u/ZoisNBooks16

While everyone else you work with is treating everything like an urgency, wearing the weight of the success or failure business as if they are the owners, taking the loss of business personally…etc. I’ll hear them frantic, scrambling, trying to figure out how to keep yet another account. And I know it’s out of my hands, I’m not at fault, it is what it is.

Total detachment is where I’m at.

After my boss threatened my job security if I don’t set up enough appointments with customers with the sales team so they can cross sell more policies. All while allowing another employee to continue committing literal misconduct and let her get away with stealing from her (time and commission) and committing non-compliance. After snapping at me because I couldn’t get the new phone system to work “figure it out because you’re supposed to be answering the phones!” Mind you she helped everyone else set up on the day I’m required to take off. (Explained below.)

After I became the only person required to drop to 32 hours a week but still with 40 hours worth responsibilities.

After I’ve had nearly every single thing bottle necked to me so sales can focus just on sales, regardless of my current workload, and an expectation of urgency attached to nearly everything sent to me.

Hell. I don’t even get a business card. Only the agent and sales team get them. Even though I’m licensed and have worked here almost 5 years. Even though customers have asked me for one. I’m just the lowly CSR. Here to shield sales from any and all service as much as possible on part time hours and pay.

I snapped. And it wasn’t loud. It was quiet.

I never had much loyalty to begin with, and the “we’re a family” line made me want to throw up, but now I’m completely emotionally detached. Checked. Out.

I come in and do exactly what I’m paid for. I do not invest any energy or emotion into the job. I stay out of all of the gossip and politics. If friends or family inquire about coming to our agency (insurance) I encourage them to look elsewhere. I got rid of every shirt I had with our company name.

If I’m going to be treated like a piece of hardware in the office, then hardware I will be.

I work as the only CSR in an insurance agency. Customers will often text one of my coworkers and our boss after hours. With something they perceive as “urgent.” And 99.9% of the time it is not. It’s either billing confusion, something I’m already working on and they just want an update, etc.

So what happens? They send it off to me the second they get a chance when we’re back in the office to do “right now.” Doesn’t matter I’m in the middle of 50 other tasks. Doesn’t matter I’m managing my own workflow. Because the customer happened to text them after hours, they think I need to handle it first thing when arriving.

Even if they text them during our normal office hours, they still expect me to deal with it right away. It’s not enough to set a task to make sure I follow up in a timely manner. Timely manner to them is “right now.”

One example is a customer who’s home is non-renewing in a month because it is still under construction. I already followed up with underwriting requesting an extension, explaining construction is nearly complete, and I’m waiting on their response. It can take a few days. I had a follow up set to contact them next week if no reply. But since the agent was getting text messages from the customer while she’s on vacation she told one of my coworkers to have me “find out what is going on right now.”

Sometimes things take time. I’m not just going to ignore anything or anyone. But I feel as though I’m not allowed to keep my own pace. When everything gets treated like an urgency, this is how mistakes get made.

I love how no one will know what I’m doing behind the scenes, but as soon as a customer decides they’re panicking, I’m supposed to suddenly pick up an unreasonable pace on what I’m already working on and treat their panic like my own.

Here’s a novel idea. If the customer is texting you via your personal cell, then you handle it. Or tell them to call the office number, during regular business hours, and someone will update them.

**Edit: He was not on hold for 45 minutes. He left a voicemail saying he wanted to speak with her, called back and made this comment when I picked up. We do not put people on hold for more than a couple minutes in our office. We offer a call back or to assist them ourselves.

Says a customer who was calling our office trying to speak to one of my coworkers.

Oh no! Not forty five whole minutes! Whatever will you do?

So sorry sir, that things like…other customers, tech issues, lunch breaks, and meetings exist and you have to sometimes wait (less than an hour in this case) to talk a specific person.

By the way, she was with clients in her office the first time he called, then our phone systems went briefly down for about 15 minutes. And it turns out all he wanted to do was gripe to her about his premium. He didn’t have an emergency. He wasn’t dying. His life was not on the line. He just wanted to complain so bad, he couldn’t wait for it.

I am so beyond fed up whatever the hell is going on in our society that has made people completely drop basic etiquette, manners, and patience. So fed up I refuse to entertain it. I’m not apologizing for things I am not at fault for. I’m not apologizing on behalf of my coworkers when they’ve done nothing wrong. I’m not humoring bad behavior. I don’t care what my boss says. She’s never in the office, she never talks to her clientele, she’s never on the receiving end of it. Meanwhile I’m on the frontline. I’ll deal with them accordingly.

