Sprint Nextel Reviews in Kansas City, MO Area

Pros

They talked up work/life balance, and in comparison to my current positions with startups, I did not know how good I had it. Ample time off, all standard holidays, and even informal comp time for after hours support.

Cons

They are clearly going through some hard times, and the company has never been shy about laying off staff. It seems that they are obsessed with outsourcing all their IT services, even though it seems to fail each and every time they try it. At this point, I think they're just trying to pare down to make themselves an acquisition target.

Advice to Senior Management

Devices, devices, devices. The network is awesome, but that network is not a selling point if it can not help people do what they want to do. Missing out on the iPhone was a monstrous opportunity lost, but making sure hot devices like the Evo continue to land on the new network is very important.

Pros

Good experience to work for a large company, beautiful campus, mid-level management offers encouragement about being hired as employee

Cons

Senior Management does not seem to be invested in developing a work force that will be committed for the long term. The system encourages high turnover of contractors. My contractor company offers no benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

At least offer discounts on Sprint plans/phones to contractors. Review practices of contractor companies to determine if they are compatible with corporate policies and goals of employee retention.

Pros

Sprint Nextel pays very well and is very flexible when it comes to a work/life balance. The Sprint campus is a beautiful place to work with many outdoor fountains and places to relax and eat lunch. The Spritn fitness center is three stories and a great addition to the employee benefits!

Cons

The thought of being laid off is always in the back of my mind. Although we are doing much better as a company, Sprint has a history of being cut-throat when it comes to laying people off.

Advice to Senior Management

Sener management at Sprint ex: CEO, CFO, and all other officers need to show their faces around the Sprint campus more often. It shows your employees that you're willing to interact with them and you care for how hard they have been working to bring Sprint back to a world wide telecommunications competitor.

Pros

The company is a recovering powerhouse and will be a force in wireless for years to come. Really talented people at HQ and across country. Incredible 30 billion dollar loss from Nextel merger set back the company finances at least 10 years but rebuilding strategy is working. Great training, great health insurance, dental and vision and good work experiences in my 11 years there.
Even if you are in the wrong area and are targeted for a layoff the separation packages include benefits that are the best I have seen in any industry. 10 or 20 free phones and plans for family and friends are a great reward to have.

Cons

Layoffs over the years have pushed a lot of good people out or to outsource provider companies. The cut of 401K match, reduced bonus payouts, and loss of employee stock options for middle management after the Nextel merger also made it harder to stay.

Advice to Senior Management

reward your midlevel individual contributors with stock options as was the previous policy. Reissuing and repricing old stock options which was approved by shareholders this year was a step in the right direction.

Pros

Compensation and benefits are great compared to most other companies in KC. You don't really have to work that hard. There is a lot of dead weight even with the layoffs so doing a "pretty good" job makes you better than lots of others. Easy to have work/life balance.

Cons

The job bands are really wide so you probably aren't going to get promoted. There are frequent layoffs which is bad for morale. It's very political and very siloed and can be hard to feel like you are accomplishing much besides meetings. There are a lot of employees who are dead-weight who have been sitting there for 10 year and are never going anywhere and have no incentive to work so it can be hard to get things done.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't really have any advice. Sprint will be Sprint. It's not going to change and no manager can change it, so just be aware of what it is and work there if that's acceptable to you.

Pros

Sprint is a great place to get a taste of the real world in the Dilbert age.

Cons

Sprint will work you to the bone (as will most companies these days). The management in place is generally those who were politically connected to avoid getting laid off. Not the cream of the crop.

Advice to Senior Management

Fresh blood. You want growth in that company? Get rid of your dead wood!

Pros

1) People genuinely care about their peers.
2) Interesting industry.

Cons

1) Middle management has no idea what they're doing. Unfortunately the high performing Directors and VPs all left. While there are still some good ones, many of the rest are incompetent people more concerned about protecting themselves than advancing the business.
2) Management is unwilling to make difficult decisions, often choosing what is politically convenient over something that is sound financially or technically.
3) Tends to outsource problems - not solve them.

Advice to Senior Management

Sprint had a great opportunity to make aggressive change in its Network, but unfortunately they have chosen again and again to wring their collective hands and fail to tackle the difficult problems. I think the new senior management team (which seems genuinely motivated) needs to clean house, especially in the Directory and Manager space. Get some high performing people with incentives for long term improvement (not short term) to tackle the hard issues.

Stop outsourcing your problems - you're a technology company, manage your technical people instead of sending them to other companies.

Pros

free phones are nice. sprint is an innovator and doesn't have the ma bell mentality of some of its larger competitors

Cons

sense of entitlement from the 'old guard' employees. the company isn;t growing, so there is a lack of opportunities there.

Advice to Senior Management

buy back clearwire... it's the only way Sprint is going to maintain a competitive foothold in the future of the wireless industry.

Pros

Great people for the most part.

Cons

Still struggling it seems without any vision or direction at the top. High-level leaders dont seem to care about keeping good employees. Very little flexibility for a "work anywhere" company. Constant re-work of the same ideas over and over again with no success.

Advice to Senior Management

Join the best employers by allowing more flexibility to employees to work anywhere. They are more productive that way!

Pros

Phone program and benefits were great

Cons

Poor management and unfair treament to employees

Advice to Senior Management

They should appreciate the talent that they have. The numerous layoffs only tend to target the people that want to contribute, but they continue to keep the people that just do the minimum to get by