Nortel Insider – by Desk Jockey

In yet another stunning example of management’s corruption and their total willingness to absolve themselves from responsibility, today we have learned that Nortel executives have petitioned the court to hire Mercer “pay consultants”.

These consultants will cost the company anywhere from $225 to $800 an hour for their ridiculous services. In a time where severances have been cut and employees told to save every dollar, nickel and dime for the sake of the company this is yet another slap in the face of those most loyal to the company. First it was the news of Mike Z’s outrageous private jet usage at the cost of $1 million a month (yes $1 million, don’t believe that “incremental cost” BS) even after Nortel filed for Ch.11, and now this! How much more corruption will we learn of?

Here’s what the PRopaganda dept. had to say about it:

A Nortel spokesman added: “In order to execute a highly complex restructuring program, Nortel has sought counsel from experts with specific experience working with companies who have successfully managed their business while under creditor protection.”

Translation: We don’t know what we’re doing, but don’t worry we can throw money at the problem.

But wait, it gets worse:

The company says in the filing that Mercer has “substantial knowledge of (Nortel’s) current operational condition,” which could help it design an incentive plan for key employees.

So, the executive hires these outrageously priced consultants to let them determine how much the bonus should be for the “key employees” e.g. the executives themselves! Yet another devious trick to continue to profit off the downfall of this company!

But this is all part of their plan to wash their hands of any blame. Just like they blamed the decision to remove severance on the “financial advisors” that told them to do so, they will now happily accept huge bonuses even as Nortel flounders through BK protection and say “Hey, we didn’t decide who got bonuses, the consultants did!“

In recent days, there have been accusations leveled at me for being hateful, disloyal and unfaithful towards Nortel. Others have even gone as far as to as blame me for the downfall of the company. I would like to take some time to refute these claims.

Firstly, let me say that I am a loyal employee of Nortel.  Of course, those could just be words, so what exactly does that mean? It means that I have enjoyed working here from day one.  It means that I enjoy the company of my coworkers and enjoy the environment provided by work.  It means that I have been happy to work hard, overtime into evenings and weekends on many occasions, to help the company achieve its goals.

It means that I am proud of the Nortel name and what it represents.  When people ask me, “Where do you work at?”, I can proudly reply that “I work for Nortel!”  Their response, however, is invariably the same: I see it in their faces.  A slight wince, and slight aura of unease as they try to find the right words to say in reply, as if they were talking to someone who had just disclosed to them that they had contracted an incurable disease. 

None of this bothers me, though, since I am proud of the company I work for.  So I happily dispel their awkwardness by explaining to them that although Nortel’s reputation and position has suffered because of the actions of a criminal few, the vast majority of employees are smart, hard working and loyal.  These are the people who have built Nortel through their years of tireless service.

It is true that I have been critical of management.  In particular, I have spent much time pointing out the flaws of the current management, since under their tenure Nortel has seen its decline turn into a near-complete destruction.  But to accuse me of hating this company would be akin to accusing someone of being unpatriotic because they disagreed with the policies of the Bush Administration during its period in office.

Just as it is completely illogical to accuse someone of “aiding the terrorists” because they do not agree with specific government policies, it does not make any sense to accuse me of “aiding competitors” because my opinions do not align directly with those of upper management.

On the contrary, it is because I am so faithful to Nortel that I am most upset at how upper management has mistreated, and continues to mistreat, its most loyal employees and has driven the company into bankruptcy.  Furthermore, their continued abdication of any level of responsibility is an outrage to many.  Just today, this comment was posted in response to my Open Letter to Mike Z:

The National Post said today that Nortel had moved in bankruptcy court to permit Nortel employees to continue to cash in their Nortel loyalty points – Nortel argues that it keeps up morale if workers can cash in points for trips and sports tickets.

My father worked for Northern for 37 years. He has been on a pension of $1600 a month for 20 years or so.
It is thought that his pension (which by the way was non-negotiable AND he couldn’t add more into it either) will be considered an unsecured debt and he’ll be lucky to get cents on the dollar.

