Thoughts from a Nortel Employee

By Mark Evans | Published: January 14, 2009

A Nortel employee sent along their thoughts on today’s bankruptcy filing. I thought it would provide some valuable insight:

“It’s a say day” will likely be repeated across Canada today. But why is it a sad day? I would argue that the sadness will mainly be felt by current employees and then potentially some past employees. The rest of Canada sad? I’m not so sure.

What has Canada lost?

Canada has lost an organization but Canada has not lost the Canadian employees that make up that organization, nor has it lost the history that the organization initiated over 100 years ago. Canadian employees, over time, will be released into other organizations, fields, industries, and will continue to contribute towards Canada’s knowledge base. Some will start their own companies, which may also end up in the history books.

So does Canada need to feel sad for the loss of what we have known Nortel to be? Maybe some remorse and maybe some regret but it will be old news soon enough and only those who have lived through it, day in, day out, will be left struggling to understand what happened. Nortel employees have a right to be sad.

The past eight years have been difficult for so many reasons. Pointing the finger might provide some relief but in the end, employees will no doubt reach that point where they will individually look in the mirror and say “could I have done something differently?”.

One might argue that only those at the top of the company might find themselves in this predicament, but for those long-standing employees who know the company well, some of them will no doubt feel a certain amount of responsibility. And with the weight of that responsibility, no matter how heavy or light, will come the need for understanding. But, unfortunately, understanding (by self and others) will be hard to come by.

What has happened is so extremely complex that it might be impossible to ever understand the “truth”, if there is in fact only one truth. Beyond the anger, the pain, the hurt and the sadness, the biggest gift that outsiders might be able to give today to Nortel employees is an effort to understand, together, what has happened.

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  • Casual_Observer

    I think what has happen is the emergence of Asian competitors undid Nortel in a relatively short order. Nortel is the first victim. Alcatel-Lucent will be next as the industry comes unhinged. Huawei has its sights eventually set on Cisco. I think what we are witnessing is something a lot larger than just Nortel. Its a tsunami of global proportions as the global economic system has been gamed by the Chinese government. Its hard to blame employees for any of it. The system is broken and it is to blame. These are truly amazing times.

  • den10

    Perhaps I am ever the optimist but all is not lost yet. Nortel is not being liquidated but had sought protection form creditors to reorganize. There is still a possibility the company may emerge from this with many of their assets intact. The company had been burdened with a mountain a debt since 1999 but operationally they have been neutral. If they can retain their present customer base, generate new customers and save what's left of their credibility, Nortel may once again be a viable entity.

  • less

    Excuse my French but quel bummre.
    This is my shout-out to my former cowrkers and peeps there:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtdOpnCBLj8

  • Another_Nortel_Watcher

    Casual_Observer – do not let Nortel (or ALU) off the hook for outside circumstances. They are not victims of market dynamics, they're victims of years of obsolete and incompetent leadership, starting at the Board and cabinet levels and extending well down the management chain of command.

    The Asian competitors did not sneak up on anyone. The changes in the telecom landscape did not happen overnight.

    Nortel crumbled because it was led for years by executives who couldn't or wouldn't get out of their 'box'. Like frogs in a pot of water on the stove. There are many examples of telecom vendors that are doing just fine despite the economic downturn.

  • less

    Pardon my French but – quel bummre

    This is a shout-out to my former peeps, they know who they are:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtdOpnCBLj8

    I expect eBay will soon be swamped with Nortel memorabilia – logo'd stress balls, marble Team Builder plaques, yo-yos, tote bags, “Hyperconnectivity is an Understatement” posters?

  • felixmk

    Many companies that go through bankruptcy end up as long term successes. Bankruptcy is a cathartic event and I, as an ex-employee, think it might be the best thing for Nortel. Out with 2000-2008! On to greater glories for the employees, whether it be as part of a new Nortel or another organization.

  • Casual_Observer

    Even if they reorganize, can anyone trust the name Nortel again ? I was told they are stopping all severance payments after January 15th. Will employees even get paychecks anymore ?

  • TongueInCheek

    Will employees even get paychecks anymore ?

    Why would you make such a disgusting and ignorant comment? Nortel has court approval to continue with their business and to develop and file a restructuring plan. They ARE NOT in receivership, they are under Bankruptcy Protection. It would be a direct court violation to stop paying their employees.

    I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this blog would support and endorse comments like this. Unbelievable!