When my coworker asked me what else he said, other than snapping at me that he had been waiting so long to get ahold of her, I said “I don’t know. I didn’t want to hear what he said after acting like that. I don’t care what else he had to say because I know it wasn’t going to be nice.” I felt bad transferring him to her but he was so adamant that’s who he wanted to talk to.

Says our boss earlier this week when addressing the negative atmosphere in our office.

We were never a family. We are never going to be a family.

The atmosphere is negative because she, who is the agent and owner of our little insurance agency, isn’t doing her job running the business and being present. Sales are way down. Morale is down because she would rather go shopping, get her nails done, go one a 6th vacation this year than help her business build revenue. She’d rather play than coach her sales team. She does not go out and sell. She does not go to commerce meetings. She does not network. She does not attempt to sell. She does not reach out to her clientele. They actually have made remarks themselves about the fact her name is on the door, but she’s always absent.

She expects to grow her business by having a few employees (all but me because I’m the CSR) call from a deplorable list of leads while she sits at home. I have saved her thousands in retention just this month (I’m documenting all of it). And all I got was my job security threatened if I don’t set appointments for her and the sales team to meet with existing customers so they can sell more policies to them. Appointments I have made for her, by the way. She kept rescheduling because she made other plans and “won’t be in the office that day.”

She’s absolutely panicking about losing money, to the point of hostility, but is talking seriously about spending thousands to renovate the office. She just got back from, I believe, her third vacation in 3 months.

And because one employee, who’s committed time fraud on multiple occasions, she has resorted to spying on all of us from the comfort of her sofa instead of being present in the office. Started with a Ring camera at our door to see who was coming and going and when. But that wasn’t good enough. Now she wants us all downloading the Connecteam app on our personal phones. She acts like it’s just to clock in/out and basic payroll management. But I’m not stupid. I know what this app is really for. Here’s a novel idea! One way to deal with someone stealing from you is be physically present! Or here’s another one. You could terminate the problem! No. She’d rather psycho stalk all of us. It says Connecteam turns off the tracking once you clock out but I absolutely do not trust that. The idea of downloading an app on my own personal device, that I pay for, that spies on my location, because my boss does not trust one of her employees but does not want to take control of the situation? That’s asinine. It’s beyond asinine. And I don’t trust it.

She uses all of us as her scapegoats to her failing business, and poor decision making on how to run the office (that’s a whole other story). Resorts to spying on us via our own personal phones. Then has the audacity to tell us to be a family. “Again?” I beg your pardon?! I didn’t get the memo we ever were. Let me be clear. This isn’t my home and none of you are my family. I am here doing my job, then I go home to my husband who is my family. He trusts me and doesn’t use my device to keep an eye on me for starters.

It was also mentioned she wants us doing once a month bonding activities together. One of my coworkers starts this nonsense about evenings or a Saturday so we don’t have to use company time. I immediately shot that noise down. I’m not spending my personal time with this circus (I didn’t say those exact words, but I wanted to.)

Needless to say, my job hunting has ramped way up. None of this sits well with me. I’m getting major, it’s time to get the hell out, vibes. Keeping my head down, biding my time, dissociating, until hopefully something better is found. I’ve worked in toxic environments before but this one really takes the cake.

I work as a licensed Customer Service Representative in a small insurance agency. I have been there for four and a half years. For awhile things were fine. Business ran smooth. My coworkers, who are in sales, were bringing in high volume revenue. A lot less people were losing their insurance due to non-pay or non-renewals.

Recently things have gotten bad. As the CSR part of my job is to prevent as many non-pay cancels and non-renewals as possible. A good portion of non-renewals can be prevented. But it takes paying attention. Making sure customers send over documents, follow up with requests for updated information, photos of repairs, etc. Some are not possible. Non-renewals because of claims history, driving records, etc. As far as non-pay, less and less customers are able to pay their bills. I can only do so much. I also have other duties like policy changes, billing inquiries, rewrites, following up on emails from customers, mortgage companies, underwriting, etc. I am also on the front line of customer complaints. And lately people are vicious! My stress has been at an extreme level lately. I have had to set hard boundaries to keep from experiencing health issues and burn out.

