Not sure I understand how this happened. I’ve only been here 5 years, but the Sport Research Lab seems to have crazy low morale. A lot of people are abusing the workplace complaints system to attack bosses and colleagues. It didn’t always seem like this. Now leadership is doing these silly culture exercises to try and solve this huge problem because everyone is afraid of being targeted by their own co-workers.
Is it like this in other departments? Because it’s really bad over here in NSRL.
@a4 You have to admire the consistency. It takes real commitment to assemble a leadership team where self-preservation consistently outranks actual leadership. Every meeting is a masterclass in personal branding, strategic credit collection, and the fine art of avoiding accountability.
Working alongside that specific team has been fascinating. It’s like watching a group project where everyone wants their name on the cover but nobody wants to write the report.
To be fair, there is one exception, the one leader who somehow remembered that leadership is supposed to involve supporting people, solving problems, and helping teams succeed. A true unicorn in an otherwise remarkably self-serving ecosystem.
The rest? It’s an impressive demonstration of how titles and leadership are not the same thing. Vision seems limited to the next promotion, collaboration is mostly a buzzword on PowerPoint slides, and “teamwork” apparently means making sure someone else owns the difficult parts.
It’s genuinely inspiring to witness such unwavering dedication to office politics over innovation. If there were Olympic medals for taking credit, managing up, and disappearing when accountability arrives, this organization would sweep the podium.
As someone supporting innovation development and engineering from an adjacent team, it’s been a valuable case study: great technology can solve many problems, but unfortunately, it still hasn’t found a fix for terrible leadership.
Hmmm... How does one know if "A lot of people are abusing the workplace complaints system to attack bosses and colleagues."..... unless you're specifically on either side of that communication.
Unfortunately it is the entire Nike enterprise - toxic. And, the lady who just got $millions in the lawsuit is reaping the benefits of the toxicity
@ap and in the process reward the worst people while fu--ing over your top performers. It’s simply disgraceful
Most departments are low morale, this is what happens when you do reorganizations every 6 months.
@OP it is. Innovation Development is a dumpster fire wrapped in garbage.