Some Advice for the Departing

By Mark Evans | Published: February 26, 2009

Here’s an e-mail to Nortel employees from Elena King, senior vice-president of human resources:

Following yesterday’s announcement and Mike’s GIS, I’ve had a number of people tell me that it would be helpful to understand in advance how these notifications will be handled and how the process will work this time.

First of all, employees in North America who are impacted will still receive from HR a separation package that outlines details relating to benefits, vacation payout and expense reimbursement. The package will also provide tools and resources to assist them through the transition and plan next steps.

In addition, an external website will be available that includes information such as building resumes, job search tools and job search engines. Notifications will take place either on an individual basis or, where it makes sense, we will have group meetings. Workforce reductions of this scope require difficult decisions as to what work we will stop doing. We can’t just expect significantly fewer people to do the same work we’re doing today.

For that reason, in some cases you will see teams of employees assembled together and notified as a group that their roles are being eliminated. In most instances, employees will have the necessary time (a few hours whenever possible) to collect their personal belongings and remove personal files from their computers before returning the equipment and their security badge to the company. Those with remote managers will get a call from their manager and instructions as to how to return computers, etc.

Affected employees in the U.S. and Canada will continue to have access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) until the end of the month of notification should they require personal or financial counseling. I recognize that knowing how this process will be handled doesn’t make the announcement any easier.

I’m only too aware that while these are critical steps toward restoring financial stability to the company and making it viable into the future, that doesn’t help those loyal Nortel employees who have worked hard through uncertain times and find themselves without work during an economic slowdown. My team and I are working hard to ensure that these difficult actions are managed with care and that to the best of our ability you are given the information you need, when you need it.

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NortelGal

Yes, that's how I see it too. Nortel isn't one entity; it is many product lines, some of which are prospering (yes, even under chapter 11), while others flounder. And to all who would tell us to just go out and get another job: hello…there are no jobs out there! Cisco and Netapp are laying off, among many others The companies that aren't laying off have frozen hiring. Unless we truly are willing to work for McDonalds, there just aren't a lot of options right now. I'd rather continue to do my job as well as I'm able, enjoy the friendship of my co-workers, collect my paycheck, enjoy medical, dental, and vision benefits, and gamble that I'll have a job in the future — either with Nortel or whomever they sell to.

It seems that quite a few here take an oddly perverse pleasure in urging we who still collect a Nortel paycheck to “just quit”. It's all too easy to give advice looking in from outside. I am not at all happy with the BOD or Mike Z or the executives, but believe it or not, I still enjoy my work, find it challenging, and as a result, actually get more from it than just a paycheck.
securityjoe

Well……

NT had its first big day of the axe today and special security was placed around exec offices in the US to ensure the mindless were protected from someone going postal.

Next Tuesday is the big day of bloodletting in NA.

Shite is up. Consider looZer has been in his job for 3 years and still cant put a viable biz plan together. This talk of how it is in the works is BS. There is more happening and I believe (unquoted) that eprise has a buyer and will be disclosed in the next 30 days.

You folks should heed the advice of others. Jobhunt now cause the cash burn rate will get us to CH7 before year end.

NT claims to have significant cash but it is not liquid. Many customers I deal with are laughing at doing biz with unstable NT and the revenue will go down even more due to CH11. Beyond just what the economy is doing.

LTE is a classic example as it was NT's to loose. VZ is NT's #1 customer. LTE was superior tech but Z blew it. Maybe his wife is hot and I could spend an nite with her and forgo my serverance.
less

If you adhere to the time-tried, rote, dim Kumbaya procedure, yeah, the Brains have long ago figured out to ignore 'em.
LonelyOpsGuy

“thankfully I'm not being let go”

Until when? R u MikeZ in a disguise?
LonelyOpsGuy

What? It's cheaper and easier to replace the whole chebang than the risk of one day you see your support or patches vanish.
LonelyOpsGuy

BTW, the installed base card was played 30 rounds ago. It didn't work.
LonelyOpsGuy

Girl, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Chapter 7 is coming even thought no one wants to see it. Especially Captain Z.
LonelyOpsGuy

The rudder has been sold a long time agor for hum….10 cents I believe.
LonelyOpsGuy

This might be an external company that provides this service and it has been paid until the end of the month. Please let me know if I'm right cuz I'm not from NA.
LonelyOpsGuy

“Can you take a few weeks off to develop a healthy body healthy mind, astoundingly profound how jogging as in run for your life can have you think to blow open an unprecedented sense of awreness you never dreamed. Fun stuff with exponentially less pain helps too like ski, swim, tennis, and drill drill drill, and don't do anything stupid in excess like drinking! Short of its very short term medicinal value to handle a severe emotional blow, (like a death in the family) Best decisions take time but do not counter productively dwell or worry. What do you want to do, What can you do. Then do it.”

