Thread regarding Lumen Technologies layoffs

@9mzs contract extension in the works as we speak.

ctl,lumen,quantum..... ctl will be gone, lumen will be cloud services, and quantum fiber will only focus on enterprise. copper will be gone. in 2026 no 3 yr contract like we had in the past. we are done!

I heard they are working on a new contract right now.

So how do them there fiber opticals get light from one end to the other? From your desk? From your kitchen countertop? From you 'puter screen? Wonder how that ai works if it cant talk to anything?
You see, splicing fiber is a job that will last an entire career and pay extremely well in the process. Your job however, meh, youve probably been laid off 15 times in the last 10 years.

I'm the guy who wrote comment and one below.
I've been both company and contractor for 35 years.
I've spliced both the copper and fiber for 25 years. I've also done plenty of testing for both copper and fiber. This includes fiber characterization.
I spent my last 7 years as osp engineer.
I'm waiting for the buyout myself.

Guys/Gals,

Let's all just really take it in. The phone company and power company has historically used contractors. For longer than you have been a contractor, contractors have always been in place. Historically, once the fiber is spliced in by contractors, the company techs support said fiber. Contractors come and go. Your jobs are temporary, or else, you'd work for the company and be long term. Kate will not get rid of anything. Storey and Post didn't either. Others within the company make those decisions. She is just a puppet. The blaming of the company and all its issues on leadership is just not right. I was a 20 years tech for the phone company. I have happily departed, but for my own reasons. The contractors on this forum talking negatively about company employees and how we were lazy, no good, the problem, etc. Really look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourselves, am I really a grown man/woman that just sits around and plays keyboard warrior behind a anonymous name? Listen up guys, yes, contractors have always been and will have a place doing work for companies, many companies. But, in the end, your job is temporary with costly benefits, using your own trucks, time away from your families, no real path for a long term future, other than the "next job" and hotel. Not everyone wants that life. Lumen, Consolidated, Frontier, will always have company techs and contractors. Technology will continue to grow well beyond our lifetimes. So how about everyone just STFU and be happy we all still have jobs, contractors included. Lastly, the person saying no raises in 8 years? You must not be craft. Craft gets a raise every year, since I started in 2004. If you want more up front money, go be a contractor. Go source your own benefits and IRA and hope it works. It just may! I know a couple of contractors in Maine that do indeed earn 4K a week, but they live in motels, have a very bad deal on their contract company benefits, FaceTime their kids, pay their own taxes and drive their own buckets and are responsible for all the goes with that. To each their own. Lumen and all the other telcos, will continue to hire and staff and keep chugging along despite your personal feelings. I am not pro company or contractor, but what I am pro of, is grown a** men and women growing up and stopping the S%#@ talking. Have you adults really brought yourselves down to that level? Check it out: If you're manager su-ks, sorry to hear. Not all do. But any job you work at, including Apple and Google have the same issues. Its not their job to drive change. Its their job to drive metrics and if you own any stocks in any company, you'd understand that. If you're unhappy, get a new job. Stop holding your current employer hostage over your personal feelings or life of regret. Change your life. Get off this forum and go out there and make a change for yourself. Companies will be companies. You will always be you.

"Telephone technicians have very limited choices when it comes to jobs.
I wouldn't call a fiber splicing the greener pastures.
Most are low paid contractors with zero benefits."

So how do them there fiber opticals get light from one end to the other? From your desk? From your kitchen countertop? From you 'puter screen? Wonder how that ai works if it cant talk to anything?
You see, splicing fiber is a job that will last an entire career and pay extremely well in the process. Your job however, meh, youve probably been laid off 15 times in the last 10 years.

I've worked with a lot of contract copper and fiber splicers.
They all tell me the same thing.
They could easily make 2x the money compared to a typical company technician (40 hour week).
After fuel, tools, lodging, vehicle wear and tear, healthcare, and food.
They don't make anywhere near compared to company technician when everything is given to him.

Pension will be frozen. Wages will be cut. Company will lock you out. No more union.

“ There was a time for Unions and this isn't it.”

As you sit on what, your fifth, sixth or seventh year without a raise? Tell me more of your fascinating hot takes.

