Pros
- great 401k matching, 1 for 1 up to 6%, 3 years vested - good salary - well stocked cafeteria/vending (paid options only) - while rare at Farmers, I had a couple of outstanding managers at points in my time there
Cons
- culture, culture, culture! Toxic is the only word for it. Specific numbers are all that matters, even to the detriment of the overall (supposed) business goal. Metrics trump helping the customer/agent. Employees who cut corners to cut times are the ones who get applauded, while those who clean up after them are punished with late shifts and no/minimal yearly pay increase. You are constantly berated by managers no matter what you accomplish. Favoritism, gossip, and retaliation are rampant, with higher level employees discussing specific employee performance with anyone, and if you address it directly you can expect it to turn into made up rumors about you. In my most recent department, the extremely rare pay grade increase went to low performing males or attractive women, while those who had better times and did more projects were skipped over every time. I was specifically told by a manager to lie on a project, and when I brought this up, I found out that it goes up the management chain. That was the day I started looking for another company. - PTO - Because of the high turnover and minimal staffing, available hours are almost non-existent, meaning you must use "unscheduled PTO." This in turn gets you written up or punished with a late/weekend shift causes no/minimal yearly increase. This means people come to work extremely sick (I went with the flu). Half the people have FMLA for anything because it's the only way to protect your job. - work/life balance - Your home life is shot once you start here, even if you are an hourly employee. It is so incredibly stressful that all you do is stress about work when you're away from it. I know so many people who had never had issues before and became severely depressed (like therapy/meds depressed) with massive anxiety because of the job. Sure they offer the employee assistance program with therapy options, but you risk being fired if you actually take the time to use an appointment. - the building - It's very common to talk to people who developed allergies and respiratory issues/migraines once they started working in this building. Outside of work you start feeling better. They started a slight remodel (new carpet and paint) but stopped halfway through the building. They said they were pausing, but after weeks there was still no change. New chairs are promised but won't come until after the now halted remodel. Current chairs are filthy, stained, and broken. I never visited a chiropractor until I came to Farmers. - poor outlook for the Austin location - Overall Farmers is struggling with an archaic, barely functional technology platform for agents, and a business strategy that hasn't kept up with consumer needs, so it's not surprising that costs would need to be cut somewhere. There have been three departments laid off at this location in the last year. Spending on employees (the occasional desk drop, rewards program, etc) has dropped to nothing in the last year or two. Even the remodel looks more like getting the building ready for a new client to lease (the walls are white, low quality carpeting job). Several high level employees at this location have left with short notice. With other Farmers locations expanding and taking on more of the work that used to be specific to Austin, it doesn't look promising for this location.