Sales is *way* down. I am not in sales so I do not know the exact reason, but from what I have heard the leads are awful.

And where is our boss, who is the agent and owner of the agency? MIA. Not working. Not out selling. She is at home, shopping, gambling with her mom, getting her hair and nails done etc. She is not out prospecting. She is not out going to chamber meetings. She is not networking. She is not helping her sales team sell.

She is also not helping retain. I am the one making sure she doesn’t lose premium over preventable things. Just in the last month I have saved her over $10,000 in premium (I have been documenting it.) I have sent her customers that are threatening to leave, want to speak with *their* agent, and I have to fight to get her to call them.

Just recently she had made the decision that the sales team will no longer pick up any incoming calls so they can focus on sales. Which left me, not only first on the phones, but only. Which meant my work was risking falling behind. So I had to change how I did things. Which caused lower priority tasks to sit at the bottom, sometimes taking days to get to. More and more calls were going to voicemail. I addressed this concern that a lot of customers who are accustomed to us answering right away are going to voicemail. She said “then let them go to voicemail. Get to them later.” This was a couple months ago..

On Monday we had a team meeting then individual ones. During the team meeting she practically went off about how many calls were going to voicemail lately. While avoiding eye contact with me. So I said “I knew this would happen.” I don’t think she liked that but I did not care. I had literally warned her and she brushed me off. And now she’s mad? Not at herself, but us? I wasn’t having that. She continued to blast further on the lack of revenue we have currently. I sort of tuned out after that because I was at a loss.

Then came my one on one with her where she proceeded to threaten my job security if I do not set up a certain amount of appointments with clients to meet with her and the sales team. This is so they can try to sell more policies. She apparently needs to sell retirement plans as well. Is she going to be making any calls to her clients to set up appointments? No. I will be. She looked at me with a cold, harsh, stare and told me “if we have to do another one on one, it will not be for a good reason. And I do not want to do that. So meet your goals.” She then proceeded to once again rant about all the calls that are going to voicemail among a few other things. Not one “thank you for what you do.” Not “you are doing a good job.” Nothing. Just get appointment or you are out. This is after the last meeting where all she said was “keep doing what you’re doing.” I am busting my ass day in and day out to help keep her business going where I can, I am so stressed I can see it on my face every day, my husband even notices. And this is what I get? My job security gets threatened out of nowhere?

Meanwhile the employee who has gotten caught committing time fraud, commission theft (lying about sales she’s made and stealing from other sale’s team members), and non-compliance with the company (not cancelling newly issued policies when customers requested so she wouldn’t lose the commission) is still employed. Still being joked with. Still buddies with the boss. After being so “furious” after she caught her.

Instead of dealing with the problem employee accordingly, we all now have to pay the price. She is requiring us to download Connecteam on our personal cell phones (which literally stalks employees while they are on the clock. It says it stops tracking once clocked out, but I do not trust that.) We do not work remotely. This would not be unnecessary if she would just show up. She no longer has trust becuase of one person, but still does not want to come to work. So she now will be monitoring us from her sofa.

After the team meeting and individual meeting I have come to the realization, her business is failing and she is panicking. Instead of taking ownership, admitting she had some poor business practice ideas, we are her scapegoats. I am her scapegoat.

And now we are about to be stalked because one employee, she doesn’t have the gonads, to fire is exploiting her and taking advantage of her absence. Her business is failing, she is feeling the heat, and pointing her finger at us. Well I do not care. My conscious is clear. I have been doing my job. I have saved her SO much in premium. I show up. I do my job. If this is how she is going to treat the rest of us who are showing up, who are working, fine! Let this damn ship sink. It’s just a job. This is *her* agency, it is not mine. I am not carrying the weight of what she owns on my back anymore. She risks losing so much more than the rest of us. If she showed some humility and took some accountability, I would help her fight for this agency. But I refuse. I will do my job, I will get her damn appointments. I do not give a damn what happens after that. I am removing myself from all of it and protecting my well-being and health. If she wants this agency bad enough, she is either going to have to step up, or lose.

I work as a licensed Customer Service Representative in a small insurance agency. I have been there for four and a half years. For awhile things were fine. Business ran smooth. My coworkers, who are in sales, were bringing in high volume revenue. A lot less people were losing their insurance due to non-pay or non-renewals.

