Lumen reviews

3.4

57% would recommend to a friend

(7,795 total reviews)
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Kate Johnson

70% approve of CEO

49% positive business outlook

Lumen has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 7,795 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 Information Technology industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

8K reviews
1.0
Jul 29, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Ability to work on diffrent vendors equipment Sick and Vacation days Salary

Cons

Way to many process changes. The constant fear of layoffs is not only depressing but takes a toll on you after so many years. How motivated can one be if you see all of your buddies laid off every year. Funny thing is,, they usually end up hiring some young college kid, who will over work them self just to fit in and impress management. And then Mgmt will use this against the older employees and say "he's willing to do it" "why cant you" They cut our pension. No pay raise this year. Thy even cut the shift differential pay by 2 hours. And they wanted us to pay back the money. We were told , that we were overpaid, even though they had a meeting and told us , time sheets should be filed out in this order. BIG PROBLEM with Supervisors who can not perform there own employees job. You hire a new supervisor and you can ask him any technical questions, or escalate any issues to them. You are just a number here. No sense of team or spirit in the office. The new merger with Century Link only added fuel on the fire. Separate organizations do not communicate well enough. You just get the feeling that management does not have your back. They have a sense of entitlement. They are untouchables, while we constantly have to look over our shoulders for the next round of layoffs. You have to make wine with crab apples.. Job description:: Do what ever I tell you. Or you will be laid off. Dysfunctional managers hiring dysfunctional supervisor leads to chaos. Give me supervisors who have technical skills, as well as admin skills. They are out there. Supervisors here are not required to be technical. Then how in the hell are they supposed to help me. You always have the feeling that you are going to get burned. If you make a left, they will tell you you should have turned right. Way to much favoritism. My group is a dumping ground for parts of the network, that nobody else wants to deal with. so they will give you 2 hours of training and your off to the races. If you screw up. It's all your fault. They will not back you. Just thinking about it..Makes we want to sit in a dark room with a 5th of Jack. If I took the job serious. I would end up in a mental hospital. Stopped doing that long ago. Chow..

2.0
Mar 19, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

CenturyTel is primarily a rural local exchange carrier that is in well into the process of diversifying its product & service offerings. Generally speaking, it has a good reputation with its customers. Because most of its business is in rural areas, it faces few viable competitors.

Cons

CenturyTel is headquartered in Monroe, LA, & most of its senior management is located there. The atmosphere is highly parochial, political, and even toxic, with advancement often depending upon who you know. Regional managers face a distinct career disadvantage since their corporate counterparts are better positioned to take credit for the successes and assign blame for the failures of regional projects.

1.0
Feb 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Remote work available for employees

Cons

Toxic micro-managers actively look for any reason to harass. Could be as small as pulling up an email/call and dissecting it word for word. Broken internal processes lead to low customer obsession, poor or no follow through, and incredible lead times on quoting, billing, installation, etc. Leadership just repeats accountability but have yet to see any. Motivation tactics are essentially telling you if your not at quota you will be fired on a weekly basis.

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Lumen Response
4mo
Thank you for sharing your story with us. We appreciate your feedback to help us improve. We're disappointed to hear about your experience. We recognize your challenges with management. We're committed to helping our leaders grow so that we can all succeed together. This will help us more clearly take any necessary action. We're glad you're enjoying our agile working model. Please reach out to us at CTLHRActionTeam@lumen.com if you would like to discuss anything further with your review. Thank you for being part of the Lumen team.
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