STEER CLEAR OF THIS PLACE - Customer Service Representative Optum Employee Review

1.0
Jan 10, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Option to work remotely; paid vacation time

Cons

The management here was horribly incompetent; I felt like a middle schooler would've had a higher IQ and probably better overall judgment concerning how to train staff. They give you minimal training and place a HEAVY emphasis on average handle time over carefully listening to customers. As long as you're off the phone in five minutes, they couldn't care less whether or not the customer is satisfied. I worked in the AARP membership department. We were told to give bogus, scripted responses to customers, and if we didn't say the script verbatim, we were immediately reprimanded and penalized. My manager straight up told us "this job is like McDonalds. Give the person what they want and get off the phone as fast as you can." They were horribly unprofessional and half the time didn't know the products as well as the customer service reps did. There's minimal room for advancement, and you hardly get any significant recognition or incentive bonuses for high performance metrics. They also made us keep our cellphones and personal items in LOCKERS. We were not permitted to have any paper on the floor with us, as this could lead to reps violating HIPPA terms and potentially stealing information from customers. They treated us like children and constantly talked down to us. STEER CLEAR OF THIS PLACE.

Explore other reviews about Optum

5.0
Jun 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work from home - no travel

Cons

Pay is not competitive- compared to many

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some very talented people give so much of themselves to the company, the clients and their co-workers. I work with (and have worked with) some excellent, smart, supportive people.

Cons

Too many layoffs. Upper management is clueless about how the day to day work gets done, what it takes to make certain changes to processes, and how to treat employees. Some are great. Mostly, they just look at numbers. So many of us have been doing our jobs long enough to know what is needed for certain requests. But we don't get a voice. We just have to do it and suck it up. They are firing ('reduction in force') all of the seasoned staff and let the rest deal with the fall-out. So many teams are losing good people but those people are training their off-shore replacements before they are told about being cut. So how is that a reduction in force? It's just a reduction in payroll numbers. Everyone is on edge just waiting for the next axe to fall. And we have to try and learn or teach another role with less experienced people and more work. It's crazy. On milestone anniversaries, they send an email recognition but once the milestone gets to over 15 years, you are a target. Pay and benefits are fine by me. Raises are practically non-existent, even after layoffs and asking employees to take on more responsibility. that's messed up. They talk about work/life balance but that doesn't trickle down to the actual workers who are so stressed they fear for their jobs if they don't do the extra mile. Many of us are just hanging on instead of quitting so we can at least get some severance. Others are actively looking.

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