They really managed to weed out a lot of talent, competent and hard working peeps, and those who were the backbone of their teams. They also kicked out dissenting voices. Many people who would be able to contribute significantly to whichever revival strategy Nike comes up with (if any) are gone.
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With the recent announcement of JD’s departure I have hopes to see many of those people back and more of the dead weight that should’ve been let go sent down the road.
Checking back in on this forum after a few people from Nike have reached out to me for career advice and recommendations related to their job searches. I survived layoffs but left of my own accord due to the fact that (in my case at least) promotion and growth seemed really uncontrollable and random.
As a manager I had no meaningful control over the growth and development of my team, and I know my boss felt the same way... so logic told me that I needed to be a VP or above before I could really do anything actively to advance... the only path to promotion seemed to be plugging a hole after someone more senior than me was laid off.
Most all of the all-stars I knew at Nike have left either by choice or due to layoff, and it's really frustrating to me because I sincerely enjoyed and valued my time there and met some great people. I'm rooting for Nike, but at the end of the day there just isn't enough good to counter all of the recent bad and keep ambitious people from looking elsewhere. Long-term it probably wouldn't have been a fit for me anyway because Beaverton isn't a fit for me, and despite Nike's global presence they seem really (weirdly) focused on making sure their US employees have a physical presence in Oregon with a few notable exceptions.
It is demoralizing when you see experienced and talented people who were very good at what they did and were very well respected leave.
Some of us saw the writing on the wall and voluntarily left in the last 1 to 4 years. I might have stayed if talent was properly recognized and rewarded. It wasn’t, so I left. My new employer has since asked me several times “How did Nike let someone like you walk out the door?” I still don’t know the answer myself, other than “Nike managers are far more concerned with their own careers rather than the careers of those who helped support their manager’s own success.”
I mostly had a good and long run at Nike, and I learned a lot while there. But I don’t miss working at the company. I still keep in touch with several colleagues who stayed and from what I hear the place is currently a disaster. People are worried when the next layoff will occur and whether or not it will be their turn next time.
You can have Watkins back!
They kept all (or a lot of) the toxic, not resourceful, difficult to work with people. Three of the best senior directors I’ve ever worked with - who exhibited servant leadership, empathy, team work, encouraged professional development and career growth, and I never heard anyone say anything other than great things about them - got laid off. One of them even offered to pay for me to do upskilling and certification courses out of his own pocket.
There’s still definitely some great people still there but they lost so many good ones to layoffs for playing favorites, or people who left on their own after layoffs because of the terrible decisions of who was laid off.