A Troubling Communications Gap

Excellent way to put it BBB.

I have said it before and I will say it again: The way executive management treats employees is all too reminiscent of Animal Farm. The pigs are in control, living high off the hog.

I can't help but think of Boxer whenever I get another Zmail urging all employees to ignore the media, ignore the “negative bias” and keep working “business as usual”, so that any major events are always “unexpected”.

They may have no credibility but their disinformation campaigns are surely working. One need only look at how many employees (and outside members of the public as well) who were caught entirely off guard by the bankruptcy filing, despite ALL the warning signs being present and actively denied by the Nortel spin room.

NE,

Here’s a suggestion: how about just walking around ensuring employees they are doing everything possible, even communicating the fact there is nothing to communicate. But that takes empathy, doesn’t it? ..–bb

DJ,

Once again, thanks. Having spent my summers on a farm I can tell you that pigs are pretty intelligent animals, at least a lot more than the jack-assess .

The MOST negative bias is self-created every time they ‘wordsmith’ one of their communiqués thinking the employees have never seen a wordsmith-ed email. They are SO OUT OF TOUCH but mostly out of touch with themselves and their center of spirituality. Lost boys…–bb

The Z man could not control the situation at this point. He is the man to deliver the message the BOD has decided. Just like it's your manager or HR to deliver the message that you was let go. The BOD has to do everything they can to satify the creditors, NOT the employees.

I am expecting a big lay-off in the coming weeks.

An excellent verse, could not have summed up the situation better with so few words.

Unfortunately, management reads from the Book of Judas: How much silver is in it for me? (And how many do I have to sell out to get it?)

…and we all know what happens when you trade your integrity for 30 pieces of silver…–bb

e_n,

Totally disagree! Great leaders know what to do in tough times, which is to look their employees and tell them the truth!!!…–bb

which is why layoffs are going to be announced around jan 31. 10-15% cut coming. Z is not a great leader. get over it.

Anyone who believes anything that the Z clown says is as deluded as he is. I have stopped drinking the Koolaid. I have a job interview on Monday with an opportunity for a new position and career, would I have taken it prior ..no way… now i can't wait to get off this rollercoaster thats being driven by Z, Hackney and Flannigan.

I'll miss the people, the challenges, the absolute incredilbe feeling of being a part of a great team. It has to happen, you lose faith and become absolutely disengaged…I'm there!

I won't miss Z or his plane trips and Z mails full of crazy talk telling us how much he appreicates our hard work…!

All these posts are excellent and a great way to learn, share and vent. Thank you Mark.

It is obvious, and unanimously agreed, that Zman and his cronies must go in order for any REAL restructuring to take place.

Since his grand arrival he and his misguided staff have done nothing more than tap dance and use smoke and mirrors with regard to leading Norel into any viable avenue which would have precluded and possibly prevented our current demise. We all waited after the first few months for the man behind the curtain to speak, and lead us in a direction we could all follow. We got nothing more than Six Sigma. Our reaction, “You've got to be sh**ting us!”

Then came the only REAL plan Zman and company were ever capable of creating: Cost Restructering…i.e Layoff and COEs. Yep, that's right. His past GE experience was invaluable in this regard and he soon proved his merit in that aspect.

As profits continued to dwindle and ESAT erode, the downward death spiral continued.

Sill no plan, only more double-speak and expensive useless slogans. “This is the Way”…..yeah right!

We begged for training on products we were required to support. We got none. Instead, we got KT training, yet another tool to only increase the amount of useless tasks and templates to be filled out, adding to the ever increasing pile of crap we had to wade through in order to do our job. Not to mention the extra hoops and other useless cost saving programs that added more time and inefficieny to our productivity, but yet we were told, somehow save the company millions????

Its evident in Zmails that the Six Sigma program would become a shield from blame that Zman had intended to use for areas that did not meet or achieve his required expectations, and thus grant the ligitimization for elimination. In other words, if you don't drink the Kool-Aid, then you aren't on board with us and you should now leave.

ESAT continued to erode, but the happy thought campaign was never ending.

Its demoralizing to see friends and coworkers who are top talent being walked to door. Its even more demoralizing when they finally do land on their feet (yes, we are happy for them in that regard) and tell us from the outside looking in, how much happier they are and how the stress is gone.

Its been going on 9 years of this, cost restructuring, layoffs, out sourcing…..and now, the Chpt 11. The last gasp of breath has been drawn

Some continue to drink the Kool-Aid, even to the end. Very Jonestownesque, and sad.

In some aspects, it is as the Kamikaze warriors of WWII looked on the aspect of dying, a glorious death. And so will be the end of Nortel, a once massive presence in the global marketplace. Only to be brought to its knees in the end by greed, a useless and clueless leadership team, and the inability to listen to its most vital resource……..its people..

God's speed Nortel workers, past and present………….

You should send your post to him; very genuine…–bb

A few years back, right after he came to Nortel, I had the opportunity to arrange a meeting between JJ and a key customer. The subject was Quality. This particular customer representative was well versed on what it took to establish and maintain a reliable communications network and to provide a high grade of service to his customers. All JJ could talk about was Six Sigma and margin improvement. It was obvious to me and to this customer that JJ had no clue. Shortly after this Six Sigma was launched at Nortel by JJ. To this day I still do not believe that he has a clue.

Nice catch Al! One upside to the BK filing is that they can no longer hide their corruptions. It is all their in plain view.

What employees need to know:

KEIP – another way for upper management to continue their outrageously lavish bonuses, even through the bankruptcy that they themselves caused.