Recently things have gotten bad. As the CSR part of my job is to prevent as many non-pay cancels and non-renewals as possible. A good portion of non-renewals can be prevented. But it takes paying attention. Making sure customers send over documents, follow up with requests for updated information, photos of repairs, etc. Some are not possible. Non-renewals because of claims history, driving records, etc. As far as non-pay, less and less customers are able to pay their bills. I can only do so much. I also have other duties like policy changes, billing inquiries, rewrites, following up on emails from customers, mortgage companies, underwriting, etc. I am also on the front line of customer complaints. And lately people are vicious! My stress has been at an extreme level lately. I have had to set hard boundaries to keep from experiencing health issues and burn out.

Sales is way down. I am not in sales so I do not know the exact reason, but from what I have heard the leads are awful. Most people decline the quotes because they are too high, some people come up ineligible, they say they want the policy but never follow up, or they just don’t want to be bothered. Whatever the reason, new business is just not coming in like it used to.

And where is our boss, who is the agent and owner of the agency? Not in the office. Not working. Not out selling. She is at home, shopping, gambling with her mom, getting her hair and nails done etc. She is not out prospecting. She is not out going to chamber meetings. She is not networking. She is not helping her sales team sell.

She is also not helping retain. I am the one making sure she doesn’t lose premium over preventable things. Just in the last month I have saved her over $10,000 in premium (I have been documenting it.) I have sent her customers that are threatening to leave, want to speak with their agent, and I have to fight to get her to call them.

Just recently she had made the decision that the sales team will no longer pick up any incoming calls so they can focus on sales. Which left me not only first on the phones, but only. Which meant my work was risking falling behind. So I had to change how I did things. Which caused lower priority tasks to sit at the bottom, sometimes taking days to get to. More and more calls were going to voicemail. I addressed this concern with her that a lot of customers who are accustomed to us answering right away are going to voicemail. She said “then let them go to voicemail. Get to them later.” This was a couple months ago..

On Monday we had a team meeting then individual ones. During the team meeting she practically went off about how many calls were going to voicemail lately. While avoiding eye contact with me. So I said “I knew this would happen.” I don’t think she liked that but I did not care. I had literally warned her and she brushed me off. And now she’s mad? Not at herself, but us? I wasn’t having that. She continued to blast further on the lack of revenue we have currently. I sort of tuned out after that because I was at a loss.

Then came my one on one with her where she proceeded to threaten my job security if I do not set up a certain amount of appointments with clients to meet with her and the sales team. This is so they can try to sell more policies. She apparently needs to sell retirement plans as well. Is she going to be making any calls to her clients to set up appointments? No. I will be. She looked at me with a cold, harsh, stare and told me “if we have to do another one on one, it will not be for a good reason. And I do not want to do that. So meet your goals.” She then proceeded to once again rant about all the calls that are going to voicemail among a few other things. Not one “thank you for what you do.” Not “you are doing a good job.” Nothing. Just get appointment or you are out. This is after the last meeting where all she said was “keep doing what you’re doing.” I am busting my ass day in and day out to help keep her business going where I can, I am so stressed I can see it on my face every day, my husband even notices. And this is what I get? My job security gets threatened out of nowhere?

Meanwhile the employee who has gotten caught committing time fraud, commission theft (lying about sales she’s made and stealing from other sale’s team members), and non-compliance with the company (not cancelling newly issued policies when customers requested so she wouldn’t lose the commission) is still employed. Still being joked with. Still buddies with the boss. After being so “furious” after she caught her.

Instead of dealing with the problem employee accordingly, we all now have to pay the price. She is requiring us to download Connecteam on our personal cell phones (which literally stalks employees while they are on the clock. It says it stops tracking once clocked out, but I do not trust that.) We do not work remotely. This would not be unnecessary if she would just show up. She no longer has trust becuase of one person, but still does not want to come to work. So she now will be monitoring us from her sofa.

After the team meeting and individual meeting I have come to the realization, her business is failing and she is panicking. Instead of taking ownership, admitting she had some poor business practice ideas, we are her scapegoats. I am her scapegoat.

