I joined Nike three years ago. I was so hyped about it, too. It's Nike, you know? Well, that didn't turn out remotely as well as I had expected and hoped for. I might have been unlucky to get some of the worst managers this company has ever seen, but something tells me that's a norm for this place. People I work with are quick to take credit for others' work and even quicker to throw somebody under the bus if it'll help them in any way. I'm at a point where I'm praying to be laid off. I can't believe how excited I was to join this place...it seems like that was three decades, not three years ago.
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Thanks for sharing OP (and others). I too ended my Nike story after 2 years. Came in with unbridled passion and energy to make a difference, only to have CDA torpedo my dream and any career planning out in the field. I too was expecting a layoff as relief to what my experience turned out to be. When it didn’t come, I did try and give the re-org a shot, but after almost 3 months and still no clear direction, I took another offer (one which I only pursued when October was radio silent and we were told to update our resumes “just in case”). I truly had high hopes, only for the inner machinations of the company coupled with the disaster CDA was/has been to remind me I was just a name/number on a stranger’s spreadsheet. S—s.
I felt the same way! I was praying to be laid off as well. It’s been the longest and most depressing 2 years of my life! What it seemed to be a dream job in the beginning, turned out to be a nightmare months after I started. Never worked with so many snakes at the same time. Thank you Nike, not for hiring me, but for giving me lay off!
I started at Nike back in 2015 and have seen it just get worse and worse here. 2015 was the last year where it actually felt like Nike was taking care of its employees - everything that I'd heard about working for Nike seemed to happen. Since then it's just been continual reorgs and layoffs, aimless leadership, backstabbing, loss of benefits, you name it. They really don't want anyone getting too comfortable and it shows. What su**s is that there are fewer and fewer people left who remember how it used to be, so for people getting hired in the past several years this is all they know. I can't imagine what it's like to finally land that Nike job and you realize what a c-ap place it is to work at.
I could have written your post as I was in exactly the same situation. Came into Nike proud as anything to be working to join an amazing brand. But then once you got behind the curtain you realized it was all a polished veneer for the consumer, but the culture and the work environment was not even close. I also had bad managers, mainly because they prioritized themselves over anything else... everything was a "dog and pony show" where winning to them just meant having a great presentation and looking good, not actually moving the business forward. And when things went wrong they had levels of throwing people under the bus to avoid personal blame unlike anything I have ever seen in other companies. All in all it led to a very low trust environment where I was anxious and deeply unhappy. I ended up getting laid off and it was like a huge weight was lifted which I did not even realize how heavy it was until it was gone. I still speak to my ex-colleagues and I can see they are in a similar torture cycle I was in, but many of them don't even realize it because they have gotten used to it. For me, I have learned that I will never again put myself in an environment that lacks basic decency where negative behavior towards one another is tolerated and rewarded.
PS - I was not in Tech. This is common in other parts of the business as well.
@OP...sorry to hear that you too are experiencing such a run at Nike. You must be in Technology where the worst of the worst are employed there.