WorldCom - the employee's tale

Uncertain times for WorldCom employees

The day after WorldCom admitted to one of the biggest accounting frauds, one company employee describes the mood on the ground at the company's UK headquarters in Reading.

"People are quite stunned, it has been the sole topic of conversation.

"The 17,000 job losses that is being quoted, was already planned...[people thought] that most of them were going to be in the States, now people are fairly sure it is going to be here as well.

"We had an email from John Sidgmore (CEO), this morning. It basically said business as usual [and it shouldn't] affect our ability to carry on as usual.

"We are on the ground, we are still doing the things we are doing before...there are conference calls going on left, right and centre.

"I know that the account managers have been talking to their customers, trying to reassure them...it is not a KPNQwest thing, where they are talking of pulling the plug.

"There is a lot of gallows humour, which is people's way of dealing with it.

"It is not so much betrayal, as how could someone be so stupid as to let that sort of accounting error through, where were Andersen?"