Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

High turnover implications for those who stay

I was wrong when I thought the turnover would be reduced. Many of my colleagues have left recently. I don't know if the leadership is trying to address employee turnover issues in any way, but I've noticed that Nike continues to lose too many good employees. It affects me in many ways. Did you have to take on the duties of those who left? I did and I'm starting to feel burned out from all the work.

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| 2421 views | | 6 replies (last January 27, 2023) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1kRMFV3y

6 replies (most recent on top)

Many years ago it would have been unusual at Nike to let a good employee get away. If a person presented another offer and that person was good at their job Nike would go to great lengths to retain them.

Those days are over. Now if you tell Nike you’re leaving the standard response is “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” I’m exaggerating a little but the point is absolutely true. These days Nike DOES NOT CARE if you quit. It doesn’t matter if you’re really good at your job or if you fill a role that’s difficult to replace. Nike has adopted an attitude of “If people want to leave then let them go.” I know this because in the last couple of years I’ve seen several people leave that I thought Nike would bend over backwards to keep. Nope.

This is also why I think it’s funny when people come onto this website and “threaten” to quit. I guess those people didn’t get the memo. Nike genuinely doesn’t care if you quit. If anything, you quitting will help to improve the quarterly numbers upon which senior executive pay is mostly based. Every person who quits literally represents another dollar directly into senior management’s pocket. That might sound cynical but it isn’t false.

I understand your pain OP when it comes to picking up the work of people who leave. Nike is very slow to backfill if they even backfill at all. The assumption is that most of the people who remain will pick up the extra work because…well, they don’t really have a choice, do they? When your manager says “I’d like for you to pick up this extra responsibility and that extra responsibility” what are you going to do? Say “No thanks”?? Almost no one has that option. When Nike employees quit managers don’t suffer. The people who suffer are the worker bees who are left to pick up the pieces. The only real solution is to either put up with it or quit yourself. Burnout is a real thing and the mental toll it takes totally isn’t worth the paycheck. Things will only improve if enough people get fed up and quit. I doubt that will happen though.

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Post ID: @2orv+1kRMFV3y

HR is totally running soft layoffs right now. More work, less headcount, no backfill, and picking up the cheapest contractors they can find. We’d honestly be better off without this latest batch of contractors.

I hadn’t soft quit during quarantine but I’m certainly no longer personally invested in the company’s success.

Sc--w ‘em, if they want me to leave they’ll need to give me my 10 year’s severance.

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Post ID: @1rxh+1kRMFV3y

Nike is clearly in soft-firing mode.

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Post ID: @1dma+1kRMFV3y

Mostly the same experience as @wyt described, without the promotions. Consistent high performer, liked by my peers and managers, proven track record of getting things done and moving the needle in my small sphere of the Nike universe. Since no recognition aside from “atta boys” were forthcoming I shopped myself out and quickly secured a more senior job with significantly higher pay. I took my outside offer to my manager and said “I don’t necessarily want to leave but I’m also not going to continue putting in 200% effort here with no advancement potential.” That was met with a polite but quick “Sorry to hear you’re leaving. Best of luck to you.” There was no counteroffer and no other real effort made to retain me. I was asked the obligatory “What can we do to keep you?” but it felt very performative. Like “We have to ask this question but don’t expect us to actually do anything to keep you.” I also specifically asked for an exit interview to lay out in great detail why Nike was losing a high performer and that interview request was not granted. I would have liked to have stayed at Nike as a career but I wasn’t going to continue being taken advantage of. I was fortunate because leaving Nike did in fact advance my career. I now have much more responsibility doing cool work and it would have taken me staying at Nike for at least seven or eight more years to earn the new salary I received just by leaving Nike. Ultimately it worked out well for me so I’m not bitter. Just surprised that Nike wasn’t even the least bit interested in taking some relatively meager steps to hold onto a proven asset. “Penny wise and pound foolish” I think that’s called.

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Post ID: @1wys+1kRMFV3y

I left for no role. I left to save myself. Now I’m trying to figure out where’d my fu----g mojo go? Stolen! Put yourself first - if you’re waiting for Nike to do the right thing, you’re going to be waiting and waiting and waiting until you’re disappointed. Maybe even depressed.

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Post ID: @1bwi+1kRMFV3y

I left recently. Was given HS every year end review (6 total), promoted multiple times, etc. When I notified my manager I had an offer outside, that was also a promotion, I didn’t receive a counter, not a promise of promo in 6 months, actually not even a verbal ask to stay, not an exit interview- nothing. Personally, I would say no, they aren’t trying to address turnover. Even people I thought they’d never let leave, walked out to a lateral role in a smaller company. For tech, unless you are in RL’s circle, they don’t care.

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Post ID: @wyt+1kRMFV3y

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