Qwest Reviews

Pros

Well known company that looks good on a resume; some very good employees (some very not good: Reasonable benefits; Great time off paid for new employees and long timers

Cons

I had access to employee salaries across the company and my business unit paid the lowest for my postion for me and all of my colleagues; constantly had to deal with boss complaining non-stop about a former employee (that he fired) and then resting on his laurels of nobody ever quit their job once he hired them (made me feel like I was in bondage to him but only ever able to do as well as his opinion of my fired predessesor; Review was a 20 sec statement where he took credit for the work I had completed without ever giving me any real feedback or vision for changes

Advice to Senior Management

More communication directly to employees, supervisors not always passing along upper managment's vision; try tracking supervisor reviews by their employees to look for problems; Good job on piecing off the company for sale to CenturyLink, now try and develop a plan for integrating with their structure

Pros

It's a big company, lot's of opportunity for different positions

Cons

There's no career pathing. People are promoted without regard to their performance and potential. Promotions tend to happen strictly through political connections. If you are an under-performer, but are excellent at kissing butt then you'll do awesomely well here.

Pros

Overall, the people are great; managers encourage a work-life balance
Culture leans towards collaboration and consensus building
Good pay and great benefits -- though pensions were cut a few years back and, salaries were frozen when growth slowed due to a downturn in the economy

Cons

Career paths aren't clearly defined
Communication across teams and departments could be better -- left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is doing
Qwest can be very bureaucratic -- those who succeed are persistent and have established personal relationships across the company with those who can help them get things done

Advice to Senior Management

Executive management needs to create and articulate a clear vision for the company so employees know what they're driving towards (especially given the acquisition by Century Link).

Pros

As a technician I liked the ability to be able to move around on a daily basis. The company provided you with the tools to complete your jobs.

Cons

Some of the training was subpar. you are taught something new very fast and most of it you figured out by other peers or trial and error.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more training classes for advancement. Completely understand the job and the jobs difficulties and roadblocks before disciplining for nonperformance.

Pros

Good pay and benefits, potential for growth and advancement is there for those who want to work hard and put in the extra effort.

Cons

Overloaded and understaffed. Headcount reductions over the past few years have cut too deep where much of the work is not getting done the way it should be. Work/Life is way out of balance

Advice to Senior Management

You need to really look at adding to the workforce in strategic areas, we understand the economy if weak, and we can take it for a while, but eventually as the economy improves your most valuable and hard working employees are going to be lured away my other companies who provide a more balanced workload.

Pros

Positive team environment with industry professionals. Knowledgeable and engaged support staff.

Cons

Dissatisfied with legal and other "sales prevention departments" which tend to be over protective of manageable risks.

Pros

Career opportunities but each is in control of your career.

Cons

The management education reimbursement program was removed.

Pros

Competitive salary, flexible work schedule, work from home occasionally, good benefits, great vacation and holidays off, great work / life balance, great camaraderie with colleagues within the team and across different departments, trustful managers and directors. The company paid for me to relocate, they paid for my PMP certification, offered training courses that I took advantage of and have supported my career goals.

Cons

Lots of red tape and sometimes focused on projects that were more politically motivated than revenue motivated. With the recent layoffs occurring across the company due to the merger with CenturyLink, there has not been a good transition put in place to ensure that gaps and fallouts don't become an issue, negatively impacting the quality and customer experience. Sometimes upper management wants to do too much in a short amount of time in a dept that is understaffed (because of the layoffs and natural attrition) and this causes too confusion and a lot of inefficiencies.

Advice to Senior Management

Thank you Qwest employees for the past 11.5 years. It was a great ride and I am indebted to you.

Pros

training is great and thorough

Cons

changing hours and mandatory overtime to cover calls

Advice to Senior Management

less mandatory overtime and more leniency on taking time off, no changing shift with little notice. was glad for the CWA union on multiple occasions, going to bat for us ... there was a lot of attempts by management in the call center to add on MOT with only one day notice, ie, you stay after your normal shift up to 2 hours with only 24 hours notice. on the plus side, sometimes had options for voluntary ot for extra money. good earnings for mid-level sales, great training in the consultative sales model

Pros

they have a fun work environment
free food every Friday
Good management
very good training program
Commission is very good

Cons

fear due to the Century Link Buy out
low starting pay
Old systems to work on a slow network
hard to get time off

Advice to Senior Management

Be gentle as Century Link takes over the company and be more aware of having employee impacting conversations on the floor.