Slashdot Mirror
What's It Like Working For Worldcom?
Tetch asks: "I work for a multinational IT company which seems likely to transfer its "network services" team to (MCI-)Worldcom under the terms of a business arrangement (Worldcom's gonna run our company network for us). I'm contemplating transfering from my current position to that network services team but would quite like to know more about Worldcom's corporate culture before taking the plunge (since it seems I'd become a Worldcom employee in fairly short order). Does anyone have any experience of life at Worldcom they could share?" It's always smart to try get an idea of the climate in a company before you you try and sign up.
"Is it all white shirts, and singing the company song at 07:00, or is it T-shirts, jeans, company masseur and free donuts ? Do they work you into the ground till you burn out and then cast you aside with the trash, or do they look after you, nurture your career, notice your contribution without you having to sing your own praises the whole time. Are Worldcom folk *happy* and enthusiastic, content to be a valued part of a committed team effort, or are they cogs in a faceless machine, living in isolation and fear of visits from beancounters looking for yet more cost-savings to make for the stock-holders' benefit?"
This Ask Slashdot is quite narrow. What the hell do you want? WC people to tell you the company's health care options?
Coulds you at least make the first post vaguely coherent? Is that to much to ask?
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
What do you all think of Microsoft?
Besides being a totally irrelevant article:
Getting info about an employer from a discussion board tends to only draw out the people who want to bitch about it (and all companies have disgruntled employees with horror stories). If you really want to know, go visit the place. Insist on getting walked around before the interview to observe and see if it seems like the sort of environment you'd want to be in.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
They are making their money off of consultants they hire out. If you wait for an account for you, you are costing them money and with the current times you are likely to get cut. So, before you move, make sure you are covered for a good while before you 'move on to another project' and end up weighting down a bench.
See if you can get your 'years of service' in your current company moved to worldcom (hard since its not a buy out) because there are certain benefits that will only kick in with extended time behind out.
As for worldcom themselves as an ISP, they aren't the best, but definitely not the worst.
-Kelt
My intelligence insults itself.
If it's anything like the sellouts I've seen working for a big fortune-whatever company, there won't be a lot of change. A year or so a lot of us got "outsourced" to a rather large company. There have been rumors that the rest of us are soon to be IBM employees.
But I don't think it's going to matter much to you. The people I work with that got outsourced got huge (equiv to 6 mos salary) bonuses and generally make 10% higher salary now. Is it saving my company money? Of course not. Outsourcing never does (don't believe that hype--- outsourcing is done so that you can be EXPENDIBLE and FIRED at their whim). But culturally those people didn't change.
As a matter of fact, you have to imagine that the larger consulting firms don't really care about you... you're a number to them, a mercenary for hire, working for them this week. So they don't care. Not only would I not expect anything NICE out of MCI, I wouldn't expect anything much at all...
man, in this job market, if worldcom will pay you for dicking around with computers all day on multi million dollar networks and 16 processor servers... uh take that job.
better than eating ramen.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Your best bet may be to actually ... get in touch with people who work there. While I'm not sure of the specifics of your situation, perhaps you could ask people you currently work with if they could put you in touch with people who work where you might. Send them e-mail and ask around. That's really the only way you'll find out what it's like.
Everyone gets an office with a window.
Unfortunately there's an oar coming through the window. A drummer drums, you grab the oar and row as if your life depends on it. Because (heh heh) IT DOES!
I worked for UUNet for 1 1/2 years about 2 years ago. Back then UUNet was the best company I have ever worked for. I don't know how much things have changed since then.
1. Those employees that hate working at WorldCom will tell you how bad it is
2. Those that love working at WorldCom will tell you how great it is.
3. You will not know who to trust.
4. The rest of us will be bored out of our minds.
Thank you.
"And like that
I would highly suggest not working for Worldcom. They like a nice PR imagine (see Generation D commercials and whatnot), but on the inside they treat high level technical employees like dirt. I worked there for roughly 4.5 years. During that time, every time they acquired a new company's technical staff, they inevitably found a way to cheat them out of as much benefits as possible before laying them all off at the best time they could find stock-price wise (so that incentive options or profit sharing shares weren't valuable when they were forced to be redeemed). I was an original Worldcom employee, and eventually I suffered the same fate. When the big industry layoffs started they laid off my whole building and forced a short time to excercise then-worthless options which should have been good another 10 years. They did this with no warning to a very advanced research group that was making more progress than 99% of the company, and actually putting out widely-used internal software and showing real numbers for the company. What was preached as a bright and long-term future with the company, and what appeared to be 100's of k worth of stock options turned out to be a quick kick out on the street at their accountant's slightest uninformed whim with just the shirt on your back left.
11*43+456^2
If you don't wish to have to deal with tons and tons of flamebait, trolls, and wasteful posts mucking up your database, then consider this thought: Stop posting worthless droll on your website. Seriously, if I send in my request for climate at a potential employer, will you post it for me? Is this NEWS??? I realize that we don't pay for this garbage, but seriously... I don't care to post unless you've really screwed up, and you've really screwed up.
---- Please flame below this line ----
Knowing that companies usually "downsize" after such a move, and judging the quality of this particular Slashdot submission, I suggest you go practice standing in the welfare line along with the majority of Slashdot readers and VA Whatever employees?
I worked for MCI after they merged with WorldCom here in Atlanta and it was pretty laid back. I was working on an internal, Web-based, sales app. It was very laid back, though it was still a bit corporate. As long as you got your work done they really didn't care much, but then again I had a great manager who was as laid back as us developers. It seemed that their IT staff in general wasn't of the highest quality, but that could have been just in my location. As far as corporate environments, it wasn't a bad one.
...for some time become 'News for somebody else. Stuff that doesn't matter to me.' Sad.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
I wonder what the odds are, that some disgruntled WorldCom employees will post horror stories anonymously, WorldCom will get pissed off and try to get a court order to view /.'s log files, to track down these malcontents. Great big battle ensues.
Did they specifically state that they plan on hiring you? Most of the time, they simply obsolesce your presence. It's sort of their business plan.
I'm not ragging on you, but have you gotten any assurances, in writing?
Talisman
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
I used to work for one of Worldcom's subsidiaries, a little outfit called UUnet. I left when they bought Digex web hosting and shipped all of our work off to them. I did however have a good time working there and had the Digex buy-out not gone through and my customers were not given away I would still be there. I guess the thing that bothered me most about Worldcom's taking over of UUnet and then killing off the UUnet web hosting with the purchase of digex was the way that they crushed all that was left of the UUnet culture in the process. But that's what happens when companies get bought out.
After all, Microsoft Windows comes free with most PCs....
:-)
You've got to love that one..
A buddy did this with a few of his co-workers. After a month, they were re-assigned across town. He was upset as he lived near his 'old job'. The experience left him a bit bitter when his originaly boss got the contract canceled and he was on the outside looking in.
Why do you want to leave your current company to go to a company you seem to know very little about(other than what they do) What are you doing currently and what can you do to make it more fun for you?
How the hell is this a front-page-worthy story?
What's it like working for Burger King?
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Thank you for so eloquently capturing the essence of this "Ask Slashdot".
This doesn't have to do with their networking area, but MCI regularly calls me trying to change my long distance plan to them.
:]
Apparently though their telemarketters cannot hang up on you (either by being technically unable to, or by policy). I know because a rather persistant or annoying individual called me a few months ago from MCI. I eventually placed the phone down on top of my computer and went back to playing Diablo II. A few hours later the guy was still on the phone laughing with his buddies.
They still called, and are still persistant and annoying. The most recent time the conversation went like so:
MCI: "Hi, I'm Dave from MCI, I'm calling tonight to save you money!"
me: " MCI huh? Man, you'd think you guys would learn... every month for nearly a year now you guys call me, and I never switch to MCI. After the first few I even started torturing you, but yet you call!"
MCI: "Excuse me?"
This continued for nearly 15 minutes until I got tired of him trying to convince me that the best way to get them to stop calling me would be to SIGN UP FOR THE SERVICE!
Needless to say I'm looking forward to the next call
- Private industry gives you more work and usually more challenging work than the government. Conversely, private industry pays better in general. I took a pay cut when I left Worldcom for NASA but I haven't worked a single weekend or evening so far (and it's been over a year now).
- I was a network engineer and they worked me to death. They use salaries to avoid paying you overtime when you get paged in the middle of the night and have to come in at 2am to babysit a router (it happened to me several dozen times). I don't mean to imply that I am p-whipped but my wife forced me to quit that job.
- Worldcom is in a competitive industry and they treat their employees like dirt. You'd be better off working for AT&T, who is the market leader (so they have more cash to throw around).
