Stories

Unfair employment practices

I began working for Geico in July 2005. I made it through a very difficult 5 week training period. Our entire team had been on pins and needles during that period. It was very intense and very stressfull.
We then went into "transition", an extended training period which would take us through the balance of the 6 month training. During that time we were given a "weekly report card". It was based on a number of factors which were continuosly being changed. Our scores were based on two random monitored calls a week. We were to maintain a 3.0 score. During my last month I had a week with two "A"calls (the last week) and a week with two "non-A calls". My score the last week was 3.2, however after averaging in my non A calls, my average fell to 2.9, just below the required 3.0. Here were the reasons for missing the A calls: When I offered assistance of a rate quote to a customer, I stated that "I would be happy to help you with that" rather than "I would be happy to help you with that and get you started today". We had to imply we were going to start that policy today, therefore I missed an otherwise "A call". I found that customers generally got defensive with that terminiology. The second non A call happened when a customer called for a rate quote as he wondered what type of rates Geico offered since Warren Buffet was an owner.I did quote him a price to which he objected. He stated that he thought he was going to save money and since that was not the case, he'd stick with his current carrier. I replied with the customary features and benefits. He objected again, I replied with additional features and benefits. He objected again, I thanked him and let him go. My supervisor who monitored that call told me that I should have referenced Warren Buffet as owning the company. I felt that he was aware of that fact already and additionally we were trained to overcome an objection with a relevant objection. Warren Buffet owning the company was not relevant to a price objection. I was then terminated.

While I was at the NYS job service office, there was another person who had been terminated from Geico. It seems her average handling time was 7 seconds to slow, so she was terminated. A representative is not allowed to hang up on a customer. I've had customers put me on hold for extended periods of time.

My report card grades were actually better than at least half of our training group, yet I was the only one terminated for that.

A few of my former co-workers keep in touch with me and have told me that no one had been able to reach their commision bonus because the productivity numbers keep changing, preventing them from reaching that goal. Also, I've been told that no one made it through Sales and were told they would have to resign or go to another position.

This is a very unfair way to treat employees. It was like working in a "sweatshop" environment.