  • exnortel2

    The truth is that Nortel had/has incompetent leaders….. especially MZ. I joined the corporation when it was Northern Electric, so I've seen my share of bozos, and MZ has to be the worst. He along with the Board should be fired.

  • fatzoff

    Mark Could you please do a piece on the TRUE outcome for stockholders. We are getting so many mixed messages and it so confusing. Are we wiped out? Do we hold and hope for the best? I just don't know. I have read your pieces for a long time now and always found them informative. This one will help me the most

    fatzoff

  • NortelTragedy

    Recall the executive bonuses these “leaders” have received over the years? It should be criminal, to effectively ruin a 116-year-old company through greed, poor and ineffective leadership.

    “CEO Mike Zafirovski was Nortel's highest paid employee in 2006, earning $8.27 million U.S. in total compensation. CFO Peter Currie, who leaves April 30, will get $52,000 a month for two years in his separation deal, plus benefits and stock options.” http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/techno…

    “Nortel Networks CEO Mike Zafirovski was awarded a 21.5-per-cent pay increase to $10.1 million last year despite continuing losses, layoffs and declining share prices at the struggling telecom-gear maker.

    Nortel said Mr. Zafirovski's compensation package rose on the strength of a 76-per-cent increase in stock units to $3.3 million and a 37-per-cent increase in stock options to $3.1 million.

    His base pay was flat at $1.23 million and he was awarded a cash bonus of $1.29 million out of a potential $1.9 million. His relocation pay dropped sharply after he moved his residence from Chicago to the Toronto area.

    Other top executives also did well as Nortel went through a difficult year. It has announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs and transfer 2,000 others to lower-cost operations in three rounds of cuts in the last 20 months. Richard Lowe, the head of Nortel's struggling carrier network division, got a 26-per-cent increase to $2.76 million.

    Joel Hackney, the head of enterprise solutions, saw his pay jump 21 per cent to $2.03 million. The division started the year with strong results under another executive, then tailed off later in the year.

    Nortel said in a filing that “during 2007, Mr. Zafirovski strengthened Nortel's strategic direction and deliver solid progress in returning Nortel to profitability and growth.

    “He made significant business and operational progress in completion of the second year of the five year transformation plan.”

    It noted that Nortel generated a full-year operating margin of $401 million, the highest since 2000.”

  • protosphere

    I attribute their decline to fraud.

    Before the bomb fell, they were getting great orders, the stock was rising, and the confidence in their turnaround was catalyzing, contrary to thereafter.

    I subscribe to the theory, that which is most obvious is the most truthful =)

    I feel the obvious outweighs any ambiguities in misunderstanding without getting too sophist here =) To expand on this … the underlying issues were obvious in my view, albeit I could be wrong as the truth is all that we see and all that we do not see,. Consider a ball cut in half as a simple explanation, hiding a flat back. I too would say I see a ball, if I am not fooled more than once =)

    Anyways, one must not belabor the error(s) of imperfection, depending on the gravity of the error(s) of course, as we are only human. Trying our best is a virtue.)

    The efforts that inspire the means may prove ambiguous when over-analyzing failed results. Whereby, would they be as confusing had they been met with success?

    Hindsight is usually easy, so why should this be an exception. The less one dwells on past error, the mentally healthier they are anyways =)

    Their employees include many accredited engineers, some of our most respected members of society, and admirably stellar people. I call this really great people working for a really bad company. I do agree in that they will be better off with this behind them and the sooner the better. =)

    … what went wrong or what could have have been done different? hardly merits concern knowing they did their best. This is best left up to those that deserve the burden due to the gravity of error. Not their good engineers.

  • http://nortelinsider.wordpress.com/ Desk Jockey

    That was not a “disgusting and ignorant” comment. It was a legitimate question. The FAQ that Nortel itself prepared for its employees today contains that very question as the first item.

    So please stop attacking others and AAN for what you perceive to be ignorance, when the ignorance is on your end.

  • http://nortelinsider.wordpress.com/ Desk Jockey

    It is indeed funny, or perhaps, more sad, that executive compensation has had an inverse relationship with the performance of the company.

    These people came in and saw an opportunity to profit from decline. And they did their best to ensure the financial future not of Nortel, but themselves. “Looking out for #1″ – that should be their new motto.

