WorldCom's Sales Force in Commission Limbo

It isn't just caffeine deprivation that's driving some WorldCom (WCOM Quote) salespeople crazy.

With their desktop calendar pages already flipped to the third month of 2002, employees at different divisions of WorldCom -- the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier -- complain that they still don't know what their sales quotas and commission structures will be for this year.

The reports of revenue plan delays indicate that morale problems are more than saucer-deep at WorldCom, a company whose elimination of free coffee and other benefits was the subject of recent items in TheStreet.com's Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street column.

And although current and former salespeople don't all believe the commission uncertainty hurts productivity, others say that not knowing commission and revenue plans -- and therefore not knowing WorldCom's strategic priorities -- augurs poorly for the salespeople and the company.

"It definitely has an adverse effect," says a former WorldCom salesperson. "You don't know what you're getting paid for, what's the direction of the company." Adds the salesperson, "I feel sorry for [salespeople at WorldCom]. It's just rough."

As of Monday evening, a WorldCom spokeswoman hadn't returned calls seeking comment on the company's sales commission practices.

Monday, WorldCom's shares rose 28 cents to close at $8.27. The company's shares peaked at $21.52 over the past 52 weeks but plummeted to a low of $5.93 as investors jettisoned telecom shares earlier this year.

Achtung!

Though evidence of missing sales commission plans is anecdotal, the phenomenon -- the equivalent of assembly-line grunts showing up for work after their contract has expired -- appears to haunt multiple business units at the company. Salespeople associated with long distance, Internet access and Web hosting are working under unknown compensation plans, company sources tell TheStreet.com.

To be sure, WorldCom's sales are far from tanking as a result of revenue plan uncertainty. In 2001 -- a year in which some salespeople said their compensation plan wasn't set until the third or fourth quarter -- WorldCom saw its revenue rise to $21.3 billion in 2001, up 11% from pro forma figures for 2000.

And so far this year, one data salesperson says, there's been no appreciable effect of the delay -- which the person says is not yet a "grave issue" -- on that area of the business. "We're busy as hell," says the WorldCom employee.

But that same employee says the issue could become problematic for WorldCom, especially if employees believe the foot-dragging will result in impossibly high annual revenue targets.

Plus, says the employee, the company's sluggishness in handling legitimate compensation issues is irksome, given how quickly it responds to reports of alleged compensation chicanery -- for example, February's allegations of inflated order booking at the company. (Employees at three WorldCom branch offices improperly inflated sales commissions by $4 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.)

Saying that sales activity is getting "busier and busier," the WorldCom salesperson says, "If anything, the company needs to be more attentive to dedicated and loyal employees."

Or just bring back the coffee, at least.