- Worldcom laid off 1/3 of my office (not including me). How did they do it? They deactivated the employees' access cards so they couldn't get back in after lunch. People got their belongings shipped back to them after several weeks. You be the judge.
- Worldcom consistently screws with payroll to save money. One of my former co-workers noticed one day that the company was taking out a few extra percentage points for Federal income tax, but that extra money didn't show up on his W2. He believes that the company adds a few dollars here and there to payroll deductions as a source of profit.
I could go on, but I won't. It's a Bad Place to Work(tm) and I'd never work there again. Even if I was desperate.~wally
I would have to say that having MCI/Worldcom/UU.NET run your network is paramount to being blacklisted.
As far as I remember, MCI/Worldcom/UU.NET has never shut down a spammer's site that they hosted. They nicely got the dialups under control, but web sites are a different matter entirely. They are very grey, if not almost completely, black hat.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
You mean like the online report that said "...working at Dell is like jumping out of an airplane with your hair on fire!"...?
Not exactly a leap of faith.
I have seen *seven* rounds of layoffs in the last year and a half here at the world headquarters for Worldcom. In that same period, they opened hiring nine times for the very positions that got laid off.
In other words, they strive to minimize costs by reducing the number of benefits-deriving employees.
As a stockholder, that might be nice, but as a potential employee, that is a warning sign NOT to work there.
I know several people that have gone to work there, been laid off, and then called for the SAME position not three months later.
Its ridiculous.
GPL'd web-based tradewars themed space game
1 - I need to take a shit, what should I do?
2 - Ive decided to go to work today, is that a good descision?
3 - Im watching a really bad show on tv.. im undecided if its ok for me to hit the channel up button, what should I do?
Ya.. this last Ask Slashdot sucks, what does this guy expect..
Casue that's what you'll be tasting if you go to work for Worldcom... You'll get to work at the nice building out in Clinton MS. It's one of the nicest buildings in our state. Second only to the outhouse outside of the governor's mansion.
--Forest C. Adcock--
If you can't find any entries (unlikely, for bigger companies), it indicates that either:
- Company's doing fine, everyone's happy, or
- Employees are clueless dolts that have never
read FC.
:-)
Needless to say, it's more likely to be latter than former."What's it like to ask stupid, irrelevant questions, and, as a result, convince dumbasses like me to respond vitriolically to them?"
What does it mean to wake out of a dream
and be wearing someone else's shorts?
BNL, Born on a Pirate Ship (1998)
UUnet shuts down more websites in a month than most companies have. Don't let this raging kook tell you otherwise. UUnet/WorldCom is quite good at handling abuse issues. Just because UUnet/Worldcom won't give this loon a personalised report about spam, she(?) bitches about it. I can only guess it is because she does not know just how big the company is and what all they are responsible for.
No replies made to AC posts. Please log in.
As a current WCOM employee, I can tell you that the company policy forbids their employees from commenting on ANYTHING to ANYONE remotely representing the press; hence the AC.
I used to work in a beowulf cluster of worldcom's, before worldcom started dying.
No really, I mean just think about it, worldcom is dying, they only have like 0.000003 percent of the market share!
You're spot-on with the "cogs in a faceless machine" statement. Most technical decisions are made for political rather than technical reasons. Cost-cutting measures are rampant. No more office supplies, and the only beverage is untreated tap water. Employee morale? That left 4-5 years ago. If you really hate your current employeer and decide to take the plunge, take as much compensation in salary as possible (give up options if necessary). There are not really any performance bonuses, and the stock is like a stone.
Worldcom will cut your job. Avoid them, they are the Devil!
Dude get dennisons chili beans for a buck a can! much tastier (and more protien content) than ramen.
"it's the best workplace around"
... those are the commercials for the inbound/outbound sales reps
"there aren't managers, we're all friends"
"worldcom is really helping me advance my career"
oh wait, sorry
This is far superior to the shit he normally posts. Obviously an impostor.
Ok.. ok.. so does anyone work for that OTHER company where things are wonderful? Does such a place exist and are they hiring?
Knowledge is like ignorance.. too much can be just as bad as not enough.
No. Most likely he will end up in Ashburn, Va. That is WorldCom's NOC-HQ.
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the OTHER way... as an ex-employee (who was NOT laid off) I can say that their management staff is incompetent, Bernie Ebbers is a fool, and you will be happier somplace else.
They have no desire to be competitive and even the management jokingly says WorldCom is a training ground for other corperations. If you MUST go ther, get as much training and money as you can then expect to leave in 1 year, as that is all they want you for.
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
World com as with verizon or any major company big company that has been around for a while has major issues. From a Vendor perceptive, they are often have too much overhead with executives (5 or six) depending on the dept weither it be LD or toll free divison. You also have your employees who worry about job security so there are these massive as/400 machines that none one understands except them and the only way you will learn is through is finding who he or she reports to. Although they have 5 to 7 boss depending on the job code or the information that is bein requested. I would ask them as in interview status what is their org say and who do you report too...
not entirely true. Their business operations and sales are located in the clinton, ms office but Worldcom's NOC (with i believe over 5k employees) is in Virginia.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
I worked for Worldcom. It was the first job I got when I left school. Since I needed money bad, I took the job. But the interview should have been a clear sign that not only is it going to be a waste of time but also major stress for little money.
The best advice I can give you is, no matter what big company you will work for it's all the same. You are treated like shit and in the case of Worldcom, you will be just another number. If you don't do it, they will replace you in a heartbeat with someone that knows less then you, but they will make more money. It's not what you know, it's who you know and how well you kiss ass (if that's your thing).
I don't like to be taken advantage off, so any chance I got to screw with middle-management i took it. In the long run, I left that company because of shitty hours, poor pay, and the way management treats people like shit. Now i work for Lucent Technologies. Much better. But they have their problems too.
In a nutshell, no matter where u go, u will run into some bullshit. If u think u are gonna learn anything there, haha, u better think again, cause the talent that Worldcom has is horrible. How that company stays in business when the CEO used to be a gym teacher is a mystery.
smith&wesson:
original point&click device
I used to work for Lucent and Worldcom actually had a department that tested products before buying them. This was a network router that could do up to OC192. Not sure what has become of it, or in other words, to hell with Lucent.
But back to the main point, it seemed cool to me if you worked in the area of new equipment and software evals. I'm glad to see they have that kind of stuff and don't just rely on Lightreading.com
YES, there is a McDonald's in Hanoi Square.
I consulted at Worldcom in Spring and Summer 2000 at their offices on Centennial Road in Piscataway, NJ. I was part of the Private Network Engineering group, which gets the bigger and more complicated clients.
:)
Here's what it was like when I worked there, followed by what I HEAR its like now:
My work time was split up between drafting customer documents like pretty network maps, configuring routers/switches, and participating in teleconferences to help techs around the world install that equipment after its been shipped. The work was fun if youre the engineering type - but youre not a paper pusher. your creative side has an outlet too as most documents require some artistic skill to appease clients.
The environment was standard cube-farm. I came in contact with project leads and managers all day, and none of them wore anything dressier than slacks. Its a real khakis and polo kinda place. My co-workers were very helpful and even took the time to explain new technologies to me If I was unfamiliar with them. Its not very cut-throat and I was suprised at the HUGE mix of people and educations that did this highly technical work confidently.
Engineers have access to training labs stocked with some pretty serious new equipment. This was probably the coolest thing about Worldcom - the free training. Shared on the network were SCADS of e-training courses from top vendors on subjects as diverse as design, configuration, and administration. We'd have trainers come in on big projects if we were going to be introduced to new vendor equipment. A few times a year you can ask for an outside training course and youll probably get it.
Overall I really liked it and would highly recomend the Piscataway, NJ or White Plains (Rye), NY worldcom offices to anyone involved. Actually the Rye ofice was mad cool with beer on "managers' sick" days and nerf weapons out the wazoo.
Ive heard Worldcom has been plagued with problems lately though. Theyre low on funds to the point taht they sometimes can pre-order the equipment theyll need for a customer. Many of my old co-workers are watching DVDs for days on end for lack of clients. Lets hope the market comes back up for em.
-My 2 cents and THANKS JIM NOCELLA for gettin me that job
It depends where you work, and if you are at a legacy MCI site or a legacy WCOM site. I worked at the Cherokee plant in Tulsa, with about 4,000 employees. I did both t2 deployment and fiber monitoring in the NOC. It was one of the main locations of legacy WCOM.
As far as I could tell, the culture was cool until the EDS deal. They took most of their tech staff and switched them to EDS payroll, which resulted in a massive loss of stock options, authority, and senority. I know many people who left WCOM at that time.
