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Cogent Communications

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Cogent Communications reviews

2.3

23% would recommend to a friend

(892 total reviews)
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Dave Schaeffer

23% approve of CEO

23% positive business outlook

Cogent Communications has an employee rating of 2.3 out of 5 stars, based on 892 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Cogent Communications employee rating is 40% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

892 reviews
2.0
Feb 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some individual coworkers are great and genuinely try to support each other • Quota expectations are relatively low (though still difficult to hit given internal obstacles) • The role itself could be manageable in a functional environment (Yes AI helped me write this cause my original version was not nice)

Cons

Toxic culture with zero support. The culture at this company is genuinely unhealthy and has been declining for years across all regions. I speak regularly with employees nationwide, and the experience is consistent. While my immediate team happens to be supportive, mostly, (which feels like an anomaly), the broader environment is fear-based and transactional. (So many new hires in my office as well as others due to reps regretting their decision to work get after only a few months) Employees are treated as numbers, not people. Leadership lacks empathy and self-awareness, and there is no attempt to model healthy communication or inspire confidence. HR is severely understaffed for a company of this size (roughly 3 people for nearly 2,000 employees) and is largely ineffective. Serious complaints are met with delayed responses, vague acknowledgements, and no meaningful follow-up from directors or VPs. Accountability is nonexistent. Management is chaotic and often incompetent. Sales management is wildly inconsistent. Rules change constantly, creating whiplash and confusion. Reps are pitted against one another, forced to fight over accounts across regions, only to lose accounts later due to shifting internal policies. Many managers are absent, untrained, or unqualified — some don’t know how to use the CRM, don’t show up to the office in a fully onsite role, and don’t advocate for their teams because everyone is afraid of getting fired. Tenured reps routinely provide more guidance than management. Internal teams are unreliable, slow to respond, and require constant follow-up. You are expected to do everything yourself while still being blamed when processes fail. Compensation and benefits are misaligned and outdated. Compensation is particularly discouraging. While on-net commissions are paid dollar-for-dollar, off-net deals (which make up the majority of the business and are significantly harder to sell) are paid at 50%. This makes no sense given the effort involved. Incentives used to be better but have steadily been stripped back. Benefits are among the weakest I’ve experienced. PTO accrues slowly and resets annually, making it difficult to actually take meaningful time off. There is no meaningful work-life balance to recover from burnout anyway. Only six paid holidays are offered, and employees are expected to be in the office calling closed businesses on holidays like Christmas Eve. There is no mental health support to speak of. Bereavement leave is extremely limited. Parking costs are passed onto employees depending on office location — sometimes over $100/month — with no adjustment to compensation. Work-life balance does not exist. This job owns your life. Boundaries are not respected. Everyone is burnt out — including new hires. Employees are technically hourly due to past legal issues, but overtime is discouraged or reprimanded despite workloads that require it. You’re expected to meet unrealistic activity metrics (50+ calls, emails, busywork) while being locked out of accounts that could actually generate revenue. Growth and stability are poor. Upward mobility is not worth pursuing. Training changes constantly and is largely “figure it out yourself.” The company feels unstable, and morale reflects that. Only a small percentage of top performers succeed — often because they inherited accounts with real sellable opportunities — and even they are overwhelmed with unmanageable account loads.

2.0
Feb 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Worked with many great people. No overtime required. Compensation includes uncapped commission and sales incentives. Limited PTO.

Cons

Leadership is a joke. The CEO is more interested in hearing himself speak than listening. Bi-weekly conference calls are a waste of time, consisting of the same questions repeated over and over. It’s almost comical to hear him read every employee’s question and offer the same two cents each time. Communication feels one-sided, and concerns raised by both employees and customers often go unresolved. The company prioritizes transactions over trust, ultimately damaging customer experience and long-term outcomes.

1.0
Feb 7, 2026

Crap

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You won't be there for long

Cons

Pretty much everything. Horrible place to work

Viewing 37 - 39 of 892 Reviews

Glassdoor has 919 Cogent Communications reviews submitted anonymously by Cogent Communications employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Cogent Communications is right for you.