Let me first say that the software changes, leadership changes, work-from-home changes, and product changes that occurred in 2020 were handled, in my opinion, deftly and swiftly by the agents on the floor as a whole, and by my team especially. But the changes that I was reticent to accept were ethical in nature. I was explicitly pressured by my supervisor to withhold important plan details from clients even if they asked point blank for the information. I was told more than once, “They’ll find out later when they get their policy packet in the mail.”
I’ll never forget more than once being told at in a Town Hall meeting by a top leader, “JUST SELL. JUST SELL. STOP THINKING AND JUST SELL.” Did they call to buy a mattress? Sell them something. Did they call a wrong number? Sell them something. My role went from consultative in nature to transactional in nature, with little to no regard for client outcomes.
To say we were being micromanaged was an understatement. We eventually weren't even allowed to check our own work e-mail unless it was before work or after work, during overtime. (seriously???) We were never given space to speak in team huddles, and when a team member tried to talk, they'd be cut off and told to take it offline. We were siloed even from our own team members.
At first when I voiced ethical concerns, I was told that I was getting distracted and that I should focus more on my calls. Then later I was told that I was overthinking and that I needed to compartmentalize my feelings. Then I was told that I should learn to take a little feedback. Then I was told, in a rather ugly outburst by my supervisor, that if I didn’t “get my head in the game” that I’d be forced to go back to work in the office (despite a raging pandemic) so they could keep a closer eye on me, therefore it was in my best interest to “protect my way of life.” In the same conversation, I was told that if I didn’t “get on board” with the “direction that the company is headed” that I should just move on. Bewildered, I reached out to a few of my teammates and they, too, were being bullied in a similar manner. These messages were reinforced during a Town Hall meeting in which upper management said, “a lot more changes are coming and if you’re not ready to deal with them, talk with your supervisor. Maybe this isn’t the place for you.” If this message was coming from the top, who could I turn to?
Over the summer employees were sent an anonymous survey asking questions about their level of job satisfaction. At the end of the week, the results were published in a Town Hall meeting and upper management systematically went through each negative outcome with “proof” that we were all wrong. We’ve invested x amount of dollars and x amount of resources in you and you still aren’t satisfied? Well, you’re wrong and here's why. Go hit the phones. End of meeting.
Ultimately, this top-down disregard for feedback from employees was the reason I left the company. I had envisioned becoming a leader within this organization, but after experiencing firsthand the unwillingness of my own leader to have productive conversations about sensitive issues, and having that unwillingness echoed by top leadership, I knew I was in the wrong place.