I work on outages and it takes the contractors anywhere from 4 to 8 hours to even get on site for a small fiber cut. Imagine them trying to cover everything. Good luck!

Lumen might not be the company you'll be working for by then.

Someone doesn’t know how much contract fiber splicers earn. Meanwhile I’ll go ahead and take the 5-10k for a couple days work ziply and lumen freely pay me.

There is no way the company can afford to pay me almost 42.00/ hr.at the end of this contract. Massive layoffs, pay cuts, bankruptcy or sold off. Plus they would love to get them hands on our pension fund somehow.

Telephone technicians have very limited choices when it comes to jobs.
I wouldn't call a fiber splicing the greener pastures.
Most are low paid contractors with zero benefits.

Greener pastures to where?
No one wants Telephone technicians.

lol, so you think Fiber splices its self, drills is self underground across yards, connects it self in Terminals and Demarks as well as hangs it’s self on the poles that just sprout out of the ground..

Yeah .. no one wants Telecom technicians .. Genius

Greener pastures to where?
No one wants Telephone technicians.

The Pension is about the only carrot the company has left to the offer, break the union and this company will lose most all their competent Technicians.

Everyone I know outside is sick of cleaning up after the incompetent management and incompetent contractors..

our non union counter parts at the other fiber providers, have to put up with a lot less headaches. They operate with more efficiency doing nearly everything in house. They bore in their own plant dig their own pits, have their own line crews, and Do their own locating.

From the technicians perspective this company is a train wreck, our engineering is sad and nonexistent, our out sourced repository of customer records/ and company facilities has become nearly non existent , our out sourced Dispatch interface only functions well 3 days a week, 1 day a week it’s so frustratingly slow and glitchy, and 1 day a week it’s completely offline and unusable..

then we have a business Office and repair call handling groups filled with people who don’t understand the products or how the company processes works.. they don’t read notes on tickets .. they call techs to complain on behalf of the customer, lately the have began to give out the techs cell numbers to the customers.. then top all that off with dispatchers who are sitting comfortably at home messaging and hassling techs wanting a explanation as to why a tech marked a job at risk..

break the union and the company goes under, because the 20% of the dedicated people who do 80% of the work will be off to greener pastures..

and yes 80% of union employees are in fact lazy slackers but then again so are 80% of the engineers and managers.. sooo everyone here benefits from having a union..

Unions mean nothing.
Just look at UAW. They had one of the best contracts ever.
Ford, GM, and Stellantis immediately took all that away with layoffs and shipping jobs to Mexico.

A lot can happen in 1year 7 months

Yeah the consumer business is on borrowed time. Ill bet Apollo takes it off our hands, like they did our EMEA business.

My guess Lumen sells or spins off the rest the of “local” states and the union goes with them.

"If you like being at the mercy of a company who doesn’t care about you,"

Its a good point. And ive pretty much leaned against unions, but I and others here are working for a company which hasnt given raises in over 8 years. If that doesnt show that the company doesnt give a hoot about their employees I dont know what does.

Kate talks about "Lumen Humans". Go eff yourself Kate. 8 years without a raise is not "human-like" behavior. Its more like indentured servitude and yes, I know we only have ourselves to blame.

Just a coincidence the “customer experience” tanked when the company hired hundreds of contractors to do fiber installs?

“There was a time for Unions and this isn't it”

If you like being at the mercy of a company who doesn’t care about you, just say that. There isn’t a single non-union shop near us that can hold a candle to the work we put in and the efficiency with which we get it done. Y’all are so quick to blame unions for delays in repairs but completely ignore the black hole that is engineering where our work order go to die.

Give this lazy bargained for employee a buyout and I’ll be on my way. Then the company can hire a few more do nothing managers and engineers.

Lumen employees that are not CWA can't wait for the Union to be pushed out of this company. The union employees are entitled and lazy. The "Bargained For Work" causes delays in repairs and ki-ls the customer experience.

There was a time for Unions and this isn't it.

Dont they need the union now that all the money is coming in from fiber? Itll prob be more like the contract that UPS gave their guys.