I’ve always wanted to work at Nike because I was impressed by what presented itself as a corporate culture. I thought there was room for everyone here. I don’t think so anymore.
If you’re a more introverted type by nature, you’re not going to have a good time here. At least that’s my impression now after almost two years here.
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I don’t mind a few cubical for people who don’t like being in open spaces. I’d be fine with 50/50 or 70/30. But I never want to go back to a cubical. I understand people love it but I hate it, feels like I’m in some office space movie.
LOL Nike isn't going to encourage 100% WFH after it just dumped millions into the campus expansion.
It’s very interesting how Nike is fighting for “let’s accept everyone the way they want to be”. A marketing scheme. Equally and diversity is a joke at this company, so they can have more sales.
@GoAway: Thank you so much for saying that!
When Nike removed cubes and moved to freestyle that was the precise moment I started disliking my job. I’m an introvert too and like you said I have a difficult time being productive when there are constant distractions all around me and there is zero privacy. It just doesn’t work for me at all. Nike has offered more private work stations but of course everyone flocks to those and monopolizes those spaces all day. If you aren’t in the office by 7:30 at the latest those spaces are all taken and it’s Open Office City for you.
When the pandemic began I was actually glad I didn’t have to return to that awful office environment anymore. It was said on the last all employee call that sometime this year we’ll all be expected to return to the office. And now I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to quit but there’s also no way in helle I’m returning to that type of work environment where I can’t actually get any work done. I guess I’ll ask my manager if I can maintain a 100% work from home schedule and if I can’t I may need to start looking for another job. At a company that trusts me enough to know what type of work environment is best for me.
Leading companies like Google, Facebook and many others are now allowing workers to be 100% remote. Microsoft is allowing it “at manager discretion.” Even a staid and boring company like Nationwide Insurance understands its employees want the option to work 100% remotely and they are allowing it. You know something is wrong when Nationwide Insurance has a better pulse on its employee’s desires than Nike does.
I hope Nike reconsiders. At least give people options rather than incorrectly assume that one type of work environment is good for everyone.
“Get A Comfortable Chair: Permanent Work From Home Is Coming”
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/22/870029658/get-a-comfortable-chair-permanent-work-from-home-is-coming
Being an extrovert will definitely get you more opportunities to get noticed at Nike, for better or worse. It's sad, but something that's part of the culture now that traditional people managers are basically no longer a thing. You are in charge of promoting yourself.
If you are an introvert at Nike you'll have to find your own way, but it's possible to eke out a career. I made it five years by doing extra work to make up for the fact that I absolutely hate interacting with other people in formal settings. One thing that worked out for me was to show up to meetings 10 minutes early or so. My introversion, combined with the fact that most of the other people in the room just like to hear themselves speak, meant I could be a fly on the wall and catch some juicy gossip (believe me this comes in handy). I used to also walk around campus and listen to people's conversations to get the same thing. Again, I found a lot of people at Nike think everyone is dying to hear what's on their mind so they tend to overshare and talk really loud.
You’re correct. But that isn’t just a Nike thing. In my experience it’s a common large corporation thing.
Our society in general falsely equates leadership and friendliness with extroversion. Likewise our large corporations tend to favor gregarious, “collaborative” work places that are great for extroverts.
This is, for example, one of the reasons Nike has “freestyle” (open) offices. If you asked an expert in workplace design, “What is the absolute WORST physical work environment you can create for an introvert?”, that expert would respond with “Open offices! Force your introverted employees (about 40% statistically) to work in open offices, and you’ll have them resenting and hating their jobs in no time!”
To do good work introverts need some privacy. They need some control over the sights and sounds they’re exposed to all day. They tend to work best when they’re secluded and by themselves; not when they feel like they’re trying to work in a fishbowl. They can be excellent leaders and managers, often exhibiting more actual thought than their extroverted counterparts. But take away control over their physical work environment and you may as well just be telling them “We REALLY don’t want you working here any longer.”
Office space is just one of the more obvious examples of how introverts are not set-up for success in most large corporations. I could cite many other examples both at Nike and elsewhere.
If you’re an introvert it’s best to work at a small company or for yourself. That stinks but it is what it is. It’s especially bad given that the upcoming generation of new employees, ages 22 - 30, are the most introverted generation in a long time. If Nike doesn’t get rid of some of its introvert-unfriendly ways like open offices, it’s going to create morale and retention problems in years to come.