A Tale of Two Nationwides
Pros
Nationwide overall has a great company culture and the people that work there are amazing. Learning - You will learn a lot, take advantage of it, and drive your development. Benefits - As far as benefits go, this has been a great company, you may see others complain but when you have been without benefits or have had crappy benefits you will appreciate everything that is offered to you.
Cons
Job Overview - As an ISP/ISR/MCR you are shut out of certain cultural workplace norms that Nationwide proclaims because of the nature of the role and that you work in a call center environment. I believe that in a way the call center reps are treated as second class citizens, some have said, “red-headed stepchildren,” at Nationwide who do not have the opportunity to engage with peers in other business units or company events as others do in the company. You could always take time off if you wanted to network. Be aware that you will be tied to your desk. There is very little off the phone time provided for associates in the call center. Everything that you do, say, or try is analyzed and scrutinized. Expect back to back phone calls to be the norm, except that what little off the phone activities are provided to be taken away regularly. The business unit uses a spyware program that tracks keystrokes, mouse movement, which is distilled into metrics that are used against you under the guise of making you better. I am not sure if this program is utilized for people outside of the call centers. Work-Life Balance - If you are looking for a place that makes it easy to take time off. Think again. You are in a call center. You will have to plan weeks/months ahead to take time off. Even a mental health day can cost you in terms of taking a point or what they refer to as an occurrence. Too many occurrences will definitely get you wrote up and can lead to termination. Oddly enough folks outside of the call center are not held to such stringent standards. Technology - Nationwide tries to be technically savvy, but has neglected its technological infrastructure. The number of outages that cripple the service centers would shock you. Automation is great and all until it hurts employees and your customers. The company is working on this issue but it is very clunky and slow. Job Progression/Track - I have very few issues with Nationwide as a company. My issues stem from this position. I have spent the better part of a year looking for something else to do at the company and am just stuck. Expect to be in this position for YEARS before being able to move onto something else. Take what recruiters and leadership tell you with a grain of salt. It is not an outright lie, but there is some sugar coating. You will see jobs posted but just know that there is already a person that has been chosen for that role and that the interviews are just for show and going through the motions.
