Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

I know it’s never brought up, but Asian male career path? Forget about it. After “losing” out on promotion after promotion to less qualified candidates “innovating” and “leading the globe,” I gave up and left for 2x comp elsewhere. Life’s too short. Good luck to my Asian male friends. You are not female and not really counted as a POC, in practice. Basically, the most under the radar discrimination still there.

Well said.

It will not change.

Jump the fence, life is better without the Nike BS

@otp-it cannot be fixed. Claiming the 'news' was a surprise and disappointing should be an embarrassment to the brass. I mean, really? He didnt know? So let's appease the media and the masses, get rid of a few people, have more training (because apparently all the training and hype, rallies and power points, classes and official statements we've had thus far hasn't worked). Who buys into this load? Yes, he knew. No, it wasn't a surprise to find out. HR and ER are there to 'deal' with the victims. And it has been reported to the top, many, many times. That's not a secret. Unfortunately it has cost many valuable people their health, jobs, and reputations. And it continues even now. More embolden, ruthless and smug. Do Not Trust ANYONE there. If you hear the words 'this is a safe environment to speak' or 'this is a safe zone', you need to worry. The culture of corporate is rapidly decending into a self-serving pit of cut throat entitlement. Truth is irrelevant, integrity is not valued. People are not valued. It will not get better. It will get worse. Sorry, but look at what's going on in the world today.

The good news is that you don't have to acquiesce to the madness. Recognizing the ugly truth is key. Understanding that it will continue and then deciding if you want to or can exist in it is the next step. There is so much more out there! Find the good and go! You'll be so much happier and healthier!

Just do it!

Speaking of promoting friends, I’ve been on multiple panels where our selected candidate was overruled at the last minute for no reason by someone multiple levels up the chain of command. And yes, it did hurt our morale, by making a sham of the process and wasting everyone’s time.

The consumer decides. And who will comtinue to choose other brands? WOMEN

Few facts:

-The US Athleisure Apparel market is +$45B

-Women represent 15trillion in US consumer spending and overwhelming majority of US purchase power

-45% of US athletes are women

-Adidas plans to 2x their share of the women’s business

-High % of Jordan retro kids sales go to women. No, men are not only ones standing in line for sneaker launches.

And we wonder why Nike North America sales have been soft? Old thinking and consumer neglect.

@2zvv Yasss queen, I am with you. But let's not stop with Nike, let's do this with everything. Stop the NBA playoffs right now and give the trophy to the Houston Rockets because they haven't won it in such a long time and the other teams are privileged to have won the championship most recently. Better yet, let's not keep score at all, or track times, but let's just give the awards to whomever we deem the least privileged.

If you have read this thread and this is your take, then you have bigger problems to deal with and should take a hike, because life is competition. The consumer decides and guess what, Nike's consumer is primarily MEN. Who is waiting in line for the latest sneaker drop? MEN. Who are going to conventions and trading shoes? Mostly MEN. Who are playing in the revenue-driving sports? MEN. Will this percentage of business change over time? Of course. But Nike was, is, and will be, primarily a male oriented business, and the company should reflect this accordingly. Live with it.

To all you complaining about your futures here as white males, please take a hike. That's your sense of entitlement at play. At some point in your life, because of your race and gender, you were given an opportunity or access, that a woman who was just as qualified as you didn't get. Your paths diverged at that point. Years later, you've moved up the ranks and you assume it has to be because you are somehow innately "better" than the woman whose career has stalled. You just benefitted from a system that kept women out. That's all. This applies to racial and ethnic minorities. Also, people who are not hetero. What you see happening is those opportunities now being opened up for these people. Sure, some may lack all your years of experience and access, but I can guarantee you they will waste no time catching up. Maybe you should be the one holding the doors open.

@2ggd the irony in all of this is that about 10 years ago Nike changed the policy for S and S1 banded roles so that a panel interview and diverse candidate pool were not always necessary so that PoC and Women could be identified and placed into senior level roles. Of course what happened is that VP's used this loophole to simply promote their favored candidate. Outside of leadership, if you are looking for accountability to this problem look no further than HR.

