The end of the era occurred early morning on Sunday, June 30. The Nextel network became no more. Many of my former Nextel coworkers got together to hold an “Irish wake” for the end of the Nextel Network, I unfortunately was unable to attend but Nextel remains in my heart and mind.
Working at Nextel, means more to me than any other job I've ever had because of so many factors. It was my first office job after 5 years as a preschool teacher. As the company was taking off, I was essentially starting over at the bottom as an administrative assistant at 28 years old. I got engaged to my then boyfriend months after starting at Nextel. During my tenure, I married my husband, bought my first house, and had my daughter and was promoted twice. I cannot emphasize how my enjoyment of the company, the people, and the work itself played into my success in these other areas of life.
You often hear people who enjoy their work refer to their colleagues as a family. We truly were like a family but less dysfunctional than most:) We really listened to each other – at all levels of the organization. The CEO, Tim Donahue, a big bear of a man, would turn and talk to people in the elevator and ask the most junior level employee what she thought was working at the company and what she thought was broken. No one feared retaliation for voicing their honest opinion. We laughed with each other; there was much to laugh about including team building exercises involving the selection of a personal theme song (Mine was a Europop version of Ain't Nothing Gonna Break My Stride), two directors who would try to out pun each other magnificently over group emails, and too many inside jokes to count. When a colleague's wife died in childbirth, we cried with each other, too. We truly enjoyed each other’s company which made those times when you had to work late, a pleasure instead of a burden. People were trusted to get their jobs done from anywhere as the company believed that it didn't make sense to sell wireless, anytime access without living and breathing it. The fact is, no one took advantage of this opportunity because we respected the products, the leadership and their vision, and even more so, each other. The few people that didn't last at Nextel didn't have the creative, “doer” mentality.
As for the work itself, I worked on a large variety of projects as a result of my different roles from helping create an Annual Report, to building a charitable phone program into a company highlight adopted by Sprint after the merger, to creating a video featuring none other than Donald Trump. I eventually became a local media spokesperson with a couple of stories picked up by the Washington Post and even the national news. I couldn't have accomplished those things without the support and mentoring of so many talented, caring colleagues. I was privileged enough to work under three different supervisors each of whom had very different styles but all of whom were kind, understanding, smart people who and recognized and encouraged my growth potential.
When Nextel merged with Sprint, things changed. The cultures were different, Sprint = old school mentality, mid-western-based, and huge while Nextel = forward thinking, east coast, small (at least in comparison to the giant that was Sprint at the time of the merger.) Job uncertainty led to a lot of anxiety. I was lucky enough to keep my tiki torch lit in the company version of Survivor though other really talented, decent people were not so lucky. While it was hard to see them leave, I was fortunate to have found a niche for a couple more years that worked for me plus the majority of Sprint colleagues I worked with were built from the same stock as my Nextel crew - fun, smart, and dedicated.
Sadly, all good things must end. As the company struggled financially and I had a young daughter and an ill father, it made sense for me to take the generous severance package offered to those of us on the communications team and move on.
Nextel was the best thing professionally to happen to me. I became a true communications professional there and I made many life long friends.
Cheers to all of us who had the pleasure of being a part of such a special company at such a unique time in our history - the dawn of the wireless era.
I miss it.
No comments:
Post a Comment