They weren't the best pay in the world, and the loss of stock hurt. Then again, that was when their stock was $70/share...Another thing to watch for it that WCOM makes no counteroffers when you try to work somewhere else. There are many people here who shuffle from WCOM to WCG, then back...raising their pay $15,000 in a few years.
Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.
I completely agree. How is this "news for nerds" or "Stuff that matters"? I couldn't care less about Worldcom and what it's like to work there. I hear people bitching about new articles on Slashdot, but honestly, this is a new low.
Me.
Back before Worldcomm acquired them, I worked at MCI and it was pretty much the white shirt be there by 7 kinda place. One of those offices where everyone talks about their golf scores. I picked a hell of a lot about networking up there, but mostly by osmosis as I spent the majority of my time nursing their lame-ass provisioning database, since little things like customers upgrading to a faster circuit would tend to lose that customer's IP addresses. I wouldn't be inclined to work for them again.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Describing the working environment at Worldcom is much like the blind man describing the elephant. There are many reasons for this.
First, you've got your different departments. Like IT, or Network Engineering, or Local Service, or a number of other departments. Each kind of sets it own tune.
Also, your direct management will play a big part in your environment. For example, I see people in the building (during the summer) wearing shorts, t-shirt, and a do-rag or cap.
Third, it also depends on the legacy of the site that you are absorbed into. The true Worldcom side is probably much more laid back than the former MCI side. Of course, UUNet would be different, too, as would legacy MFS (local service). So your location is going to determine which of the merged groups you get into.
So, you've got your department, your local manager, and your merger legacy which all plays a very important role on how your environment will be.
Just to give you my story, when I was a Worldcom employee under IT Infrastructure, the local management was 'uptight'. The department and legacy company (true WCOM) was relaxed. So, only jeans on Friday. All the other days were business casual. Comp time was free flowing. Schedules were laxed. But pay was stingy.
Under EDS, this has changed greatly for me. The local management is relaxed. The legacy (call it EDS now) is... uh... still trying to get a handle on that one. EDS is more feudal in that you work for an 'account' more than you work for 'EDS'. Department is very good. Work at home relaxed. Pay increased significantly. Good deal all around.
[BTW, would you mind emailing me the name of your company?]
Best thing to do is to find out what entities you will be merged into and explore from there. There isn't much way to describe the company as a whole. The only thing I've seen over the past few years is a some shrinking. It is easier to find a parking spot.
Sorry I cannot give a pat answer.
Worldcom has a LOT of experience on mergers and acquisitions. Don't expect them to sit around and ignore you. They'll move quickly to integrate or to cut.
In the small business sector.
Why people work for a faceless corp when they can work for smaller businesses is beyond me.
Obviously CmdrTaco and the crew have figured out that VA isn't where *THEY* want to work any more and are trying to figure out where to go next.
It's the only explanation that fits...
Now, on a directly related topic, I wouldn't trust anyone at WorldCom/UUNET/ALTER.NET to run *ANY* of my business traffic. Every time I have a problem getting somewhere it inevitably ends up being a problem on the ALTER.NET backbone, and if they treat their employees like their employees treat people who call their NOC *I* sure wouldn't want to work for them.
I worked at MCI when they were being courted by BT and subsequently bought by WorldCom. There was a lot of talk about how benefits would change but be fairly equal. All decreases in benefits would be offset by increases in stock options. :)
I left just about the time the actually awarded stock options. (7-8 months AFTER the merger during which time health benefits went down the toilet. Less coverage, much more money) The thing with the options was that they vested over three years. You could excersize them one third per year. So I would have to be there for one year to get any benefit from them. When I decided to jump ship all of my co-workers thought I was insane to give up all those valulable options. None of them have excersized any of them to this day.
The reason I think this is relevant is to show you how brainwashed the employees of an absorbed company can be. Don't drink the cool-aid and keep your eyes open.
I did like working for the company in general as my co-workers were some of the most competent people I have ever worked with. They took responsibility for their jobs and were proud of their work.
So, my overall message is it is a good company to work for, but don't buy into hollow promises.
WorldCom's had a hiring freeze since Feb. Good luck getting a job there, even if they bought you, they won't take you in. They can barely get permission to replace people that leave.
Kinda makes your whole question moot.
I have taught at worldcom(several sites), mci(several sites) and then post merger at same sites. They still seem to have the same problems that they had pre-merger:
1) MCI was started by a bunch of anal-retentive lawyers. This has permeated all the way through. The C.Springs (supposed r&d) facility leaves a lot to be desired and the others are worse. They make M$ look great. Management has the high hand and tightly controls the techies (they are TOTALLY clueless except in some spots). You pretty much have to ask a lawyer to go to the bathroom.
2) WorldCom. Typical move fast type operation. They have an attitude of can-do. Unfortunatly, they also have a hired a number of can't do's in various groups. Groups tend to be a bit more automonous than other large companies. There systems don't talk as well to each other. But then again, they bought MCI, not the other way around.
Bear in mind, this was from 1 year ago. I don't really know where it is all at now, but I doubt that it is much different. Beware the MCI Politics.
Just a bit of advice about big companies like Worldcom: they love to treat employees like dirt. If you go to a company like that, expect to be nothing but a number, overworked at the excuse of a salary until the day they lay you off so that the CEO can save the company $2 millon and gives himself a $3 million dollar raise to celebrate.
Unless you are young and looking to learn, look for small companies. If you have a high tolerance for BS, get into goverment contracting or work for the government directly. The pay is not as good, but in the long run you will be much happier.
What does MCI stand for anyway? I'm pretty sure it's not Money Coming In.
Offhand (a damn good place for it! :-), I'd say you answered your own question by posting....
Infuriate left and right
The guy wanted an answer to his question. And out come a bunch of whiney biachez talking about how the quality of slashdot sucks. Boo hoo hoo... what a waste of time... If that were true you wouldn't respond. Gee if it really has gone down the toilet... you should go somewhere else... like news.com or cnn.com... or is that too watered down? (I personally was interested in this story.) -my worthless 2 cents
You have a unhealthy attitude in this job market. You shouldn't care who you work for. A company is a company. You should care 1. If this job will help you improve your career and 2. IF this job pays well. That's it. Everything else is irrelevant.
Things to thing about:
where? Tulsa, OK; Jackson, MS; Dallas, TX (these are the 'hot' spots for IT)
if one of the above, it's business casual: Gap and Banana Republic;
hours - usually long; a pager may become part of your wardrobe and it will and can go off at anytime of the day - "yes, you can make it into the office!"
stock options - no comment....
EDS - unless you all ready work for them, consider working with them (or in some cases, against them.)
At WorldCom they rotate you through the telemarketing division to do that for a while. That would explain all the worldcom calls I get. Should be fun!
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
I had been using MCI World.com as my long distance provider for some time. Lo, and behold, they slammed me into having local service with them too. I wasn't happy about this and called Ameritech to have my local and long distance service changed back to Ameritech and AT&T. On my next phone bill I discover that I don't have AT&T, that I've been slammed into long distance service with MCI World.com and they're charging me 4 TIMES AS MUCH for phone calls - why? As the MCI operator explained to me, it's the slam rate ... now, how I can be slammed when it's actually a case of never being switched when I requested it, I don't know. I had my service with them disconnected and called Ameritech to have them switch to AT&T for my long distance.
Guess what? I get my next bill and there's 135 bucks worth of charges from MCI World.com, at their ridiculous "slam" rate, including 30 1 minute calls my wife had made to her grandmother's house after she had gotten a stroke and gotten no answer. These were 50 miles away and charged 3.41 apiece. 3.41 for listening to a phone ring a few times! I called Ameritech and told them that I wasn't paying them for these charges, that I wanted AT&T and if they screw up my service one more time I'm going to rip the goddamned phone jack out of the wall and get a cell phone and screw them.
Alright, you're probably wondering - what the hell does this have to do with working for them? Ask yourself two questions - if they do this to their customers, hell, people who don't even WANT to be their customers, how are they going to treat their employees? And if they treat the public in such a dishonest and greedy grasping manner, why would you want to work for them anyway? There must be an honest company you can work for. Hell, even Microsoft is a little more honest and competent than this.
...your wife is just smarter than you :)
I've worked at Williams Telecommunications, WorldCom and Sprint and they are much different environments. WorldCom's whole culture is merger, merger, merger. The first merger was LDDS and Williams Telecom and that is when the WorldCom name came about. Actually, even before that, I believe, LDDS was formed from mergers of RBOCs and such. After LDDS and WilTel merged, then came the MFS and WorldCom merger then came the MCI and WorldCom merger. I was even at Sprint when WorldCom and Sprint where talking merger. At the time, I was not a proponent of the merger and was joking to people that I was being stalked by an entire company. ;-)
My experience at Williams Telecom and Sprint were was a great experiences, but I can't say the same for my experience at WorldCom.
