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U.S. DOJ Moves To Block MCI/Sprint Merger
Janthkin writes: "It seems the U.S. isn't going to allow MCI and Sprint to merge after all, so they WON'T be creating 'a telecommunications and Internet giant, one that would carry more data traffic than any other carrier and that would have left the U.S. long-distance market with only two major competitors instead of three.' (Text from the Standard story here). CNN coverage here." The U.S. side of the merger is not completely ruled out, but this seems a strong blow against it.
For the record, I am the same AC who posted before.
I have no objections to working long hours. I have objections to those long hours being mandated. In my previous job at an Internet start-up, I was routinely putting in 60- and 70-hour weeks--management at one point had to order me to stop coming into the office for a couple of days.
What I object strongly to is corporate management demanding a 55-hour workweek because they'd laid off a third of the critical staff. That's not "trimming the fat". That's called mismanagement. Management has a responsibility to accurately assess the work required for a task to be completed, and to either (a) bring on the staff required to do the job or (b) refuse to accept the job, on the basis that it cannot be done with the available manpower.
What WorldCom did is it took an organization which was running very efficiently, and chopped a third of the people from that group--and then complained because the remaining two-thirds couldn't do the same amount of work as the original body.
I have no objection to working my hands to the bone. But if I'm going to do it, it had damn well better not be because corporate management decided to play Is There A God? with headcount and wound up screwing themselves over by firing the people who were most essential to making delivery dates.
I'm tired of dealing with phone companies. They're one of the few commercial (non government) entities who really could care less about their customers
... Which would mean that the companies do care about their customers.
Get it right people! It's "couldn't care less", otherwise there is the implication that they do care...
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
The NYTimes is reporting that the two companies have withdrawn the merger papers. They say they might refile at some point but the conditions imposed by the European Union and this intent to block by the DoJ didn't make it worthwhile.
There was a good story in the NYTimes earlier this week about the conditions and possible sell-offs that would have had to result had this gone through, the slicing and dicing of the combined company would have been pretty brutal.
Try contacting your congressman, they or someone on their staff may be interested enough in getting your vote to drop a letter to the telco. It might work even better if you mention the poor lady's story is being followed on a "popular internet news site" and maybe set up a quickie little page on Geocities. I don't live in NY, but if a couple NY Slashdot readers were to also write letters of support I think it would get your representative's attention pretty quick. They love doing things for voters when it doesn't cost them anything.
That's Bell Atlantic Mobile & PrimeCo, not MCI/Sprint.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/
> In no other industry is a 55 hour week considered normal by anyone, much less mandatory.
There are studies around relating productivity to hours worked, and they do not in general favor "overtime" as a way for businesses/departments to get ahead.
In an unrelated field where I previously worked, I think the stats said that you got the most done if you worked 50 hours, but it was only a bit more than what you got done if you only worked 40 (i.e., it gave the peak output, but was already below the peak efficiency). If you worked 60 hrs/wk, you actually got less done than if you only worked 40 (and of course, much less in average output/hr).
Does anyone know of a study of this type that is specific to the IT field?
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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Thanks for the nice quotes.
> who regularly exercise discretion and judgment;
Ah-ha! Who's ever had a job where your boss didn't try to tell you how to do your work?
> work which is intellectual and varied in character, the accomplishment of which cannot be standardized as to time;
A good one to cast back into your PHB's teeth whenever s/he says you're taking too long. We seem to have it on Legislative Authority that it is not possible to predict how long an IT project will take.
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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Link to KC Star article: http://www.kcsta r.com/item/pages/home.pat,local/37749141.627,.html
License: By reading this you are agreeing that you agree with me.
Actually.. they only have that 'right' because governments (in other words, the poeple) allow it.
Don't kid yourself.
If they'll spin off the disputed wireless assets instead.
This would have an interesting effect of renewing competition in the wireless arena, at the expense of a landline consolidation.
would it be better? I don't know, but it would sure be interesting.
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The real Webmaven is user ID 27463. I don't rate an imposter, because my ID is such a lame-ass high number.
The government blocks many different things. That's the whole point of a government. When we live as citizens within the control of that government, we agree that they are allowed to block certain activities. These are generally known as laws.
In the case of this merger, the government has a pretty large law to follow: the Constitution. Only Congress can grant monopoly power, and the government is charged with the job of making sure monopolies are kept in check.
Now, this role has changed over the past 200 years. At one point, nobody took this Constitutional clause very seriously. Later on, it was taken very seriously. Today, it primarily focuses on predatory monopolies.
What's the point of this? It's the government's job (at least within the United States). They will always check corporate progress and encourage competition (at least they should).
To give you an idea of what REALLY blocking corporate progress would mean, consider this example. The government creates its own telecommunications backbone, undercharges ISPs (by using tax dollars) and runs the competitors out of business. Then, it allows this company to take on the bloat of most of the other government institutions. That's blocking corporate progress.
55 hours a week? Is that considered hard time in Kansas City? I live in Boston and that is what everyone around here does, for about the same money, in a city that is much more expensive.
