Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

MM needs to be held accountable

Our culture is broken, the sole person responsible for creating the mess we are in is MM and her LT.

We are worshipping EH like the second coming of jesus but he is just a single guy. You cant pump clean to a swamp and expect it to eventually clean up.

MM is responsible for all the poor leadership appointments.

Removing bonuses, incentives, career development and progression. CFEs are a relic of the past, leadership defined is pathetic and screams 70s.

Getting rid of maxim rewards, ki-ling any meaningful ways to recognize high achievers.

Corny DEI practices that only hurt actual DEI. Hiring activists like JS and JL who are only cashing in on the ESG party without driving any meaningful DEI conversations. All spectacles without actual substance.

Focusing on quantity over quality while we all know that it is hard to bring people to WHQ because “Portland aint it”

Nike’s number one struggle when it comes to attracting top talent, no one wants to come to move here for starters because the state is not an attractive talent hub.

Look at Intel and Boeing, same issues. (…and Boeings planes are literally falling out of the sky)

And than the misguided bay area TC, ATC, how we handle ITC and the list goes on and on.

You cannot run a global culture brand like Nike with people who never left portland in their lives. There is no diversity of background or opinion in this organization for this reason and the culture of fear that HR pumps is only creating an atmosphere of toxic positivity.

That is also why our european teammates that we like to make fun of are running a tighter ship in holland because they can attract top talent to amsterdam.

If you don't want to move the whq out of Beaverton for sentimental reasons, it is fine. Than you need to invest heavily in your culture, reward schemes, belonging, career development and progression and above market rates of compensation to get the best people.

MM did the opposite of that and we were left with SBs, RATs, MDs (or the overall drama in our useless tech org including SEC) the sh-tshow in NSRL and many more to name.

Nike is only attracting the backwash of corporate america and it shows. Backwash brings in more incompetent mini-me’s that they like since they are scared of competent people and you have your best talent get burnt out.

Whenever you see the stock ticker, know that it is not JD. We like to dunk on the guy here but he is the symptom, not the cause. It is ultimately MM and her useless org that is responsible for the mess we are in because they created this culture.

They turned promotions into brown nosing competitions. All of the poor leadership appointments happened under their watch. The endless budget wars and kingdom building, leaders creating parallel orgs to bring petty projects (remember consumer segmentation? That really well!) for their personal progression, creating redundancy and duplication that further drops talent satisfaction.

EH if you are reading (or anyone from your team), you keep saying that you are the chief culture officer now. Please hold MM and her LT accountable for destroying our culture.

We dont need another strategy deck, another AES or a huge spectacle like JDI or other fanfares.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Our issue is not wholesale retail balance or lack of innovation or newness. These are the symptoms of a culture that is broken.

We are raising our hands, lets fix the culture first but someone needs to be accountable for breaking it and it wasnt JD.

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| 1611 views | | 12 replies (last November 26, 2024) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1va1rgV5

12 replies (most recent on top)

well played op, well played

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Post ID: @wgwb+1va1rgV5

But MM was allowed to sell only $7,726,000 worth of NKE this past year! Isn't that punishment enough?

https://finance.yahoo.com/screener/insider/MATHESON%20MONIQUE%20SUZETTE

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Post ID: @5orl+1va1rgV5

Lots of long posts, got kind of bored. MM still responsible for HR, ER and partially for global investigations and firing people over assumptions. ER is terrible. MM needs to go far, far away. Maybe she can go live in JD’s condos.

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Post ID: @3inn+1va1rgV5

I am 55 and can I also see that this is indeed the root cause. I can assure you that senior leadership is pretty much aware and they are extremely concerned about this topic after AES. Some are taking it extremely seriously while some are dismissing it as a knee jerk reaction to the reorg but in my 20+ years here I haven’t seen a single AES causing such an uproar followed by meaningful conversations.

You guys spoke up and from the notorious AEM to this they you kept putting the pressure consistently. I will ask you to keep pushing for the sake of preserving this beautiful brand for future generations. As EH said Nike needs to continue to exist as a place for future entrepreneurs and people who cant stomach a stereotypical corporate environment.

As a senior leader myself I am frustrated.

I lost so many of my good people over the last 6 years because of this. It is heart wrenching that I cannot reward my best performers or even answer their frustrations. HR only encourages to beat around the bush and treat my best and brightest like id--ts.