** Everyone I came in contact with in WorldCom was very much in CYOA (cover your own ...) mode and running scared. **
That can sometimes be a good thing, but I don't believe it was in this case. Of course, since I haven't worked extensively in every part of WorldCom (nor could anyone) and it has been a few years, I can't guarantee you that your experiece will be the same.
** I'm sure there are some vary good parts of WorldCom, but I wasn't in them. **
Good luck! I think you will need it to get into a good area!
I worked for WorldCom before the merger with MCI down here in Boca Raton, FL. I have to say that it was THE best job I had. I did LAN and Computer support for 16 sites down here. My boss was in Tulsa, OK and he only bothered me once a month when he would call me to ask me if I needed anything. I had my own office, which was huge and all the old computer I collected I networked together in my office so I could learn more. I didn't have to punch a clock since we had a support queue and as long as my tickets were closed in a reasonable time, they didn't care if I worked from home or not. Awesome company to work, I'm sorry that I ever left the position. BTW I left because my dad needed help at his company. Had nothing to do with WorldCom.
Having reported many, many spammers to them, and having also done the occasional follow-up checks, I can assure you that it would be hard to find a more spam-friendly provider than UUNET.
They reliably send out a form letter saying how they deplore spam, &c., and that is the extent of their action. Check on the spam-vertised web site, and it's still there, reached via UUNET.
Tilt at windmills. Occasionally one will fall over out of sheer surprise.
I'm a former uunet employee, so not worldcom proper, so i can only speak from that experience. If you have clue, and manage to find yourself in the right group, it's a decent place to work. The network is huge. The training labs have more equipment than many ISPs, let alone the actual experimental labs. The network is fast, built with bleeding edge hardware, and you can bet that if it's deployed on this network, you can rely on it.
The company is global, which means (or it used to) that if you felt like working elsewhere, you could. God knows that the working atmosphere in Europe is much better than North America. =)
I work with brilliant people, and I've learned lots from them. Even if we're now officially worldcom, and part of Generation D (*gag*), and it's easy to feel like a cog in a big wheel since there's 15 departments in engineering, 93245 levels of management, stock options that are not even with reach of the Kursk salvage team, FUD concerning whether or not you're going to be employed 3 months from now, marketing focussed ways of life (I really really wish I'd bought those UUNET boxer shorts when I had the chance), and, well, I could go on, but, I still like working for the company. Why? No larger network exists, no other company still has the kind of resources we do, the big iron, the sheer scale of everything, and the people i work with. Every time I think about going somewhere else (who doesn't) I think "where?" and often draw a blank.
Like any large company, it'll depend on who you end up working for as well. Maybe everybody will suck, or perhaps everybody goes out and shoots some stick after work. You won't know until you look.
If you're going to work for worldcom proper, bear in mind that internet culture didn't extend to telcos until recently, so they're still coping with the shock of learning that ATM is *not* the future of networking. I'd check out the office you might be working for, and the people there. if it was uunet at one point, your chances of getting along are better, but that's just a guess really.
Just 'cause WorldCom is laying off people everywhere doesn't mean they suck. you could be working for the airline industry. you could be working for Nortel. Everybody is laying off.
To conclude, you won't find me telling you to run away as fast as you can. check it out.
Run away, now!
I can tell you that as a IT manager and as a consumer, this is the worse telecom company out there. It's worse than PacBell, SBC, USWest, GTE and Ameritech, combined.
Your company is making a huge mistake going with them as a vendor for anything. In a word, they SUCK.
working at worldcom is ok if you don't mind working for a company that doesn't really care about its employees and attempts to save every penny (no more free coffee, decreased benefits every year, 5% raise is the best you can get with 3% being average and so on).
As a consumer, my experience dealing with WorldCom was extremely negative and I have recommended against their services in an decision-making process I had a say in. They're billing and customer service departments DO NOT have it together. They stopped billing cell phone charges for 3 months and then put a massive 4-month conglomerate bill together and expect me to pay. Especially when I cancelled my service 1 month before the 3-month period in question. It was resolved with a nasty letter from my lawyer, but it should be an example of the awful work ethic these people have to let an error like that slip by. My advice: avoid WorldCom. If they can't treat customers right, sooner or later they'll be out of business.
Well, acording to these links. They are not the most-spamfriendly. Plus, you can actually call UUnet's abuse staff, how many other Tier1 providers can you say that about? You talk as if UUnet never shuts down anyone, and you know that is not the case.
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It Depends.
The answer you get is going to be horribly weighted by somebody else's baggage, the circumstances under which they were hired, or fired, even where they were located.
I worked for the Investor Relations department at the corporate headquarters in Clinton, Mississippi. Small department, great people. I loved my job and the people I worked with. The dress was corporate casual, and regular casual on Fridays.
I worked with the Bernie Ebbers, the CEO for a few projects. He's a very nice, polite guy--driven, but many entrepreneurs are like that. Also, he's very tall.
The IT department in Clinton is staffed with great people, the network/Internet/Intranet guys are top-notch and well managed. I still go bowling with them occasionally.
However, some people don't have such nice memories. When Worldcom bought MCI, there was quite a clash of cultures. MCI's IR department had 2.5 times the number of people, and didn't do as good a job as Worldcom did. All of them were laid-off in the merger. MCI had something like 5 corporate jets. Worldcom had 2 corporate jets. Bernie sold most of MCI's immediately. Former MCI people were undergoing "attrition" at a fearsome rate. Worldcom's culture was of a gritty startup, almost. You worked hard, but you were compensated for your effort. MCI was much more corporate, only their stock price reflected that "corporate" wasn't cutting it.
Unfortunately, MCI's marketing department stayed around. This is where you get those really shitty "generation d" commercials. And also why the web site sucks so much now.
This was a few years ago, but from what I can tell, the culture hasn't changed that much--at least, not in Clinton, MS. Other locations are different.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
I'm a contractor doing some programming work at WorldCom. The department I work in is not bad at all. No company-sponsored beer bashes or anything, but pretty nice. I haven't been pressured to put in excessive hours and the pay has been quite good. This job is a dream compared to my last job at Creative Labs.
I see your boss employed the ol' "fix the glitch" tactic!
Ah, the joys of draconian management...
-- Guns don't kill people, bullets kill people. Guns just make bullets go really, really fast.
and they've had their share of missed and delayed paychecks, but he still enjoys working there. Why? Because the company president takes him out to lunch sometimes to discuss how the company is doing, because the work he does is his own, he takes credit for it, and everyone recognizes a strong work ethic when he exhibits it.
I cannot say how your friends workplace works, but I used to work for a small company which did stuff like this also. Oh yeah, we had lots of interesting projects to work on, got lots of credit, got the ols "employee of the month award for 50$. However we were worked very hard, paid like 20-30% less then the going market. They would not deposit the money they took from our checks into our 401k accounts for 180 days (while they earned interest on holding the money). While the owners son was driving a Porche 911 turbo.
Be very wary of the smill time bizzes.
"They'll move quickly to integrate or to cut."
Doubt that. WCOM has just now made a major push to fully integrate what's left of uu.net. Basically that means taking all of uu.net and breaking the individual departments up, then placing them under their "twin" within the WCOM structure.
Another problem that I've noticed around here (WCOM) is that of MCI. One of the reasons WCOM was able to buy MCI was because MCI became bloated and fat. They had too many people sitting around doing one person's job. After the buyout, MCI was trimmed, but the bad habits die hard and the fat has only grown.
I've been here for a couple years and feel that I'm in a secure position and department, but that hasn't stopped me from tweaking my resume. I've seen stock options handed out valued at $44.50, but vesting at $21.00, then handed out for the following year at $16 and some odd cents. What's the current street price? Oh, and no raises... not in two years. Being salaried sucks too as several of us typically work at least 20 hours over. Yeah, motivation around here sucks, so does the recognition ("Hey good job, really appreciate it, but can't show it any more than saying 'Great Job'.").
I've enjoyed working here. I'm fortunate to work with a good group of people and a pretty good management chain. I still enjoy what I'm doing, and I get to work with some fairly interesting technology/notions. Just wishing I got more out of it than sore eyes, frustration and stress.
"Maybe I can learn how to be a truck driver. Mav, do you have the number of that truck driving school we saw on TV? 'TruckMaster', I think it is. I might need that..."
the mci half of the company (not sure about the wcom half) has cancelled telecommuting. i guees they didn't buy into the generation d bullshit.
