Work-life balance is a workplace tug-of-war
Getting time off is increasingly difficult
Nike has increasingly leaned on its iconic basketball shoes to boost sales, but as the sportswear giant bleeds market share to newer brands, some analysts and investors are wondering if that is a mistake.
The Jordan brand and best-selling styles such as the Nike Dunk have long driven the company’s sneaker sales but consumers have new favorites in the market – On and Deckers-owned Hoka that have grabbed more shelf space globally.
“If we do a post-mortem, maybe there’s been too much reliance on legacy or historical product,” said Jim Tierney, chief investment officer of Concentrated US Growth Equities at AllianceBernstein, which owns Nike shares.
Nike Air Jordan shoes, first produced for U.S. basketball star Michael Jordan during his time with the Chicago Bulls, were released in 1985. The sneakers soon became a global craze thanks in part to ads featuring Jordan and filmmaker Spike Lee with the tagline “It’s gotta be the shoes.”
Data from analytics firm Altan Insights, which studies the collectible sneaker market, shows that Nike doubled the number of Air Jordan 1 Highs released through its SNKRS app between 2019 and 2023 and more than tripled the number of Nike Dunk Lows released over the same period.
While Nike does not report what percent of its total revenues come from Jordan, the brand accounts for roughly 16% of the retailer’s wholesale revenues, according to Nike’s fiscal 2023 annual report – up 29% compared to the previous year.
But the growing popularity of newer brands such as On and Hoka, as well as established sportswear players like New Balance suggests the importance of Jordan sales has become a liability for the company, analysts said. One problem is shifting consumer tastes, said Stifel analyst James Duffy.
On’s market share at Dick’s Sporting in the footwear category increased to 8.2% in February from the 6.1% it had in October 2023, while New Balance saw its market share rise to 5.4% from 4.6% for the same period.
This is in contrast to Nike’s Jordan whose market share at the retailer has hovered over only 5% from October to February, according to YipitData, which collates market share using email receipt and transaction data.
In a Sunday note, Duffy wrote that “retro footwear trends are shifting from court styles (in which Nike is overweight) towards chunky dad shoes and terrace styles.” That has allowed competitors such as New Balance and Adidas, with its best-selling Samba sneakers, to draw shoppers who might have otherwise turned to Nike as a fashion choice.
Nike’s newer basketball shoe releases have not had the same popularity with shoppers as its retro styles, according to Jane Hali & Associates senior analyst Jessica Ramirez.
Cari Garcia couldn’t wait for her two-week summer getaway to Spain.
Envisioning fresh churros and steaming hot chocolate in Madrid, bustling tapas bars in Barcelona and sun-splashed wineries in Andalusia, the stressed-out clinical social worker working in an understaffed hospital psychiatric unit in South Florida submitted her vacation request six months in advance.
But one week before her departure, her supervisor unexpectedly canceled her paid time off.
Garcia says she was not about to get stuck with nonrefundable plane tickets and hotel reservations.
So she quit on the spot.
“This wasn’t a request,” she told her then-supervisor. “It was a ‘Hey, by the way, I’m not going to be here so figure it out.’ ”
Social media is rife with disgruntled employees venting about rebuffed time-off requests and stingy bosses who summon them into work on their wedding day or the day of a family funeral.
One poster said she was denied time off for her honeymoon. “I was not allowed to be gone for two weeks in a row because I was ‘needed,’ ” she said. “Instead they got to learn what it was like without me.”
Another poster who worked as an assistant general manager for a restaurant saved up his paid time off all year to take two weeks after his daughter was born. Two days into his leave, his boss called him back to work. So he went in. And quit.
Gripes like these are fueling a populist internet meme across Instagram, Threads and TikTok: PTO doesn’t mean “paid time off,” workers say, it
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means “prepare the others.”
“We feel like our right to have a life outside of work is being violated and that’s super triggering for people,” said Tessa West, a New York University psychology professor and the author of “Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them.”
Gap widens between vacation time requested and granted
If your boss has denied your time off request, you are not alone. It’s harder than ever to get time off work, data shows.
There’s always been a gap between how much vacation employees ask for and how much they get. But lately, that gap has been getting wider.
Employee paid time off requests have increased 11% on average annually since 2019. However, approvals have increased only 9%, according to a new report from BambooHR, a cloud-based HR software company.
In the first two months of this year, paid time off requests jumped 9% yearover-year. Approvals rose by just 3%.
“You have this huge friction going on between organizations that are getting slammed with these requests and individuals who feel like they have the right to make them,” West said.
Workers’ desire for balance causing scheduling headaches
You can blame, in part, a newfound yearning for work-life balance.
As the job market tightened, employers expanded paid time off and other perks to attract and retain workers. At the same time, workers − who used to avoid taking vacations because they feared their careers would suffer − have changed. Weary of heavy workloads and long commutes, they are taking more vacations than they have in over a decade. In 2023, 44% of employees made paid time off requests, up from an average of 37%, BambooHR found.
That workplace tension is being stoked by a younger generation that views paid time off not as a discretionary benefit but as a fundamental entitlement, workplace experts say.
The flurry of time off requests is putting a squeeze on staffing amid persistent worker shortages. About half of paid time off requests are denied each month, according to BambooHR.
People often ask for the same weeks off during the holidays or the summer, which can lead to scheduling headaches and low approval rates. So can “less strategic leadership,” said BambooHR’s head of HR, Anita Grantham.
On the other hand, too few breaks from work can cause burnout, fatigue, poor morale and lower job satisfaction. Studies show that using paid time off can significantly reduce stress and improve employee productivity.
“I think managers feel like their people aren’t able to handle all that’s happening and that they need to have their teams work more to keep up,” Grantham said.
Beware the petty tyrants
Workers point to another phenomenon behind the wave of denied time off requests: petty bosses.
West, the psychology professor, says when she worked in retail, her manager played favorites when doling out time off. “It is the ultimate power move when you feel like you don’t have power over employees in any other way,” she said.
Jena Marie DiPinto says it was a controlling boss who tried to veto her time off request when she was teaching middle school chorus in 2007. She asked for a day or two off to go on her honeymoon. The principal told her she should get married in the summertime instead. DiPinto refused.
“It’s all about clinging to power and policy,” she said.
In the aftermath of the Great Resignation and quiet quitting, workers are starting to take back some control.