  • exnt2

    been catching up with people and resumes. how come everyone at Nortel is a 'Leader'. some make sense but a line manager or an architect sounds too ridiculous.

  • ZmanOhYa

    Zman kept sending Zmail about Zblack belt and zsix sigma till Zbankruptcy, I think he is Znuts

  • brett5

    Its one thing to go BK as a services company, it's another thing to do it as a technology innovator. The longer it takes to emerge the further Nortel's technology will be behind the competition. Retaining customers will be challenging as the competitors are tough. Generating new will require very strong compelling differentiations – something that Nortel hasn't done well at demonstrating.

  • Nortel watcher

    If NT halts severance payments already in place, then that would affect the last 1-2 payments remaining for Dion Joannou who, as former president for North America, departed on 8/31/07 with a severance package, if my memory doesn't fail me, that called for a monthly payment of $20K for 18 months. In total, I believe the package was worth in excess of $700K.

  • exnt2

    If this were not bad enough for employees, retention bonuses could be on the way for executives by law. since there have been no pay raises let alone retention bonuses for non-management employees execs could get 25% of bonuses they received before.
    …
    The Act severely limits a Chapter 11 debtor’s ability to make severance and retention payments to insiders (generally, officers, directors, and others who “control” the debtor). Under revised Section 503, a bankruptcy court may approve a severance payment to an insider of the debtor only if the payment is part of a program that is generally applicable to all full-time employees of the debtor. If the debtor clears this hurdle, the insider’s payment is capped at 10 times the amount of the mean severance pay to non-management employees during the calendar year in which the payment is made.The Act’s retention payment provision is even more restrictive than its severance payment provision. A bankruptcy court may approve a retention bonus to an insider of a debtor only if the following 3-part test is met: (1) the insider has a bona fide job offer from another business at the same or greater rate of compensation; (2) the insider’s services to the debtor are essential to the survival of the business; and (3) the payment is capped at either –(a) 10 times the amount of the mean retention payment made to non-management employees during the calendar year in which the payment is made, or(b) if the debtor did not make any similar payments to non-management employees during the calendar year in which the payment is made, an amount equal to 25% of any similar payment made to the insider for any purpose during the calendar year prior to the year in which the retention payment is made…

  • Casual_Observer

    They are not victims of market dynamics

    There are many examples of telecom vendors that are doing just fine despite the economic downturn.

    Let's wait and see. I predict the turnover from older vendors such as Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent to newer vendors such as Cisco, Juniper and Huawei will be heavy. The economic downturn as only just begun in technology.

  • MrReal

    I agree execs certainly milked this once great company good. That's to be expected, they are really good at it.
    But so did many other employees.
    Yes, many employees worked hard and will continue to work hard hoping to be able to make a difference. Many have respect for themselves that doesn't allow them to do anything but the best job they can do.
    But . . . there are employees in various positions who knew that the place is going down and many felt they can't do anything about it but they also knew that they are getting good money for what in many cases amounted to little or no work. Sort of “i'll sit here and do nothing till they give me a package” mentality. Many also got so many pay raises over the years that they knew it would be impossible to find a job at a normal company at those rates, so they just sat there and milked Nortel. And since in many cases it wasn't possible for a given manager to replace such individual (not too many people are looking to join a company in trouble) many held Nortel hostage and milked it just as much as those top execs did. 150K a year sure isn't as much as 2M, but there are a lot more of those JCI 5 architect types out there than there are top execs. What did they architect for the last 3 years that wasn't canceled?
    In most cases, nothing. And most of them were smart enough to know that these things were going to be canceled, they just wouldn't object to anything because it was convenient this way.

    So yes, give top execs hard time, but don't forget the others.
    I wonder what CH11 means to packages for all of those who have been waiting for them for so many years.
    Can anyone provide clarification on the packages?

  • MrReal

    There is a theoretical chance that shares might be worth something, but I just say that so that I can't be sued or something. In reality, shares are worth 0. They will be canceled and new shares will likely be issued and given to current creditors.
    Shares will continue trading on a “greater fool” basis. Someone may want to to cover their shorts, someone may want to buy because they believe that tomorrow someone else would pay more for it, etc, etc. Remember, there are very few investors left in this market. Most are just daytrader type fools who think that THEY know better than anyone else and could make money out of nothing. Most eventually fail but there is always enough faith out there to promote this activity. People like faith based initiatives in this country.