SO, MORALE SHOULD BE VERY VERY LOW WHEN PENSIONERS WHO BUILT THE COMPANY ARE GOING TO BE TURNED OUT ON THE STREET…..sports? trips??? OMG

My dad worked at Nortel BEFORE THE UNIONS. He was sent home twice a year (10 days at Christmas and 2 weeks int he summer) from all the remote Canadian locations they sent him to. I was in my late teens before he got a fair promotion – then they sent him home every 3 or 4 months and after another two promotions, every two weeks.

So the guys making the least had to subsidize Nortel when it needed them far away.

AND THESE ARE THE GUYS who are losing their pensions.

But Nortel is arguing that sales guys should get commissions and workers get their points.

What a generation!!! No knowledge of the history of their own company!!! No conscience….No sense of respect for the elderly —- just tickets to a sports game

I am beyond horrified.

To my detractors, I put this question: Would you dare accuse this person or their father of disloyalty to Nortel? Would you consider them to be unfaithful or hateful of Nortel? 

What this commenter has said is 100% true.  The acts of management are not only destroying the lives of many employees, but they are destroying the whatever remains of Nortel’s reputation.  What positive things can be said of a management that disregards the very people who worked so hard to build the company that they inherited!

In the Kübler-Ross model, denial is the first phase that most people go through when faced with a tragedy.  Initially created to describe the behavior of patients diagnosed with a terminal illness, it has since been applied to explain people’s actions in the face of any great emotional strife.

This model can be used to explain much of the behavior of current Nortel employees, ourselves included, in the face of the current crisis and most recent news.  The five phases of Kübler-Ross model are as follows:

• Denial
  Example: “Nortel won’t go bankrupt!  The management has continually reiterated this to employees and shareholders!”
• Anger
  Example: “I made financial plans thinking Nortel was good for at least another 1-2 years… what am I going to do? How am I going to provide for my family? Why was I lied to?”
• Bargaining
  Example: “I’m just working so that at some point I can collect the severance and pension that I deserve.” 
• Depression
  Example: “Honey, I don’t want you get upset, but they laid me off today… yeah, I don’t get any severance and much of my pension is really a question mark at this point… at this point I just don’t want to have anything to do with this company.”
• Acceptance
  Example: “Nortel was the company I started with and they had a great legacy.  But that doesn’t mean I have to stay attached to it; there are plenty of opportunities for a hard working person such as myself.” 

To be precise, different people deal with tragedy in different ways.  Some might spend less time in one stage (or even skip over it completely) on their path to recovery.  But it seems that many are in the denial stage right now.  We know what this feels like.

Initially, we were hopeful that the current executive team would be able to lead us through the crisis.  After all, they seemed sincere enough, and determined just as much as any employee to set things right.  But as time went on, and news began to leak out, it became obvious that their actions were far different from their words.  At this point, “Denial” was no longer an option for the rational thinkers out there.

With the developments of the past week, we find it difficult to understand how some can persist with this denial phase, both inside and outside of Nortel. Take, for example, this comment on AAN:

“With $2.6 Billion is cash, they can easily afford the interest payment. The bankruptcy statements are pure speculation.” – User TongueInCheek, 2 days before the BK filing.

Even after this claim was proven wrong with the filing of bankruptcy protection by Nortel, this user continued their pattern of denial, with this comment:

“Will employees even get paychecks anymore? Why would you make such a disgusting and ignorant comment?” – User TongueInCheek, deriding another commenter for daring to ask if employee paychecks would be disrupted by the bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, this claim was again proven wrong when Nortel failed to deliver paychecks to US employees on time, the very next day after this comment was made.  Here, we have demonstrated a clear pattern of denial, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.  Yet this person persists in their line of thinking.  Why?

The Kübler-Ross model provides some explanation.  Denial is a defensive mechanism – some people just cannot cope with the sudden impact of tragedy, especially when they have been continually deceived and misinformed by the executive management, a group one should normally trust.  This isn’t an attempt to put down or criticize those in denial or those who cannot cope – these are legitimate feelings and everyone is subject to them at one point or another.

Instead, this is a direct criticism of upper management.  They have abused the trust given to them by manipulating the very people who ought to trust them the most: The employees.  This has resulted in not only the financial destruction of thousands of employees’ futures, but also untold mental and emotional anguish.  

