- Pay. Just because it’s Nike doesn’t mean they can underpay and still retain talent.
- Lack of career advancement. Too often hard work gets you nothing but more work. If employees don’t have a reasonable chance of being elevated based on merit they’ll go to a different company that provides those opportunities. If you as a manager don’t have a 3-year career advancement strategy for every employee you manage then you are a poor manager. That describes 80%+ of Nike managers.
- “Equality” at Nike follows the Animal Farm model. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Stop with the charades. Everyone sees thru it.
- Nike has decided to micromanage when and where people work. Many want to work remotely. Let them. Focus on results rather than micromanaging mundane processes like “This is where & when you need to sit while working.” Keep doing what you’re doing Nike and your competitors will fix the problem for you.
- Leadership used to be mostly respected here. I’ve been at Nike since PHK was around and almost everyone respected and trusted him. Today’s company leaders mostly aren’t worthy of the type of respect PHK commanded. To put it nicely.
- Honesty. Leadership frequently spouts platitudes and otherwise says things that nobody actually believes. Like “Working in an open office will increase your collaboration!” Please, just stop. I have far more respect for people who tell me unpleasant truths rather than pleasant sounding lies. Nike too often doesn’t seem to know the difference. Or at least they think I don’t know the difference.
- Actions speak louder than words. Too often Nike’s actions don’t match its supposed values. Here too leadership is arrogant as they wrongly assume that employees aren’t smart enough to see and understand what’s actually happening.
Excessive attrition is almost always indicative of a management and leadership problem. It signals a disconnect between what leadership sees and what employees see and experience. This disconnect has negatively impacted Nike’s culture and caused more people to question the direction in which the company is moving. More important it has caused an increasing number of people to question whether they might be better off taking their skills and talents elsewhere. This trend won’t stop until some substantial changes occur. Changes that I don’t see as very likely.
I retire in less than two years. If I was younger, then right now I would be seriously reconsidering whether Nike would play much more of a role in my career moving forward. I’m not pleased to say that either. I feel bad for the newer generation of employees who will never know what it used to mean to work here.
This was too good to be buried among replies. Originally posted by @1mip+1g6CqO3L.