Recently, and by that, I mean today, I was released from the employment of a man who couldn't make his payroll, but instead of admitting that, he decided to lie about me and to me. I suppose it made it easier for him to accept the loss. I should have seen it coming, and in a way, I did. I began applying for other jobs about a month ago, and the fact that I only started working for the man about two months ago should tell you that he just didn't think things through completely. I can't say it's 100% his fault, but what he did after he hired me was absolutely 100% his fault. Sorry, Bud! I'm telling your secrets.
I was hired in early February by an insurance agent; I won't say the name of the firm, as that's not polite. The carrier doesn't make or break the deal either, so we'll just say "Bud" hired me, and he shouldn't have. When I interviewed him, always by Zoom, he understood that I charge X for my services. He said he couldn't pay X but he could come close, so we decided that if I was to receive the pay he was offering, I would not be doing some of the things he wanted me to do. That arrangement seemed fair to him, and I was hired. That's the last time I do that without getting it in writing.
From the VERY FIRST DAY, the man began giving me work that was not included in our deal. He claimed it was needed that most, if not all, customer service reps did this sort of work. I explained to him that I was an insurance producer. I didn't mind doing his customer service work, but that if I was going to do that, I would not do the sales, and I would not bear the responsibility for his metrics, what the company expected of him. Again, we agreed. I went through the process of becoming certified under the carrier's regulations, which takes about a month to do fully. I did it, and the entire time he complained that I wasn't doing it fast enough, but if you go faster than the program thinks you need to go, it rejects you and makes you start completely over. He's an idiot. Did I mention that?
During the time I was being "geared up," he expected me to do sales, but he wasn't going to pay me the extra or the commission. He took 100% of the credit for anything I quoted. Then he allowed his former employee, the one I replaced, to return, and he let her do the quotes (which was fine since I only wanted to do the service work for the meager pay he was offering), and he still couldn't get it through his head that you get what you pay for. If you want a licensed agent with the many year's experiences that I have, you have to pay for that. You don't get my expertise at zero, and you certainly aren't going to ask me to prospect for you, get the sales, take the credit, and still not pay me for gas, time, etc. Prospecting is not part of CSR work no matter where you go - - far different pay scale. He was unwilling to pay it, and after bringing his former employee back, he was unable to pay us both.
Because the company carrier he represented had taken a 50-60% increase in home policies this past fall, he was seeing cancellations out the wahzoo!! I mean daily, if not hourly, we had someone cancel their home policy, which meant they took their cars, boats, and RVs with them. He was bleeding premium and not making it up because NO ONE wants to pay 30% more than the best quote they got the week before. NO ONE. We couldn't keep the doors open. The other worker and I worked from home. We didn't use the office for anything. The carrier he works for insists that he has a physical office, and this idiot stays with them rather than going independent and taking his clients with him. I guess he thinks he can't do that, but 9 times out of 10, if you do a great job, your clients will follow you! You don't even have to beg them. I guess he knows he may keep only a few. I wouldn't stay with him. I never let him have my business, but he did threaten me with my job if I didn't transfer my business to him - - too bad, Bud!!
The day before yesterday, the other co-worker had to leave for a while. OK. I can handle the phones. An entitled client called and wanted something done right then. He expected me to stop what I was doing for another client and get something done for him. I told him he'd need to wait for about 10 minutes. He called Bud and lied about me, and Bud called me out for it. I tried to defend myself, and Bud said, "He pays the bills; he can say that if he wants to." This was unacceptable. He had allowed several prickish clients to be rude to me and to the other worker. If they had money, he told us to suck it up. If they were mono-policies, he called them to say they couldn't treat us poorly. See where I'm going? This was his way of dealing with ethics. If they had MONEY, they could treat us like dirt, call us names, lie about us, make unreasonable demands, etc.
Then, there were the times he showed his ass by being an absolute racist pig. He had been given about 100 Asian clients when another agent had been terminated. The way Bud treated these clients was unreal and unacceptable. IF they had money, he found a way to be helpful, but he also broke several HIPAA laws in the process of working their policies. He didn't care. They paid the bills. I refused. Guess who was terminated!! I took notes. I'm meeting with his district manager this coming week and discussing his methods. I am meeting with the Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner's office the following week with or without obtaining satisfaction from the district office. I'm filing a formal complaint. I have evidence that he asked me to be unethical. Again, sorry...but not really.
People should think before hiring people. They should only hire the ones they can afford to hire. They should hire ethical people unless of course, they want to run an unethical business, and then that won't (didn't) work out for them. I won't lessen my ethics for him, not if he pays me, and certainly not if he can't or won't. His district needs to see the evidence. He can be retrained - - or whatever they do for their reps and agents. Here's the hard part; he's a Christian. I hate that. I hate it when Christians treat other Christians like dirt and expect it to be OK. Not OK, Bud!! NOT OK. Yesterday the man told me through chat if I wasn't "able to wrap my head around my job and do things my way," I had the decision to make. I made it. I was allowed the day off with pay. I used it to apply for more than 50 positions, and I had an interview later in the afternoon. I go for my 2nd tomorrow. Before you hire someone, you need to think about what they will bring and what they can take away.
I took a lot. I wrote notes. I gathered facts. I know my job, and I do it well. I've been bullied and hurt by dozens of employers in the past. I don't like to say this, but he's just another unethical man who can't see the service for the dollar signs. It's all about the money for this one. That's too bad because, in the end, we can't take it with us; what we do for others is what really matters. He should think.
Photo Credit: TheSciencePost.com
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