About a half a year ago MCI WorldCom was our long distance carrier. Around that time my partner was interested in getting a cell phone. One day we received an ad from them for a free cell phone with the commitment of subscribing to their service for a year. It seemed like a decent deal, everybody was doing such a promotion, and life was dandy. So we called them up and said sure.
We gave them my work address to mail the phones to, since we have had problems in the past with people stealing packages from our front porch.
So weeks go by, the phones never show up.
My partner calls them up, gets put on hold for almost an hour. Finally, she gets somebody to talk to, and tells them what happened. Turns out they had the wrong address written down. They get the correct address from her. Seems fine.
Except the phones still don't show up. She calls again, and, after being on hold for such a long time again, it turns out that they still had the exact same wrong address.
This goes on for weeks, weeks pass into months. Eventually she gets sick of it and tells them we don't want the phone anymore.
Except that then they decide to start sending us bills for phones we've never received. One day I walked in on a conversation with her screaming at them, telling them she will report them to the Better Business Bureau. You have to understand, she's a kind and gentle soul and rarely (if ever) have I seen her so riled.
At some point the experience makes us change our long distance carrier: screw them if they are going to get any of our money.
So far, the latest bit in the whole saga is that we recently received a bill for long distance calls made on this phone to strange places we've never even heard of. Evidently somebody got ahold of the phone and is using it to make several hundreds of dollars worth of calls. All this time with missing phones, and the idiots at MCI haven't even suspended the service.
So she calls them and tells them about it.
At this point, if they are losing money, it's their own fault, and we certainly don't owe them a dime.
I'll never use MCI for anything again, and I would encourage others to do likewise. And I'd rather have a catheter the size of a garden hose than work there.
If you go to work for Worldcom-MCI, you'll be the smartest person there.
Just watch the movie
"Office Space." It is almost a documentary of my year in MCI IT. Pay special attention when they start firing people to increase stock price. Es verdad, es verdad.
Correct. UUNet was an intention decision to leave as a seperate operating unit, completely outside of the rest of the company.
I've watched a number of mergers, acquisitions, and spinoffs. MFS, MCI, EDS. With WCOM/MCI, they were merging the corporate networks even before the merger was completed. Teams on both sides that were deemed redundant were reduced to a skeleton level.
WCOM has had the experience of taking over the network infrastructure department of EDS. They know exactly what they'll need to do in this case, and how the big picture works.
Expect quick movement.
If the quality of their customer service, billing practices, etc., are any indication of the company as a whole, I would not suggest associating with them in any way. I absolutely refuse to use them for any services whatsoever after the crap they've put me through as a cell phone customer.
I used to be a Cellular One customer, then MCI bought them out. All went to hell in a handbasket. They triple-billed sometimes, and though they were kind enough to warn you that they were having billing problems, it was still *your problem*. Getting through to a customer service drone on the phone sometimes took as much as 1.5 hours of holding. And canceling my cell service after getting fed up with this garbage took *5 months*. I called their customer service people repeatedly (after waiting in the queue for an hour or so each time) to cancel, and each time they'd tell me I had never cancelled and would I please pay the outstanding bill for the months since I originally cancelled service. And each time I'd have to re-explain that, no, I won't pay because I cancelled long ago and would you please stop sending me bills. And we'd go back and forth for a while and they'd finally say, okay, your balance has been wiped and your account cancelled. And subsequently I'd get another bill (or two or three, if they were having the multi-billing problem that month).
Finally, magically, one month it all stopped, and I have since been MCI-free. Never again do I have to deal with them, except when an MCI telemarketer calls to sell me something. And that tends to be somewhat enjoyable anyway, because I get to inform them that they work for the devil and to tell them to begone to whatever pit of hell they crawled out of.
So, unless you want to be one of *them*, I wouldn't suggest going to work there.
BTW... your perception of pre-merger MCI being bloated is shared throughout the company. Four people and one manager for every job that would take a single person. (Okay, I put a bit of spin on that.) I think also that MCI was more policy/procedure oriented than Worldcom. More "going through the process" as opposed to Worldcom's "just get it done and go onto something else".
The downside of the WCOM legacy was that they were probably a little TOO thrifty, and not as professional.
About bad habits/fat grown... a bit, yes. For example, how most all the WCOM's all got pay increases to the MCI levels. And the growth of policies/procedures which slow work down. But legacy MCI has been trimmed in the process.
But don't get me wrong. I absolutely LOVED working at Worldcom, at least where I was. The atmosphere was incredibly good, and I had an awesome manager. I only left when EDS was going to take over my group. After I found out that they didn't run things into the ground, and actually started running IT (and the people) far better than WCOM, I came back to my old job.
Still enjoy it.
There are jobs here which are REALLY GOOD. There are jobs here that REALLY SUCK (be it because of a manager, pay, workload, whatever). But for me, WCOM is a very good experience.
Its a big company. Experiences are going to be hit-and-miss.
BTW... I feel sorry about your stock options. But back in the late 90's, they really panned out for us. One year, my "standard issue of shares" given to average employees panned out to something in the neighborhood of $10,000 after taxes. Bernie believes in giving shares to his employees. Just the market value of the stock recently has ruined that lately.
Who wouldn't want to work there? Especially geeks like us /. readers. We'ld fit right into a technical company like that..
I took a pay cut when I left Worldcom for NASA but I haven't worked a single weekend or evening so far
I thought that janitors always worked nights and weekends.
cpeterso
A company I was associated with for a while used UUNet to host spamvertised websites. After about a month of spamming they had the plug pulled on their T3 line.
No one will read this, of course, since I'm posting anonymously but what the hell... no one else that works here appears to be posting.
What's it like working here? To make a long aswer short, it depends who your manager is. I'm lucky enough to work for people who let me run Linux on my desktop even though it's not "officially supported." (Windows is the official desktop OS).
Other people, however, have horror stories due to the regulations in their particular group. I'm sure this is the way with most large companies.
HTH
Since a number of people have given mention to the "Tulsa" or "Cherokee" site, I thought I'd make some mention of Tulsa. I agree with the other posters, in that it is a laid-back site. But don't be fooled, they get the work done.
The city is a good one to live in simply because of the cost of living. You'll find most prices to be quite low. Gasoline, unleaded, is currently $.97. Housing is very inexpensive compared to other places. Say, a 1400 sqft home would go for around... ballpark... $80-120k.
Tulsa is a good place to work at.
I don't mean to imply that I am p-whipped but my wife forced me to quit that job.
You should thank her. That's not even close to p***y-whipping, that's called "looking out for your partner when they're getting screwed". And it sounds like you were, like in so many tech jobs where you are "indispensible", but under-rewarded and ultimately expendable.
Freedom: "I won't!"
try asking her why she feels hurt, and she just might answer you
moderate him down
It's important to remember that customer service is part of what a company is. If it sucks, chances are that they have pissed off someone you may want an interview with at some point.
If you don't have a job now, then take it. You can sleep in alleys, but ya gotta eat. If you are one of the fortunate that are working, you may want to give this a pass.
I have WorldCom for LD, and I get nasty calls to collect before the bill even arrives in the mail. They keep wanting me to go direct debit, but if they can't get their billing cycles right, what makes them think I'll trust them with my bank account? I'd change, but since I make about 2 LD calls a year, it's not worth it to me.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Go to vault.com. They can answer, in general terms, "What is it like working for company X?" Go to the "research" section. You'll probably want a free account. Oh, they sell a book, too. Actually, it doesn't look like it'd be bad at all. The message board and site's text that describes WCOM is a little stale,
and the spelling checker suggests "Whoredom." Coincidence?
I've heard the police get 911 calls about this a lot.
No sig for you.
I love these comments about Mississippi. They make me laugh at the ignorance of the posters.
/. wanting to find out new information about some really cool facilities.
For what it's worth, Mississippi is ranked THIRD in the US in computing power (behind New Mexico and California) and would rank something like #8 in the world compared to other countries total power.
40% of the US Department of Defense's computing power is in the state.
This is a pretty amazing fact that most people don't realize. So, chances are that you are living in a state or country that has less computer resources than the one that you are making fun of.
For more info I found a couple of sites talking about the state's computing power, clusters, and supercomputers:
MSU's ERC cluster and the rest of the research center.
I thought this info might be interesting for some of those on
Bias warning: I worked at the ERC for many years on visualization and virtual reality (they have a CAVE).
I have changed several email addresses due to massive amounts of UUnet spam. Especially if you're overseas they don't do jack about it.
and this is high volume spam, 200 a week, not one here and there.
