EarthLink Reviews

Pros

excellent compensation, 401k, bonuses, flexible hours, good vacation time, telecommute options.

Cons

micro-management, lack of clear direction, excessive reliance on low-skilled outsourcers, burdensome bureaucracy, broken tools, inter-departmental barriers, rampant ADD and scope-creep.

Advice to Senior Management

respect your highly paid contributors by not second guessing their every recommendation, and keeping time-consuming processes that prevent them from delivering quality product and service in a timely manner.

Pros

Fun, good co-workers. People around you really tried to make a difference, wanted to always help the customer which made you want to.

Cons

Management changed so as to no longer value it's employees and thus to make them expendable. Morale becomes terrible when everyday bring the loss of another colleague.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect the people who make you good - understand that reps work hard and should be rewarded, not treated as disposable.

Pros

Fun atmosphere
Given freedom to do job
Variety of challenging work
Hard-working people

Cons

Travel expectations were not as clear as they could have been
Lack of inter-departmental communication

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to hire good people and provide opportunities for people to grow.

Pros

Now, under Rolla, the company is well run. They generate lots of cash and most of the idiots have been booted out.

Cons

The company is not likely to grow and will eventually be acquired/liquidated.

Advice to Senior Management

None. Keep up the good work.

Pros

Great work environment and flexibility (working from home etc)
Competitive benefits and bonus structure (partly to offset the volatility of the positions)
Excellent severance package
Tons of vacation

Cons

Shrinking company means no job stability and little room for promotion.
Layoffs occur frequently and the transition of work to the go forward teams isn't always smooth
Morale continues to decline as the company shrinks

Advice to Senior Management

Unfortunately, management is doing what they need to do in managing a declining business. I'd hope they continue to offer good severance packages for the employees who stuck around.

Pros

part-time telecomuting, easy-going about hours you work (late starter, early starter), flexible in general, supportive in general, when bonuses are figured in (often 20% or more of annual salary...in the last couple years anyway), compensation is more than fair.

Cons

The future is not bright for earthlink. Consistent layoffs and downsizing. Work revolves around saving money instead of creating new products in order to make money. Engineering tasks largely reduced to maintenance, consolidations. Dull and tedious.

Advice to Senior Management

Perhaps be a little less cautious - the time to make a move was when cash was king. The ship has sailed at this point.

Pros

Benefits plan was strong, tools needed to do your work were very good an HR staff.

Cons

Company is continually downsizing, there's not much room for advancement & the strategy isnt very exciting.

Advice to Senior Management

They need to communicate, movitate and energize the employee rank and file to keep them focused and to keep the morale high.

Pros

Stress is at a minimum and there is a VERY good balance between work and your personal life.

Cons

No movement upwards and very limited learning opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

Let us know what the 5 year plan is as far as headcount - how many employees will still be here? You have the plan as far as revenue so you should know how many people will be needed to sustain that revenue.

Pros

They offer great benefits (very generous vacation, flex time, casual dress, generous bonuses, etc.), a
good location (w/ free parking or marta pass), smart employees who can get things done.

Cons

EarthLink has an uncertain future. While executive management has been good about communicating their progress, employees still don't know what lies in the future.

Advice to Senior Management

We know it's hard to pick a good option for the company and you have communicated that to employees. But a time will come (soon) when you will have to make a decision.

Pros

Work life balance
Process oriented. Annual bonuses. Great 401k plan match. Medical, dental, health insurance.

Great amount of vacation time and fast to accrue

Cons

Slow to make change, corporate bottlenecks that one needs to jump through hoops to get things done! Change requires sign off from too many

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline processes better. Look into S C R U M and Agile methodologies to run projects and programs of the company.