Comments on: Thanks for Coming Out…Not

By: oldfaithfull

oldfaithfull — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:40:42 +0000

I worked for Nortel in Enterprise sales for 9 years (2000 – Nov. 2009), I jumped ship just before going to Avaya. Nortel was an awesome place to work, yes I started in the hype year, thought I has won the lottery when I received my official job offer letter. To the last day, I was still proud of all of the accomplishments this company made. I feel for the guy not getting even a pat on the back for the 30 years, and great to see his wife stick up for him, but their are only a few companies left who recognise that sort of thing – the old CN Rails, Bell Canadas, Canada Post…
Work is what you make of it. And at Nortel, i can only be greatfull of the wounderful times I had and great friends and surprisingly (almost ignorantly) loyal customers.

congrats on the 30 years.

By: oldfaithfull

oldfaithfull — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:40:42 +0000

congrats on the 30 years.

By: sadandmad

sadandmad — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:18:29 +0000

Greed is the only 'core value' that Nortel execs, Sr Management and BoD have used as their moral guiding principle. Some of the nasty, heartless remarks below show how greed has colored the value system of corporate North America and rotted it to the core. You can't take it with you people and those who sincerely worked hard over the years to build and grow inspite of the collossal greed around them are the real heros. It is these solid, reliable workers that will get us out of the mess we are in today. Those flash in the pan types like Z-man and his cronies will just have a lot of money to spend on finding happiness in the face of the disasters in their personal lives … it's called Karma. They will not get to 'enjoy' even one penny of it

By: less

less — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:56:15 +0000

The ceremony at which Clarice Starling received her official FBI badge after bringing down Buffalo Bill was low-key, even austere.

Near the end, Nortel seemed to have strongly discouraged any dialogue whatsoever between the rank-and-file and their superiors, who weren't provided any news to give, either.

By: less

less — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:01:42 +0000

Z was at Nortel for 3 years and bagged a whole bunch nothing. And now hes wounded and needs another 12 mio. Excessive? No, says you.

By: techorama

techorama — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:43:37 +0000

“If you don't like this, complain to the government for allowing this sort of thing to happen”

Are you joking? there's not a day goes by when the federal MPs, Finance Ministers,cabinet ministers etc are not contacted by the groups of wronged ex-employees. There have been at least half a dozen banner waving protests on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and at Queen's Park in Toronto. There are a number of pressure groups trying to get changes made to bankruptcy law in Canada. I agree that whining about the execs, or the BoD, or the bankruptcy courts, or complaining on the the AAN blog are all a waste of time. But so far there has been little poltical progress made.

By: scalppeeler

scalppeeler — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:39:28 +0000

Who gives a **** about a letter of congratulation.
Are you going to frame it next your winning lottery ticket.
Show me the money or Show me some security.
If my only worry in life or piece of bad news was not getting a letter
of thanks or congratulations from my employer I'd be a happy camper probably
with nothing but a few solveable or non impacting problems in life.

By: ddines

ddines — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:09:53 +0000

Corporate greed at its finest. The US companies are not the only ones who specialize in it.

By: KayToo

KayToo — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:51:23 +0000

30 years of service is a badge of honor. You would have needed to be a very valuable employee to have lasted that long in today's economic climate.

Previous negative comments just show how attitudes of workers have had to change to accommodate a world where an employee has become a disposable commodity. It is not a reflection of a better or improved capitalism.

A famous American sociologist recently stated on a CBC radio program that conservative pension plans which not a long time ago would hold a stock for 4 years were now holding stocks for on the average 4 months. This reflects today's economic environment attitudes are fostered to answer to the very short term demands of the market and not the long term best interests of the company.

This is a problem. Company's like Nortel did the long term R&D needed to develop many important next generation products. Without the long view, much worthwhile innovation will be lost and the economic system will be poorer for it. ( Before some of you puff up too much here, let me acknowledge Nortel is guilty of a multitude of other sins which have put it where it is today. )

Many companies today are consuming themselves, burning to satisfy short term greed. These companies will likely implode, leading to more recessional malaise. Hopefully, new firms with the long view in mind, that do reward company loyalty, will grow to fill the breach.

By: techorama

techorama — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:55:07 +0000

I agree that we shouldn't have to ration our sympathies, but what it this person really saying? They didn't expect a trinket or bauble, they just wanted a thank you, and quite rightly so. Which means that they have a really poor manager who knows nothing about person management and team building. Any half decent manager would have said “congrats, let's go out to lunch on me”. There's still some half decent managers in Nortel, but there's clearly a load of crap ones too.

This is not an issue on the scale of the corporate malfeasance, executive incompetence, legalized theft, loophole exploitation, greed and screwing of the vulnerable that has been going on for the last 12 months.