The WSJ did a story on their move to Colorado Springs, CO, home of the Holy Hoppers. The biggest employee complaint was there were no good gay bars. No shite, sherlock.
I have never worked for WorldCom; however, I lived in Clinton, MS when WorldCom moved in. Holy cow do they spend the money!
They first went in and built a huge complex that out-towered anything else in the state (okay, which doesn't take much.) Next, they spent large amounts of money on a nearby private Baptist College (Mississippi College). They built a multi-million dollar gym and performance center on campus... It worked out as well as WorldCom had free use of the facilities and the small college gained valuable structures.
Multiple utilities were upgraded as well. That small town received city-wide cable-modem access even before Jackson (which is the capitol city) did.
All of this to say... all least in that small Mississippi town, working for WorldCom was golden.
Davak
http://www.carotids.com
If I remember correctly, they haven't changed their 401k benefits since I left. Something like 1:1 matching, up to 4 or 5% of your pay. Very nice.
1. it won't improve your career if you burn out or they have lousy OH&S and you get injured, or if they have a reputation of slackass employees that no one else wants to hire
2. does it pay well? well you need to look at the pay versus the amount of work you do. if the pay looks good, but you're working nearly 24/7, not getting enough sleep and your health is suffering, your personal relationships and friendships are going down the tube because you're not there when it counts.
this stuff all contributes to quality of life, so really, it depends on if you want a job, or a life.
thanks for the laugh
Right. thats why I used to get 7 spams/day/account out of uu.net customers. thats why uu.net continues to host so many companies that sell spamware so everyone can get even more spam.
I bet they only shut down spammers who haven't paid pink contract fees.
someone here once gave me the solution to dealing with uu.net. forward all spam to their sales people. funny, it worked. one complaint and the new spammer deletes me from the list. (the spammer doesn't go away - a trap account continues to get the spam, so uu.net does jack)
uu.net is huge, and responsible at one time for 70+% of all spam. granted their network is huge, (basically the entire east coast I believe) but it doesn't excuse their blind eye to spam issues.
also, abuse@uu.net no longer accepts complaints from spamcop. what does that say about them? every read the auto reply from abuse. pretty obvious they don't care.
the only way to solve their spam problem is make the spam a bigger headache than the revenue it generates.
disagree if you like, but I have the emails from uu.net to back it up.
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
Besides the fact that this is a REALLY stupid "News" article...
Working for WCOM will be exactly the same as any other big company. Your experience will be dictated by your manager chain. You either have a good one and like your job or you have a bad one and life sucks. You are also just a number - nothing you do will mean squat for anyone 2 levels higher or any level latterally. You will also live in a cube farm - welcome to the Dilbert zone.
Our first indicator was when Bernie Ebbers sent out a message stating that all on-call compensation would be immediately ended, but all employees are expected to be oncall 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Benefit coverage has been reduced but benefit costs have skyrocketed.
Virtually all morale related employee benefits have been eliminated. These include package delivery, kitchen supplies, hot cocoa, blah blah.
Raises are capped at a rediculously low rate because you are entitled to a piddly amount of worhtless stock options.
All decisions are made at the VP level without regard to technical recommendations from employees. These decisions are generally based on who the VP plays golf with.
Desktop monitoring software is the newest kid on the block and the IT people are able to remotely view your desktop and another app inventories your system autmatically throughout the week. Even worse, these applications dog your system.
WorldCom employees are viewed only as expendable commodities and nothing is done to make the workplace more pleasant.
All in all, one of the most depressing environments I've ever seen.
PS. this may be different for legacy WorldCom employees (those who actually worked for WorldCom) pre-mergers. So far as I know, everyone who works for the companies they've aquired have much the same experience we've had.
I'm a WorldCom employee. I work at the world headquarters in Clinton, MS. Overall I'd say my experience with the company has been good. I've been a little nervous when the layoff-fairy has visited us, but who wouldn't be?
The atmosphere at the company seems to vary from department to department. The dress code in most of the IT departments seems to be pretty lax. I can get away with wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It's possible shorts are allowed at some of the facilities, but not at the corporate headquarters where I work. My department is fairly close knit. We don't get paid a whole lot but we also have been sheltered from the layoffs (lower salaries mean smaller targets at layoff time). However, what we do get paid is pretty reasonable for Mississippi, so I can't complain too much. The company has pretty good benefits. The stock options currently aren't worth anything, but I expect that to change soon. The 401k plan, insurance, etc. are all pretty good deals (there are other perks like $25 of free long distance amonth, too). Another one of the benefits is that the company has paid for every training class I've wanted to take (even if it was training in something that didn't directly relate to what it is I do). I'm allowed to run whatever OS/software I want to as long as I get my work done. My department (like any department) has it's good points and bad points, but I'm glad I work where I do, and the friends I have in other departments seem to like where they work, as well. I'm sure there are some bad departments in the company, but I think overall WorldCom is a pretty safe bet (particularly for IT positions).
The MCI people HATE that they were taken over by Worldcom. If you want someone who was an MCI employee before the merge to do anything, be sure to tell them you're a fellow MCI employee or it won't be done! I don't know how they treat new comers but they probably only see people as either MCI or evil.
It really appeared to me that WorldCom took over MCI and then basically cut off funding for any new projects. Budgets were incredibly tight for those two years, and we could barely afford to keep existing projects going. I think they somehow expected to continue making money off of MCI without any expectation of keeping abreast of the market or competition.
Not only did they trim staff, they also went to great lengths to cut trivial costs associated with office atmosphere. For example they stopped stocking hot chocolate and coffee in the break rooms. At one point we didn't have toilet paper for a couple days and people seriously considered the possibility that WorldCom had stopped funding even for that!
Both years I was there, there were huge layoffs around Christmas time to make the books look good for the end of the fiscal year. Then they would hire on huge amounts again in the spring, mostly people previously laid off. Because of this, a lot of people felt really insecure about their jobs. I saw many many many cases where employees were spending more time gossiping about layoffs than working, because it was such a crazy situation.
MCI/WorldCom was also layered with way too many layers of management. There were bosses whose only job was to communicate information between a VP and five or six managers. It was really crazy.
MCI/WorldCom was also somewhat formal, they had "casual Friday" when it was okay to wear jeans, etc. Very uptight compared to a left-coast startup but not as bad as a big consulting company or bank. Good luck!
i live in the northern va area and have had a few friends work for uunet/worldcom. as far as the pay goes i hear it sucks, even for tier three network techs. but the plus side is they'll train you to death if you want them to, no strings attached. and they have a t-shirt and jeans kinda policy.
You see a problem, I see potential. - Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli
moderate him up
Good thing I was on probation. The company treated me like shit they wanted to take my UNIX (Sun box) away from me and replace it with a Windows 2000 system and they gave no insentive to stay, they fired me due to their politics besides, my job had a high turnover rate.
Good riddens!
Everyone wants a Tux in their life.
And here I sit sipping on Ramen broth.
Jordan Bettis
``Wherever you go, there's another stupid sigfile quote.''When I was at UUNET Worlcom, a lot of the technically savvy gurus were leaving and getting replaced by generic political project manager types. If you work for one of those, no matter what they promise you, you'll never see a promotion or more than a 5% raise. If you're lucky enough to get a tech guru turned manager, then you'll be in good shape and will enjoy yourself. Unfortunately they're few and far between.
For the record, I worked at UUNET, got no raise or promotion for two years, left to join a startup, it failed so i went back to UUNET (getting a nice raise), then learned enough to go contractor, and never looked back.
Actually, I live just outside of Clinton MS. I pass the Worldcom HQ every day on my way to work.
--Forest C. Adcock--
The answer you get is going to be horribly weighted by somebody else's baggage, the circumstances under which they were hired, or fired, even where they were located.
;-)
absolutely. you forgot "education, experience, personality, and clue."
The IT department in Clinton is staffed with great people, the network/Internet/Intranet guys are top-notch and well managed.
Are you sure they still work here? Either you have absolutely no idea what "top-notch" looks like, or those people are LONG gone from worldcom. The people currently running IT are morons, and none of them are more clueless than the ones running the corporate intranet.
I work for the part of worldcom that used to be a top-notch ISP. I know a good network design when I see it, and the the worldcom intranet ain't it. Even worse is that they refuse to take advice from anyone, even though they clearly don't understand what they're doing.
Thank god all the Internet critical networks are protected from the worldcom intranet.
Unfortunately, MCI's marketing department stayed around. This is where you get those really shitty "generation d" commercials.
so that crap comes from MCI? all this time we've been blaming worldcom for that. I can't imagine a worse line of adds, nor a worse direction for the company. what a mess that whole thing has been. "It's not an age, It's and attitude." Yeah...I've got your attitude right here.