11 hour days are too much, just simply too much.
Assuming a rather (I think anyways) average 7 hour sleep cycle, that leaves 17 hours a day, 11 hours of that spent at work translates into 6 hours for living, wow, with a workweek like that you really are becomming your job.
And before you start saying I'm lazy, I've put in 96 hours a week for a month or so in my last job. I think work weeks are too long, life is meant for living, not simply working.
-- iCEBaLM
I *DO* work for a certain nameless long distance provider... and the employees are most certainly celebrating. =-)
Well cracking the whip and reducing headcount may be a great way to crank out some short term numbers that will get the investors rocks off. However it is hell on the employees, ever work in an understaffed IT dept? For a while after cuts picking up the slack and prodcutivity goes up but it doesn't take to long before moral really goes down, quality of work decreases and employees generally stop trusting and even begin resenting management.
In no other industry is a 55 hour week considered normal by anyone, much less mandatory. If your motivated and want to work 50, 60, 70 hours a week fine do that, but chastise those people with a LIFE outside of work who only put in 40 hours a week as not pulling their weight, that's bullshit and you know it. Remember you are NOT your job.
"Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
Oh yea it kicks ass, if you really love your work. Alot of us here are "lifestyle geeks" we do this for fun as much as we do it for money. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who unwinds afterwork by reading through his home server log files or recompiling his kernel, or setting up a DHCP server just for fun in an apartment with only one workstation.
The point is though managers shouldn't require it. Like I said earlier if you want to work from home or put 80 hrs in the office great go for it and fuck the unions, but that kind of overtime is only productive and efficient if people do it cuz they want to and they find their work rewarding.
"Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
Man....blocking a merger like this...next thing you know, they'll be trying to split up Microsoft.
Wait a minute...
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Oscarfish.com: tropical fish with attitude. Way t
55 hours a week? Is that considered hard time in Kansas City? I live in Boston and that is what everyone around here does, for about the same money, in a city that is much more expensive.
I don't always love my job either, but long workweeks aren't going to get any sympathy from me. Sounds like good ol' Worldcom just trimmed a little fat.
-cwk.
No, you're severely out-of-touch with the 90% of the world that isn't in IT. I'm 24 and live in South Boston, and make more money than the 45-year-old steelworker next door who has a family and a mortgage and payments on a car. People like me are pushing people like him out of the neighborhood he grew up in, and when it "gets old," we'll move on, while he gets shoved into the distant suburbs. There's more than one perspective to be had here.
Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% for capitalism. But too often people confuse being dealt a lucky hand with skill at playing cards.
If management is making the job miserable, then hell yeah, GTFO of there. I'm not saying you should stay at a job that sucks. It's just that there are tons of people in less-rewarding fields with a lot more to worry about than the average 24-year-old who put in 55 or more hours per week and would be happy to clear $40,000 with full benefits. So I get a little sick of hearing people moan about "poor me" when the deal they have ain't so bad.
-cwk.
If there are only two or three giants, how does that impact the n companies left below them? When will they be forced to consolidate to stay in business, or simply crumble and sell out?
Will what has happened to radio, print and tv happen to the Internet? Will 1/3 of the ISPs one day merely be subsidiaries of AOL? Will network providers secretly answer to Sprint?
These are just wonderings I am having this evening.....
sig not found
Why is the DOJ so quick on its feet against the telcos, but such a dawdle-dodo when it comes to Microsoft?
We only have one major carrier here, and trust me you don't want that to happen to you. They have very much a 'rape and run' attitude, where they charge out the ass for internet services that are cheap other places (normal ISDN is around 300 a month, IIRC) and don't even work properly because they haven't contributed anything to the backbone. We just recently got DSL in the state(not where I am, though), and that's only because the state governor has been bitching to them for ages. Everyone hates them.
Of course, we WERE going to get cable modems, but the AT&T bastards bought TCI and scratched that plan. I think the DOJ should sentance all their executives to using 56k modems for the rest of their lives. Serve them right.
The relevant law is the Fair Labor Standards Act. Unfortunately, it appears that they included a big fat exception specifically for computer workers. Otherwise, you might find this document interesting. It mentions four classes of exempt employees: Executive, Administrative, Professional, and Outside Sales. For most of the people on Slashdot, the following definition about which professionals qualify for exemption is the most interesting:
The salary mentioned above means that:
The part about being paid in full for any week in which you work, regardless of the number of hours actually worked, is probably the most important thing here. IOW, if your employer can dock your pay for working part days (or apparently even part weeks!) you are not an exempt employee, unless you're an outside salesperson, doctor, lawyer, or teacher or a computer specialist paid hourly and earning at least $27.63 per hour.
The big thing is that if you really want to know your rights as an employee, you should really take a careful look at the Department of Labor web site.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
P.S. I shouldn't complain. I get free long distance. Check it out over at http://www.broadpoint.com/
/. is a commercial entity. goto slashdot.com
I'm glad this is happening. I reckon that the DOJ and the MMC in the UK should allow a minimum number of major players in any particular market. Say 3 or 4. Stop mergers and acquisitions which would cause this number to be reduced but otherwise keep out of it.
