Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

I agree with my former colleague below. Once you are there long enough and figure out the whole culture is toxic non-sense, you spend quality time across the campuses in the bathroom. I got a lot of reading done there in the last few years before I left. I knew it was over and was just waiting for the right opportunity to come along. I made a list of each building to see if I could visit each and every bathroom across the many campuses. It was kind of a challenge that kept me busy. I even documented the athlete art in each toilet. The higher I got in the company the less everyone did or actually knew how to execute anything properly. They all kept getting promoted though despite their failures. Most of the managers I worked for were completely incompetent. So, I spent my final days going for walks and reading in the toilet.

Don't ever trust HR. Their goal is protecting the company, not you.

Martin Luther King dreamed of a society where skin color, ethnicity, gender, and the other things that differentiate us meant nothing. That we would all be looked upon as equals without regard to our obvious physical and cultural differences.

Nike champions the exact opposite. Nike makes it a point of sending dozens of emails name-checking groups of people by their physical and ethnic differences (“Black”, “Pacific Islanders”, “LatinX*”). In fact Nike even has “networks” specifically meant to focus on these features that make us different. It is the complete, polar opposite of being color blind as Dr. King envisioned.

Most employees - I’d guess 99%+ - don’t care one bit what race, gender, ethnicity, or se-ual orientation their colleagues are. They just care “Are you a good person to work with?”

But Nike can’t accept that. It has to play the race/ethnicity/gender/differences-in-general card because, well, because that’s what “being socially enlightened” demands. And it is so, SO f’d up. It’s an example of (sorta) good intentions gone completely overboard. The pendulum swinging too far in the opposite direction.

Nike is, basically, as racist a company and culture as they come. It’s almost comically ironic too.

• Will somebody PLEASE tell HR that “LatinX” is now considered offensive. It becomes so hard to keep track of, doesn’t it?

• race card thing is real. I remember the week-long post-Floyd zoom “we’re here to listen” sessions (laughable, even at the time). I watched one poc colleague tell their story, pretending to tear up at the exact point on 4 different meetings (big, org-wide affairs). The “thank you’s” and you’re so braves” flooded in. This person literally does nothing and spends their time promoting themselves on insta, Strava, et al
• hiding in the s@#%ter is a quality use of time. You can literally spend half your day in the hundreds (?) across whq; respond to emails and be slack ‘online’ - hit the gym for a hour (maybe 2 hours) - be the fun guy in a few meetings…rinse and repeat. ez
• “global” employees literally think they’re a higher level human than geo employees (even though most came out the backend of some public Oregon university). Go with it; doesn’t matter anyway and makes it easier to blame “global” (or “geo”) whenever some ridiculous plan goes awry.

—There’s a lot of Brits running around, for some reason. Burberry alum and the like. Don’t be fooled - just as clueless as the rest of us Calackamas county rubes.
—Nike pays 2/3 or half what you might otherwise earn in tech (if it’s your thing). How many 50% off purchases are needed to make that delta? Lol

• Focus on resume building for your next job. Very few actually stick around longer than 5 years. The tenured seem to fare the worst during reorgs.
• Get used to starting over on demonstrating your value with every reorg.
• Do not fall in love with your job.
• Doing your job well is not good enough. You have to fit in with the cool folks too.
• Acquire a taste for Flyknit; you will be licking sneakers.
• Pay attention to the political winds. If your manager falls out of favor, get out with your dignity while you can.
• If you get an unannounced meeting with a senior director or VP three steps or more above you, invite an attorney that specializes in labor law.

If you want to take a sh-t or work in private, the bathrooms in Tiger Woods have dividers in the stalls that go all the way down to the floor and there's like a dozen of them in each bathroom to accommodate the crowds. If there isn't some type of event going on in there you can literally camp out there for hours in peace.

For 98% of employees the work we do at Nike has no socially redeeming value at all. We advance values of consumerism, tribalism, and rank corporate hypocrisy. But boy oh boy does Nike spend a lot of time, money, and energy trying to convince its own employees of the exact opposite: that we are actually doing God’s work and saving the world!!! Or something.

I shouldn’t be so cynical though. My last two years of PSP allowed me to make a 33% down payment on a vacation home at an undisclosed Oregon Coast location. And that is what’s important.

Are YOU living the dream???

Head of HR initials MMmmmm like sound she makes while eating employee souls.

Work there for 2 years to peek behind the curtain then look for new jobs outside PDX metro. Nike employees are known to be under qualified and willing to work for below market comp. Outside of Oregon no one really knows anything about the company and interview/hire former Nike employees solely because of the illusive nature of the brand.

the race card will open doors

At least 75% of the company has no idea what their roles are

Layoffs

@trb

You can get away with that in your first year at Nike, but after that people are going to think there's something wrong with you because you haven't become super jaded yet. Nobody likes a try-hard. Also, don't wear sample sale apparel on campus because that b-ms people out and makes you look like a pauper.

Life is much more peaceful when you leave Nike

60-70% of the people at HQ in Tech especially Oregon natives are complete frauds. Niceish to your face but complete back stabbers and $%*# talkers. A lot have never worked anywhere else and have little or no real world skills but think they are experts.

Nike, in Greek mythology, was the goddess of victory and daughter of Pallas and Styx. While she accompanies Athena into battles, she is well known for driving Zeus' chariot for him during battle. Nike and her three other siblings, were the four Winged Enforcers of Zeus. She is the daughter of Styx and Pallas.

Now, go ahead and cross the Styx OP...