"Dragged Out"? "Cruel"? "K--ling Morale"?

Stop and think? If you feel like "layoffs have been going on for months", maybe that's because NIKE is being as TRANSPARENT as a company their size can be. They are keeping us informed and up-to-date as decisions are made and changes are implemented.

The alternative is for all these decisions to be made in "secret", and then lay-off everybody at once, without any warning or explanation. (Weight Watchers recently terminated 14,000 people BY EMAIL.)

Thanks to NIKE's transparency, we've known for months that we should be expecting change. It has given us the chance to think about options, prepare ourselves and our families, and even cut back on spending on luxuries like streaming services, grocery delivery, trendy furnishing and new clothes.

So, really, do you think it would be less "cruel" to be blindly rolling along, and then wake up to find you have zero income coming your way? You wanna feel stress? What if you bought that new house one day, and got surprised by a lay off the next?

Now, THAT would be cruel.

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I'd like to remind everyone, or let those who haven't been at Nike for very long, that giving half a year's notice about an impending layoff isn't JD's brainchild. I've been through several layoffs with Nike and each time they've told employees at least six months in advance and this same thing has happened. Low moral, productivity stopping etc.

HR needs to step up and properly counsel the ELT on the best way to communicate this sh–e.

I think Nike HR = low IQ clowns.

lol. OP saying luxury items being "streaming services", "grocery delivery", and "new clothes".

Keep thinking that skipping that daily latte is the ticket to financial independence and give your ol Big Corporations a pat on the back for letting you might be screwed overa few months extra in advance

I’m sure there could be some middle ground....

I agree, there is an issue with finding out suddenly, with no warning... BUT we heard about this huge restructuring (that we have “all be asking for” 🙄) from JD in June. It is now October. My opinion is NOTHING should’ve been mentioned until they had a better plan. Perhaps leave us hanging 1-2 months, at most.

I get that other companies have been laying off people, and in many cases in big numbers. BUT those companies are all struggling. E.g. WW - who gives a rats a$$ about dieting in the middle of a pandemic? Nike is most certainly not struggling. Yes, we had a hiccup caused by the COVID, and will take some time before we are blazing towards the fekkin’ $50b obsession again. But, we have done better than most, are well ahead of projections. Hence the share price.

I’m sorry, but in the middle of a global pandemic, anybody with a bit of sense will (or at least should) try to hold back on buying the new house, or financing that new Audi, if not completely necessary.

We talk about doing the right thing, and being one team. Well, our ELT have failed us again. Badly.

Stay strong fellow teammates, and I hope the best for each and everyone of you.

The heads up about layoffs has allowed me to saved up some money, update my resume, brush up on my interview skills, and apply to a couple of interesting opportunities. I feel I'm more prepared for a layoff now than if I got laid off without any warning. Nike doesn't owe us anything, nor do we owe it anything.

I have to agree with OP. How can you expect senior leadership to know who will fit in the new org when they haven't even figured out what that new org will be (especially at this point in time with so many things changing week to week - i.e. COVID, natural disasters, elections, etc.).

Would you rather have gotten laid off back in August, just to get it over with, when you may have had a role in the new org? I know it's a tough job market, but having a few months to network, interview, etc. is a lot better than having to scramble because all of a sudden you have no income.

I think we were pretty lucky that it took this long for these types of continual reorgs started happening (around 2017). Unfortunately, this will be the reality at Nike for a while.

The WARN notice does say at LEAST 500 people. https://ccwd.hecc.oregon.gov/Layoff/WARN/UploadIndex/7162

500 was the highest number Oregon needs you to report for the warn system. 500 is the floor and not the ceiling. I think this has been misreported because it seems we are making it confusing to seem better than it is. We got rid of more than 100 VPs the daycare and now many sbands. We probably are near if not passed 500 already

This will not be over any time soon, it's going to last at least until February at WHQ.

I have zero faith that this is going to change the culture problem at all. It's really just an excuse to reduce the bloat. Which will only lead to promotions of younger politicians into E and S band roles they don't deserve.

The swoosh is no different than any other large company in terms of politics and a sh!t culture, but you don't know that until you're in unfortunately.

How confident are we that the 500 number is still true?

We’ve also seen “7-10%” which is significantly more than 500.

This is extremely accurate. As someone who came here after being laid off elsewhere and has worked for a couple of different fortune 100s, Nike is doing things correctly. These layoffs were supposed to occur in May but didn't happen because they felt guilty about COVID. They delayed again because of the impact of wildfires. They're in a horrible situation because everyone would've damned them for being callous, but are now damning them for being humane. Meanwhile:

IBM: still cutting off "Thousands of jobs" after two rounds in 2020 already. Won't divulge how many were done earlier and how many are remaining still.

WarnerMedia: 500 laid off in August (announced in March) and a fresh round will "result in thousands more job cuts"

Wells Fargo: 50k (next 1.5 years)
HSBC: 35k (took 4 months)
Daimler AG: 30k (next 1 year)
American Airlines: 19k (6 months notice)
United Airlines: 16k (4 months notice)
Raytheon: 15k
Disney: 28k
WW: 14k
Shell: 9k
Boeing: 7k
Under Armor 6.7k
Uber: 6.7k
AT&T: 5k
Chevron 4.5k
Coca Cola: 4k
Walgreen's: 4k
Macy's: 3.9k
Allstate: 3.8 k
Sephora: 3k
GE: 2.5k
CitiGroup: 2k
ExxonMobil: 2k
Dell: 1.7k (2 days notice)
Ford: 1.4k
Salesforce: 1k
LinkedIn: 0.96k
L Brands: 0.85k
Levi's: 0.7k
Nike: 0.5k

Dude - if you keep spilling out the company's 2021 advertising slogans - it will ruin the novelty.

The people that are complaining are entitled babies that have never worked for any other large company.

This is the first sensible post here in a while.

Lol ok. I think a lot of us would prefer a rip the f—ing band-aid off approach to months of mixed messages, timeline changes, and blame ("you guys asked for it" etc.). This has been a masterclass in what NOT to do - I have been through layoffs at other companies but have never been given the run-around like this before.

Timeline has been vague and it has moved a few times. That’s the complaint I’m hearing.

I think everyone appreciates some notice, but 5 months is too long. WARN act only requires 60 days.

Agreed. I'm preferring the top down approach that is well thought out and leads to a more streamlined operation moving forward.

Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

"Dragged Out"? "Cruel"? "K--ling Morale"?

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