Sprint Nextel cutting jobs as shares fall

I think Dan is doing okay so far. I don't agree with him all the time and his ideas of cost cutting are cut benefits, cut pay, cut staff. Lets also cut executive positions and managment positions above the supervisory level. The folks running the company are not doing a good job so lets start to weed them out. I read someone say there would be a 6.7% RIF. Last year when we had a 7% RIF my organization saw a 25% reduction with some of those being ultimately outsourced to India. If we see another 25% cut in our department this year I think we will see real deterioration in our customer base as things will slow even more. Lets see some focus on new customer additions, stop the fire sale chatter and restore some confidence in our large enterprise customers. It also will not help that soon we will be seeing the beginnings of mass defections from government agencies since Forsee and company was not able to get Sprint on the Networx Enterprise contract for the GSA. More bad news and yet another about half a billion dollars a year out the door coming soon. Thank you to all the executives who are more concerned with the square footage of your office then with growing the business.

Does not matter if you are customer facing or not. I am customer facing as are most people in the department I work in and all received invitations for VSP. So either HR has no clue or this non customer facing talk is just window dressing.

The stock price for S is currently at $1.67. And that's a 22% rise!

WTF?

The employees are not the problem; Upper management is.

You've got a bunch of gray haired suits in Kansas City running S and they haven't had a clue for nearly a decade.

Sprint is looking to reduce its head count by 6.7% by years end.

Nicely put.

Before you post such rubbish you should get your facts correct.

The merger went sour because of massive culture divisions. Forsee could not merger the two companies because there was and still is a fundamental difference between people that work on iDEN and people that work on CDMA. To be very up front and honest the culture hoovers around the technology. Nextel was born from the two-way personal, a very large amount of Nextel employees got their start with Motorola. Motorola shut down is field service group nationally and a very large number of the people that worked for Motorola slid over to Nextel, from directors all the way down to the people cleaning the floors. In many ways Nextel was a child of Motorola. On the other hand Sprint was a phone company that had the phone company way of thinking, big corp thugs telling everyone what to do. Sprint was the poster boy for the top down way of thinking. Nextel was the poster boy of allowing local talent to work local issues and when help is needed help was given from the HQ, very much the Motorola way. Motorola was founded in 1928 and from its birth has always seeded the idea of hiring talent and allowing said talent to be part of the company and not drill down orders from the HQ to the troops. Not so much the case with Sprint. When we merged it became clear what was what. Uneder Nextel cost were cut by getting ride of massive red tap, ridding the company of redundant process and tools. In one case Sprint was updating 9 databases by hand, people were logging into 9 tools and CP the same info into them. Come to find out one tool was really being used, but a few here and a few there were using the other tools. Each one of these tools cost Sprint money. Nextel members came in and said, hey why not just move all the other groups to one tool. The answer we got all the way up to market VP level and beyond, "KC said we must use all these tool so if they say so we have to do it." Three years later we are now down from 9 tools for the same thing to 4. I can tell you there are 4 tools I must using to input the same data, only one of them is truly being used by everyone, the other three tools are a waste of money and time. This is just one example of many.

Sprint had its ways and it worked for the way Sprint did things, Nextel had its ways and it worked for the way they did things. The worst thing the merger did was to try to put the two together. I firmly think that if Nextel and Sprint just would of shared the pie and kept these tow companies apart Sprint Nextel would be number two by now. I think Dan should consider splitting up the CDMA and iDEN, give both technologies good OPEX and CAPEX budgets and get on with it. We do this with our trans-ops group why not with CDMA - iDEN?

I am not trying to bash one side or the other, I am just pointing out Sprint and Nextel is like oil and water, time to make both of these teams the best they can be!

The Sprint Nextel merger will go down as one of the worst in US history. Sprint (Forsee) and his band of loons knew that the Nextel network was going down the drain. However, they still spent 35 Billion on it so that the Exc could line their pockets and get out before the company went to hell. The top folks walked away with millions and 95% of them are no longer with the company. Heck, Gary Forsee is still drawing a $80,000 per month salary from Sprint and he will for the rest of his life, after he ruined it. How can the man look himself in the mirror every morning. He has cost many good employees their jobs because of his and his band of loons greed.

