It got even better when a few bad apples in management began helping themselves to all the profits, literally dumping any crap product that didn't add to the stack immediately and directly into the garbage, helping themselves to the customer samples, and going on long vacations. Their underlings, and even customers, soon followed suit, and when the place was sacked the suits booked, the staff nursed a hangover, and the clientele began to look elsewhere for love. Party over.

No surprise herre: Subsequent managers' solutions to cleaning cleaning house was to throw yet more stuff away, lay people off, and develop copious stats to show where things may have gone wrong, but were improving mightily. Then go on a nice vacation.

Today Nortel more closely resembles a Sam's Club, where you get some what you need only. Right off the skid. Maybe once a month. If a cheap product still doesn't sell, discontinue it. If some schmoe employee takes more than the alotted 5 minutes to dump it in the trash, ya dump with him, too. Stats say that lights in the break rooms cost money. Turn them off. You'd think working in seas of empty cubicles would send them the message that the party is over, dammit. Maybe its best to hire college kids; they don't know from cubicles. Screw it. Lets send the whole shebang off to cheaper countries. Next up: Build synergies by outsourcing the parking lot to a neighboring business, thus staying true to our slogans –

“Simplicity beats complexity any old day”
“Our switches will save you money, like turning off the lights your break rooms will too”
“Oh and wer'e still your friendly neighborhood Super Target.”

It got even better when a few bad apples in management began helping themselves to all the profits, literally dumping any crap product that didn't add to the stack immediately and directly into the garbage, helping themselves to the customer samples, and going on long vacations. Their underlings, and even customers, soon followed suit, and when the place was sacked the suits booked, the staff nursed a hangover, and the clientele began to look elsewhere for love. Party over.

No surprise herre: Subsequent managers' solutions to cleaning cleaning house was to throw yet more stuff away, lay people off, and develop copious stats to show where things may have gone wrong, but were improving mightily. Then go on a nice vacation.

Today Nortel more closely resembles a Sam's Club, where you get some what you need only. Right off the skid. Maybe once a month. If a cheap product still doesn't sell, discontinue it. If some schmoe employee takes more than the alotted 5 minutes to dump it in the trash, ya dump with him, too. Stats say that lights in the break rooms cost money. Turn them off. You'd think working in seas of empty cubicles would send them the message that the party is over, dammit. Maybe its best to hire college kids; they don't know from cubicles. Screw it. Lets send the whole shebang off to cheaper countries. Next up: Build synergies by outsourcing the parking lot to a neighboring business, thus staying true to our slogans –

“Simplicity beats complexity any old day”
“Our switches will save you money, like turning off the lights your break rooms will too”
“Oh and wer'e still your friendly neighborhood Super Target.”

While I agree that theres a indeed a time and season, ebb and flow, yin and yang, etc .the green we see on Nortel is not budding spring grass, fresh paint, or rmoney; it sure looks and smells a lot like gangrene.

People can recover from that just as they can recover from cancers, amputations, adapt to handicaps, etc. but to argue that there are no Special Olympics” only Olympics …. no “losers” just “competitors”… cmon….

Can I give a free piece of advice without it being taken as condescending?
Look at some raw data without emotion and see if this short selling story adds up. If it doesn't, maybe it's time to look elsewhere for explanations?
really!

In the past two weeks I have traveled from Florida to the Rocky Mountains and back to California. I have spoken to nearly every age group, gender, and color of American, literally from 18-80. What I heard was anger. Anger at, well, almost everything that is so obviously broken. But the most pervasive feeling expressed was that we are angry because we are scared. And the most heartfelt question people asked is what can I do to create a personal oasis in a world that seems to be becoming a desert? What can I do to create personal, financial, emotional, mental and spiritual sustainability even if the outer world is convulsing with financial bankruptcy, emotional drama, mental instability, and spiritual confusion? This is the real question for all of us all the time. As one 80-year put it, “Every generation has its great challenge; welcome to yours.” From a perspective of someone who’s lived through pre-antibiotic healthcare, a great depression, a world war, civil rights, riots, and the birth of Rock ‘n Roll, that statement is code for. “Quit whining and take care of yourself.”
That very night I found myself reading a great new book, The Art of Learning, by Josh Weitzkin who quotes a powerful proverb that fits today’s challenges. Life is a long road of thorns in which we are confronted with three options: 1) we can walk the road barefoot and bloody, 2) we can sit down, weep and wait for someone to pave it, or 3) we can make our own sandals.
There have always been awful challenges. Plagues, earthquakes, wars, famines, and droughts. Job loss, divorce, death, and depression. Life’s question is “Are we willing to make sandals?” There are many ways to make them. One truism I have discovered in coaching others for three decades is that often a 5% change in our life will result in a 100% change in how we feel. Even though sandals only cover the “souls” of our feet, our entire body and mind rejoice at being relieved of the pain from the thorns of our life. Here is some “leather”—tough and strong ideas that may be of value.

