I worked for U S West, Qwest – 2000, CenturyLink – 2012 since 9-15-1997. This is all the same company that was merged two times in the almost 15 years I worked there. Mergers are stressful. You don’t know what will happen. If you will still be working there or if you job will change significantly. First time in 2000 when a little start up named Qwest bought the big behemoth – U S West things were different. My job stayed the same. Same seat to sit in everyday and same people to talk with in other departments. Most of the leaders were stripped clean and left the company through the lay off process. I lost my favorite boss ever at that time.
Next time most recently, CenturyLink bought Qwest. Another phone company expanding it’s regions. Qwest went from 14 states to 37 is one fell swoop. The headquarters changed from Denver to Monroe Louisiana at the same time. All management at the top changed to the buyer – CenturyLink while about 60% of the Qwest folks were asked to leave or given the option to volunteer to leave. New culture, new management, new business practices. I made the right decision early in the process to volunteer for the lay – off. I had to work an additional 9 months from April to January to finish up some projects. It was exhausting, stressful and for sure not satisfying, but I made it out of there.