Good ole boy Louisiana Corp that doesn't have a clue. Salaried Professionals beware. - Lead Systems Engineer Lumen Employee Review

3.0
Jun 10, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Purchased a good company (Qwest) and proceeded to undo everything they had built by not understanding the business. They pretty much leave the federal market alone in the DC Area since they don't understand what we do. Pay was competitive for Salaried Technical Professionals brought over from Qwest (See Benefits warning below). Raises were better than Qwest and bonuses were good at about 5% per year.

Cons

If you are a socialist/communist you will like their benefits plan. They claim it is competitive and that is B.S. Under Qwest in 2012 I paid $2.2k/yr for family HDHP Medical,Dental and Vision, once CTL took over in 2013 they increased the cost to $6.4k/yr (204% increase), and changed the vision plan to a worthless one. The costs should have gone down or stayed the same since they had a larger pool of employees than Qwest. Amazingly profits went up when they reduced their share of employee benefits costs. When they did this they declared that they would apply pay banding to employee benefits costs so that those who are salaried professionals and managers who make more money, pay a larger share of benefits cost to help defray the cost of benefits for lower paid employees. How generous of them to steal my wages to pay for someone else, so much for the company values of Honesty, Integrity, blah, blah, blah. Just a note of warning to new hires to ask for the actual benefit costs when negotiating your pay, and discount any offers by the excessively high cost of benefits. Not sure that they know how to change to be competitive in the new IT technological climate, this ain't good ole telecom anymore.

Explore other reviews about Lumen

5.0
Oct 28, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good env team is good

Cons

nothing there is a con team is good

avatar
Lumen Response
7mo
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We value your input. We're glad to hear that your team has given you a positive experience! We're happy to have you on board with us, you help us succeed together.
2.0
May 13, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

work life balance, excellent time off so long as manager doesn’t micromanage/track and limit FTO, nice people, leadership has turned the business around.

Cons

No pay raises even with great performance review (5years with zero raise) No career growth/progression - been on a high-performing team for 5 years and not one person on the team has been progressed or promoted during that time. Little opportunity for career advancement and growth New jobs within the company are going to external hires, not much grwoth for current employees

avatar
Lumen Response
2w
Thank you for your transparency about your experience. We want to hear from people like you to learn how we can do better. We are sorry to hear about your experience. Lumen is taking a proactive approach to pay equity and regularly conducts market reviews to ensure Lumen's pay is market competitive, positioning us at the forefront of compensation best practices. Your review will help us take any necessary action. We're glad you value work-life balance, our people, and leadership. Please reach out to us at CTLHRActionTeam@lumen.com if you would like to discuss anything further with your review. Thanks for being part of the team.
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All