Emotions among Sprint employees run gamut

Elated, angry, uncertain, powerless -- those were just some of the emotions evoked among Sprint Corp. employees when news spread last week that the WorldCom deal was nearly dead.

Though some employees traded high fives, others adopted the slumped-shoulder position, while still others had the deer-in-the- headlights look.

All of those reactions are normal, says Connie Russell, a licensed clinical social worker and career development coach who counts several Sprint employees as clients.

"Some may be feeling relief, because they think it's over. But that's a false sense of well-being," Russell said. "Those who have been reading and watching closely know it's not over yet."

For many Sprint employees the again-uncertain scenario is worse, at least emotionally, than the WorldCom takeover scenario they had resigned themselves to, whether they believed it to be in their best interests or not.

"There are going to be some who are just numb," said Don Blohowiak, a New Jersey-based corporate change expert. "The swinging pendulum -- the `it's on,' `it's off' -- can result in a meltdown of emotions."

And of course, there's no shortage of rumors to keep employees guessing. On Thursday, speculation picked up that Germany's Deutsche Telekom would bid for Sprint, sending Telekom's stock down about 9 percent and Sprint's back up more than 5 percent.

Larry Rigdon, a Sprint supervisor in data operations, pondered the company's situation as he stood outside a Sprint facility after the Justice Department had sued to block the merger.

"We're sort of in limbo, waiting on some kind of decision to be made," Rigdon said. "There's quite a bit of consternation about what's going on. We don't have that much information. My take is that management and executive staff has to be careful about what they send down. If the wrong message came down, you'd have a lot of employees looking to bail out."

E-mail from Sprint employees in reaction to the news was all over the place. Each e-mailer sought anonymity, citing job security concerns.

Some wrote about an expected increase in departures from their departments; others wrote about a sense of relief mixed with apprehension; yet others expressed happiness that the merger was dead.

Now, employees are waiting to see what Sprint's next move will be.

Sprint Chairman William T. Esrey, in a letter issued to employees after the Justice Department sued, sought to assuage fears and reassure employees.

"I know that this has not been easy on any of you either, with the degree of uncertainty and speculation that you have faced," Esrey wrote. "I ask for your patience as we determine our next steps in the days and weeks ahead."

But the company's efforts to communicate with employees may be met with more jaded attitudes than ever, said Richard Ornce, senior vice president of Human Resources Management Group in Kansas City.

"Anything (management) says now will be speculation on their part, and employees know that," Ornce said.

"Now, more than ever, anything and everything they say will be taken with a grain of salt."

Russell, who counsels Sprint employees, agreed that management would be walking a communications tightrope. Before the merger foundered, she said, some of her clients were skeptical of management and thought top executives cared most about their own security.

Yet, Russell added, it's vital that executives at the top make all employees feel secure.

"They need to retain employees and try to keep morale buoyant, because the business is not saleable if there is a mass exodus," Russell said.

The fallout from the foundering merger could manifest itself in many ways, experts said, including projects being put on hold, positions going unfilled and promotions being put off -- dynamics that were already occurring under the pending merger.

Those events, in turn, will have ripple effects on Sprint workers and their families. They'll calculate their savings, ponder career options, wonder whether they should go ahead and buy a new house, whether to put vacation plans on hold, where to send the kids to college.

"On certain levels, everything just freezes," Russell said.

Blohowiak said many employees would be reeling from the feeling of having once again lost control of a vital part of their lives.

"You'll see lots of aberrant behavior," Blohowiak said.

"The more people lose control of their workplace situation, which is so vital to their sense of self worth, the more they try to take control in other ways. And that can sometimes result in some very bad situations at home and elsewhere."

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