Initially the atmosphere is presented as a supportive environment, with an open door, speak honest policy. I will say CRM Consultant Services Onboarding, Trainers, Coaches, Academy Supervisors are stellar and are amazing. The shock in awe comes once you graduate and go to the floor. Several agents have reported the unpleasant and unsupportive behavior of their assigned floor supervisors in Consultant Services. Some employees have resigned behind these interactions with floor supervisors. The floor supervisors lack empathy, do not care to build a rapport, have control issues more akin to a dictatorship and display narcissist behaviors. Floor supervisors love to micro-manage and justify their toxic behavior being their "job." There are supervisors who bring their prejudice, biases etc. to work.They make it very clear they have the power to promote or hold you back with passive aggressive mannerisms. Although we work from home, it does not make it a less toxic work environment. There are always new training classes, but the high turnover rate is clearly due to bad management. Not everyone posseses the attributes to be in a leadership position and support a team. It's obvious many of these supervisors got a pass by brown nosing. Progressive would rather lose good employees than to remove the bad apples from the tree.
Training is typically 6 months, but you are put on the phones at week 4. Schedules are typically swing shift offered at either 4 or 5 days per week. Depending on your state, you may not get sick hours, just straight PTO (not front loaded) to use for everything and you will be required to disclose a reason you used it for. Their time keeping systems are horrible, not user friendly and not in sync with one another. You do not have options to choose from for Insurance companies. The insurance plan does not take in consideration all income levels, and typically you will have to meet a high deductible in order to afford healthcare. If you're someone who frequently has doctor visits, expect to lose your entire paycheck.
Consultant Services is not a sales position, however you are still required to make offers for products and are penalized if a customer does not purchase a quote when you transfer to a licensed insurance agent or if they don't click the link in their email for the quote. The company claims the position is not metric heavy, because it does not clock your call time, but make no mistake you have metrics in other areas. You are encouraged in training to have grace on yourself, however, after you transition to the floor that "grace" is non-existent. Even if you're doing your best, they're going to quickly fast track you to the exit if you do not meet those metrics, without additional support or coaching. You do not have the option to decline to sign their write ups. A verbal "written" warning is still a write-up. Call volume is extremely high, with no time in between calls most days. Abusive and racist customers are constant throughout the day. Employees that transfer calls from other departments are unpleasant. The assist workers are rude and most times are less than enthusiastic to offer assistance and will report you to your supervisor. System is always crashing, and unless it is a company reported outage, you will be penalized.
Lastly, majority of the employees who sing the praises of the company have had longevity, have long since promoted out of the Consultant Services or were not in the department. The consensus from the employees who have worked in this position, agree it is not pleasant, hence the flight to promote out of it quickly, which also contributes to the high turnover rates. I would honestly love to see the CEO and other higher ups live off our salary in this economy.
