Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.

Say a single negative word about your boss, or anyone else's boss, and you're the next one on the chopping block. They talk amongst themselves. They know. HR is just there to figure out how to fire you legally, though given the state of law enforcement these days they probably don't give a rat's a-s about laws anyone and will fire you regardless.

Totally look for another role. An advice a career advisor gave me.. keep improving your skills, look for another job and just keep it to yourself. That way those those s..ucky people at work won’t come with you where you are going..

@OP I'd advise looking for a new role. I spoke up about a bullying manager aand trying to find an opportunity to transfer and was put on a pip as soon as she found out.

Nike HR is THE worst. Speak up and you will be the next person gone. Especially if you are in HR. Game of Thrones up in there. Never ever have I seen a more toxic environment.

The sad part is that, in good times, when the market was good, when we encountered abuse and injustice, people could leave and find something else. Unfortunately, that novelty is no longer accessible. Now people have to put up with abusive environments and injustice, and work hard with no promotions, while someone else who works a lot less gets a promotion, and you see that no one can do a thing for you. All you can do is hope that the market improves and you find another job. Until then, just try to protect yourself as much as you can, limit the interaction with the people who treat you badly, and just find hobbies and things to do outside of work that will lift your spirits up until you can find a better job in a healthier environment where you will be appreciated. No job is perfect, but some are better than others. Nike is toxic, and everyone adopts this sad, toxic behavior in order to survive the toxicity, from the VPs all the way down to your colleagues. You will never win against the people who are above you. It's not fair, but such is life. Unless you have something really solid and tangible against the person who is mistreating you, and you can leave your job and get a lawyer or report them to EEOC, the alternative is for you to just s.u..ck it up until the market improves and you get another job. Best advice I can give you.

@am HR doesn’t give a rats tail about your fear of retaliation. They claim zero tolerance and use it at their discretion. They are NOT to be trusted..

Look up “at will employment.” Employees have no rights in the U.S. An employer can get rid of you for any reason or no reason at all.

To win a lawsuit, you would have to prove that you were fired due to your gender, s-xual orientation, race, religion, or disability status. Good luck with that - unless your boss/employer was stupid enough to put that as the reason in writing. Look at the people named in the Nike s-xual discrimination lawsuit, some of the individuals who were alleged to have to cover it up have been promoted.

I know from experience that most lawyers won’t even touch these type of cases because they know how high the bar is. Most would recommend you take severance and leave in exchange for an NDA/waiver of the right to sue.

You are in a terrible position and I would recommend just looking for another job within or outside the company ASAP because the deck is stacked against you. Speak Up is not anonymous and HR is not there to help you. The manager will be protected and you will be retaliated against.

I wish you luck.

Retain counsel first
Speak up later

You need to prepare evidence and proof which is where many fail. Nike does not want headlines and will act if it must. Speak up has been successful to remove bullies and harassers but it takes evidence.

@e5

LOL. I can’t believe how naive you are. Some of us have been through and seen how these things play out.

Look up how well it worked out for all of the U.S. Government whistle blowers.

I question the legitimacy of an Oregon institution, will they really do anything, most things OR political are corrupt and a front for them to ruthlessly take our tax money and spend it on useless back trading to self profit, quite possibly the most corrupt state of the 50

I can't believe how toxic these replies are. Here's the best resource for you if you're in Oregon.
https://complaints.boli.oregon.gov/home/landing

Speak up before your manager puts you on a PIP.

If it’s abusive behavior, I would start looking for another job.

You could have a conversation with the manager and see if it stops (document everything).

Depending on how bad it is you could consider taking medical leave until you find another role (but beware this will destroy your Nike career). This probably requires documentation and medical support.

Speak Up is not confidential and time and time again Nike “HR” has proven they are there to support the leader company/not the employees. Just look at the s-xual harassment legal case, which named a number of Nike execs, who are still at the company, like nothing ever happened.

If anyone is asked or becomes aware of anything potentially illegal, that’s when I would recommend speaking to a personal attorney. You have to protect yourself.

Do not live in fear @OP

You can report to HR, nothing will happen. You can get another job but who says the manager will not be worse? Why will you run to another unknown?

Abuse them back.

What did your manager do?

