technical support engineer

software engineer

senior software engineer

programmer analyst

director

Avaya

Typical Day > Respond to customer requests such as quotes, service issues, reporting, assist with testing and demonstrations, marketing AVAYA products, identify needs, overcome objections, align resources needed for projects, assist with project and order management, respond to challenges associated with servicing and supporting an enterprise nation-wide network; essentially serve as "boots on the ground" for an assortment of challenges and requests to bring to resolution.
What I learned > AVAYA was a nationwide leader and had industry leading products, resources and people. However, financial pressures forced executive leadership to acquire a number of innovative technology companies in an effort to create a greater revenue stream.  This actually hurt AVAYA because the integration of the new products diluted the effectiveness of the AVAYA service and sales organizations. Instead AVAYA should have been focused on its core products (enterprise telephony and contact center) to take advantage of SIP, UC, Contact Center and the best service and support organization in the industry. Otherwise a great experience!
Management > Great sales and service management!  Best telephony products, contact center, UC and service in the industry.  Financial challenges and lack of focus caused major downsizing and reorganization.
Workplace Culture > My peers were very talented, intelligent, experienced, professional and supportive - certainly the best or some of the best in the telephony industry.
Hardest Part of the Job > Being effective at selling new products to customers that were concerned with the AVAYA core products.
Most Enjoyable Part of the Job > When the customer said to me: "Great job! You have won the contact center project..."

Avaya, used to be a great place to work for...sadly when Silverlake/TPG bought it, it no longer cared about its customers and became disinterested/scattered & misdirected with its own company and its employees.
As a Union/Craft worker, there was a contract, so we had contracted benefits. The hourly pay was good, health ins., days off, etc were good, and the life/work balance worked out for the most part as you worked your 40 hour shift and left, unless overtime was an option. 
The distribution of work was uneven, so some people got pounded with work, while others just coasted and got the same pay, and the management was indifferent. 
Management positions at Avaya work for salary, and longer hours, with fewer benefits, so upward mobility stopped at Craft level due to a lack of incentives to go into management. Either way, management or Craft, you were all treated like cogs.
Upper, upper management reaps its pay rewards and shows no concept for understanding its employees, let alone disenfranchising its customer base.
The best part of the job was the great people that you worked with in learning new products...sadly the learning of new products now is outsourced elsewhere into off-shore management positions.
Another good part about working there, was the customers themselves - they were very understanding, and some felt like you were taking care of family.
The hardest part of the job is the lack of job security with constant layoffs and the company's knee-jerk reactions to the market. Slowly all Craft & many management jobs are being outsourced and it seems like Avaya is more interested in the Real Estate business with some of its lingering properties, than in telecom/software solutions.

Once upon a time, Avaya ( then Lucent Technologies) was a great place to work. It was the leader in the telecommunication industry. It had over 50,000 employees nationwide. that worked together to accomplish the task of providing their customers to the very best service seen anywhere. The culture there was Family First because there was plenty of people to help when personal things came up and someone needed a little time off. We provided telecommunication solutions to nearly every company that existed, large and small. BUT... every since 2000, when we got a new CEO, things started to change. The goal was no longer to be the best out there... is was about the all mighty dollar and how to make as much with the least amount of expense ( read employees to pay ). Layoffs started, then out-sourcing business unites, then selling off parts of the company, all at the expense of providing the same great customer service Lucent had built.

Today, we have fewer than 500 non-management employees and a small fraction of the customers we once had. I seems as if the upper management team is determined on driving the company into ruins by not listening to their employees nor the customers they still have. Instead of trying to re-grow the business they still focus on how much they can make with the least amount of expense and still keep their pockets full while the employees suffer and get laid off.

A typical day at work involves juggling several different deliverables simultaneously. My current role is very demanding. The information that I provide is used to make critical strategic business decisions. The current state of the business involves a number of different restructuring activities. I work closely with our Human Resource Business Partners, Corporate Finance and our Leadership Team to ensure that we are meeting the monthly objectives that are being set by the corporation. I also enjoy working closely with my colleagues. With the high demands and short timeframes, it is crucial to have people that you can count on to be there for you and with you to see the projects through. The most challenging part of my job is finding enough hours in the day to be able to complete all of the different tasks that are presented. The most enjoyable part of my job, other than my team, is in knowing that the information I provide is critical and that there are some very complex business decisions being made based on the facts that are being presented. I enjoy being able to communicate with all levels of management assisting them with understanding the facts that are being presented.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working at Avaya was the people I worked with. My Managers and Supervisors were excellent and listened to those under them. My team was the best. We all stayed in touch throughout the day with group chats and team calls, even though we were all working from home. Pay and benefits were above par as well. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Bankruptcies. Avaya was on the struggle bus so this left us all anxious about the future. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment was excellent. There was a culture of equality and inclusiveness that Avaya worked hard at maintaining despite current political views trying to cast a negative light on that. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day for me involved logging onto our platform and greeting every one as they logged in. Sometimes we had a group chat going or sometimes a conference call. Management would go over any "to do" items for the day and we would get our assignments or start to work on trouble tickets left over from previous day or overnight submissions. The work day would fly by most of the time filled with challenges and troubleshooting, talking to users to diagnose problems and escalations.