It is clear you never worked for Sprint or Nextel. The fact that you said "the CDMA and GSM technology of Sprint and Nextel" tell me as much. Sprint and or Nextel do not or did not operate a GSM network. If you worked for them you never would have made this kind of mistake. You are a fraud and a phony!

In my market we started with 9 engineers after the merger. 4 were from Nextel and 5 were from Sprint. We now have 6 engineers, 5 from Sprint and 1 from Nextel. In my market after the merge we had a Nextel director and a Sprint Director. We only have one now and it is a Sprint Director. The FO in my market had a total of 26 technicians, 12 were from Nextel and 14 were from Sprint. Currently there are 18 technician, 6 Nextel techs and 12 Sprint technicians. It is clear that in my market that many of the Nextel people were either shown the door or moved on. My friend in the midwest says the same thing happened there. The point is as others have pointed out, the people that knew something have left Sprint Nextel. I don't know what the impact is, but my gut tells me it is not a good thing.

The order had come down for a RIF
The VP's were all in a tiff
Let's make it voluntary they said,
Cause we're deep in the red
And besides, after 10 years we're good at this.

You are obviously one of those bitter engineers who got let go. Move on please. You dont work there so you have NO idea what is going on and your opinion is worth less.

I used to work for Sprint before the merge with Nextel. But after the merge, problems started to arise. to make the story short, subscribers went down drastically due to the fact that the CDMA and GSM technology of Sprint and Nextel where not fully combine and unable to expand the network correctly. Its only now they are able to get the network running but its too late. During the first drawdown of the company personnel, most of the Engineers that were removed were original Sprint employees and Nextel Management kept most of there personnel. So the core of the Engineering department are now Nextel management and engineers who are slow in adapting the CDMA technology. The network have a lot of holes and no plans to upgrade their equipment. Its former Nextel management that are running this great company to the ground.

BTDT. Couldn't agree with you more. Of all the companies I've worked for, this one seems to be the most corrupt in terms of recruitment, retention, promotion, motivation, recognition and just plain management of its Human Resources. Previous posts have stated how many bright, capable people have left out of frustration and how so many of those left are truly incompetent, bitter and self-serving. It's a big mess and probably hopeless. Time will tell, but the most important aspect of all this is that Dan is honest with his employees and honest in his assessment of those he has on his executive team. Let's hope this effort encourages some of the dead wood to walk away.

It's not negative to point out what a company is doing wrong. I am a large shareholder and I welcome every post here. It tells me what is going on in some say. 50% of the post here I think are valid, the other 50% are people just venting because they got burned by Sprint Nextel.

Sprint Nextel is not and I repeat, not in trouble because of the economy. Sprint Nextel is in trouble because of a very bad merger that is still eating the company at the core. There is still a culture clashing going on. Example: I received and email from a Sprint Nextel employee last month and they still attached the old Sprint Logo. I did not say anything to that employee, it is not my place, but there should be no reason at all to use the old Sprint Logo, that logo is dead!

Sprint Nextel's number one problem is management. From directors down to line managers. As one employee said to me, "My manager does not inspire me to come to work each day." And anther said, "We are stuck in the stone age with our tools, each time we move forward some director pushed us right back into the hole." The way I see it, Dan must fire and or start replacing directors and managers ASAP. Once Dan gets a management staff under his arms that can move people and shake them then those directors and managers can in fact "Get things Done".

I personally know a director at Sprint Nextel. I can tell you almost right from horses mouth. He is not a very bright person and if he worked for me I would fire him. Why he is still employed at Sprint is beyond me. He is a good person but he is in the wrong job and he knows it.

1.3 Million people in the US have lost their jobs since Jan 1. Guess what sector has been hardest hit? You Guessed it, Housing, Construction, Manufacturing. This also started over a year ago but only came to a head in July. Of that 1.3 M how many people were contected with companies that thrive on Direct Connect service?

You guessed it 80%. Not to say we did not need to put our customers 1st. That goes without saying, but the vast majority of the losses have been from companies going out of business and laying people off.

They have to cut back themselves and so what goes, Cell Phones!!!

In order to get back to producing we have to make investments in people and new technologies to move this country forward.

Go away, just go away. Take your negative hatred and GO AWAY. Go find another site to be negative on, we are sick of you naysayers. Everything is bad right now, do you log onto GE's blog and hope they all sink and rot? Just go away.

Why does Sprint continue to blame everyone but themselves for their problems? Also answering calls faster is NOT huge strides in customer service.