Remuneration changes – Since NT stock is worthless, directors now get their bonuses in cold, hard cash. This is yet another slap in the fact for regular employees, many of which STILL have worthless underwater stock options issued at ridiculous strike prices of $80-120 pre-reverse split.

I seem to remember that there was no ESAT survey in 2008. I guess they knew the reslts would be shocking, so decided to take the Ostrich approach.

I am so pleased I left the business under my own steam at the end of Q4. From what I hear from talking to ex-colleagues, it is pretty awful there at the moment.

Come on guys….While I left the company over a year ago because I did not believe. You can't sit here and think that any company's CEO would just come out and say, “Hey we suck and we will never be a good company again.” “Your all going to loose yoru job and it will never amount to anything again.” Is that what you wan to hear?

I understand teh frustration but be real on your expectations. While Z made bad choices do you really think this is all about him. No one ever comes into a job saying “This company sucks and no matter what I do it won't matter!”

This has been a long time comming and should have happened a while back. This could be the best thing for the company. Nortel is not going to go away, we might call it someting else but it will be around in some shape or form. Don't forget Avaya used to be called something else.

Now I don't disagree with the comments about the road Nortel has taken but it has been that way long before Z. Call a spade a spade!

Agreed.
Z just took the helm of the titanic after it hit the iceberg.
He did however expedite the sinking.
He put some huge holes in it for the water to come in quicker after it hit the iceberg. Both he, the Board, Senior management and for that matter all levels of management at Nortel.
Too much attention is being paid to “how it was” and “what went wrong”.
Who cares who the past CEO's were and who cares how much money they stole or continue to steal by getting bonuses and cheques.
It won't help your situation anyway.
Living in the past is never a good thing. Take it from somebody who knows.
Continue to Rant, but move on.
If you want to get ugly or push somebody take it up with your local MPP or the feds. They and their social systems are the only thing that can help you if you qualify. At least in Canada.

Who cares.
This is Canada. You don’t get prosecuted.
We give terrorists money and asylum.
You really think Frank Dunn will ever see jail time.
Not in your lifetime.

Sounds like the comments of somebody working in the Enterprise, Carrier Voice and UC/Apps?
Nortel has four distinct lines of true business that are either making money or have the potential to do so.
They are CDMA, Optical, LTE and Enterprise. That's it.
The rest is useless crap with the exception of their incredilby large legacy installed base in the field that customers are keeping and sustaining. Any new innovations, plans or projects that are on the drawing board or about to be put on the drawing are in the process of being S***canned. You can count on that. In this environment and Nortels position that is a fact jack. If Nortel management look at it any other way they are proving they will continue to mismanage like they have for the past 10 years or so.
Why do you think Enterprise is the only key asset to survive.
Let's read your argument?

You need certain character qualities to survive as an executive. Charm, wit, ability to lie, ability to tell people everything is good when you are playing russian roulette, ability to turn negatives into positives. Kind of like being president of the U.S. This is why they make big dollars, because for the most part they can fool the average sucker. Kudos to them. Do you realize there are people who think the WWE is real? How these guys milked us, the rewards and bonuses they get is banter for suckers. Either aspire to be like them or state the truth. Look at cops. You need to be arrogant, egotistical and lack sympathy to really excel at that job. That's the way of the world. I said it is fine to rant, but people need to be realistic. I really find it boring and disturbing that so many people whine about how much money Z makes, or bonuses the execs get, or special privileges. Wah Wah Wah. That's the way it is. Either aspire to be one of them or shutup. Your piddly whining voice isn't going to change a thing.
This is capitalism.

But. But. How, where, why, did capitalism sneek in? Canadians have embraced democratic socialism for over a century?

Its virtually foolproof to distract the masses by pointing a calloused finger at “capitalism” in general, which makes the downtrodden gush all noble inside and has 'em organizing protests, waving banners to raise awareness about and garner votes for the New World Order; the global village that, if fully embraced by the moral majority, will most certainly forever eliminate the evil grip of the global for-profit oil corporations on all things good – essentially the speeches of the “I believe” crowd painted red. Everything would be 100% free and non-profit, if only…

To aspire to be like Mike and the BoD would have the masses interpreting “Own It!” by cleaning out everything in their offices and cubicles, including Nortel property: ” 'Wheres the printer?' Its out of ink so we, uh, sent in. It should back in, oh, 6 months.” Because it belongs to the masses.

So different, yet so alike, all these noble masses.

Nay, its ultimately useless, but the proles should (be allowed to) skip the chain of command and publicly support/criticize their bosses as they saw fit at his stage in the game, if only to make them know that they (and their successors) are being watched. Make em at least work at bit more for their ill-gotten gains.

The problem with Nortel they don’t have an access product and there is none in their future. They have no way of delivering great services such as Centex IP, siplines services to the end users. Since, Nortel sold off their dsl access in the 90’s the have been loosing market share as telco’s look for more services to sell to the end users (eg triple play etc). I am expecting them to loose all of their business to other vendors like Calix. The present management team seems to think that the only way to grow the business is to cut jobs rather develop products and can win in the market (eg oc 192). .It’s sad but I don’t see Nortel coming out of bankruptcy unless some major changes are made in direction the company takes.

jamming1,

We've all been here for long enough and seen enough rounds of layoffs to know that long-term future employment is not guaranteed. We did, however, think that those who left would have something to show for their years of hard work

My “expectation” was that we would get some honesty.

I did not expect him to get his spokesman to say that no bankruptcy filing was imminent and then to go ahead and file a few weeks later.
I did not expect him to let people go in November, letting them think that they had some short-term financial security, knowing that they weren't going to see a cent.

I agree. Remove MZ as the CEO.