The "we're a family" messaging from leadership feels completely fake at this point. It seems like most of the truly talented people have already left, and the communication here is just shocking. I regularly hear managers shouting at people in meetings and no one even bats an eye. Nothing is organized, no one knows who is responsible for what, and the execs keep selling this beautiful vision that has nothing to do with the chaotic reality on the ground. The whole atmosphere is just toxic. What the he-l has Nike turned into?
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Toxic workplace strive on fear chaos and favoritism. The past reorganization exercises had created chaos and fear indeed. Now everyone is just going round to stab another coworker who might outperform them, so much politics going on. As you move around the office, you see how people carry favors to the high ranks, to the newly appointed leaders etc. all the favoritism show up clearly. It’s so hard to work and focus on deliverables in such toxic environment
"No one knows who is responsible for what" .... There realest description! I recall needing a ladder to reach the cameras on a truss in the lab and for three whole days we all were running around like id--ts to find out who is in charge of what equipment!
@g2 great write up, been rough sending out resumes and no replies, hence feeling 'stuck' at nke despite the relative good job, I know I can do better,but how, any tips to land an interview for us on the fencers?
The post below by @dk+1kaxwfeqa got downvoted a lot, but he/she is not entirely wrong.
A couple years ago after seeing that Nike was becoming ever more toxic, and after realizing that hard work only got me more work rather than career advancement, instead of complaining & whining about my situation I did what any self-respecting person would do: I found a better job somewhere else and then said “Adios!” to a 14-year Nike career.
I’ll freely admit that leaving Nike after 14 years was scary. I had all the anxieties any rational person would have in that situation, including the “What if I’m making a huge mistake?!?” question.
In retrospect that anxiety was unwarranted. I knew I wasn’t happy at Nike, knew the company’s better days were behind it, knew that my Nike career was effectively dead, and knew that I had researched my employment options well and would be leaving on my own terms.
Ironically, quitting Nike ended up being the smartest decision I ever made at Nike. When you stay at Nike too long it’s easy to become brainwashed into believing it’s the epitome of “good employment” and that working anywhere else is bound to be disappointing.
Instead my departure quickly confirmed the suspicions that caused me to leave in the first place: at Nike I had been overworked, underpaid, and under-appreciated. At my new employer “work/life balance” was an actual reality rather than a nice slogan, and after only nine months - and demonstrating I was the real deal - I received a significant promotion that simply wouldn’t have happened to me at Nike.
When I received that promotion a company executive asked me, “How did Nike let someone like you just walk out the door?” I told that executive, “Honestly, they didn’t care when I quit. Just like they didn’t care when they casually laid off decades-long proven performers. The brutal truth of Nike is that EVERYONE is replaceable. Sure, some people are harder to replace than others. But Nike has tens of thousands of employees which means, by design, no single employee is ever that important, ever irreplaceable or even difficult to replace. You leave, and the company keeps chugging along like they did before you ever arrived. Even though Nike was effectively your life for many years, the truth is that within just weeks of your departure hardly anyone will remember you ever worked there.”
As the saying goes, “It’s funny because it’s true.”
My only regret these days is not quitting earlier than I did. For all of you still there, if you aren’t getting regular and significant promotions every 3 to 4 years (max), do yourself a favor and bounce. If you have marketable skills and can demonstrate both your experience and prior wins, there’s no shortage of opportunities out there. You just need to have the guts to go after those opportunities.
I still have several friends working at WHQ. I can tell you with complete honesty they’re all miserable, too. Most of them want to leave but are afraid of exiting the perceived safety of Nike by venturing into the unknown. There’s an odd feeling of satisfaction in being “comfortably numb”, which is exactly how my former Nike colleagues would currently describe their feelings towards staying at Nike.
Without the janitorial vendor, the environment will be more toxic!!
@dk proving why nke is getting dusted. If the best, mutually exclusive answer we'll ever have to this is a bunch of empty platitudes with a leave if you don't like it, the fu-k do you think is going to happen next?
These same stupid people with this same stupid attitude fostering the same dysfunctional culture have been cratering our success year over year and yet somehow against all odds there employees left like this smoothbrain to slither out and simp for our flaccid ineffectual "leadership"
Until accountability comes top down might as well be buying puts on our own f'n symbol
I was yelled at right before a meeting started. Then had that same manager be completely sunshine and rainbows in the meeting like nothing had happened. The messaging of “be more positive” really isn’t landing, just because that’s the messaging leadership is trying to push doesn't make the environment or experience a positive one.
If this place feels “toxic” to you, the solution’s simple: go find something else. No one’s holding you here. Just remember, the grass isn’t always greener. Sometimes it’s patchy, full of weeds, and somehow worse than what you left. Complaining doesn’t fix anything. Taking responsibility does. It’s called adulting.
"Nothing is organized, no one knows who is responsible for what, and the execs keep selling this beautiful vision that has nothing to do with the chaotic reality on the ground." Realest post i've read here in a long while.
I work so much and have no work life balance…. I really do like my coworkers but I don’t like being forced to go to work events afterhours! I’m not interested and I have better things to do with my time. No offense but not going to these functions! Besides we waste so much money doing this kind of stuff!
Toxic leaders will say “you work for Nike, you should be grateful” kool aid at its finest. They are safe, you’re not.
If you’re not an S band or above benefitting from over-indexed compensation relative to the market, you are being used and brainwashed to think you have status within the boundaries of Beaverton because you work at Nike.
This has been happening for years now. Nothing new same toxic workplace
Families are dysfunctional. And my co-workers are not my siblings or even distant relatives. Just more management rainbows and unicorns.