Level 3 Communications Reviews in Denver, CO Area

Pros

The pay is great and the medical benefits are good. The commute time (at least for me) is also good.

Cons

The benefits have been eroding over the years so there is no guarantee that what I said in the pros section will still be true soon. Level 3 can be an okay place to work but you better negotiate a high starting salary. Many people have not received a raise in over 3 years. The bonuses have not been paid out at a high level for the past few years either.

Level 3 has been described as a toxic environment and many people are happy to leave.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to what your people need. It seems to be going unnoticed by upper level management that many people are jumping ship. This should be a warning sign but it doesn't seem to be taken as such.

Pros

Extremely low effort required. The parking lot isn't full until 9:30AM, and it's emptying out around 3:30 each day. A colleague had enough down-time while working there to start and operate his own web-based business.

Cons

The people who work here are corporate archetypes. This IS "Office Space." The initial learning-curve involves lots of jargon. Everyone here is "swamped," and "so busy," until you walk buy their office and find them surfing the internet, taking a 2-hour lunch or having nonsensical, pointless meetings ALL THE TIME. If you really want to accomplish something in life, this is not the place for you. If you love playing office, it's a childhood dream come true.

Advice to Senior Management

Communication here is abyssmal. It's a personality culture -- if you've been there awhile and someone likes you, you WILL become a director. I know of 5 personal assistants who became directors at Level 3.

Pros

Great people at Level 3. Despite the challenges with structure, direction, and a complete lack of senior leadership, I met many amazing folks.

Cons

Change for change's sake, inability to stick with a single course of action through completion, extremely high turnover at senior levels, "fire drill" and "diving catch mentality - behavior is rewarded.

Advice to Senior Management

Level 3 needs to place some high quality, committed, senior leaders in Executive management. There is a painful lack of true leadership capability in this organization.

Pros

Smart people, good benifits, competitive salary, tend to promote from within, good market opportunity, interesting and relative product offering, never dull

Cons

Ineffective leadership, lack of vision and execution, constantly changing strategy, inconsistent product portfolio, ineffective marketing, too many firedrill/check the box exercises vs root cause fixes, In other words, too many bandaids in place to move forward.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop putting band aids in place and fix the core issues. Listen to the people that actually do the work.

Pros

Flexibility is key for most employees who have family obligations and level 3 understands that need.

Cons

Location is not easy to get too for most commuters of the company but the campus is beautiful and interior offices are private.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the growth phase and keep innovating the way business is done. Nothing is more exciting that a company that is a leader in it's market.

Pros

Good people, nice campus, everyone gets an office.

Cons

Org changes every 4 weeks, an organization that operates like chickens with their heads cut off. There is no follow through on any project.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop firing your best people!

Pros

I'm fairly well paid for what I do. There are few clock watchers here. I have a child with a disability, so need and get hours flexibility.

Cons

Employment here is day to day. Job security is perhaps as low as it can get.

Advice to Senior Management

Get cash flow positive. Now. Really.

Pros

Smart people
Interesting and challenging work
Nice offices and campus

Cons

Change for the sake of change seems to be the rule. There is no focus on what is actually working and what is not. Constantly changing org structures guarantees that you will lose efficient teams and people will not always be working on what they are best at doing.

Mindbogglingly slow and unresponsive project planning. No one ever knows what they will be working on next month, or if the project they are currently working on will ever be be seen to its conclusion.

No job security at all. You never know when you, your group, or your project will just no longer be needed.

Advice to Senior Management

Stick with something long enough to see if it works, then actually see if it works or not. Make changes accordingly.

Pros

Nice campus and private offices
Benefits are JUST okay (nothing to brag about)

Cons

Management seems almost amoral
Good-ole-boys club and chronyism are alive and well here
Management has a "just make it happen" attitude with no regard to the details

Advice to Senior Management

I work for a department that was recently reorg'ed. What a JOKE! The new management spent very little time looking at what worked and what didn't. They just threw away everything, installed their buddies, and each manager proceeded to build their own kingdoms. This place is ridiculous and I can guarantee you, that as soon as the economy turns, I am out of here!

Pros

Benefits, current positions telecommute flexibility, 401K still has some match.

Cons

No teamwork between departments, when issues arise it is harder to get buy in and assistance within Level 3 departments than it is with outside customers &/or vendors.

Advice to Senior Management

It has been said that recent industry payscale review and research was done by Level 3 Human Resources and Execs, it is not relfected in the salaries paid to Level 3 employees that they took the results seriously.