Watch what you say on Telecom's internal intranet forum – or you might find the big boss telling you to feel free to take your cynical side to another company!
That's what apparently happened last week when a Telecom employee posted a less than glowing – though hardly offensive – response to an 'Introducing Spark New Zealand' article posted on the intranet.
The article, posted by Telecom communications channel manager Todd Parker as the company counts down the days to its rebrand as Spark, provided a three minute 'introduction' to Spark New Zealand.
"It's one of the biggest questions people are asking right now. What does the new Spark brand look like? What are our new colours and what will our business units look like?," the article read.
"Wonder no more as we take you through a three-minute introduction to Spark New Zealand. Meet their business units and see their new logos and the colours that represent them...
The original article also noted that the new identities 'are so much more than just logos and new colours'.
"They represent both our collective, singular vision to help New Zealander's unleash their potential, as well as our diversity.
The article prompted a comment from one staff member – apparently the first to comment more than two-and-a-half hours later – questioning how important the brand look actually was.
Headed up 'Not to be pedantic...' the post read: "Not to be pedantic but according to the (admittedly, unscientific and internal) poll on the homepage, what the brand looks like is a very distant 5th equal. Well behind what we really care about like what our customers will see, how we are communicating to them.
"There appears to be a lot of focus on the superficial and not enough on the vital. We've already admitted to the market that customers are likely to still see the word 'Telecom' post 08/08. Hate to say it, as I would love this to be a success, but I see us being very much 'Spark, formally known as Telecom' for the foreseeable future.
A response from Parker himself informed the staff member that they were in fact 'totally being pedantic' and noting that the article did say 'ONE of the things people are asking about'.
But it was the response from Telecom chief executive Simon Moutter, which got Telecom staff talking.
Moutter wrote: "[Employee name] your comments aren't pedantic, they are just cynical and pretentious. It's the combined positive attitude of all of the people who work here that will make Spark a success.
"If you can't leave your cynical side behind, feel free to go and let it loose in some other company.
Perhaps as interesting as Moutter's response itself was the response of other Telecom staff: Moutter's post had received 113 likes vs 85 dislikes at the time TechDay saw it.
The 'pedantic' employee's comments, btw, had prompted 43 likes and 32 dislikes in the same period.
Update: Under-fire Moutter apologises to "cynical" Telecom employee
