Morale is in the gutter, and leadership clearly doesn’t care about keeping people motivated.
It’s ki-ling my ability to concentrate. Everything feels pointless when your work could vanish any day.
For anyone who’s been through this:
• How do you force yourself to stay productive?
• Do you keep performing at a high level, or just coast until it’s over?
Appreciate any realistic advice—especially from people who’ve survived multiple rounds.
high performer or not, now is not the time to 'innovate'
@cd It’s a business. They don’t care about you, and clearly you dgaf either. Here’s the thing; that attitude bleeds into your entire life. I’ve never met a high capacity person crushing life while actively disengaged in the thing you spend 80% of your waking hours doing. Congrats, you pulled one over on Nike for now, but guarantee the rest of your life is at the same caliber. You cheat yourself in the end. Don’t think people don’t know. It’s just a matter of time until they get the opportunity to axe you, and none of your colleagues will be willing yo recommend you. Maybe that’s fine by you… but don’t pretend you are a low performer bc Nike doesn’t care enough. You’re a low performer bc that’s the standard you hold yourself too
@OP 10 years in…you can’t get wrapped up in this stuff if you want to have a seat on the next bus. Do good work. Make sure that leaders know what you and your team are doing and what the value is. If you have a POV on how your org can operate more effectively, tactfully share that with your leader and skip. Beyond that, there is nothing you can do. Nobody wants to hear that you can’t do your job because you are busy obsessing about something you can’t control and aren’t paid to care about. It’s been clear we are headed for layoffs all year, and we probably will have at least one every year for the foreseeable future. You should be networking and applying just as backup pretty much all the time now in any tech company. Control the things you can. Uncertainty is the name of the tech game everywhere now. Stop using it as an excuse for not being able to perform.
Honestly, as someone else said, “plan for the future”. You have very little control over what happens to Nike or your job. What you can control to a great extent is what happens to YOU regardless of Nike or your job. This takes us to standard advice:
Always have a “Plan B”, and just as important understand and accept that the day may come when you actually need to execute Plan B.
Live below your means. If you can’t easily save at least 10% of your gross income, you’re over-leveraged. I know some very smart people who say that number should be closer to 25%. The people who suffer most from layoffs are those who are over-leveraged.
As cliché as it sounds, it’s true: keep a strong network of professional associates. A lot of life opportunities will come because “You know someone who knows someone.” That’s exactly how I got hired at Nike many moons ago. It’s also how I left Nike a couple years ago.
Always remember, “It’s just a job.” Your health, family, and friends are WAY more important. I had some really good and even close friends when I worked at Nike. After I left though, I almost never heard from them again. Why? Because it was always “just a job.”
Go back and re-read #1. Don’t just read it though. Have an actual, well thought-out, realistic Plan B in place at all times. Life can become much less stressful if you simply accept that “stuff happens” and you’ve already thought through multiple angles in the event that stuff does happen. If you get laid off but have plenty of cash in the bank, a well-honed resume or CV, plenty of people you can call to help put feelers out on a new job, and a more carefree “Meh, cr-p happens” attitude, what seems like an absolute disaster can instead lead you to a new and even better life chapter.
I haven't cared about working hard for Nike in a long, long time. Like way over half my time here has been spent doing active disengagement.
When Nike demonstrates that they care about the workers, I'll reassess my stance but I'm not holding my breath...
just naturally do less, the expectations go down generally, everyone is in the same situation
good time to be looking for other work, wfh more, take care of yourself first
@bw first time!
Why are you putting in more effort than your leaders? Their job is to set an example.
First time?
I coast until I’m safe.
If leadership doesn’t like it, they should figure out how to not drag out layoffs.
Bro fr, lots of engineers are not very productive. Its been that way since I joined Nike. They don't know any better, or there not talented, or they're someone's relative who is not remotely qualified. Morale or not they can't get much worse without putting themselves on the chopping block.
Whether its War or peace the sun always shine. This is philosophy but hard to follow.
Just focus on daily task and plan for future!!
Focus on your controllables. Everything else is a distraction.