Symetra Reviews

It was a nice place to work until the company was taken over by new management a few years ago. The place is driven by fear, tacit threats and overt intimidation. Deadlines are unrealistic, with many overtime hours without compensation or recognition. Middle management is a collage of odious buffoons, imbeciles, and bullies. Cubicles are tiny, and they pack us in like sardines. They took away telecommuting, gradually making it suck more and more to work there, as if they are testing our breaking point. Most of the managers in my department had no insurance or financial background; I believe they were hired based upon their ability to bully and intimidate. They would shout at us and drop f-bombs, in meetings and on the floor. I have seen women driven to tears by tirades over minor oversights. I am sure the managers never read the HR policy on Civil Treatment. I was in the business for over thirty years, and I never worked at a place worse than this. A back-stabbing environment where there is zero trust among employees and everyone fears the managers. And if you make a mistake, you will be treated at best to a public chewing-out. Keel-hauling is the preferred method of discipline. Avoid this toxic place at all costs.

- Poor salary - well below industry. - Salary increases small, even if your performance ratings are high. - Lots of in-fighting and backstabbing because pay increases are based on how well you outperform others on your team. - As a software developer, often had to work holidays and weekends because that is when they scheduled software updates. - Expected to be on call in evenings and weekends and still work a regular work week with no time off. For example: If you are called at 2:00 am in the morning for a Production problem and you work until 4:00 am to resolve it, you are still required to be at work at 8:00 am. No compensation or time off for the two hours you spent working on call issues. - Very poor Technology Department managers. They knew very little about the software systems, and very little about insurance. Because they didn't understand these two basic things, they didn't understand estimates and timelines for corrections or new development. They had no idea how long changes to the system should take. - More weight was given to the opinion of a longtime employee rather than someone relatively new to the company with more experience on the system and better analytical and software development skills. - Managers often made promises of promotions that they failed to keep and/or the manager who made the promise would leave the company and the employee would have to start all over 'proving' him or herself with a new manager. This happened at least three times to me in the four years I was with Symetra. Even went to the CEO after manager quit and showed her email proof of promise promotion and she "too bad, so sad". - Because there are many 'long time' employees at Symetra, many when the company used to be Safeco, you would expect a skilled and knowledgeable staff, but they were not. Symetra offered very little training or sill development. Even if you wanted to improve your skills, Symetra didn't allow you any time to do this due to the crazy hours you were expected to work. Because of this, their lack of understanding of the systems that they supported and insurance products in general made it a very difficult environment to work in.