There is No Liberty at Liberty
Pros
Benefits are good. HSA, 401K, Health and Dental are standard. Good perks and discounts. Co-workers are helpful and friendly.
Cons
Chronically understaffed, lack of departmental and interdepartmental communication, cumbersome procedures, archaic systems, useless practices. In summary this position is a waste of life. Interview: The process includes a phone interview and an in person double-teamed interview, both loaded with “name an example of a time…” meandering questions. Salary: The range is between $39K and $48K. Of course, they will try to offer you $39K. No one should do this job for less than $50K. Actually, no one should do this job, period. Well, maybe an evil robot. This is an hourly position, however with authorized and unauthorized overtime it will feel like a salaried position. Training: This is a honeymoon period in which you would have to travel (most likely to Boston) for 2 weeks. Then you will enjoy a slow-paced job shadowing and administrative tasks easy-peasy weeks before the job becomes a brain-eating amoeba. The Job: Involves attending useless meetings, getting 10-15 new claims daily, calling all parties and sifting through their lies because an accident is never anyone’s fault. Claim 1: “The Earth spun too fast that day and I lost control of the vehicle." Claim 2: “When I saw my parked, unoccupied car get hit I got a hernia. I want a million dollars.” Claim 3: “My hamster, Pepe, was in the car and he was injured too.” Every other claim can be featured on an episode of CNBC’s American Greed. You deny a word vs word claim per the company's guidelines, but if a claimant barks loud enough, or has some power, management or the insured cave in and accept liability, making you look like an idiot. You could have saved weeks of insults and aggravation by simply accepting liability right away. Threats of bodily harm by claimants are not uncommon. Insureds act as if they own you. You are a secretary, personal doormat, complaint department operator and sometimes a claims adjuster. While some of these things are common in most insurance companies. Liberty does it worse. The job is extremely stressful. It is impossible to complete all tasks during the shift, but getting overtime is like pulling teeth on a demented shark. Some employees choose to work OT unpaid (which is illegal) and management looks the other way. Business plans, priorities, lower and upper management change drastically every 6 to 8 months in some sort of corporate three-legged musical chairs that leaves everyone disoriented and unstable. Guidelines are as unclear as Chicago parking signs, and are overruled the second the right dog barks too loud. Sales and underwriting live in Jupiter while here on Earth adjusters need to battle through coverage wars with insureds who always believe they purchased coverage for the Sears Tower even though they are paying premium to cover a bus stop. An accurate job description should be: "Looking for argumentative person to battle gladiator style with customers". In order to be successful you have to, not just be comfortable with conflict, you have to enjoy it. You have to get satisfaction out of being combative and argumentative like some prosecutors. Even if you enjoy conflict, without support from management this task is like showing up to a world war with a plastic fork. Pointless! Communications: You are expected to answer phone calls, mail, emails, and texts from customers, vendors, claimants, brokers and other carriers for your claims and other people’s claims. This sounds reasonable, except for the fact that Liberty is chronically understaffed constantly so the calls, emails, and texts flow like the freezing water that sunk the Titanic. It’s simply overwhelming to try to answer a hundred emails in 4 hours on top of working the 10-15 new claims you’ll get a day plus calls and meaningless huddles. Management Support: Standing dominoes on a Bosu ball during an earthquake are more stable than some managers. There’s a manager in particular who likes to call you into his office to see how much yelling your eardrums can take. A death metal band plays at a lower volume than his screams. Half of the office can hear him badgering employees. Health: Several people have dealt with work-related health issues throughout the years. Empty bottles of alcohol have been found in the bathroom from time to time. Panic attacks and anxiety are contagious like the common cold. Work-Life balance? Ha! There's a generous PTO bank. However, you'll spend your vacation panicking about what awaits when you return. FAQ: “Why didn’t you leave earlier?” Others and I kept waiting for it to get better but that is like being married to the bear in The Revenant and expecting the bear to not attack you. “It can’t be that bad! Are you exaggerating?” We are not. Ask about the turnover rate. Ask the person you job-shadow how many panic attacks they’ve had in the last six months. Ask them when was the last time they had a full night sleep…sober! Ask who’s not on a mental health medication due to the job. Ask the few lifers left, who have been there since the Y2K, how many managers they’ve had. It's more than the coaches the Chicago Bears have had. To add insult to life-threatening injury, with the right creamer, sewage water from Flint, MI tastes better than their free coffee.
