Severance

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Restructuring and Related Activities [Abstract]

Severance

Severance

Periodically, we reduce our workforce and accrue liabilities for the related severance costs. These workforce reductions result primarily from the progression or completion of our post-acquisition integration plans, increased competitive pressures, cost reduction initiatives, process improvements through automation and reduced workloads due to reduced demand for certain services.

During the fourth quarter of 2023 we reduced our global workforce by approximately 4% as part of our ongoing efforts to reorganize Lumen for growth by right-sizing our operations to improve our profitability. As a result of this plan, we incurred severance and related costs of approximately $53 million. We do not expect to incur any material impairment or exit costs related to this plan.

We report severance liabilities within accrued expenses and other liabilities - salaries and benefits in our consolidated balance sheets and report severance expenses in selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations. As described in Note 17—Segment Information, we do not allocate these severance expenses to our segments.

Changes in our accrued liabilities for severance expenses were as follows:

	Severance
	(Dollars in millions)
Balance at December 31, 2021	$	36
Accrued to expense	12
Payments, net	(37)
Balance at December 31, 2022	11
Accrued to expense	74
Payments, net	(67)
Balance at December 31, 2023	$	18