Don't Ignore The Red Flags - Service Agent Goosehead Insurance Employee Review

Gooshead Insurance will make you a victim of gradual conditioning from the moment you find the job posting. Your eyes will instantly gravitate towards the line that reads, “Only about 1% of Goosehead candidates are offered employment because we’re interested in A-players only”. Don’t be mistaken into believing that this statement is a positive remark. That ideology is the root of how Goosehead Insurance uses shame as motivation for their workforce. Firstly, you will jump through many hoops during the interview process. The build-up to the final stage leaves you so anxious that getting offered the job makes you feel like a million bucks. It makes you wonder how you got so lucky. How you got to be the 1%. There will be red flags during the interview process that could possibly get ignored. How they blame their turnover rate on college kids not knowing how to handle a “real job”. If you make it far enough you may speak to the VP who will tell you he is looking for people who can suck up the less desirable parts of the role; work-through lunches, late/early arrivals. You may even laugh at the thought that this is such an issue for the company that every supervisor you ever speak to about this role will bring it up in one way or another. Aren’t we all supposed to go the extra mile in a role? I let myself bulldoze through the red flags as I accepted the position. Gooshead will talk vaguely about their less-than-stellar Glassdoor Reviews, but don’t let that make you believe that positive change is happening. Also, the process of taking the insurance exam takes 2-4 weeks of intense studying. Before applying, I would suggest evaluating if you can take that much unpaid time to ensure you will pass and be newly employed. Additionally, you are expected to attend training classes for 3 weeks which equates to 50+ hour work weeks during that time. Yet, it does not end there. You will then enter another section of training for two months where you can be expected to work even more late hours - around 55+ hours a week. The thing is they know the hours are ridiculous for an entry-level salaried job at a call center. That is why they must be very strategic in how you view your place in the company. On your first day you are hit with all the many upcoming opportunities there are for your employment to be terminated before the end of your first three weeks. When someone is fired the morning of week two they have an announcement and tell the group to make it a learning moment. You will get told by every speaker during your training lectures that if you don’t remember xyz they will find you because you are making their teaching look bad. They will tell you the people hired even six months ago wouldn’t get hired today and that we should keep that in mind. They will tell you it is your responsibility to not make them look stupid. They will repeat the warning that if you mess up you will end up on the CEO’s desk and be the talk of the building. It’s nothing but shame, shame, and more shame. The environment in the office is one that always leaves you wondering what is said about you when you walk away. You’ll hear whispers of frustration from the tenured service agents. You will hear the two different training teams bickering about what new hires are taught. Team leads will trash talk managers and call their new hires “lost causes”. This leads to an environment where asking for help is no longer a welcoming experience. You will begin to withhold questions until just the right person is free, out of fear of being ridiculed by future colleges and current leadership. You will be told that the long work hours are your fault and nobody else’s, despite the terrible systems in place. This role began and ended with a stream of red flags. Eventually, it was time to take off the rose-colored glasses and cut my losses. I spent too much time crying in the bathrooms and my car before I finally left this awful company. When I finally saw my therapist, her only question was why I didn’t leave sooner. Listen to the negative reviews. Don’t let the paycheck and the bonus and the promise of opportunity dilute your better judgment. I had to learn this lesson the hard way, but maybe you don’t have to.