Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

Leadership doesn’t want to be transparent because you wouldn’t like what they told you if they were transparent.

Mainly, that they are now not trying to manage a “comeback” as much as they are trying to manage “an orderly decline in Nike’s previously hegemonic industry position.”

Nike isn’t going away. But it is also no longer a growth company, and for several reasons I won’t get into here the company likely reached a plateau a few years ago. The market in which Nike was established and grew effectively no longer exists. Or at least, the old rules that allowed Nike to continuously succeed are no longer the rules.

As a result Nike needs to balance “doing what Nike has historically done” with the reality that the company still needs to significantly downsize. If you’re management, there’s no polite, nice, or pep-talk way to communicate that. So they don’t.

Like I said the reasons for Nike’s decline are multi-faceted and in some ways complex. Nonetheless the company IS now just trying to hang on to what it already has. Talk of a “comeback” is sort of what they have to say but make no mistake; leadership is not naive to broader market trends that disfavor any sort of tangible “comeback”.

My partner will sometimes put on some ugly clothes and ask me, “How do I look?” My partner likes those clothes. So I answer with “You look great!”, and leave it at that.

Should I instead be more transparent? Should I instead engage in “more honest communication”? Maybe. But will that improve matters? Or create a new problem neither of us needed?

One could argue Nike is being kind by not being fully transparent. I’m not claiming that would be a GOOD argument. Just an understandable argument. Because if Nike leadership was fully transparent about the current field of play and what it really means, my guess is that it 100% would not make people feel better.

@OP Amen well said

@OP first off after reading through your post it is very clear to me that what you need is not more communication but more inspiration. Inspiration is what will get you out of the zombie like mode you are in and start kicking a-s.

Second, please learn to use Gemini or Chatgpt more effectively. Don't copy/paste all the slop it produces. Jeez.

Actions speak louder than words.

@ac this is it exactly, a job and a paycheck. And it ki-ls me to think it.

EH descended into his role like Jesus fu--ing Christ, I have never witnessed anything like the fanfare he was given for accomplishing absolutely nothing. I have also never witnessed anyone, any leadership team, squander unprecedented, almost once-in-a-lifetime good will like has happened since he stepped in to replace JD.

At this point I believe Nike was built on luck. Not on leadership, not on skill or determination, just d-mb luck and the backs of more committed people and athletes. Because nothing is left to say otherwise and PKs message is like hearing some geriatric talk about their touchdown pass in highschool, as hollow and meaningless as the word leadership at WHQ.

@OP Are you not getting PAID to “just show up”? You EXPECT a PSP whether the company is doing well or not? You EXPECT a raise if you “just show up”? This kind of entitled attitude is a big part of the problem with Nike’s current culture.

"The people closest to the work should not always be the ones left carrying the weight from decisions made above us."
Exactly right. This is exactly how Nike works. LT at every level lands on their feet each time while the people doing the work are su---r punched.
Come to think of it, it's a metaphor for how this country is being run... The 1% keeps getting richer while the common people just keep losing.

stfu and stop with all this talk and self pats on the back. Get the stock price back up and start making sense in your endless layoffs, or stfu.

Until they get rid of the deadweight that weaseled their way to important leadership positions, this message says nothing to me. Do the work. Show me you mean it.

PSP and APR should be paid to the "lower" levels of the organzation and VP's and above should go without. They definitely make enough money, like WTF?!!? I read Nike has 300+ VPs. So insane!

PK and EH can write all the d-mb emails they want. I’m not buying into it.

You want me to commit to Nike when we’ve been living under threat of layoff every 6-12 months? You want me to commit when every reorg is a thoughtless cluster f u c k with the same “leaders” still running the show?

Hard pass

It’s a job and a paycheck from now on.

There is some truth to the idea that if you get everyone drinking the koolaid again, the rest will follow. The problem is, too many in leadership dumped the koolaid out in the potted plant behind them and are sipping on their own hooch they snuck in to the party instead.

Nike talks the talk. That’s about it! I was su-kered for 20 years by that sh-t