I have been here for a year, and all I have seen is the opposite.
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Yes
@my those endless zero ROI projects are one of the dooms in tech.
I remember one for Dell servers from a certain person in California where he clearly had ties to Dell.
Such grift and it all died on the vine after spending a ton of money and resources.
The culture you get is the culture you create. Once ownership and accountability left the building, once failed (ROI) on project after project, all the scandals getting swept under the rug … and the outsourcing… very different place now. Is there hope? Maybe not but always have to think there is - after all, competitors never go into a game thinking they’re going to lose. What needs to return though is ownership and accountability. To see $’s being flushed left & right while laying people off, seeing poorly designed systems and process that don’t give a sh-t about the downstream impacts or costs, —- is hard to watch. The number of people and teams that truly care, own their stuff, take pride in their work, etc… are dwindling. Want the right behavior? Reward it. Want to fix the bad behavior? Hold them accountable. Create costs? Pay for them. Make a bad business deal? Direct impact to that person/team/cost center. It can be done. Have to believe it can be. Once hope is lost, the game is lost.
Worked Nike from 2005 to 2013, it used to be a great place, fun and competent at a time, even after factoring the kickback driven contractor hiring through 2006-2008 but then came 2009, and that's when sh-t hit the fan. The competition to hire more resources to bloat teams, in an effort to reward yourself. After all, bigger the team, better the perceived optics on the work accomplished. The less said, the better on the post-2009 metamorphosis and I exited when my mental faculties couldn't bear the weight of this grotesque manipulation.
All I can say is Nike HR is an inside circle, a hit job in the hiring context (where merit has no foundation) and if any department at Nike should be backdated for legal termination, it is the HR. Hiring ridiculous optics as leadership irresponsibly without any repercussions? And how do you expect leaders handing by a lose thread to hire competency when most of 'em need to go back to school themselves?
In other ways, it was the sheer arrogance of people who echoed "We are Nike". Now bite the dust.
“ Nike is the best place to work in Portland so good luck.”
That’s not a high bar and some of us know that there are opportunities outside of Portland, Oregon.
Best of luck to you and the other cool-aid drinkers though.
Wow. Embarrassed that I didn't see it in plain words but you are right @gd...
Create the future of sport.
How are you chasing that goal without the competitive drive, the love for sports (pick your sport!), the sense of how if the team wins, you win.
That lack of Team viewpoint is soooo prevalent too at Nike.
Like
where
did
that
GO?
It's a sports and fitness company with a management team stuck in high school cliques.
There used to be a much clearer mission that everyone believed in and worked toward. If you loved sport, Nike was the place to be. That doesn’t feel as true anymore. Since the major shift to a consumer gender-led offense, we’ve lost a lot of the deep connection to sport that once defined us. There were always some people who weren’t that into it, but now it feels like that’s become the majority? Many of the leaders around me don’t have a real connection to sport or sneakers. Maybe they played a bit in school or go for the occasional run today as an adult, but it’s not a meaningful part of their lives or interests. It feels like leaders today care more about their titles, compensation, and the fastest path to that next promotion than about driving sport forward or creating the next exciting thing. Quite frankly, I don’t think they have an idea as to how to create that next exciting thing because they were never really passionate about sport to begin with.
Nike is the best place to work in Portland so good luck.
I joined late to the party, was good for a bit but was an et-dub, 2nd class citizen....was excited to be on campus, but the politics were not fun, then managed to go fte...was ok, not as great as I thought.....JD rode the stock up, but I missed out on that......it's amazing how an awkward person who couldn't mutter a sentence without that so annoying grin, can tank a company. Talk about unauthentic...and made the brand...well...unauthentic....coincidence - NOPE!!!
EH, better for sure, can he turn this boat around? Maybe.....2 years likely, stock will be in the gutter for the next 1.5 years min......stuck with those worthless shares, like so many employees.
Honestly, the company is in a bad spot, reason being, everyone reading this can do better elsewhere, just like Bill Ackman, salvage what's left and put efforts where you can to accelerate your life. Sitting in fear and not being valued is no way to go through life.