Things started going downhill when 'friends' of whomever were 'fast tracked' and people were passed over. When for no reason someone would get promoted 3 times in 4 years. When 'a-holes' were rewarded with new jobs. When bad apples were just moved to new jobs rather than let go. It used to be a joke that it was hard to get fired at your job. If you s---ed at your job often times people would just get moved, b/c they checked some box. When all that started happening...people thought it was just an isolated situation...but time after time after time...it keeps happening...people just start to lose faith that 'doing the right thing' is just a slogan...like 'Equality'.

What HR, ER, and MP don't get is that when the rest of the org is working their tail off to get that promotion and it gets just handed to someone else without any interview or rhyme or reason...it kills the morale for those in the wake of these decisions. Maybe it was a strategic decision, but at the end of the day...if the basis of those decisions is solely on who you s--- up to...you are eventually going to get an organization that is mis-trustful, spiteful, and demoralized. Back-stabbing, protectionism, or flat out attitude.

There's a social fabric that Nike used to have where...it truly was a 'nike family' and when you were in...people were there to help you advance and navigate the matrix. The hard part was getting in, but once you made the team...we were all focused on the same goals. To win as a team. Now it is just a sculpture collecting geese sh--.

Once the same people kept getting promoted and moved to new jobs with new titles and bigger paychecks...it started to weigh on the consciousness of the rest of the 'team'.

I know of a person who finally have to get a lawyer to have the company compensate them equally to their male counter-part doing the same job. The difference in pay was unreal! Talking 10s of thousands of dollars. Nike wasn't lifting a finger until they brought in a lawyer to remind nike that there's a thing called equal pay for equal work, but somehow nike seems to think they are above this...you've got to play hard ball with nike. That's the only thing they respond too.

Purge of 11will cure it all? Haha. Read shoe dog and you know it’s been around for ahile. Badge of honor to destroy people and carry the title of bully or tough person.

Let’s have the leadership meet and put together a plan and role it out to the team. No one believes it.

Go back and look at the complaints for the last few years and see if the findings from ER and HR. Hold water .... no way.

It’s true white older males you are going to have a tough time moving up.

Nike also has a 1% club and they let you know it. So many good hard working honest people got ran out or made to feel hopeless.

It’s disgusting

Finally truth.

I agree that women have not been well represented at the very top.

But this latest round is going to stop all white males in their tracks. I feel sorry for any white male in a director position. The VP opportunities are going to be few and far between.

PK just said he was surprised at the revelations today. While a pile of steaming hooey. He described the originations of the current environment in his book.

No accountability. This has been going on forever.....

Excellent post. Esp. agree with warning the men about their limited potential development at da swoosh.

If Nike only had a maxim about doing the right thing to solve this dilemma. Leadership is about doing the hard things because they are the right thing for your team. I've never lost a fight when it came to rewarding team members who had fallen behind - assuming it was same role and similar number of years of experience.

Too many people not willing to speak up, which is exactly why so few current and former Nike employees are willing to go on record with the press.

You were given different direction than my team is told with 2X pay reviews. Strict direction that no one is to be adjusted unless someone drastically falls short of the very large "internal" market pay range for the position. And then you are only allowed to bring them up to the low point of the range. Inequalities between team members is not addressed.

Merit is not to be used for taking care of inequality issues or other problems, its "merit" based only... "merit" as defined as the CFE rating entered into the system months before the CFE's are actually completed. And then its based on how many of each ratings you have (need an I to give an HS greater than the average, your pool of dollars is fixed), or how you choose to split your "2.5%-3%" between the team.

They might emulate the behavior but they do not control the outcome to the extent that C-suite individuals can. What you have is a bully-culture, something arguably Nike has had since he beginning if you believe Shoe Dog and The Unauthorized Biography... The salary inequity, and the promotion of the most connected candidate instead of most qualified is something that largely falls with leadership. Look at the distribution of Men and Women in V, A, L, U, and E band roles versus S and S1. I believe the percentages change pretty dramatically the higher in the organization you go.

it's like this in any large org.

does not justify it, feels and is wrong, yet, how does one fix it? not sure it's possible.

Thank you for sharing your perspective. However, I do disagree with your suggestion that the problems do not extend down through the VALUES groups in the company. People at those levels clearly see what gets people promoted, so they emulate that behavior. Managing up has become much more important than actually doing good work that benefits the company.