Lumen reviews

3.4

58% would recommend to a friend

(7,767 total reviews)
avatar

Kate Johnson

72% approve of CEO

49% positive business outlook

Lumen has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 7,767 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Lumen employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologías de la información industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

8K reviews
4.0
Mar 30, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great, cheap insurance benefits. Decent pay, especially after you factor in bonuses, commission checks, and employee referrals. No shortage of work/hours. Understanding, and helpful people, both co-workers and leadership. Nice building in a good location with on-site Cafe. Long lunch breaks. Attendance policy. Training is fun and builds confidence. The nature of taking incoming calls means sometimes (rarely) you get a brand new customer on the phone. This is where you make the best money; this is rare. Occasionally you meet very nice customers, have a great conversation, and time goes by quickly.

Cons

Stressful. Very stressful. Not much room for advancement; everyone is a leader. Account management software doesn't work well. You can't work with other departments to solve issues. The functionality of Century Link as a company as a whole. Century Link becomes your life (you're physically there at least 43 hours a week, not including the hour long lunch break and your commute). Parking is very, very expensive. I know this list seems short, but I really want to take the time to make you understand how stressful this job really is. Your responsibility is to take incoming calls from customers who either have a serious problem with their billing/services, or want to cancel services. Your job is to stop these customers from wanting to disconnect while selling them new services. YOU are the last line of defense; you can't transfer calls. This might sound easy enough, especially if you're a natural sales person, but don't be fooled. There are countless situations that cannot be fixed, will take hours to fix (which you don't have because you have to maintain a low call-handle time), or can only be fixed by disconnecting the account in question (hurting your commission). A lot of these customers have called in countless times, and you will often find yourself on the customer's side. You do have tools at your disposal to try and keep them around, but that list is narrow and under-developed. The systems that you learn aren't hard to learn by any means, but there are literally two dozen of them and they rarely work properly. A lot of the issues you attempt to fix may or may not actually BE fixed, even if you follow the processes they teach you. If you are a pioneer, perfectionist, or if you have incredible attention to detail, this may NOT be the job for you. You go into this thinking those would be great skills to have, but soon you see the limitations put in place deep at the foundation. I feel like long term employees have just accepted that the company is what it is and pay is decent...after a while you're trapped and just don't leave.

2.0
May 20, 2015

Neck deep in 1950s style bureacracy

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many of the manager and directo levels are here from the old Savvis days. Those people "get it" when it comes to work-life balance, recognition/rewarding employees, open and HONEST communication, etc. Unfortunately as more and more employees and executives jump ship... even this is changing. Most managers understand the need for a work-life balance and will make sure you take your vacation, work from home or take off when you'r'e sick, allow flex schedules to work around life's issues. But if you don't have the good managers, your balance could slip to work-work when even your days off are not your own.

Cons

Bad leadership starts at the top and rolls downhill. The CEO is completely out of touch with both his employees and the nature of the business now that they own a hosting company. ALL executive leadership is from the CenturyLink mothership and still think they're in the low cost - high revenue days when CenturyLink was just a telco. There are 2 female executives, but until recently NEITHER of them was allowed to speak at an all hands meeting... despite the fact they are in charge of major organizations. Decisions are made at slower than a snail pace - if they're made at all, and EVERYTHING has to be reviewed all the way up the chain. Morale is at an all time low. Leadership and reporting structures are constantly being reorganized, and it appears very little thought is actually put into how this will effect the company or customers. It seems heavily slanted to politics and the good ol' boy system. Staffs are frequently reduced and sometimes whole orgs are eliminated. There's been a hiring freeze for months - unless your VP has enough clout to get an exception from HQ - so critical positions are left unfilled. Almost all positions approved before the freeze were required to be located in Monroe, Louisiana... because the state gave CTL a grant to build a tech center. Unfortunately, most people don't want to move there, and the area cannot support the requirements of many positions. Even if they did, the city doesn't have the supporting infrastructure for most spouses to get jobs. The pay isn't bad, but getting ahead is practically impossible. Titles (and the pay tied to them) are assigned without reasoning. No one can explain the difference between a "Lead" vs. "Senior" position or a project manager I v. project manager II, and there is no way to learn how to move between the two. Traditional benefits are getting more expensive and less good every year. Most recently they stopped offering a PPO plan and required everyone to go on very high deductible plans. ALL medication must be purchased by mail - even more controlled prescriptions that require a new handwritten prescription each month. (Previously your doctor could fax it in to your local pharmacy). Dental and vision are pretty good. 401k matching is mediocre. CenturyLink has practically eliminated tuition reimbursement because to qualify for reimbursement, each course must pertain directly to your current job. Try convincing them that having an analyst with an MBA would actually help the company. The degree requires a course in marketing, but if your job doesn't involve marketing... it's not covered. Non-traditional benefits aren't uniform across offices. For example, to "save money" coffee was removed from all offices, but the group in Seattle gets a choose your flavor Coke machine and BEER KEG. Other offices were forced to cancel their annual holiday events, but the Monroe office still has their parties.

1.0
Nov 12, 2014

Empty promises and lies

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very easy work if you have minimal knowledge. Laid back work environment (to a fault) Good diversity between co-workers

Cons

There is no real training provided, nor is there any clear direction given. Constantly told lies and misinformation. Supervisors have no training and are very poor, to the point of showing favortism and hurting the career advancement of other employees. Because I feel it is so important, let me put that the supervisors and management WILL LIE TO YOU constantly and without any sense of wrongdoing. Supervisors and managers are "yes (wo)men" to those above them and do NOT work for the team. There is a major problem with the "good ole boy" club throughout this company.

Viewing 34 - 36 of 7,767 Reviews

Glassdoor has 8,415 Lumen reviews submitted anonymously by Lumen employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Lumen is right for you.