Don't cast your pearls to swine...it's not worth it. The company is making good strides. Customer Service performance is way up, their cash position is fine, and they have the best data network bar none. What these braintrusts don't seem to understand is that the WHOLE economy is down and there is going to be a correction. As long as the people at Sprint keep their nose to the grindstone they will dig their way out of this! Sins of the past got them into this situation and it didn't happen overnight so getting out of it won't happen quickly either. It will happen....you can't have strong network performance and continue to wain forever. I'm expecting a drastic improvement in the stock price and other metrics starting 3rd Q of 2009.

Just let the naysayers roll of like water of a duck's back.

to the poster stating....
Thanks for the stock investing and math refresher. Get real. This company has done this for 10+ years...that is the point. It can't manage its way out of a paper bag.

Get some counseling!! get over your negative hatred for Sprint. Hopefully the counseling will make you a better more positive person to be around for your family and friends. Good luck to you and to the ones that have to live with you and put up with you.

For Dan to hit the road. Nobody has confidence in him to get this job done. He has done nothing since he has been here accept get reps in India to answer the phones faster. Customers are running out the door every chance they get. Employees are sick and tired of looming layoffs all the time, do more with less people, work more get less. This place just keeps sinking deeper and deeper into the hole the good-ole-boys have dug. Time for some real change in this place and it should be exec's, directors and managers this time. The firing of the littlte worker bees has not worked for the past 7 years, how about we fire what the obvious is...the higher ups are not performing to earn their outrageous pay.

Thanks for the stock investing and math refresher. Get real. This company has done this for 10+ years...that is the point. It can't manage its way out of a paper bag.

My point is that your prediction was ridiculous…and even hateful. As I stated, the entire economy is suffering. A graph displaying market results for DJIA resembles a roller coaster. Many companies are trading much lower due to the uncertainty of the economy.

Yes, it’s true; Sprint stock lost almost 23% of its value today, compared to yesterday. When compared to other telecommunication companies for this short period (Verizon, -2.56%; AT&T, 4.21%) it does appear to be an ‘abysmal’ performance. But, most statisticians (and even 7th grade math students) recognize the fallacy in applying this measurement without scrutinizing the raw data.

Sprint stock closed $.58 lower then yesterday. Compare that to Verizon’s loss of $.78 and AT&T’s loss of $1.15. If you had 10,000 shares of Verizon or AT&T stock, you would have lost $1,800 and $5,700 more than if you owned 10,000 shares of stock in Sprint.

In this economy, anyone can make a prediction about falling stock prices for any company and the possibility of layoffs… and be right. No one needs to be reminded that there job maybe on the line. The whole country is aware of it. I hope for the best for all employees and there families... to include those of Sprint... and YOU!

NO! Don't answer the phone! It might them, you know, management, fishing for reductions in staff. Caller ID? Oh, foolish one. They own the system. They can show anything they want on the phone.

Now, sit down, act busy, and keep your head down.

Anonymous at 7:26pm.
You don't understand numbers a 400 out of +8000 point market drop is a 5% drop. Sprint's same day plummet is 4.5 TIMES that of the market. Sprints performance relative to the dropping market has been abysmal

It specifically says in the article that there are no layoffs in store. So "layoffs at sprint again" is a bit off the mark don't you think?

Glass is always half empty with you isn't it? Do you go through life with the same negative outlook on everything?

Layoffs at Sprint again? Why tell us this? I mean that is the norm at Sprint, so what else is new?

You said this about a week ago?
My God! You are a genius!

You should open your own investment company and charge everyone $10k for your market predictions!

..or maybe not. Take a good look at the overall stock market results for the day. Just in case you didn't get the news Dow Jones finished down -411.30 points to finish at 8,282.66. Ford finished at 1.84!

Get a clue! The whole economy is in the toilet! Stop hating. Or maybe.... YOU need to loose YOUR job! Maybe that would shut you up!

Hockaday is the idiot that chased out Esrey and LeMay to bring in Forsee the Fool.

Hockaday and Forsee engineered the worst merger in history, and this is the result.

Sprint Nextel cutting jobs as shares fall
WHAT? No cant be..Sprint having layoffs??? Sprints stock under $2. Gee I think I said this was all coming about a week ago on this blog...!!!
Told you so.
Thanks Dan.......