Very OT: WorldCom

[scottcomstock]

A little over two years ago, having graduated from Clarkson, I was attracted to the Colorado Springs area by a job offer from WorldCom, which is the area's largest private employer and a pillar of the local economy. I've been working there as a software engineer.

This evening, as many of you have probably heard, WorldCom has stated its intention to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (http://money.cnn.com/2002/07/21/news/companies/bc.worldcom.bankruptcy.reut/index.htm)

DON'T PANIC -- Chapter 11 doesn't necessarily mean "shutdown". Still, it's made me scared for the future, and I'm starting to take a good, hard look at Clarkson's graduate programs.

What does this mean for the Roundtable? One thing's for sure -- it isn't going away. When I switched hosting to ZeonHost, I bought a yearly package for about the same as it cost for 3 months at Interland. It's paid up until July 2003.

However, I'd like to ask for volunteers to keep an eye on things on the Roundtable if I lose my job and have to go back to New York. If you're interested, please let me know privately at comstock@speakeasy.org (my other address still isn't working yet, probably due to DNS)

Thanks, and LET'S GO TECH!

[scottcomstock]

As a lot of you are probably reading in your morning papers, the new WorldCom CEO, Michael Cappellas, came to the Colorado Springs office yesterday for an employee rally.

It sure as Hell didn't feel like a rally after 3,000 layoffs were announced in response to a question concerning same.

He went on to explain that the date of notification would be Friday, 6 December.

(To Mr. Cappellas' credit, this is more than has ever been explained to employees in the past concerning layoffs!)

At the end of the day, If I'm still there, wonderful. If not, I'm headed back to upstate New York. All I can do at this point is wait for the next fifteen days.

Worry not, folks: as I've said before, this site is paid for until July 2003, assuming the 9gb/month bandwidth limit is not hit. The site has received 1.2gb of traffic since the start of the billing period on 12 November, so we should be safe if traffic patterns remain as they have been.

...anxiously waiting...

[JR]

Good luck.

We just went through another round of layoffs where I work. Luckily my group wasn't affected too much by the cuts, but nobody is feeling particularly safe right now.

[Todd '86]

Here's hoping things work out well for you.

And, as always, thanks for perservering with this web site.:)

[tbch13]

Good luck to you, I told you earlier this week that we had a lot of layoffs in the past couple of weeks as well.

and thanks to you as well...for doing everything that has to do with this roundtable

[Muskieman]

Scott - Best of luck to you. I'm sure that things will work out fine, no matter the outcome on 12/6. Keep smiling!

Brian

[scottcomstock]

I survived today's layoff. The future is still cloudy, but I'm confident things will start looking up.

Thanks to all of you for your messages of support & encouragement.

Now...

LGT!
LGT!
LGT!

[Bill]

Hang in there!!!! One day at a time!!!
Worldcom will come back strong!!!

[BroomballMaster]

Nothing against you scott!

Worldcom sucks, i lost alot of money with those cheating scumbags. Maybe i should ask your new boss for my got damn money back, ya Worldcom is a solid company that's growing, ya right. Now why didn't Worldcom get as much attention as Enron Corp, maybe because Clinton was in the house and worldcom and old billy were both democrats? Ya that's why, i hate that damn company.

Sorry, small rant

[Muskieman]

Scott - Congratulations and good luck.

Brian

[Loud Guy]

Congrats Scott, nice to know we'll have a board for a while. Say did you live in Ross your freshman year?

As for broomball, is there any rhyme or reason to you?

[scottcomstock]

Originally posted by Loud Guy
Congrats Scott, nice to know we'll have a board for a while. Say did you live in Ross your freshman year?

Yes, I did (Ross 305).

[Loud Guy]

I thought so. I was with Matt Allen in 103, right below everyone's favorites Al and Kvin. Oh the memories...

[scottcomstock]

Originally posted by Loud Guy
I thought so. I was with Matt Allen in 103, right below everyone's favorites Al and Kvin. Oh the memories...

(Who were Al & Kevin & what did they do?)

Ah, the memories...no roommate for the 2nd semester...almost getting charged $36 by Res Life because someone went at my door with a permanent marker...walking downtown to class because my mother wouldn't let me take my car...learning the fine art of CGI & Perl in the ERC...

[scottcomstock]

Next layoff: 28 February.

[Loud Guy]

Good luck. I wish Honkey Douchebag would get this war over so the economy can finish recovering. I might like a job in something close to my chosen field eventually. Ah, retail...

[scottcomstock]

...until I find out whether or not I still have a job.

...keeping fingers crossed...

[scottcomstock]

Well, I managed to avoid the axe yet again. LGT!