Speak Up is an utter joke. You pretty much need recorded video evidence of the abuser eating babies before they even consider acting.

agree with documenting best you can, audio recording if you're alone, maybe entrapment, but this is a private workplace, not a criminal case, get that cell phone wired up!

build a case, then take them down, they deserve it, go up and over HR, they are not your friend, go straight to the an external board or news outlet, they love those stories

HR will squash you, they are good at that, avoid them all together, let them come to you with a "bargain", ie: buy you out to shut you up.

Yep, SD's and VPs don't have time for this, but a good whiff of public outcry, and wham!!

repot back!

I'm sorry to hear this is happening to you! No one should ever have to put up with abuse. Unfortunately, it happens a lot and I don't think Nike handles it well. VPs and Sr Dir's just want to distance themselves from any responsibility so will push it down to the lowest level they possibly can and 'delegate' the follow up actions. Not seeking to do the right thing, just making it go away.

You can post anonymously to speak up and it really is anonymous unless your details make it obvious who the reporter is. The downside is its easy for the investigators to dismiss anonymous reports as having no supporting facts. If you post with your name, someone in your chain will likely get that detail at some point.

The best piece of advice given here is to absolutely document everything you possibly can. Your best hope is for the behavior to be public and verifiable. It helps if you note down the date and time of any events, who else was there and what was said or done. If it's in slack or email keep screen shots with and copies with enough context it can't be ignored. Also study up on the matter of respect policy. If they are just a je-k but don't violate any of the matter of respect terms it can be harder for any action to be taken. You also need to let the person know directly they are impacting you. The defense is always I didn't know the other person was feeling abused or that you find the behavior unacceptable. You can just say I feel uncomfortable when you speak to me that way.

Hoping things get better for you!

@as expose these leaders on this thread! Let’s just start listing them out by initials. I think it would be interesting to see how many people refer to the same leaders! There is power in numbers and if enough people speak up then you have a case. But until then you say nothing and just have to tolerate the abuse. What are we all afraid of? Exposing their initials to
realize that you aren’t alone?

@am HR is relentless in this feed. Get rid
of the useless portal and get some HR talent with morals! Real people that address issues at face value actually enforcing the policies on so called “leaders”. If they did that we would eliminate enough fat to avoid any layoffs! Useless!

@ac hahaha! That’s hilarious. So employees should follow the so called reporting policy and expect true ZERO tolerance right?! Where leaders are held accountable and the Zero means goodbye because you can’t abuse your employees and get away with it. Wrong! HR works for Legal and the motive is to protect these leaders for fear of bad press. You are better off leaving and hiring a lawyer if it’s really that bad. The employee voice does not matter and it’s become a joke.

Don’t waste your time! Just get out! The speak up line is a joke and is owned and operated by HR aka Legal. The entire system is set up to protect dirty awful leaders and the company.

Just don’t do it. Have your next job lined up before you touch that Speak Up portal.

@ah the most surprising thing here is that anyone thinks the tech they built is valuable.

I will never advise you to report anyone above you ever, unless you are ready to leave the company. You will never get promoted ever again.

I reported my Director for emotionally abusive and s-xist behavior two years ago. The only thing that ever came out of reporting it to the Speak Up Portal was that he got promoted to VP, I got iced out of my role and any project opportunities, eventually got moved out of the category in the last reorg and essentially demoted to the same role and responsibilities I had when I started at Nike a decade ago. I've have been finding it absolutely impossible to get promoted or find new opportunities since.

I absolutely hate to say it, but I lost all faith in HR 'doing the right thing' after that.

Speakup Portal and say you have a fear of retaliation. Documentation is important

I have reported a coworker for proposing to myself and 2 more people that we steal the tech we were building which directly violates Nike’s rules, yet nothing ever happened. I have no faith anything would come out of reporting someone above my grade. Sad

Good luck. I did so and havent moved up in years. Not trying to discourage you. I sincerely wish you a better outcome.

Do not listen to the previous poster. You 100% report abusive behavior. You request a meeting with the next manager up as well as HR rep at the same time.

Talk to your lawyer about this not strangers on a doomer anonymous board

Do you have proof? Unless you have solid proof, nothing will be helpful. Eventually you will end up leaving/ get fired.