  • Casual_Observer

    Thank you. I couldn't have said it better myself. The reason I wrote is that employees who were notified in mid-December and still considered employees for 60 days will stop being paid after this Friday. I'm guessing there is some escape clause for Nortel in the severance agreement b/c of the bankruptcy protection filing in both the US and Canada. Given this fact, it wouldn't be a huge leap in thinking employees may not get paid for much longer either.

  • MrReal

    How many hands do you need to count to “many”?
    What about in this industry?

  • MrReal

    I have the original “This is the way” employee package in perfect, UNOPENED condition! It was delivered to a cube neighbor of mine who was laid of a few days before. I saved it for this very reason.
    This was from Clent, then the marketing guy who supposedly came from Apple (true) where he had something to do with the ipod success (implied by NT management at the time, but was not true, he was responsible for working Apple/MS software relationship). Anyway, that “genius” spent 50M on a marketing campaign titled “this is the way, this is nortel”. he worked on this for some time, hired expensive marketing agencies, bought full page ADs in wall st journal and other expensive publications and then a few days before the “go ahead” they discovered the “alleged” fraud and announced that the restatements will follow.
    What is Clent to do?
    He already spent the bulk of the 50M!
    He goes ahead.
    So imagine that . . . first you announce to the world that you've screwed up big time. Company has material weaknesses in financial reporting and monitoring, etc, etc. going on back years! CEO is fired for cause. And then, in a few days, all over the papers and TV too . . . THIS IS THE WAY, THIS IS NORTEL.
    they should have added “beoches” at the end so that the investors and those customers who invested in Nortel would know it's addressed to them.
    So here, I have this historic package, but since I've just told you the story behind it I realized it's not for sale, not unless i can get like a gozillion dollars for it (striking the dr. evil pose).

  • MrReal

    How can you convince anyone to buy equipment form NT now that it's filed ch11 and Juniper and Cisco and available?
    If you make purchasing decisions, would you risk your job on buying NT equipment now? I doubt it. Maybe you'd continue to buy support and replacement parts for a while but new projects? Would NT even be able to bid on any serious project? Very doubtful.

  • Clicktospeak

    I miss a “sorry, we didn't know how to drive it and we failed in our task” from top executives during the past years to all who loves Nortel like employees, customers, Canadians…

  • Nortel_Sucker

    Incompetence fueled by greed.
    How many more people must get burned before they realize that this Company is all about lies and half truths. Mike Z can spin and spin but the fact is he put the final nail in the coffin. Controversy rose from day one when Nortel had to pay Motorola 11 million for non-disclosure to hire him. Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics I believe were his credentials. Using lame programs such as 6-sigma, black belt etc. may have been fine at GE, but he never had the vision to realize this was a different ballgame. When layoffs came it would be 2000 worker bees to one Manager. Go figure but these were his GE pals and burned out Nortel hanger- ons like Richard Lowe.
    No this is not “hindsight”. Insiders/employess could never figure out what this guy was trying to prove.
    This guy is cold hearted. Every time he spoke he proclaimed his love for the employee. Well he just screwed about 1300 out of their hard earned severance. This is a deliberate attack so that he can save his sorry ass. He also said he cherished the shareholder. Well 75% of Canadian's were share holders(some didn't even know it) and their all bust. This Company did 10 billion in business last year. How do you drive a 10 Billion dollar Company into Chapter 11? Z can now add that to his resume. The Z man thought he was getting a bargain in China so he let go some of the top performers. The legalities and China restictions alone could bankrupt a company. This was a Great Canadian Company.
    As for Vendors and Suppliers, do not believe a word that is spoken. It is all lies. Nortel only survived this long on the hard work of the worker bees. Extra hours for no pay, late nights etc. Bail out and cut your losses now. The motivation of the hard working employees that can help you is gone.
    Many employees took double whammy s*&$ kickings on the stock over the years. Now they get the final knockout punch.

    Would you trust a CEO that kicks his own people when their down. Z knows he does not have to be accountable and puts them on EI, in other words taxpayers get to pay them out.
    That's ok, what comes around goes around.

  • nortelgirl

    I disagree with your “Nortel Employee”. I don't feel a sense of personal responsibility for the major mistakes made by previous CEOs and executives, at whose feet most of the blame for the current situation can be laid. This of us in the lower levels of the company, as in every major corporation, are not in a position to significantly influence the strategy or major business decisions.

