All About Nortel - Latest Comments in Nortel’s Star: PR

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

InAndOut — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:35:54 -0000

It's all a PR game. As a NT employee who has been trying to go as a permanent teleworker for a few years now, it's almost impossible to do. All sorts of excuses come up, but boy do they take advantage of all the PR teleworking gets them!

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

Tired — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:47:36 -0000

Less - totally agree that not all jobs are suitable for home-based workers. And certainly not all workers are suitable for home-based jobs. And even when telecommuting is appropriate for the individual and the job, there are often instances when its necessary to come into the office or lab and roll up your sleeves with everybody else. But as "Nortel watcher" stated, telecommuting is a great way to balance the workload with your life needs, and it potentially saves money, time, and part of the environment in the process.

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

Tired — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:37:51 -0000

Observer - thanks very much. I think we're all tired now...

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

less — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:38:13 -0000

It depends on what you're doing at Nortel. Not everyone can stay at home. Can you always build another China-bound lab from the safety and comfort of your home? If a link goes down you phone it in, CYA via e-mail, IM it and sit back, just like the Sigma rules dictate. Because "Simplicity trumps Complexity".

What did the telco Neanderthals do ten years ago? Oh, yeah, they wandered down the halls a few cubicles down asked that coworker with a tool pouch:"I got a link down, can you take a look at it?"

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

Observer — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:10:45 -0000

Tired - I agree with you. By the way, I like your name. I too am tired.

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

Nortel watcher — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:14:52 -0000

I've yet to come across a home-based employee who wants to go back to an office setting. The main reason is that you can accomodate a lot of personal items that you could not do or would need permission to do so if working at an office.

From taking an afternoon off because your last business trip took up part of your weekend to babysitting your sick child to taking the car for an oil change or tune-up at 10am on a Wednesday, the perks are there, folks. Like Tired and less say, so long as you don't drop the ball with the important stuff like missing a conference call or a customer appointment , your boss is not going to care.

Those that work more do because they simply choose to. If you read the above Chicago Sun Times article, the employee in the story admits to dedicating the "saved" commuting time to herself(i.e. family) and not to the Company.

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

Tired — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:11:07 -0000

Anybody who thinks working from home means working less is ignorant or has sour grapes. In almost every case I know at just about every company I do business with, home based employees put in more hours (and more productive hours) than office-based employees. And certainly in the long run, anybody who slacks off enough as a home-based employee will be identified as a loser.

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

less — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:55:46 -0000

...so long as your group achieves its weekly units as established by Lean Six Sigma its all good...

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

Mark Evans — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:53:11 -0000

I ran the numbers again just to make sure, and it's $27-million for the 3,000 people who work from home. If everyone worked from home, it would be $270-million.

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

some employee — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:47:32 -0000

telecommuting... yea... what is also referred to as "working at home" which essentially means, you work about 1/2 as much as you would've if you had come into work... the number should really be a loss and not a gain.

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

The Psychiatrist — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:12:39 -0000

Mark- the savings should read more like $270 million a year

Re: Nortel’s Star: PR

Bo Gowan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:12:25 -0000

Mark - by far coolest "PR thing" Nortel has done recently was have BBC come to Dallas to shoot a TV episode about new technology. The PR team got the local fire department involved for a mock emergency, and briefly took over a local employee's house to stage various tech demos. They also got to demo our 100gig solution. You can see more here: http://tinyurl.com/67jpb2