Be physically strong. Our body is our greatest ally in making us resilient. We need to regularly get eight hours of sleep. We need to eat healthy, non-manufactured food. We should try to never go hungry and never be full. We need to train like athletes, get our heart rates up, lift some weights and walk with our back straight. If we are fit, our thoughts will be creative and our actions more collaborative. That’s the brain science according to Dr. Jim Loehr (The Power of Full Engagement).
We need to be emotionally centered. We need to elevate our moods by doing positive things we deeply enjoy. Activities of sport, art or learning that capture our full attention and help us grow. We need to do such things at least every other day.
We need to be fully present in relationships with people we trust. Refuse to take love for granted. Listen with your eyes and soul. Turn off everything else. The T. V., blackberry, and the noise of your inner chatter and really be with those whom you love.
Seek spiritual growth. Research tells us the happiest people in the world meditate 20 minutes a day. Join them. Help strangers and read what inspires you. Be open-minded. Inclusive. Love with your whole soul.
Regain your perspective. Take a news fast. No radio, newspapers, T. V., Internet, or magazine news for a week. Pretend you’re on an island in Fiji. Listen to music that soothes you.
Be an expert. If we are going to give our gift, we simply must be great at something we value. Educators say it takes ten years to become a true expert. And real experts are constantly learning because they love what they are doing. It’s not work. And when you fuse your personality with your expert knowledge or skill, you’ll be one of a kind. Your expertise will be work that you love doing.
Travel light. Get out of debt. Remember, there is nothing you can buy that is worth more than peace of mind. Nothing.
Commute and drive less. Bargain for one or two days of telecommuting. Combine trips. Nearly all of us can drive 25% less, which will increase our quality of life.
Be strong and be flexible. There are very happy people living under almost all circumstances. Change what you can and see the advantage in what you cannot.
Don’t take the external parts of life too seriously. The purpose of this amusement park called life is to love deeply, learn without stopping and develop inner character that brings honor to your children.
If you’ve made some changes that have improved your quality of life, tell us about them. We need to share our “best practices” of life.
Will Marre
Founder, American Dream Project

There is value in it and always will be. But that's not what we're talking about here. I'm referring to being engaged in your day to day activities. Most of the people that post with monikers like “one of 34k left” don't appear to be so. So I don't prefer the status quo. We live in a world now where if you blink, the status quo changes. Oil at $138/barrel today in a blink of an eye. So there's not much value to clinging to the status quo.

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“I'd argue that the last thing a company needs is an incompetent executive leadership team, but that's just me. Usually they are responsible for the disengagement you are writing about.”
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Disengagement is always a lack of personal leadership and personal vision. You have to start with yourself first. Regardless of where you work or what you do, it always starts with the individual. If one is disenchanted or disengaged then one should seriously consider why ? If its because of the day to day environment, then its worth considering a change in your day to day environment.

FUD is a fact of life. its the same for most of the 6.7B people on this planet. It comes with the territory when one enters this world. Its not something some senior manager or CEO creates.

There used to be value in identifying problems and trying to change things for the better. Sounds like you'd prefer the status quo.

“The last thing Nortel or any company needs is employees that aren't engaged and interested in their day to day activities.”

I'd argue that the last thing a company needs is an incompetent executive leadership team, but that's just me. Usually they are responsible for the disengagement you are writing about. Are you familiar with the concept of FUD? Tends to come from above, not below.

In some areas of North America, the Green Initiative is huge and can be solved in many different ways depending on the objectives of each individual customer. Green is not a technology problem, it is a business problem. Not one single technology is going to solve the problem.