    The majority of people who work here at Nortel are hard-working, conciencious individuals who have, despite the turmoil of the past few years and months, been doing their best to do a good, if not exceptional job in difficult circumstances.

    Talk to mosty people who work here and they will rate the culture (among the rank-and file like me, anyway), the “can-do” attitude and the spirit of teamwork as second-to-none. And, if any parts of the business are acquired by our rivals, they will be getting some of the best technology and people in the industry and will hopefully consider themselves very lucky to get us!

  • NewBlue

    This is the way! (Arrow pointing to the left)
    This is Nortel! (Arrow pointing to the right)

  • less

    Hm. I look at select older comments posted here at AAN and read that Nortel is just fine, that rumors of its troubles are just that – slander without proof or merit, conjecture and innuendo spread by outsiders, disgruntled ex-employees and Cisco shills during this secular economic bear that will fortunateiy do away with the global olio-oligarchy forever, and above all, do not trust the stock ticker.

  • less

    Nortel stock: $0
    Memories; priceless

    (inject elaborate ''vast for-profit eBay-AmEx conspiracy' here)

  • BarrelBottom

    View from the bottom:

    Wouldn't they like to have back the 9 billion they spent on failing Bay Networks in 1998.

    At the time I didn't understand why they did that. It seemed like a dumb move. We already had competing products and anything we were missing we had the capacity to develop on our own or a least license from others.

  • TongueInCheek

    OK Desk Jockey, since you know the formal answer to “Will employees still be paid”, then please post that answer for all of us to see.

    What I find disgusting and ignorant is raising the question/suspicion that current employees may not be paid. That is a direct breach of law. Why would Nortel take that risk at this time?

    Have some common sense people rather than creating scenarios that are totally false and illegal. That's my main point here.

  • LonelyOpsGuy

    “The majority of people who work here at Nortel are hard-working, conciencious individuals who have, despite the turmoil of the past few years and months, been doing their best to do a good, if not exceptional job in difficult circumstances.”
    I believe that was part of the problem. People inside Nortel (me included) were in a total state of denial (above) that could not put heads together and do something about it. Easy (easier) to blame on management. Hard to do something about it.

  • http://nortelinsider.wordpress.com/ Desk Jockey

    Please stop abusing us with your dogmatic statements, there is enough hatred going on right now without your vitriolic opinions.

    To answer your question, they were seeking and expect to obtain court permission to continue paychecks. This is different from what you suggest, which is that the courts would automatically force them to.

    And as for “common sense” and “creating scenarios that are totally false”, I leave you with a comment/quotation that you just might find familiar:

    “With $2.6 Billion is cash, they can easily afford the interest payment. The bankruptcy statements are pure speculation.”

    Talk about creating scenarios that are totally false!

  • mikez

    “can-do” attitude — That is Wrong
    business is not about what you can do, or what you can deliver
    it is about what you should do to compete in the marketplace

  • NortelEmp

    Nortelgirl

    I'm the Nortel Employee. I'm also Time to Share and Waiting on a Package (the last one is now somewhat redundant). Unfortunately I didn't get the whole disqus thing, so I have more than one ID. I didn't say that all employees are responsible. I suggested that long time employees (I, for one) may wonder if there was anything else they could have done to get the attention of senior management, especially when it was obvious that things were coming apart. I don't know how long you have been with the company, but I disagree that “lower levels” cannot significantly influence strategy or major business decisions. No one single business decision changes a company. It's the many decisions that take place day in day out that affect change or reinforce the status quo. Working within the scope of a well defined job, when the job itself or the processes being used in the job are questionable, leads to undesirable outcomes. So many Nortel employees have understood, consciously and intuitively, the errors that have brought us to this place. As LonelyOpsGuy suggested, was there ever a time when we could have banded together and pushed really hard? Maybe, maybe not. But that wasn't my point. My point was that there will be some Nortel employees, like me, who will wonder if there was any more they could have done. I was (still am) a very vocal employee who is not afraid to call someone on a bad decision. It can be done, with kindness, respect and understanding, and it should be accepted by those making the decisions, if nothing else, as input. I did not hesitate to go so far as to articulate my concerns and suggestions to the CEO. But still, I wonder if there was anything else I could have done. Should I have screamed, yelled to get more attention. Doubtfully that would have worked. I believe I exhausted all my options. At least I believe so on most days. Every once in a while I wonder, did I miss something? And it's that “every once in a while” that I was referring to.