This is exactly what I've done. You are absolutely right. There is life outside Nortel.

The only piece I disagree with you is the group hug part.
LonelyOpsGuy

Quick tip before you surrender your laptop.

http://www.fileshredder.org/

Cheers,
LonelyOpsGuy

Here's a real piece of advice for the departing. And it's none of the BS in the email above.

http://www.fileshredder.org/

Use it after you've taken your personal files to shred free space data and before you surrender your laptop. You never know where your old laptop will end up.
DRP666

Typical mindless sheep…..wait they knock on your cube and ask for your badge….why don't you and the rest of the sheep grow some and make a stand for something…ah…again..that would take some “initiative” but then again…you're all just sheep. Wait till they string you up and this time…no severance. Don't quit…..take a stand….instead of just waiting….may the Board and Mike Z realize that it's the people that make the company….non of this “I believe” crap……do something that will show everyone whata bunch of crooks are running Nortel…
GrimReaper

The truth is that you don't have any other options, and I guess since you are so great at what you do (powerpoint, I'm guessing?) blabbing with your loser co-workers and collecting a check seems like the right thing to do. Enjoy it now cause it is ending and SOON! Hope you lose your trailor.
GrimReaper

Like what nimrod? You are just spewing nonsense and the truth is that your cushy little cubicle job is ending and it can't come soon enough.
DRP666

like kick your whining geek ass…reaper
GrimReaper

If you could get up off of your fat ass you might stand a chance, but then you have that carpel tunnel from blogging so much. You are a soft nortel punk, go make another latte, you can mow my lawn next week, punk
NortelGal

Actually, I'm a developer. I don't even know Powerpoint. You think you know everything going on at Nortel, don't you? Kinda hard to have 20/20 vision from outside the security gate, though. There's a lot of crap going on, to be sure, but at the worker-bee level, we're just plugging along, doing our jobs, working hard, trying to support our customers. Trailor? What's that? Why in the world do you care what Nortel employees do or don't do? Oh, and for the record, I don't “believe”. I'm as pissed at Zman and his cronies as everyone else is. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy the work I do five days a week. If I didn't, I'd have been gone a long time ago.
GrimReaper

Nah, you wouldn't know how to make it in the REAL world.
scalpcutter

I could pound grim senseless in a heartbeat.
scalpcutter

Why don't you go pay him a visit lucifer.
Maybe you could let him suck on your horns.
GrimReaper

I don't get into the kind of “pounding” that you are referring to gay boy.
scalpcutter

I bet my son could pound you senseless.
scalpcutter

Why don't all you whiners just quit then.
Whining about MikeZ.
Whining about execs.
Go into work and kick someones ass.
Hopefully you can find reaper somehwere and do a number on him.
Be angry.
Be mean.
Be vicious.
Be callous.
Survive, Thrive and Debride.
GrimReaper

Typical cube fag smack talk by a weak, soft, blogger.
sca41335

Something really did happen to you that has made you so upset. How are the anger management classes these days
GrimReaper

I got kicked out for being too angry. However, when the bloodletting happens next week I shall be one happy camper.
GrimReeper

This Grim is giving us other Grims a bad name. He really failed to make it in the Reaping World
xBay

NortelGal,

Cisco is not laying off on a wide scale, but having a global freeze on external hiring. Which, yes, results in job reductions.

And, yes, some people are let go, but it is merely a normal business practice at Cisco.
Nortel_Sucker

The Dim Reaper is back. Too bad your mommy paid your ISP bill this month. Now we have to listen to more of your mindless garble.
Let me guess, your such a jerk off because your mother put you on the potty backwards when you were a kid. You should be grateful for all the EAP money you spent on Shrinks. Too bad it's too late for you to be a man, so instead you choose to be an internet punk. Keep posting here loser, it might help you work through all those years of being bullied.
break_on_through

Well said NortelGal! Many of us still take pride in our work and successes and would prefer to see some form of Nortel (made up of the strongest parts) survive and have a shot at remaining a player and contributing. Not all the parts are a write-off and hopefully this is a very powerful lessons-earned experience that we (all of us, including the Executive) can draw on.

