true followership.
It feels like the shift began shortly before JD became CEO and worsened as we restructured ourselves into the gender formation when we listened to outside consultants focused on driving efficiency and eliminating duplication.
Our current leadership is a far cry from what it was 15+ years ago. Today, I can't think of a single leader I admire or feel compelled to learn from and follow. It’s just a group of individual contributors posing as people leaders, looking out only for themselves and that next promotion.
At the same time, it’s not the worst job. If it truly was, I’d leave, and so would you. But the salary is good compared to the rest of the market, so it doesn’t make sense to go through the hassle of a job search. Instead, I just coast through each day, doing enough to be mistaken as high potential and avoid getting fired. Unfortunately for Nike, this is the worst scenario for a company—employees who are no longer fully engaged or giving their best effort.
You have to pull magic out of your a-s every couple of hours to keep every one impressed at Nike. Unlike other firms where once in 6 months or year would do to earn love. But all of that is still flushed down the toilet by incompetent leadership. .