And also why the web site sucks so much now.
there hasn't been a good website anywhere inside of worldcom since they took us over. they recently took control of our legacy website and made it just as non-functional as the rest of the worldcom and MCI websites. Nobody who uses javascript to create generic hyperlinks that could be done with a simple anchor and href should be allowed to continue "designing" websites.
But the worst part of worldcom from my perspective is the fact that they seem to delight in passing down half-cocked, heavy-handed directives for everyone to follow without ever having asked any questions as to the impact or repercussions of these spiffy new ideas. I don't know how many times we've had to beat back different worldcom weenies with a cluestick just to keep the Internet functioning. the lack of clue seems to permeate the organization from bernie all the way down to the people bernie values less than dirt.
-- my name is mud
Yes, and I could not get out of there fast enough. I have worked for several big IT /communication firms and they are the top of the list for the worse. No free anything. You will be expected to work your 50 hours and be happy that you have a job. I did not see too many happy people there, career...what is that. They are a casual company for dress, but they are serious about squeezing you for everything you are worth.
The only one worse would be Level 3 Communications
Tread lightly and look at all of your options before you go into this. Have your eyes wide open.
I work for a company recently (July 2001) assimilated by World COM. In the past several months I've seen some drastic changes not unlike the ones other people have detailed including:
Laying off 20% of the work force. The day of the layoffs we had an all-hands off-site meeting. The meeting was held in shifts. Nobody was told ahead of time what "shift" they were going to be in -- you'd receive an email telling you it was your turn. By the time it came around to the third group -- and nobody had returned from the first two -- people had just stopped checking their email. Sadly, it didn't work. Some of these layoffs were absolutely justified. Most were quickly replaced by contractors. Why do this? To increase our "Revenue per Full-Time Employee" stat. Woo-hoo.
They are currently "revamping" our compensation package. We've previously all been eligible for a 20% performance bonus -- based solely on our own performance. (This has traditionally been a gimme. It is the only reason I took this job instead of another I was offered at the same time.) The old bonus was paid quarterly. The new improved bonus will be much different. We'll get 10% based on performance and 10% based on "attainment of corporate goals." One of these will be paid quarterly and the other yearly. Now, I know that this was never a guaranteed payout but from my POV I'm taking a 10% pay cut. I work in IT -- I don't have any control over the setting or attainment of corporate goals.
Now, I can't say how much of this is WCOM and how much is just normal fscking over, but... it makes me seriously wonder.
As partners they are no great shakes either. "Arrogant" and "demanding" don't begin to describe the attitude. Nobody attending a joint development or planning session will come away with even a shred of doubt about who bought whom. We're rolling out a new enterprise-wide app in the near (knock on wood) future and they had no qualms about insisting on dropping in a dozen or so new requirements very late in the cycle. (Like mid-August when we were looking at a 9/1 delivery date.)
you stupid fuck.
Slow Down Cowboy!
lol Just watch Office Space, but just remember that you can't get even.....excellent security...oh by the way I hope you like dealing with NT. Back in 98 they got a bad virus on their systems and made everyone go to NT. Like that would help.
FWIW. I worked for the part of World Com that used to be Wiltel. My time there was just AS they were merging.
Cut throat. Management by politics. But that was just my little piece of the pie, other people have better stories, some worse.
My contract was terminated early due to 'i couldn't do the job I said I could do' read: I was too naive to play the bosses political games.
My replacement lasted not quite two weeks - he was paged to call the boss at her desk after hours. He called her from a phone booth in the rain, she put him on hold fro 15 minutes. He hung up, went home (mind you, this was a 20 minute drive at most) and had a call on HIS machine from the contracting company - don't come in, we'll send you your stuff and whatinthehell happened?
Display some adaptability.
I've spent time in their abuse department, so I can address this.
First, they don't shut them down fast enough (it's sad) so the spammers can get about 3 months of fun and games from the initial notice time, then pretending that they're going to fix it, then the final 30 shutdown warning. However, that's the legal contract, to basically give joe blow consumer every possible chance to fix their problem before they cut them off.
With the overseas sites, there's often legal regulations that make it more difficult to turn someone off just because they're sending out lots of spam.
On top of that, a lot of dial resellers (MSN, AOL, Juno, etc) use UUNet's DAN and this has to track back to them, even tho it's UUNET's ip space.
Considering the amount of traffic that flows through UUNet, statistically they should be in first place (if they were doing the same level job as other isps) but spamcop statistics will show you that they're not, so you should consider that.
You're incorrect about Spamcop as well. Don't confuse a form letter with lack of a response.
If you really want to get them to help you, call 800-900-0241 and follow the voicemail prompts for abuse/massmail. And yes, you'll talk to a real person, probably not even have to wait on hold.
...it's the fact that EVERYTHING is so big. i work in a call center for qwest wireless (supposed to be decently big, im not american, i never heard of them).
anyways, verizon is another big cell phone place and it seems to me that customers also get the shaft from bigger companies. i get calls like that everyday and since im general i have to transfer them away. they don't train very much and the systems we use are HORRIBLE. i'd love to see something like 1 system for everything there but it seems like cost effects everything.
we are told to "empathise" for the customer, which does shit (i do't actually care anyways, as im just a number, i just do enough not to get fired (watch the movie office space). since i don't care, i can go either towards the customer (which is easier to lose my job) or towards the company "im sorry sir/madam, there is nothing i can do as you signed the fine print saying we own your ass for 1 year, thank you for calling qwest wireless". "as for the lost or stolen phones, the charges apply cause we want money more then your business".
imagine having a soul while trying to say this. but the money is great (call centers are great in canada as we are american slave labour). it's funny because i get 12 dollars per hour working here. since it's canadian, it's about 8 american. on the plus side i have health care provided by my government.
freedom has a price. im a slave to taxes but don't wait in line when shot.
(come up here, bell canada isin't all THAT bad)
free long distance to canadian provinces, cell phone companies that don't suck (as much), and health care.
before i have a family i'll move to the states, get some cash, move into drugs and "invest" in selling. lol.
in canada all i say is "please take me off of your list"
:)
by law (here) they have to take me off of their list. give it a shot. not info that most even know about.
"please take me off your list" is all you need. every call, don't even let them take to J. Smith. (even if it's like yer wife or something, they don't need to know anything)
remember, drones do what they are told, tell them that and they'll do that aswell!
Up until March 2 I worked for UUNET, "A Worldcom company." Big layoff. Very nice severance. :) A buddy of mine worked for a Worldcom support call center up to March 2 as well. Both our experiences with the company jive, so its probably a safe bet they may be applicable to your situation, especially since your company is in network services.
My take on Worldcom is that it is a very relaxed, easy going culture and that the company treats its employees damn well. Save the occassional layoff, but hey. The benefits are great, plenty of time off, good pay. I worked at a UUNET data center, and the opportunity to play and get involved was tremendous. There are real opportunities to make COMPANY wide impacts. If you have good ideas, they listen, and IMPLEMENT them. Amazing, eh?
If you work for the company I think you work for, you'll have a blast. If you don't get cut. If you make the short list, they'll treat you great. That's my experience from the UUNET angle, at least.
it's easier to set up in smaller towns because although it's "golden", it's also cheaper for them.
not to kill your nice view on things, just look at why THEY'D do something for you.
what's in it for them is what you alwaays have to ask.
The work atmosphere is pretty good. Thats about it.
The benefits are lousy. They laid off about 12,000 people earlier this year and another 900 just this month. There is no travel or training anymore for anyone.
The upper management (Ebbers et al) are not doing a very good job and the rumors within the company say they are trying to make the company look good to sell it.
Right now, your chances are slim to none of getting hired there since they are not hiring. New hires require senior VP approval.
I'd wait and see if they get their act together before you look for employment there. I left 14 months ago, but still keep in contact with my friends that are still left there.
I worked for MCI/WorldCom as a terminal tech last year for about four months on a contract assignment. I really enjoyed my job and was quite saddened when I was one of the first people to be cut during this year's layoffs.
From the sound of things, it doesn't seem like you'll be needed as WorldCom will be taking care of your employer's network. What will they need yet another person for? AFAIK, they are still within the bounds of a hiring freeze, and you wouldn't stand much of a chance anyway. But, FWIW:
Where I was working, the "culture" was laid back, everyone at the terminal was easy to deal with. The MFS people, however, weren't exactly helpful or knowledgeable, unable to give simple things like demarc information without a long convoluted process of "What's that" and "why"s.
