Bell Canada Reviews in Ottawa, ON Area

Pros

Large corporation, lots of opportunities for internal promotion. Large scope of work, large opportunity to find a position better suited to personal preference. Better-than average compensation, good middle management.

Cons

A lot of downsizing, top management doesn't seem to have decided on org structure for certain departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop downsizing, let people calm down and concentrate on their work.

Pros

great family-work balance in terms of working from home

Cons

my experience has been hugely discriminatory in terms of career advancement, development and achievement towards women.

Advice to Senior Management

employees are not chess pieces to be moved from one career function to another. If you are re-organizing more than once every couple of years (and you are!) you are shuffling too often!

Pros

Leaders in Information Security and Service Oriented Infrastructure.

Cons

Big Blue Elephant takes a while to move.

Advice to Senior Management

Break agreements on property management to control your operations. And move your business out of your operational infrastructure.. it'll improve information security vulnerabilities and remove the overwhelming power consumption.

Pros

opportunites to move around
learning opportunities

Cons

Everyone now works remotely making it difficult to bounce ideas off of co-workers and work on resolving issues fact to face. If one wants to talk to someone else, must book an appointment in their outlook calandar and they are always "busy". . People are stressed and overworked thanks to downsizing. They have developed a culture of blaming someone else when something goes wrong. Some managers have really big egos. Not a lot of support for anyone on a learning curve.

Used to work at Bell years ago, but the culture has changed - people are mean now.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop looking for scapegoats to blame when things go wrong. If you hire a contractor don't expect them to hit the pavement running. Contractors aren't going to know your IT systems inside out and all the quirky business rules that went into deveolping them unless they worked on developing those systems before. If you have special "rules of engagement" such as "cannot take any time off" or I must be informed of events on an hourly basis, tell that to the contractor, don't assume they will know or figure it out. Maybe the company should look at hiring people for the long haul instead of picking up contractors on 3 month terms. Can't accomplish much with terms like that.

Pros

At first the management might appear competent

Cons

They canceled the contract within a week without any reason

Advice to Senior Management

hire some competent people for mid management.

Pros

The chance to work with professional and knowledgeable people in a workplace environment which fosters communication. Most times, the ability to get an answer from another team, group, or division is receptive and responsive in that most understand that we are all working for the same company. The technology and infrastructure that you get to work with and have an impact on makes the work more enjoyable and to be able to work towards a goal that (hopefully) realizes gives each team motivation to show up every day without turning it into a mindless grind.

Cons

The vastness of the company makes it difficult sometimes to introduce change in new technology, methodology, and to realize the transition of new products and services. Bureacracy, regulations, and fierce competition can cause frustrations sometimes, but they are the nature of the business.

Advice to Senior Management

Over the last few years, there has been too much bureacratic and political maneouvering at the higher echelons. A clear direction and providing necessary tools for research and development is necessary to move forward, not backwards.

Pros

Pay and Benefits...other than that nothing

Cons

Incompetent senior mgmt, slash mentality, executive top heavy, no respect for employees even after 30 years. The company has taken a different direction than it was 10 years ago, it was all about customer service and the employees..now it is all about the bottom line. Sabia brought this company to it's knees fattened up the upper ranks and made so many silos that most of the time you had NO idea of who to call to get something done, it was too process driven, too slow to react to the market...too much red tape. Now that the takeover deal has died...Sabia walks away a VERY rich man.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake UP!

Pros

If you want to be able to sell with the ease of an incumbent, this is where to be. It is incredibly easy.
For really good people you can stand out in the crowd of the usual suspects.
There are allot of very smart people working for Bell Canada, not always with the right reason for being in mind.

Cons

Processes, processes and more processes. They are drowning in their own process.
Systems are archaic and need to be implimented in order to stop the many meetings it takes to get anything done.
Also it is a very immature organization from a sales perspective.

Advice to Senior Management

Get everyone out in front of their customers, noone knows you are selling hats to each other.
Innovators challenge, stop thinking you will be successful doing the same things over and over again.

Pros

financial renumeration and the benefits package

Cons

communication is lacking, one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, promotions are done on the buddy system not on qualifications

Advice to Senior Management

better screening of employees from both a union and management perspective due to poor management and lack of knowledge in leadership skills. More question periods and interactive sessions with employees from all levels of management including executive level