Perhaps the corporate office(s) are great to work for....but the actual survey center? Not so much... - Phone Survey Operator Mathematica Employee Review

1.0
Mar 24, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Free bagels on Wednesday. - A weekly paycheck (albeit a small one....). - Did I mention free bagels on Wednesday?

Cons

- Even though they state that you can work whatever hours you want, you can't. It's a minimum of four hours, per day. You are given an "availability" sheet to fill out when you first interview with the company. Be careful with this. I indicated a range of days and hours that I'd be available to work, and the next thing I know, I was scheduled to work a 30 hour week....on TOP of my full-time job. When I balked at this, the training supervisor became upset with me. So, I didn't push the issue any further. - Training. I've never seen a job with such haphazard training. Instead of having all new hires play in a "sandbox" computer area for a week, they are given two days of slideshows one week.....asked to come in the following week for one day of more slideshows, and are then given about 30 minutes to play on a dummy computer, and recite the script to a "phone monitor". The person that I was paired up with, was one of the coldest, rudest people I've ever come across. I later found out that she'd also be my acting supervisor. No thanks! You were then asked to come in and start...more than two weeks AFTERWARDS. No further training. No further coaching. No program to play on at home, while waiting. I think they wanted you to go home and study your material. Again, I have a full-time job. I don't have time to study material for a part-time job....one that really doesn't pay me enough to begin with.... ....which brings me to... - The pay. For what you are expected to do, say, etcetera, the pay is ludicrous. Unless you are bi-lingual, pay starts at $10.10 an hour. Eventually, you can work your way up (after a year or so) to a whopping $12.00 an hour. But per the handbook...that's the cutoff point. You will never make more than that. I'll be real. This wasn't was I expected. If I want to make $10 an hour, I'll pick up some time at Home Depot. At least I can have fun there.

Explore other reviews about Mathematica

5.0
Apr 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great colleagues, 401k match, and interesting work

Cons

Work life balance could be improved and more ability to move between departments

3.0
Jun 29, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart people, impactful work. A real community.

Cons

Poor strategic planning. Rather than performing real analysis and proactive thinking, leadership reacts to the environment. Strategy development and implementation at Mathematica seems like leadership throws wet spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. In the 2010s, it was predictive modeling. Rather than proactively using predictive modeling to support their client's goals and the organization's mission, they created a data analytics division, hired smart people, and provided no guidance to support the division. Today, AI has replaced predictive modeling. These examples provide two instances of failures of corporate leadership; many more exist. Unfortunately, the company suffers from short-term incentives and an aversion to long-term investments. As an employee-owned company, you would think that the board and leadership would be more responsive to the employees. No! Over time, they have removed employees' voices from decision-making and focused on increasing their own power and independence.

7
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