The economy is in a bad spot, but it is possible.
This outsourcing and favoriting "groups" is not how your run a successful business.
Nike was a life changing experience for me. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities and career growth.
My last boss there was terrible. I actually believe she was mentally ill. It was a sad ending to a really good career trajectory for me.
I am with another company now. Long gone.
To see what JD, Bain, and McKinsey have done to this company is sad.
I was there 36 years, 1984 to 2020. Spent 18 years in Nike product and 17 years in Jordan product. ‘84 to ‘95 was amazing, the growth, the excitement! It was grassroots warfare, beat the competition! Lots of competitive ex-athletes with some education pressing the company forward. Then we got big and decided we needed to hire all these MBA’s and that started the Nike culture erosion - book smart, but didn’t know how to fight or react to challenges to their sacred plans.
The only two times Nike has gone outside the company for CEO leadership (first Perez and then Donahoe) and they both failed and failed the employees and the culture.
So sad to see this happy to this once bright company and great place to work!
Working in tech from 2018 onwards. I thought it was pretty good then started slowly turning toxic after RAT took over, then accelerated with JD. I honestly don’t think anyone in management I interact with understands how to create a culture and strategy that enables good outcomes
Been here since 2010, probably the first 5 years were fun but fun when it came to the parties. I worked in a lot of “just get it done” culture in my department which went on until about ‘17 leading into the reorg. Leadership was pretty ruthless between ‘12 - ‘17. However, new leadership came in my department starting ‘18 promising amazing things. It was more so “friends of so so” that lasted until ‘20 when they were all laid off.
Then we moved into the JD era, layoffs every 6 months from ‘20 on. The new leadership team wanted efficiency over fun. So we became super lean which lead to a lot of people quitting ‘21-‘22. Those leaders left, new ones came in… it has been probably the best it’s been in terms of work wise. Culture wise, we’re a bit too sterile. There is no soul anymore or the Nike spirit. That also has to do with the fact there is maybe 15% of people I’ve worked with are left over the past decade. Either everyone was laid off or left. It’s kind of sad. I still like it hear but I enjoy the work I do, it’s just stressful knowing the vertical comes down and tells me to stop moving there to over here. Even if it’s in the same direction but around some obstacle.
Wild how things essentially changed every year under JD and we never got really “better”.
Been here 10 years - when i first started the company did a lot more cool stuff for the employees but it was 100% a bro culture and then a huge change went underway to reverse that and i feel like it improved and was an awesome place to work until covid and JD came then since then its been pretty bad and obviously reaaaaly bad since layoffs in Feb.
I was there a long time but also white male so probably unqualified to give a review of everyones possible work experience there. Sidenote: didn't hear about a lot of this behaviour (womanizing, etc) until the last few years, so from the inside it was well covered up.
But... I loved it for a lot of years, felt excited to be a part of something so "Big" coming from a small town and seeing the Berm for the first time was mind blowing. Felt like royalty... AND they paid me to work there on stuff I enjoyed? But then it sort of twisted... as more and more good management left and was replaced by the higher level buddy system. It turned into work game of thrones. Getting treated poorly was sort of ignored. Report to HR? Yeah no, don't do that it just puts you on the inevitable RIF list. They mask it well along with the ageism but I know hundreds of people there and can tell you the numbers don't lie. The IT by accounting started and heavy, heavy offshoring to "save money". Then outsource EVERYTHING started to appease the shareholders and well accounting again.
So 2/3rds was good. The last 1/3rd broke me down.
But boo-hoo me, I was well paid and had a job, a lot of people didn't so no remorse.
Moved on now and miss all the great people I worked with but not the GOT atmosphere and complete lack of any continuity in plans.
Was it really great? With the good old boys culture? Ask a woman or minority if they felt it was really good. Was it just good because in parts it was seemingly fun?
I was there 2010-2015, had pretty good experience
Even though there was a supply bubble, 1995-1997 was truly an amazing time here.