Someone said ealier “Good Products and support = Sales”. I would add “products better than our competitors” and YES we have been able to pull that off (digital, 10 Gb/s, norstar) and can again if we put our collective minds to it. Yes it has been important to focus on the “costs” but IMO we need to refocus on the top line (something deprioritized in recent years). There is the IPR, the people and the will to pull this off. Yes there is bitterness about leadership and direction (but this is hardly unique to Nortel) and we are definitly in trouble on CURRENT financials, but there is potenial for resurrection.

Internally, my observation is Nortel (the working masses) is more about teaming/striving for success, achieving success, serving our customers and being proud about the adoption of our technology. This, plus some damn fine technology and market footprint are tremendous resources that can still be harnessed.

But, we have to REALLY learn from our mistakes of the past and implement change.

That means, IMO, focusing on where we know how to innovate (like high speed optical, carrier VoIP, small line business cpe, etc) improving our offerings (better quality, fill the gaps for competitive and compelling feature set), win as much new business as possible and offer unmatched support to our customers. The working masses know… this what we need to do. Hopefully we get another shot at it.

Finally,

To those of you that think that we-that-are-left-behind are sitting around dazed or blogging all day, you are dreaming in technicolour. We are busting our butts tyring to maintain business and operations in the face of tremendous challenges. Those that are distraught are leaving on their own and of course we have yet another round of layoffs to contend with, and yes we are really pi$$ed about the no severences thing, but we get it, the money is just not there and the law does not prioritize ex-employee needs – that is just a fact.
GrimReaper

Well, at least your name is correct, SUCKER. Because that is what you are. What are you doing up so late, your internet kiddie porn site down? I have a job, what do you LOSERS have to look forward to? Who is the sucker now? Punk yourself, blog boy. hahah. Touch a nerve with you, eh? Are you a Canadian tea drinking fag too?
GrimReaper

Enjoy the last weekend that you have a job, Nortel slugs! Better go buy some hamburger helper and canned goods. No more lattes on your way to work while talking to your fat wives on the cell phone and worrying about how to pay your fat lazy kid's private school tuition! Oh yeah, it's on now! haha……losers!
GrimReaper

Tuesday's Gone With The Wind……
securityjoe

Thank you for contacting Microsoft.

If you want to report a security vulnerability in any Microsoft product or online service; please visit https://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/defa…

Microsoft provides customers with assistance for a broad range of security-related questions and concerns. To receive assistance with helping keep your computer secure from viruses, or if you have other Microsoft product or service security concerns please visit http://microsoft.com/security .
GrimReaper

You just THINK you are not being let go……..
Baudelaire

Mark, a comment like GrimReaper's and his author shold be banned from here. I know th guy must have has serious issues during his childhood, however why not wish avery Nortel or ex Nortel employee a car crash or even a cancer ?

So be it. For what remains, everybody handles the situation the way he can and trys to act with ethics and solidarity towars his colleagues just as with anybody he knows.
exnt_x_2

“…there are no jobs out there! … Unless we truly are willing to work for McDonalds, there just aren't a lot of options right now.”

That's not true. Tim Hortons are always looking for reliable bakers. You're provided with uniforms at no cost and tips aren't that bad in high volume stores. There are always options.
marcopol

“why not wish avery Nortel or ex Nortel employee a car crash or even a cancer ?”

AH !! I would not be surprised that GrimReaper would wish such things. He looks like a fanatic hating the NA way of life.
LonelyOpsGuy

Baudelaire: Trolls are everywhere and there's not much one can do about it. It's better to let him express his short-minded opinions since no one will take him seriously.
LonelyOpsGuy

Why you believer, still believe? Give me reason why you still believe. Even better, give me proof. Buy NT shares with all your savings if you are so much of a believer.

BTW, I'm no longer with Nortel. And when I was, I did everything I could to payback Nortel for the 15 years of salary that allowed me get married, have kids and buy my house.

But reality sometimes is much stronger than belief, don't you agree? Just look at the facts and the evidences surrounding Nortel.

If this restructuring was being done right, the first thing to be done was for MikeZ to set the example and drop his salary and instead receive compensation in stock.

And while we are talking about setting the right example, keeping Hackney on board after the parking lot incident, was a real blow in the company ethics. So much that the Chief Ethics Officer left the company over it.

Also, can you explain why was MikeZ using the company jet “after” Chap 11?

Why should we still believe? It's not about Nortel itself, it's who is running it and the decisions they are making.

