Don't get me wrong, I know layoffs are happening but it feels like people are worrying about it here disproportionally to the actual threat they represent. From what I can recall, there were two bigger rounds in the past two years. That's about the same as any other company. Or am I missing something?
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@pqw: Yes that money is definitely going somewhere. Let’s take a look at some mind-blowing numbers, all based on 2019-2020 data and a presumed 2080 hour work year:
$25,481 = HOURLY compensation of Nike’s CEO.
500x = The Nike CEO’s 2020 compensation compared to the average Nike employee.
278x = Average Fortune 500 CEO-to-worker pay gulf in 2019.
58x = Average CEO-to-worker pay gulf in 1989.
20x = Average CEO-to-worker pay gulf in 1965.
4 = Number of hours the Nike CEO works each day before he makes about what the average employee will make ALL YEAR. Everyday between breakfast and lunch the CEO will have made the same amount you will make ALL YEAR!
$7,250,000 = Average annual compensation of Nike’s 8 other senior-most executives.
$3,485 = Average HOURLY compensation for each of those execs.
$371,000,000 = What Nike’s previous CEO was paid between 2006 - 2019.
I could go on but the point should be clear. Executive compensation at Nike is obscene. And that’s not a word I use lightly. It is literally obscene. This kind of compensation can’t be justified economically without stretching credibility, and it can’t be justified morally under any circumstance.
I don’t mind corporate executives being well paid and I generally think Nike’s executives are competent performers. But at some point you have to stand up and say “Enough is enough. This amount of compensation is just wrong on every level. It is actually embarrassing to work at a company that would pay its executives like this.”
Nike talks a good game about inequality but CLEARLY Nike isn’t the least bit concerned about one of our society’s biggest current sources of inequality: income and wages being outrageously concentrated among a very few people at the top.
This type of duplicity is all over the place if you merely open your eyes wide enough to see it.
It’s one of the reasons that over the last year we’ve seen people marching in the streets. It’s also one of the reasons that a populist id–t like Donald Trump can be elected. Americans increasingly sense that a very few people at the top are looting both government and corporate coffers and making out like bandits while the average American is struggling to get by and, hopefully, saving a little bit of the crumbs left for them.
And remember over the last year hundreds of Nike employees lost their jobs while Nike’s executives were getting paid these obscene amounts of money.
But “Shhhh”...nobody is supposed to mention this most impolite topic. Because it’s kind of awkward for these executives to be lecturing others on inequality when THEY are one of the biggest sources of it!
On top of all of that Nike's earnings and stock price continue to grow. There's little incentive for things to change since Wall St. and investors appear to be okay with how things are going.
The bottom line is that Nike is turning into a place where you go work for a couple of years then find another opportunity. Hiring workers out of college and training them to be Nike lifers just ends up costing too much money. Giving Nike workers perks and benefits only makes them want to stay longer. Sooner than later there will be no one left who remembers the "good old days" and new hires will have no idea what they're missing out on. What is now austerity will become the norm.
Except, all of that money must be going somewhere....
I can’t speak for others but I can tell you my thoughts.
You’re right that in total numbers the layoffs haven’t been huge. But there are a few problems:
- The layoffs of the last couple years have felt like “rolling layoffs”. This keeps people on edge, and not in a good way.
- I’ve personally seen several well-liked, high performers let go. This is not at all confidence inspiring. Most people like to think that if they work hard and add value their jobs will be safe. But over the last couple years I’ve seen that this is not necessarily true. Here too this keeps people on edge.
- I’ve also witnessed what seems like a lot of “onesie and twosie” layoffs, where people that you know to be well-liked, high performers are sort of randomly picked-off for no readily apparent reasons. Honestly, it’s scary to witness.
- Its well-known that after corporate layoffs occur a certain amount of damage is done to both overall trust and morale. It’s hard to quantify how much damage is done, or how corporate leaders can regain that trust and morale. I know one thing: repairing that type of damage isn’t easy.
- A well-known study suggests that layoffs are deeply damaging to a company’s culture. That study also said “Survivors of layoffs often become risk averse, paranoid, and focused on corporate politics.”
You’re probably correct that people are disproportionately worrying. But that is not surprising. On the contrary it is to be expected.
This September I’ll have been at Nike 21 years. It’s a very different company these days compared to when I started. Some changes have been for the better and some haven’t. Currently I do sense a lot more uncertainty and angst than I used to. Layoffs always come with various costs, and that’s one of those costs.
It feels sort of like when a partner cheats on you. You really, really want to trust them again. But in the back of your mind you know you will forever need to exercise a greater degree of caution and skepticism than before. The trust is never going to 100% be there again.
Obviously none of the wrong people. Sales in 2020 were still more than they were in 2018, pandemic or no. If you're not one of the people making shoes in Bangladesh for $2 an hour or one of the overpaid athletes shilling, the company doesn't actually need you. Stick a swoosh on it and it turns to gold.