Symetra reviews

4.0

73% would recommend to a friend

(483 total reviews)

Margaret Meister

88% approve of CEO

82% positive business outlook

Symetra has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 483 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Symetra employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Insurance industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

483 reviews
1.0
Apr 5, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Coworkers are great in the call center: nice, helpful, have each other’s backs Easy to coast with super low effort, if you’re into that sort of thing Managers will listen to/help with any problems you’re having, as long as those problems are simple and easy to solve Lots of internal job openings you can apply for after working in the call center for 1 year Depending on where you’re at, you have some space to work hard and contribute, which you can leverage into a better job somewhere else. Good first or second job to have because you can put the long list of responsibilities on your plate onto a resume. Pretty good benefits and pay for a call center Values (we win as a team, etc) Transparency, and Sustainability are great in theory Lots of women in leadership, although many form insular cliques and promote unqualified people to do work they have no expertise in

Cons

Managers are routinely dishonest and/or disingenuous (claiming they don’t share conversations with others when they do, purposely obscuring what they mean and dropping cryptic hints, keeping secrets in an obvious way, saying something is OK and then randomly changing their minds, saying they will follow up on something and never doing so). Usually managers have no time to talk basic issues, let alone your professional development, because they’re saddled with handling a huge range of issues on top of managing 15+ people without any of the tools they need to do so properly (think outlook and excel, and that’s it). Anything not getting visibility from upper management (e.g. new product launches) is unimportant and ignored. Most people in charge of you have no idea what you actually do on a daily basis. Because of this, when there are issues, their strategy is to let things sort themselves out on their own, which means the fallout lands on you. There is blatant favoritism and senior reps can do whatever they want and get away with it. Senior people will try to railroad and bully you into doing what they want even if it’s bad for customers. If you say anything about it managers will insist it’s just their “communication style.” You will talk to 85 year old confused great grandmothers and not be able to help them because a senior person decided the issue is the customer’s fault and not worth our precious time. These same people change their mind on a dime so they can feel like they’re making important decisions and are relevant. Today it’s “YOU have to call the customer and tell them this now!” and the next day it’s “THEY are responsible for this, let’s do nothing.” They argue with each other constantly and can’t agree on basic procedures. All procedures are word of mouth, no one follows the written ones because they’re hopelessly incomplete, but expect to be blamed for it if it’s perceived you didn’t follow these imaginary procedures. Tribal knowledge is rampant. If you are in the call center, expect subpar resources. You will be given huge responsibility with little training, and simultaneously treated like you’re too unreliable to do work rather than scroll Facebook. You will get calls from customers on subjects that were never mentioned to you once in training. There is no accountability because almost everything is assigned and tracked through email and manual excel spreadsheets. QA numbers are meaningless; I’m not exaggerating, most of your call quality score comes from saying the opening and (ridiculous) closing script. Processing goals are either too easy or absurdly hard to reach. Managers make decisions about your performance based on these unrepresentative numbers and their own faulty intuition. There is no actual analysis involved. If you do hard and thorough work for customers, managers won’t notice or care. If you’re a competent person who wants to do great work and solve problems, this is probably not the place for you. “We win as a team” only applies if you go along quietly with dysfunction. “Dedicated to excellence” only applies if it doesn’t threaten any favored employees’ ability to inhibit progress as they please. If you’re prepared for the willful ignorance, absurdity, and favoritism you’ll find here, then you can probably get by for a year, build your resume, and find a place where work ethic and skill is appreciated.

5.0
Mar 17, 2018

Systems Analyst

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Competitive pay and vacation time. As a first year i will accrue 3 weeks off and then have additional flex days. I love my coworkers and we are a family—they encourage me to be better each workday. Symetra also pays for tuition so you can go back to school. We have a female CEO and Symetra is very encouraging of women to take on management roles and roles within technology. Great location and the building is very pretty.

Cons

Every work place has people that are difficult to work with, but overall, i have no complaints. I do wish Symetra paid for parking or bus passes, but i understand that is very costly for a business.

2.0
Mar 13, 2018

Teenaged Company that acts like a Start Up

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Casual dress environment, ability to work from home if there were snow days or family sick days.

Cons

Sales Division is run by folks who have never wholesaled to the field. It is run by actuaries who are more concerned about metrics (how many dials, conversations, emails sent) than actual sales numbers. They are trying to break into the wirehouse space with bank wholesalers and are unwilling to give their sales folks the support that is needed. Management is shifty in that they will tell you one thing but then talk about you behind your back or lie to your face. When you confront them about it they would rather avoid you than have a conversation or explain themselves.

Viewing 262 - 264 of 483 Reviews

Glassdoor has 557 Symetra reviews submitted anonymously by Symetra employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Symetra is right for you.