Your managers receive little to no training once they are placed into their roles. There is no meaningful support or investment into making them good leaders. The only leadership development program HR offers is for grade 50+ and the seats are so limited that it is just another political contest, I have so far failed go get a single high performing director in there because other SDs calling in favors.

I am frustrated that I have no meaningful way to keep my best people from leaving. Once someone leaves it usually takes ages to backfill the sear due to lots of stupid reasons and it is always a pain to get headcount to where it is actually needed.

I have people who are creating output that is equivalent to 3+ FTEs because they are driven and I cant reward them or create headcount to relieve them. Meanwhile another SD is creating one meaningless role after another because of a pet projects that is going to get to nowhere, the people they hire are redundant from the start and than they create further meaningless work for my people to justify their existence.

I have been struggling to look my people in the eye lately and it drives me insane being unable to address their pain. The only reason I am sticking around as a leader is my responsibility to my people but I had some dark moments lately.

Let me assure you guys that you do have leaders who genuinely care and it is not as hopeless as you assume. Please do not give in and please raise your voices in a smart and constructive way.

I believe that with EH we do have a genuine shot at turning things around but he cannot do it alone.

Raise your hand, act with courage and support each other. Keep bringing your criticism on our HR practices to your leaders, try to influence the conversation and bubble things up.

Pushing MM out is also not the solution, we need to fix HR. With or without her. Focus on the root cause.

Thank you OP for putting this together and going right to the source of our woes. I am glad that we still have people like you here who cares and has the capacity to put an argument like this together.

I hope that you are not in the verge of a burnout like I am and you will stick around in the berm. We need teammates like you more than ever now.

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Post ID: @2wkz+1va1rgV5

MM and MF need to GO! MM has destroyed the culture, but I imagine it will be hard to fire her. Remember, she is an attorney by trade. Cut her a fat deal and say goodbye… isn’t it time to “retire” MM? MF needs to be flat out fired. Home grow AC CFO will zero skills and charisma.

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Post ID: @1bfo+1va1rgV5

Don’t forget about BB and his team of enablers! If MM sets the tone, “leaders” like BB, LL, OD, AD are the ones who spread the culture of fear and retaliation like wildfire. Add in a broken People Solutions function and incompetent ER and things literally have not been and can get no worse.

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Post ID: @1pqi+1va1rgV5

@ikw+1va1rgV5, it's also why most of our leaders are really only good at one thing, talking up themselves and downgraded good/great leaders, because that is the culture HR has created that is rewarded with a promotion. No need to rehash the last 5-10 years, just look at the last reorg. All of my teams great leaders got let go, the good one's got put into roles that will only allow them to do what the VPs tell them to do, and the VPs/SDs that remain are not great leaders, but they expanded their scope and power.

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Post ID: @1mhl+1va1rgV5

This is the most thoughtful post here ever. The whole HR org is broken. For example, when hiring people, during interviews try telling them that we don’t have a path for promotion and you would have to interview for the promotion you worked so hard for!
HR partners don’t respond to emails for weeks and even after that they respond, it’s with some canned information.
Oh! And try raising these issues with HR, HR will flag you in the system. Happened with many of my good colleagues and the only option they had was to leave this place.
This is exactly how Nike left with yes men and incompetent people, cause no good manager would stand for this nonsense.

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Post ID: @ikw+1va1rgV5

In Global Tech, the promotion and backfill processes are broken. Teams keep mediocre engineers because it's likely they won't be allowed to backfill. Mediocre is better than no engineer in a role.

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Post ID: @bxj+1va1rgV5

Agreed. Even the white people in Oregon can’t relate to actual white people/culture because they are so black-washed and robbed of their identity. I wouldn’t trust them to lead profitable initiatives let alone the licorice-black people that Portland breeds & Nike likes to hire.

Oh no yep, that IS a racist thing to say

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Post ID: @rdu+1va1rgV5

This is the most accurate post ever made in this website. Whoever wrote this, thank you

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Post ID: @pju+1va1rgV5

“ You cannot run a global culture brand like Nike with people who never left portland in their lives.”

Agreed. Even the black people in Oregon can’t relate to actual black people/culture because they are so white-washed and robbed of their identity. I wouldn’t trust them to lead DEI initiatives let alone the granola white people that Portland breeds & Nike likes to hire.

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Post ID: @ixr+1va1rgV5

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