It would keep em at each others throats, keep the prices down and encourage open standards.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Aside from all the regulatory reasons, I;m just glad Wolrdcom lost.
Wasn't it Craig McCaw from MCI that instigated the antitrust suit against AT&T back in the day, so that MCI could enter the long distance market?
Go figure.....
These large companies will in the very near future be as powerful, if not eventually totally replacing, individual governments, because they have one ability governments don't have: the legal right (ie. no war necessary) to expand worldwide.
This scares me.
tsf.
I was kind of hoping this merger would go through -- it would have decreased the number of annoying telemarketing calls to my phone by *at least* 50%. This is clearly an instance where the anti-monopoly law fail to serve the public interest. Heh.
Corporate progress should not be at the expense of ordinary citizens and/or small business. That's why the government steps in when "shady" stuff starts to happen.
I don't mind if it's an expensive legal battle, as long as a message is sent to these huge corporations: That they can't grow to the point where they threaten the public good.
According to the local media here in Kansas City, the world HQ for Sprint, the merger is off.
The Kansas City Star is saying that while the executives are all really glum, the employees have been celebrating.
I don't work for Sprint, but I am glad this is off as well. Even though all through this the executives were saying "We are not moving if we merge," everyone knows otherwise. It happened to Marion Labs, it would have happened to Sprint as well. That would have been a huge hit on the local economy beings that Sprint has 24,000+ employees in this town alone.
In 1998, being a hacker fresh out of college with sheepskin in hand, I received a job at MCI. My background was information security; MCI was interested in me for that, but the unofficial corporate policy was that everyone in the UNIX development team (which InfoSec was part of, don't ask me why) had to spend six months in an unrelated IT field.
It was a reasonably sensible requirement; it ensured that everyone in their InfoSec department had experience with the company's IT infrastructure and it would give the InfoSec group a large skill pool to draw upon. So I took the first job I could get in their IT department, intending on getting a transfer in six months. I wound up as (gasp, horrors) a mainframe QA engineer.
MCI was finishing up the MCI-WorldCom "merger". Don't let it fool you--it wasn't a merger at all. MCI was bought, lock stock and barrel. Bernie Ebbers (the chief of WorldCom) took control and the bloodletting began. In the space of one afternoon, my department lost about a quarter of its headcount. The guy in the cube next to me received his termination notice via email--at ten o'clock in the morning he was fired, and by one o'clock that afternoon he was gone.
We survivors were told that there would be no more layoffs for (I forget--several months). Not too much later, a few weeks, I noticed that a lot of our workforce was all leaving the building at the same time, carrying boxes of stuff. Bernie Ebbers kept his promise--there weren't any layoffs that day. It was just that a few dozen contractors were informed that their contracts would not be renewed, even though they were desperately needed for the success of the projects they were working on.
The corporate culture changed dramatically. The work week was 36 hours when I arrived there; MCI corporate management felt it was important to keep its engineers happy, so they gave us Friday afternoons off. After the WorldCom merger it shot up to 40, then 44 hours; at one point (in mid-1999), my manager told me that the company was expecting 55-hour weeks from me for the next six weeks. Y2K work and all.
Between the constant threat of layoffs, the punishing working conditions, the lack of respect from management, the uncertainty surrounding WorldCom's intentions for MCI and everything else, I decided to get the hell out of Dodge.
It just wasn't worth it for $38,760 a year.
Lesson here: WorldCom is not a friendly business. If this buyout of Sprint is anything like the MCI buyout, Sprint will be decimated in order to make sure it gets in line with WorldCom. This will hurt consumers; it homogenizes the market and stifles the competitive spirit that makes the marketplace go 'round.
While I was at MCI, we were strongly motivated to get the cool stuff done before Sprint could beat us to the punch. It was one part profit motive (stock options) and two parts ego (we wanted bragging rights). It was an effective way of getting us to work hard, and in the end, the consumer benefited.
If the DOJ hadn't stepped in, MCI would have become Sprint, and a lot of that fierce competitiveness would have gone away.
WorldCom is growing far too large, far too quickly. Sometime look at just how many telecommunications companies they've bought out in the last ten years.
-- I'm posting anonymously not because I'm an AC, but because I don't want to get sued by WorldCom. I don't know if they'd sue or not, but considering how draconian their nondisclosure policy was right after the MCI buyout, I'd rather play it safe rather than sorry.
You keep hacking at it; splicing it; chopping it up; melting it; freezing it; splitting it up. Nothing works. At best, you manage to break it into dozens of small chunks, but before you know it, they've instinctively re-assimilated into the original unstoppable body of the T-1000.
I'm tired of dealing with phone companies. They're one of the few commercial (non government) entities who really could care less about their customers. They don't even attempt to convey the appearence that they care about you. Just give them your money, shut the fuck up, and they'll get around to establishing your phone service when they are good and ready.
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seumas.com