Replace the BoD and MikeZ and then you will see a change in tone of the comments being posted here. I'm pretty sure it will be a ton of positive and constructive comments on how to help Nortel overcome this.
Anonymous

Thanks, break_on. It’s nice to read a thoughtful and intelligent post here, and you’re exactly right about what we in the trenches are seeing and doing on a day-to-day basis at Nortel now. Most of the workday is spent — get this — doing actual work, not blogging, gossiping, or spewing hate. The noise to signal ratio has gotten out of hand here on AAN in the past few days. Actually, if just a coupla trolls would go back under their bridges, AAN would be a happy place again….
DRP666

“Really pissed about severance but we get it”…..what a load of crap. wait till it's your turn and you don't get severance. Then we'll see how you feel about all the money that Mike Z and the board has spent and is spending on other useless things. Meanwhile, people can't feed their familiy cause EI hasn't kicked in yet and while they have lasted all those rounds busting their ass to help the company, their freinds back at the ranch “get it” instead of getting off your ass and forcing Nortel to at least pay the legislated minimums on severance. You support a corrupt management team that treats employees like dirt just so you can keep your “but busting” job…..waiting in line at Timmy for hours and wasting time working hard….. You and your kind make me sick…..
Baudelaire

Apparently the Grim has been Ripped: Thx Mark for the effort. Besideds that I must admit the numbers given are surprising me: I did expect higher numbers, not that I hoped it, but… Let's wait and see how those numbers get structured (or re-structured-))
DRP666

What is it with the remaining employees and their pathetic attitude. I heard some applauded at a GIS when “no severance” was confirmed for those layed off..What kind of mindless attitude is this? Support the corrupt management while your fellow employees don't even get legistalted minimuns on severance to feed their families while they try to find a job in this market. Wait till it's your turn and you don't get severance. Then we'll see how you feel about all the money that Mike Z and the board has spent and is spending on other useless things…continue taking FULL million dollar salaries. Meanwhile, people can't feed their familiy cause EI hasn't kicked in yet and while they have lasted all those rounds busting their ass to help the company, their friends back at the nerd ranch support their corript leaders…..instead of getting off your ass…holding a strike day or refuse to go into work 1 lousy day and forcing Nortel to at least pay the legislated minimums on severance. You support a corrupt management team that treats employees like dirt just so you can keep your “butt busting” job…..waiting in line at Timmy for hours and wasting time working hard….. You and your kind make me sick…..
Baudelaire

Well you sound almost polite now… I do not know exactly if what you say about Nortel employees is true, not being one of them, but I heard that in the past the severance packages allocated to people leaving have been quite high. Maybe this explains that ? I guess given the cash figures they are in, if they go on the same old way with packages and severances, the company is really bankrupt and it turns out the same way so… I am not pretending anything but this may explain some employee's and maybe your frustration. Sounds legitimate in a way. But that's life, some people choose to stay, some others to leave, some others did not choose. On the other hand, it does not excuse some top management's fellow attitude with respect to base pay, some sharper initiative would have been welcomed if they had wanted to demonstrate true leadership and a true sens of honour and not humour. My opinion: the best that can happen now for regular employees who'd stay is that once the suffer of the restructuring is away, the whole stuff is sold piece by piece for a faire price and all the top management gets back home with the recognition they deserve (meaning hopefully they'll be black listed on the market)
exnt_x_2

Meanwhile, people can't feed their familiy [sic] cause EI hasn't kicked in yet …”

There are food banks that can help. And there are a number of community kitchens where you can get meals if you're not able to pay for them. It's not quite like the soup kitchens of the 1930's, but they are there to help.
DRP666

I'm talking about at least legislated minimums of severance….not zero….can't you read. Yes, packages were relatively fair for people with less than 10 years of service…..not as much for those with more years of service….but to give ZERO instead of at least legislated minimums is criminal ….while they go one their merry way, execs still making obscene amounts and sheep menatlity staffing following till they get cut as well.. now I know why desk jockey is using Adolf as his example…..same mindless followers were behind him. Why can't the existing staff say …enough is enough…….shut down work and stand up for their rights……what else are they waiting for. Instead they turn a blind eye to those left without any minimal severance and go home to pray they aren't next…..something is wrong here…don't you agree???
DRP666

You are missing the point….the management have acted in criminal way and if Canada is such a great place then others would see it is criminal as wel…..instead….you say…such is life….go to a food bank….what a moron…
break_on_through

We don't support or condone the action or like it one bit. – we just understand what's behind it, lack of money, creditors higher up the list and lack of legislation. If there IS legislation that is relevant, we are all ears. Don't presume to know who/what we do or do not support or why because you are not one of us. Your allusion that the working ranks are all enjouying life at the “ranch” and merrily plotting how to advance our selves by screwing our co-employees is interesting but not true.

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