All I know is that I’ve put in more than 20 years and I’m in a position that I don’t like but I choose not to quit because I’ve got a decent nest egg to retire on and skills that earn me more than just a “decent living”. I’m less than 8 years from retirement and leaving to continue my career elsewhere is just as nauseating as the thought of remaining.
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Take care of yourself…pack your own parachute. No one is going to let you ride out 8 more years. Its not you. It’s the math. # years, your age, your comp. It’s a weird dynamic that happens…promotions are non existent, merit increases and psp are smaller and smaller and the culture leads you to believe there’s no future for you internally or externally. Wrong. Start exploring, networking. Tool up. Take classes. Strengthen your own scaffolding. Prepare the path to your new adventure or new gig. Do this now while still employed. Then, you’ll be more than ready for the next downsizing or re-shuffle.
After 20+ yrs. at Nike poster may be not viewed as employable by most other companies in PDX metro. Anyone who has spend their entire career at Nike, knows that system well, but it does not translate to being able to (at minimum) latteral move to most other companies. This is common knowledge (and practice) in the market.
If poster can ride it out at Nike unill retirement that's probably the safer move, than going somewhere else and finding out what real jobs entail and crashing and burning.
If the gig is really as good as poster claims it has been why post here?
@ihqw - you’re awesome - still laughing and couldn’t agree more about the pronouns. I’m over it. It’s d-mb AF!
I agree with jurxself! I was at 19 years and if I could have “stuck it out” 14 more years I might have. Ultimately, my mental and physical health won the day - I’m sure I would have landed in a better spot (better Manager) with a bit of time; however, I just couldn’t do it… my gut said LEAVE NOW! and so I did. I make crazy less money, but that nagging stomachache magically disappeared! 100% worth it! No place is perfect, but I no longer have a constant and underlying sense of dread.
@OP: you do realize that you are the target candidate for the current management in their current layoffs, don't you?
While I understand you are scared to make a change and maybe feel like you can't learn new skills; you owe it to yourself to work on continuing education and looking at what opportunities are available in the market.
I can 100% assure you that there are much better opportunities available than Nike, even for an old-timer like yourself.
20 plus years.. you are too expensive under the new Nike regime. Bean counters do not understand institutional knowledge or talent.
Completely understand where you’re coming from. Just a few things to consider nonetheless:
- Sometimes ‘changing the scenery’ and starting over at a new place is a good thing! It can reinvigorate one’s engagement with work and offer new challenges that are exciting rather than scary. I know some people who would prefer that active challenge to the silent challenge of staying comfortably numb.
- No 20+ year employee of Nike should EVER assume that the company is necessarily going to allow you to stay another 8 years. During this last round of layoffs I saw several 20+ year employees let go. Almost all of them were people that I never in a million years thought would be let go. Yet that’s what happened. There are good reasons to stay at Nike but job security isn’t one of them. “Old Nike” came with a reasonable amount of job security. “New Nike” doesn’t. This is especially true if you’re not amongst the current preferred employee demographic.
- Unrelated to Nike, but if you have a secure nest egg and hope to retire in 8 years I hope your retirement portfolio is not over-indexed to the stock market. I’d be shocked if we don’t see a 50%+ correction in the next few years. And certainly within the next 8 years. That’s a problem you’d encounter anywhere you worked. But if you have to work longer than 8 years due to a large market drawdown will you still be comfortable being a 28 year Nike employee at a time when the company sees such tenured employees as a liability more than an asset?
For sure though at the end of the day everyone needs to do what’s right for him or herself. Or Xemself. Or Verself. Or Zyrself. Or Jurxself. (I just invented that last one 5 minutes ago and you WILL address me with it!!)
Sorry. That last bit was a sarcastic swipe based on my belief that the entire pronoun thing has jumped the shark and turned into a modern form of caustic attention-seeking behavior. YMMV.