Like has been said before: It's all in who you work with. Worldcom is too large to have just one "culture"
My perception is pretty much the same. My job is decent and we're a legacy WCOM group, although we're horribly understaffed. Our app feeds data to a number of diverse groups, and since each of them has their own way of doing things and totally different requirements, it can be pretty stressful trying to keep everything running smoothly. But hey, I work with competent people, and our manager does a good job of sheilding us developers from the chaos that comes from trying to keep many diverse groups happy.
Bottom line: it depends. Legacy WCOM is a decent environment. Our dealings with legacy MCI haven't been all that much fun though (caused our most experienced guy to bail, unfortunately).
And yeah, don't even think about the stock options.
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
When I consulted there a few years ago, they were outsourcing most of their IT operations to EDS. You might want to make sure it's actually Worldcom you'd be going to...
Are you a certified member of "Generation D"?
You used to but, where does it all come from now?
thats why uu.net continues to host so many companies that sell spamware so everyone can get even more spam.
Define spamware. Any piece of maillist software can be used as spamware. Should those be banned as well? I can write a perl script that will send out spam, should perl be banned?
I bet they only shut down spammers who haven't paid pink contract fees.
There are no 'pink contracts' at UUnet. If you have proof of one post it somewhere. Otherwise, STFU!
also, abuse@uu.net no longer accepts complaints from spamcop. what does that say about them? every read the auto reply from abuse. pretty obvious they don't care.
Well, UUnet does accept spamcop reports, they goto abuse-noverbose@uu.net. The 'noverbose' means you will not get a detailed response, just a short message.
You should not hold strong opinions about things you know little about.
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You were in abuse more than 2 years ago, so no you should not comment on this.
First, they don't shut them down fast enough (it's sad) so the spammers can get about 3 months of fun and games from the initial notice time, then pretending that they're going to fix it, then the final 30 shutdown warning. However, that's the legal contract, to basically give joe blow consumer every possible chance to fix their problem before they cut them off.
Bzzzzt. Wrong again. once a termination has started, if the customer continues to generate abuse, the circuit is termed asap.
BTW, How are things at Erols? *snicker*
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I contracted @ MCI at the time of the merger; I built and maintained Netview Maps for a NOC.
More than once my harried Sr Manager came to us with a list of Worldcom customers who were paying for management, but no one was managing (6 months or longer)...so we added them ASAP.
fyi, there was no fat in our division, at least from the cheap seats.
per the orig req for corporate feel: it's the Borg
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
No, I think they fired you due to your own incompetence.
"Define spamware. Any piece of maillist software can be used as spamware. Should those be banned as well? I can write a perl script that will send out spam, should perl be banned?"
A program designed to deliberately forge headers in an attempt to hide the source of the offending email. These programs have no legitimate function.
"There are no 'pink contracts' at UUnet. If you have proof of one post it somewhere. Otherwise, STFU!"
Right. Why does sales refuse to deny their existance, hmmm? Yes I have emails from them, but not on this pc. Generally very evasive, not one outright denial.
"Well, UUnet does accept spamcop reports, they goto abuse-noverbose@uu.net. The 'noverbose' means you will not get a detailed response, just a short message."
No. I now see tags "uu.net does not wish to receive complaints about xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" during the parsing. I forward these to abuse@uu.net and get the blanket statement which means nothing.
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
Why are you asking sales about policy? If sales said there were no pink contracts, would you believe them anyway? My guess is that you have already made up you mind and there is nothing anyone could say to change it.
I now see tags "uu.net does not wish to receive complaints about xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" during the parsing. I forward these to abuse@uu.net and get the blanket statement which means nothing.
What IP are you talking about? Are you sure that UUNet is responsible for it. SpamCop does make mistakes, ya know. Have you tried calling UUnet's Abuse dept?
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It seriously depends on where you're stationed. My boyfriend is a Senior Network Engineer for their Global Operation Center in Cary, NC. Mostly, he is in charge of keeping up various big buisiness WANs. It's not the most wonderful thing in the world, but it sure beats the heck outta my job! I got to visit with him once, and I loved the place Dress code is fairly casual, with t-shirts and jeans on the weekends. There is usually someone who is leaving the office to get food. It's fairly quiet and has a relaxed atmosphere, but I can assure you that there is no company masseur... at least he hasn't seen one.
I have a few friends who work at UUNET (a worldcom company) and both companies have been laying off alot of people, and have hiring freezes in most depts. take a look at your current job and job secuirty,esp in this market, and take that into account too.
"It's better to be a pirate then join the Navy"
A sworn statement, under oath, that uu.net does not allow pink contracts. ATT and PSInet used to proclaim no pink contracts and got caught. Pacbell has them as well.
I don't have time to sit on hold for hours. And yes, i'm sure the ip addresses involved are in uu.net's block. I don't know the mapping, but probably a downstream provider as well. I'll check the next time i see one. I found complaining to sales got me removed from the lists. abuse didn't. someone knows something. My guess is "take these email addr off your list. we are sick of the complaints."
Spamhaus used to list an executive (vp?) who apparently liked spam for its revenue. I see that link is gone now. Is the exec gone? If the senior idiots who allowed all the spam to continue are gone and there is actually action now, I will re-evaluate. I will wait and see the next time I get a uu.net spam. May take a month or two now. Don't expect me to hold my breath though.
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
Actually, AFAIL, Wiltel (aka Williams in the states) have been acquired by Telus
Recently yes, but back in the day, the Wiltel component of Williams was sold off to Worldcom, with a non-compete agreement from Williams for a few years. Once those few years were up, Williams basically started up Wiltel again, which is the new version you're talking about. Don't ask me why, that whole cycle seemed kinda pointless.
11*43+456^2
I've called after sending a report on two occassions. They "closed" the ticket by forwarding it to the ISP responsible, and said they couldn't tell me who the ISP was. BULL! I was still getting spam from UU.NET customers.
Now, I did apply to UU.NET for an abuse job (didn't get in, lack of transportation, I'm not bitter about it). I was called down to go down and visit UU.NET's abuse department. It's a full floor in an office building, relaxed clothing, and they handle all abuse (DOS attacks et al). However, when I interviewed, the manager(John St. Claire) said that it was a "three strikes rule" before they pull the plug.
What? Now "three months before one last month?" No, secure your network now or get SPEWed.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
That was two years ago, nutball. Things have changed. And as far as SPEWS, what are you waiting for? Block them and be done with it, unless you just like bitching about WorldCom. If a network was causing me that much of a problem, I would just as their network to my blackhole router and be done with it.
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[uu.net is huge, and responsible at one time for 70+% of all spam. granted their network is huge, (basically the entire east coast I believe) but it doesn't excuse their blind eye to spam issues. ]
Uhm.. I believe Your stupid. UUNet is 70% of the entire internet. Get your facts straight before you start kooking.
[also, abuse@uu.net no longer accepts complaints from spamcop. what does that say about them? every read the auto reply from abuse. pretty obvious they don't care. ]
Uhm.. can you please show proof of this kooky conspiracy theory? I mean honestly where is your proof? I haven't seen any.. and In fact I'm pretty sure they do handle spamcop complaints.. God I was right earlier YOUR Dumb.
[the only way to solve their spam problem is make the spam a bigger headache than the revenue it generates. ]
Uhmm. Spam is a headache, because of kooks like you who talk so much mad crap because of what you feel is right because you have no just cause, it's only because you can't hit the damn delete key. I mean jesus christ people GET WITH IT. Stop talking so much trash.
I want to name ONE Tier1 Backbone provider, I mean you name ONE that is a better provider, faster bandwith, MORE customers, More diversity, and stop being such a damn kook. Jesus, you talk mad crap about people you dont know, and in fact whether you believe it or not, you make yourself look stupid. HAHA Thanks for the laugh.. and anytime you can submit the proof then bam.
He can't he's a customer most likely himself. Or a customer of a customer, and if he did who would he complain about.. the gypsy that turned him into a crack-fiend metro stalker? nah let him speak his mind he most likely didn't get the job because he was a complete dolt. I'm sure alot of things have changed in two years time.. Frankly I hate spam, but frankly I hate kooks who dont know things correctly more. I've spoken to UUNet/Worldcom abuse on multiple occasions, about spam, and DOS attacks, and every time they seem to bend over backwards, EXCEPT they wont give you information, that is fine, because if i wanted it they would give it to me, it would only take a subpeona. After all mr. werewolf-guy dont you think it would be poopy if i called ur ISP an said u spammed me, made up bogus headers, and such, and had them give me your homephone number or name? dont think you'd like that eh? Privacy is a wonderful thing.. Keep it coming.