Post copied from this link

Hello all. Since I am still employed by FIG, I have decided to remain anonymous and offer as much help as I can to those suffering from Farmers.

I am a casualty office claims representative working in a major office and I'm tired of it. I've had Farmers Insurance since I was 16 and decided to work for them straight out of college. I had a great job working in higher education and I left for the money because they seemed to pay so well.

I went through seven weeks of training to become an OCR (Office Claims Representative) and it really didn't help. I never really learned about the claims process until I was out on the floor and after I had received my adjuster's license. Don't get me wrong - the license was hard to get and it took a lot of studying, but I don't believe it was worth it.

I sit in my little cubicle and listen to all of the other OCR's hollering and yelling at people while I have never talked to a customer in such a way. I've only had one person yell at me and that was another agent with another company who was very snide and rude about my denial. Our insured had been hit from behind and pushed into his client's vehicle. I denied liability on his client because our insured was hit and the vehicle fled the scene (the at-fault party).

I don't know if anyone understands how hard it is for someone like me (and there are others like me) to deny claims and take on the blame for the whole company. We are pushed and pushed to work extensive hours and if overtime has not been okay'd by the higher ups, then we are forced to work faster and harder in order to get our claims met for the day. There are always claims. I get 18 a day now and I've been there for 6 months.

As if the pressures of working with so many claims isn't enough, we also have Quality Assurance (QA) and our supervisor overlooking everything we do. The problem with that being is that QA doesn't always agree with what our supervisors tell us to do. If I do something the way QA wants it done, then my score is good, but now my reputation with my supervisor is bad. And if I do get hit on QA, they don't keep it anonymous to your team members. Everyone on the team knows that the team score has been lowered because of YOU and what YOU did. So there begins to exist some anymosity in the team structure.

I was told that I would have a chance to move after 6 months if I did well on my QA audits. I've had consecutive 100's on every audit I've had and there is no chance of me moving to another area. It will never happen unless I take more educational classes. But I'm still working on my M.A. full-time!

Farmers OCR's have a high turnover rate because of the pressure put on us - not by the customers but by the company. I love my job and I love what I do. I love the relationships that I build with customer's and claimants over the phone. I would love to do this for another company, but FARMERS is horrible.

My benefits are lousy. You don't really get vacation because it has to be approved in advance and you have to make sure that other OCR's have not already taken the day off. Farmers doesn't want any employees taking off Mondays or Fridays, so that is not something that can usually be done.

Sick days are on a rollover basis. You have 10 sick days a year and if you take the 10th, then you are fired. No questions asked. I'm on my 8th and I've been there for only 6 months but I have previous medical conditions that they knew about. No FMLA until you've been there a year.

You cannot schedule a sick day if your children are sick or if school is out. Farmers is a national group, therefore if the weather is bad and all the schools are shut down then you must show up for work. If you miss work then you are charge with an absence. There is no help for single parents or parents at all for that case.

I'd gladly do my job if the company actually cared about their employees and customers for how much they cared about their money and interests. I sold my graduate soul for 15.75/hr and I'm regretting it. Now I'm looking for another position anywhere else that I can find one.

I'm glad I found this site and I like knowing that I'm not the only one. Just remember, there are good employees at Farmers, but most of them are forced to become the trivial and rude people you speak with on the phone by Farmers.