WorldCom workers to find solace in Cucumber?

What do cucumbers have to do with telecommunications? Maybe a lot if you're one of the 17,000 workers recently laid off by WorldCom.

Cucumber Communications, a new long-distance company that devotes 100% of its profits to charity, is looking to bring on the newly displaced workers, many of whom were laid off without severance.

The company wants to hires them to do telemarketing sales from home. “This is a good interim solution for a lot of them until they find [work] that’s more appropriate,” said a Cucumber spokewoman.

The company was started completely on a volunteer basis, with its profits going to help provide private school tuition to children in dysfunctional families.

“We didn’t have much money so we had to come with something people would remember,” the spokeswoman said. That’s why the organization played off of the old rhyme, “what’s your number?… cucumber”.

“We know a lot of the WorldCom employees were caught by surprise, so we wanted to help out,” the spokeswoman said.