I learned so much regarding SAP, the proper way to deal with International customers, learning to be flexible with many changes that took place, and was really busy approximately 85 to 90% of the time. 
Management was quite good - they knew how to handle situations, and work with the employees to allow them time off if needed. They also had worked our positions before, so when they gave us advice about how to do something better, it was from personal experience.
Though you're always going to run into co-workers who take advantage of the system, for the most part, I loved every single person I worked with on my team. We all knew what needed to be done, and assisted each other when necessary.
The hardest part of the job was the end-of-year, when we would be expected to stay very late (usually 14 to 16 hours per day) and work over the weekends (but they bought us lunch and dinner on those days).
The most enjoyable part of the job was their flexibility with time and most definitely my customers. I still maintain relationships with many of those customers overseas from when I worked with them.

Avaya has been unable to keep their employees happy for as long as I can remember. I worked for them for almost 20 years but for the last 10+ years, I lived under the constant threat of layoffs as leadership was never able to guide the company towards a winning strategy or profitability (I was laid off twice). 

They cared more about trying to go public and make money for the private investors than running a once great company with lineage back to AT&T. They were bloated with debt, always in the red, and continually laid off people to make their numbers. 

The expectation of management was for employees to work 60+ hours a week but they never offered bonuses or raises, not even cost of living wages.They reduced all benefits and offered no 401K match unless the company made money (which was never).

They also never offered any training and employee satisfaction was at an all time low. The Avaya products themselves are top notch, but their adoption was not what it should be and they would constantly lag behind their competitors Cisco and Microsoft. 

Avaya had so much potential but they recently filed for bankruptcy and sold off parts of their technology in an effort to stay alive (all public information).

A typical day at work would consist of signing on to all the appropriate systems necessary to perform my responsibilities, SAP, Outlook, Sales Force, One-X Communicator and MOC. I then reviewed what was in queue in Sales Force, my InBox as well as a mailbox I monitored for one of the customers I supported. From there it was either first in/first out or if needed prioritized based on needs of the end user whether internal or external. I learned to be accepting of others skills, goals and needs. I learned how to deliver bad news without being alienating someone. My immediate manager had issues that put distance between me and some of the "favorites" within the group making the team very divided, Nor were all of us treated the same and fairly. My co-workers could make the day or ruin it. I was lucky to have a core group I could rely on as well as be friends with. The hardest part was not being able to make everyone happy 110% of the time. The most enjoyable part of the job is when someone took the time to say "thank-you" even for just doing my job.

I left voluntarily in 2016. The value placed on employees, contractors and consultants is very low. US employees are targeted for cost reduction to avoid the high expense of eliminating jobs in European countries. This communications software company enforced a rule of reporting to an office (any Avaya office, all of which have insufficient work-space) three days per week, regardless of where employees live, creating a very negative atmosphere at the office, as well as generally low morale.
Bonuses are nil, raises are insignificant, not keeping up with cost-of-living increases. (Example, my budget for an employee earning $115,000/year with the highest performance rating allowed me to award her a $2000 raise, with a $500 bonus in 2015.)
With employee reductions occurring regularly, the workload on remaining employees is extreme. 
There is an overall sense of disrespect by the executive leadership and Board for employees, and morale is at an all-time low.

Avaya continues to deliver exciting new products and services to market in support of Unified Communications and Collaboration and Contact Center. The environment is exciting and electric and provides new challenges in terms of professional growth, customer problem solving and the ability to navigate the competitive field.

The hardest part of working at Avaya is staying ahead of competitors who have more feet embedded within accounts. Overcoming the "Avaya as dial-tone" means being sharper about being able to describe the Avaya value proposition and position Avaya at the correct customer levels. Success depends highly upon the creativity of the employees and the ability to think outside of the box.

The most enjoyable part of the job is opening a customer's eyes to not only what is possible with communications but what is available today from Avaya. Support for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a critical conversation that every employee needs to have with every customer. Video is also key to success and the ability to penetrate deeper and wider into customer environments.

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