  • yes4aapl

    Would you trust a CEO that kicks his own people when their down. Z knows he does not have to be accountable and puts them on EI, in other words taxpayers get to pay them out.
    That's ok, what comes around goes around.
    —–
    re
    yes
    It does not look good!
    It's too early to predict restructuring under BK laws
    One sure thing is , Mike Z is not the right guy to fix anything. I would say he was the one who broke the company… why he is still there pretending that he will fix it?
    He is a good Taxi Driver! Give him credit for that!
    message for Mike Z
    you have no shame! no integrity! you are POS human creature!
    Why do you take money from NT bank? Go away, idiot!
    Why did you destroy Nortel corporation?
    Is it because you tried to bite more than you can chew?
    I gave you top ten reasons to quit before BK!
    I have no respect for you now after the BK filling!
    No respect for crooked CEO Mike Zafiro!
    I am the public voice here!
    No respect for crooks!

  • MianFei

    If you know how many times Huawei R&D employees found their highest leader Mr. Ren Zhengfei in the lab among them at 3AM in the earlier morning, fly from another city; then compare to how many times Nortel CEO has ever visit the the lab or even the site, you got the answer.

  • nortelgirl

    Hi, fellow Nortel Employee….I share your view, that in the back of my mind, I wondered about the various decisions made by the senior management, and discussed the decisions with my colleagues.

    However, I never felt that the dialogue could be held with the “higher-ups”.

    The more trouble we got into as a company, the less we heard from management, and the fewer opportunities there were to exchange opinions -I have counted 3 Zmails in the last 4 months (excluding the two we go last week) – and the example of “non-communication” seemed to have been cascaded down through the layers of management.

    I admire your forthright stance in taking your points right to our CEO, rather than waiting for him to ask us for our opinions, and maybe more of us should have done the same while we had the chance…..

    Regards,

    nortelgirl.

  • less

    Where I worked the ever-growing number of “unexplained” processes and cumbersome procedures we were expected to follow more often than not had some of us wondering “This is streamlining ops? How is this helpful? This can't possibly work”. Yet we quietly adapted.

    Its somewhat clear that in a fast-paced environment such as telecom, management can't perpetually hold every hand and offer a patient understanding ear, so the only way to get management's attention is to slyly let the wheels come off the jalopy occasionally – several times if need be.

    Of course this can and will backfire on you and cause yet more processes to be created, but at least the word gets out that managment is not infallible and, you the rank and file, know this and have a few ideas of your own now and then.

    Now if only your neighboring group would do the same instead of boasting “our jalopy never crashed”….

  • BarrelBottom

    Don't get me started on unnecessary processes. I still do contracting work for Nortel. The number of weekly reports we do is ridiculous and redundant. The information already exists on Nortel's own systems but they insist we do these reports anyway.

    We do the same work for different markets and product lines and the reports required are different for each.

    Nortel's not willing to streamline by reducing the number of reports or standardizing on how they're done across markets and product lines.

    Then there are 2 separate groups trying to improve quality by tracking statistics on errors. So for each job there are 2 reports asking mostly the same questions. The kicker is we already know what areas generate the most errors, and have always known, This makes both reports completely useless. Every time management changes they do another quality project and relearn the same thing all over again and it's always the same answer.
    The part that burns me is after wasting my time collecting data they always determine it would cost too much to fix the problems and nothing concrete is done. The money wasted collecting data over and over again would have fixed the problems many years ago. No one is willing to think outside the box and just ask. They just parrot what they were taught in school and repeat the same behaviour the previous management did, never learning anything new and never breaking out out of the cycle. Waste! Waste! Waste!

    Nortel has a very top down oriented structure where innovation is forced down from the top without regard to the people that have to shoe horn it to make it work at the bottom. The people at the bottom who know the work and know the issues are regarded as complainers and are never listened to. Their ideas for innovation are never listened to and never implemented. This results with patchworks of incompatible processes layered on by successive changes in management. Each new manager adding his own little patch to the rags of the business.

    Next is ISO. There are a whole extra set of reports required to maintain certification. While some of them have value, some are a complete waste of time. To get Certified you have to identify a set of processes from an ISO book. You choose the set that matches your business as close as possible. Then you are required to conform to that set with no exceptions. So you end up trying to force your round business into their square process. You end up with a mix of very valuable processes and some that are just senselessly going through the motions.