Even with the latest news of bankruptcy, management continues their pattern of deceit, hoping to snag the few remaining who still trust them, in order to be able to use and manipulate them one last time.  This has unfortunately manifested itself in the sincere, but misguided “I believe” campaign, a supposedly grassroots effort by employees to show that they still have faith in Nortel. 

We have our doubts about the authenticity of this campaign, but assuming it is true, it only demonstrates how desperate the situation has become.  Simply “believing” will not solve the years of trouble that the current management has created.  We “believed” in Mike Z. when he first came on board, promising change and progress.  However, to use a stock phrase, actions speak louder than words, and Mike Z.’s actions spoke almost completely in the opposite direction of his words.  Integrity? Ethics? Why is Joel Hackney still on board then? Why was he promoted after his brazen attack on a female college student?

We have questioned the irrational decisions of upper management, and the “believers” responded by deeming us to be “unbelievers” and unproud of the Nortel name.  To these people we say this:  We question upper management not because we are ashamed for our company, but because we are proud of it.  We are proud of the Nortel name, what it means, and what it stands for – and this is why we are so upset to see it tarnished by the likes of the current executive.  We want to see Nortel succeed; but leaving it under the reigns of total incompetence is not the way to do so.  

We dare say this:  Those who blindly follow and criticize/censor those who would question the seemingly infallible truth of upper management, only to see their deceit revealed time after time, are the ones who are complicit in the downfall, not the ones who stand up for the truth and what it represents.

Sometimes, the truth does hurt.  And it does not come easy.  But it is always better to embrace the truth sooner, rather than later, no matter how painful it is.

Or, more accurately, the day after the day after. But the present title seemed more fitting and succinct.  After Nortel’s spectacular collapse into bankruptcy on Jan. 14th (something that was denied again and again by management until it was required to be made known by law), many questions still remain. 

True, Mike Z. held a GIS immediately following the filing, and individual business unit leaders held GISes the following day, but neither of these addressed the fundamental questions that employees have been demanding, and deserving, the answer to.

Questions such as:

• How and why did Nortel get to where it is currently? 
• Is anything being done to rectify the root cause?
• How will you avoid a liquidation?
• How should employees plan for the future?

Do not misunderstand us; there was plenty of talk on both days, but it amounted to a lot of useless blather and repetitive phrases that everyone has heard.  In fact, save for the initial opening statements, much of what was said was almost exactly the same as in previous GISes, such as the one after its diastrous Q3 2008 results. 

There was not a mention of the word “bankruptcy”; instead such euphemisms as “financial restructuring” and “sound footing” were used.  Let’s be clear here: Most employees are fed up with this sort of white washing.  We are not children and we are certainly not so incapable of hearing the truth. Unfortunately, due to the continued behavior of management in this manner, many simply do not believe anything that comes from them anymore.

Even more appalling was the tone with which the current news was delivered.  Rather than accept responsible for their actions that have led to this most tragic outcome, management had the gall to phrase the current news release in the following manner:

“Nortel must be put on a sound financial footing once and for all” – Mike Z.

It’s almost as if management just happened to find Nortel in this dismal shape and decided to ride in on a white horse to save the day.  Never mind the past 3+ years of mismanagement and utter disregard for employee morale.  And blaming the current economic crisis is just an attempt to red herring the responsibility away.  As this report from Gartner notes, things were bad far before the credit crisis hit.  We would go as far as to say that the recession has benefited management, by giving them the scapegoat they were looking for.

Without acknowledging responsibility, we are left with two explanations for the behavior of management, neither of which are good.  Either they truly believe they are doing a great job (and are just unlucky), or they are continuing their pattern of deception, manipulation and propaganda.  In the first case, they would be delusional; God help us all if that is the reality.  In the second case, they would be corrupt, and thus fitting for immediate removal.

I do have to give them credit for honesty in one area.  When asked by an employee whether the contractually promised severance would be paid out in the event of being laid off, the answer was a succinct  ”No”, without a hint of remorse, regret or pity.