Nortel is my sinking Titanic!

BANGALORE, INDIA: When a company files for bankruptcy, it is not only the management that gets affected, but hundreds of employees too. Glassdoor.com, is one such website, which saw lot of these employees of Nortel speak out about their company and how lack of vision was downing their Titanic, that they were once proud of.

Out of 166 reviews, almost every present/past employee, had a similar thought that the company was employee friendly, but was misused by the management that tried to derive all the benefits to fill their pockets and let the company survive on the remains.

According to an anonymous employee of Nortel based in Ottawa, the company was very pro-employee. They have good salary, flexible hours, telecommuting, better training and attention was paid to ensuring employees had good soft skills and treated each other with respect. But the employee felt that it was technologically conservative and had stifling innovation environment in the last 10 years and the board had no vision for their company.

Another Nortel Networks employee, who had been with the company as senior technical support engineer till 2007 based in Billerica (Massachusetts), noted, “Nortel provided excellent tuition and reimbursement program. The company gave bonuses to all the employees despite horrendous business climate. But, management was terrible. Often the worst employees in the group were promoted, just to get rid of them. Management did everything wrong, and milked every last dime out of the company they could before everything it completely sank.”

A current employee, who is working as a products manager said that Nortel has been downsizing nonstop since 2001. “People are being laid off without packages or notice and pension plans being underfunded. The moral of remaining employees is at the lowest on any scale,” read the comment.

Another current employee, complaining against the executive management for their inability to chart out focused future plans suggested, “They need to learn to pick one horse, feed the horse, and ride the horse. They have redundant R&D programs that eat up R&D budgets and just confuse the account teams and customers”

Almost six months back in an email to all Nortel employees, Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski hinted that the company might not stay around for a long time, and the learnings from this company should be best used in their coming ventures.

He stated, "...it is clear that there will be fewer players in our industry in the future. It is clear now that Nortel will not be one of them in our current form. For some this will mean a potential path forward in a new home. For others, it will mean an end to the uncertainty and a need to move on to new opportunities. I am confident that this is the truly the best outcome.”

But the employees were not very happy with the CEO's attitude too. “When the Titanic sank the Captain sunk. When Nortel sinks Captain Z jumps ship,” wrote another blogger.

Nortel India, on the contrary, still sails confidently, in the hope that it can escape the iceberg and the storm. It recently won a deal from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) valued at over US$100 million, to put mobile connectivity in the hands of millions of new subscribers in the southern area of the country.

In one of the email interactions, Nortel India country head, Ashish Dhavan asserted that it continues to drive its business in India and globally, with numerous new and existing customer deals signed in the first half of the year.

“The environment is tough, but our customers are still investing in Nortel solutions. A significant percentage of our revenues in the first half has come from our existing customers,” he said.

And it seems that this confidence over the Asia business trickles down on its employees, as the Indian Nortel Employees did not complain much; rather, they suggested that the company should improve its business in Asia region, especially in India.