    I'm to the point where I just don't fill in quality questionnaires anymore. I just do what's necessary to do a good job. I make so little money and have so little prospects for the future with Nortel I just don't care anymore. If they fire me I could get some menial job anywhere and do as well.

  • BarrelBottom

    I guess a “Can Do Attitude” can be a “Can Don't” if your doing the wrong thing in the first place.

    Many times managers have told me to do some meaningless task. Since there was rarely a spirit of openness where you could tell the manager the task had no useful purpose. I got my “Can Do” attitude in place and did it anyway. Occasionally when the task was just completely senseless I would procrastinate on it till the manager just forgot about it or was replaced by a new manager. Usually not a long wait. It always seems that as soon as a manager learned what was going on in his department and might finally make a valid contribution he was transferred somewhere else.

  • BarrelBottom

    I partly disagree.

    I been working as part of the order process for the last 8 years. Orders have declined year after year for all of those past 8 years.

    I attribute this to:
    A: market saturation for DMS products. All the telco's who were switching from older analog technology to digital have finished doing that and are only placing orders to accommodate population growth.

    B: VOIP technology. Most of the sales for population growth are now VOIP equipment. VOIP has greatly reduced equipment requirements than DMS. Where DMS required a 7 foot frame of equipment for every 600 subscribers VOIP can squeeze in 10,000. Also where DMS was all Nortel designed and manufactured. VOIP is mostly off the shelf third party servers from Sun & Motorola. Nortel's VOIP product has very little Nortel equipment in it. So profits on VOIP equipment are split between the third party suppliers and Nortel.

    Therefore even if errors weren't made at the top Nortel would still have had to significantly downsize. Maybe not be in BK but it would still be a fraction of the size it used to be.

  • yes4aapl

    Talk about creating scenarios that are totally false!
    Desk Jockey
    ===
    re
    Desk Jockey, who you were talking to?
    I know
    It was our TongueInCheek .
    Can you imagine, these days he distances himself from Mike Z when the newspapers posted Mike's Z Good Bye interview.
    Mike Z lost his best propaganda man I guess

  • yes4aapl

    Nortel said in a filing that “during 2007, Mr. Zafirovski strengthened Nortel's strategic direction and delivered solid progress in returning Nortel to profitability and growth.

    “He made significant business and operational progress in completion of the second year of the five year transformation plan.”
    ===
    re
    another history lesson from AAN blog! Thank you Mark Evans for your Blog.
    If it were not for that Blog Nortel would feel free to post any BS!
    —–
    As we know it now it was total Nortel's BullSh and CEO did not deserve the bonus
    If 2007 was strong why 2008 was the last year of normal operations?
    It was visible by a naked eye of an observer as myself in Nov 2007 that 2008 will be the last year. Just simple math and simple logic, nothing fancy /oh maybe the math of big numbers too/
    Pension Deficit was ballooning fast, interest on debt was big and R&D cost were not slowing down fast enough b/c bad strategic decisions like PBT or WiMax and bad M&A activities or lack of them.

  • yes4aapl

    Talk about creating scenarios that are totally false!
    Desk Jockey
    ===
    re
    Desk Jockey, who you were talking to?
    I know
    It was our TongueInCheek .
    Can you imagine, these days he distances himself from Mike Z when the newspapers posted Mike's Z Good Bye interview.
    Mike Z lost his best propaganda man I guess

  • yes4aapl

    Nortel said in a filing that “during 2007, Mr. Zafirovski strengthened Nortel's strategic direction and delivered solid progress in returning Nortel to profitability and growth.

    “He made significant business and operational progress in completion of the second year of the five year transformation plan.”
    ===
    re
    another history lesson from AAN blog! Thank you Mark Evans for your Blog.
    If it were not for that Blog Nortel would feel free to post any BS!
    —–
    As we know it now it was total Nortel's BullSh and CEO did not deserve the bonus
    If 2007 was strong why 2008 was the last year of normal operations?
    It was visible by a naked eye of an observer as myself in Nov 2007 that 2008 will be the last year. Just simple math and simple logic, nothing fancy /oh maybe the math of big numbers too/
    Pension Deficit was ballooning fast, interest on debt was big and R&D cost were not slowing down fast enough b/c bad strategic decisions like PBT or WiMax and bad M&A activities or lack of them.

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