And now we are about to be stalked because one employee, she doesn’t have the gonads, to fire is exploiting her and taking advantage of her absence. Her business is failing, she is feeling the heat, and pointing her finger at us. Well I do not care. My conscious is clear. I have been doing my job. I have saved her SO much in premium. I show up. I do my job. If this is how she is going to treat the rest of us who are showing up, who are working, fine! Let this damn ship sink. It’s just a job. This is her agency, it is not mine. I am not carrying the weight of what she owns on my back anymore. She risks losing so much more than the rest of us. If she showed some humility and took some accountability, I would help her fight for this agency. But I refuse. I will do my job, I will get her damn appointments. I do not give a damn what happens after that. I am removing myself from all of it and protecting my well-being and health. If she wants this agency bad enough, she is either going to have to step up, or lose.

Is this common in the insurance industry?

I have worked as a CSR in insurance for years. And while I’m very accustomed to work being piled onto my desk, with nearly zero regard to the fact I’m one person while sales gets shielded, this one really crossed the line for me.

Finishing my coworkers quotes. And I do not mean if they are out of town or had an emergency and just needed me to take a payment from the customer. I am talking a quote that is sitting in limbo because underwriting came back with a denial unless certain information is provided. Sometimes it’s because a home they issued is not in the best condition and needs repaired before being fully issued. Sometimes it’s missing information, pictures, etc.

My boss told me yesterday she wants me taking those underwriter follow ups and getting what they need in order to get the policies approved for issuance. So my coworkers aren’t “wasting their time with them.” Oh, so waste mine?

So now I’m finishing up other people’s work for them? Who’s finishing my work for me? Not to mention sometimes these underwriter follow ups are more work than the quotes themselves. One of my coworkers spent days working with a client and underwriting to get this policy issued for a food truck business policy. But at least she’s getting the commission.

If I spend hours, days, whatever trying to get a policy issued for someone else I see none of the commission. Which means my boss wants me to do all the extra difficult leg work, to once again, protect her sales team. And what about my own tasks?

Also, our sales consists of three people. They do not go out and prospect, they get paid a higher salary than me. They cold call leads. That’s it. They get to leave early if they hit goals. Meanwhile I don’t get to leave, obviously, because I have to take care of customers. And now I get to add cleaning up everyone else’s messes on top of that. How does this not put me into the position of scapegoat if something goes wrong? And let’s not ignore the fact that loading work onto a person when they are at capacity causes immense stress than is detrimental to health. (There was a CSR in another agency that had a stroke.)

I’m the only CSR, no one else has to answer the phones but me, my coworkers already dump service work on my desk if lands on them first (they actually answered the phone).

Is this normal? And last I checked I’m a *customer* service representative. Not a personal assistant to sales. I’m not a coworker service representative. I believe if you start something you finish it! Especially if you’re getting money from it! When I made this point to my boss, that if I were to just hand my own unfinished work off to someone else, I would obviously not be doing my job. She just gave me a blank look…

Is this common in the insurance industry?

I have worked as a CSR in insurance for years. And while I’m very accustomed to work being piled onto my desk, with nearly zero regard to the fact I’m one person while sales gets shielded, this one really crossed the line for me.

Finishing my coworkers quotes. And I do not mean if they are out of town or had an emergency and just needed me to take a payment from the customer. I am talking a quote that is sitting in limbo because underwriting came back with a denial unless certain information is provided. Sometimes it’s because a home they issued is not in the best condition and needs repaired before being fully issued. Sometimes it’s missing information, pictures, etc.

My boss told me yesterday she wants me taking those underwriter follow ups and getting what they need in order to get the policies approved for issuance. So my coworkers aren’t “wasting their time with them.” Oh, so waste mine?

So now I’m finishing up other people’s work for them? Who’s finishing my work for me? Not to mention sometimes these underwriter follow ups are more work than the quotes themselves. One of my coworkers spent days working with a client and underwriting to get this policy issued for a food truck business policy. But at least she’s getting the commission.

If I spend hours, days, whatever trying to get a policy issued for someone else I see none of the commission. Which means my boss wants me to do all the extra difficult leg work, to once again, protect her sales team. And what about my own tasks?

I’m the only CSR, no one else has to answer the phones but me, my coworkers already dump service work on my desk if lands on them first (they actually answered the phone).

Is this normal? And last I checked I’m a *customer* service representative. Not a personal assistant to sales. I’m not a coworker service representative. If you start something you finish it! Especially if you’re getting money from it!

The amount of times I have to reach out to someone in order to follow up with a change THEY requested, or something along those lines, is asinine. A lot of times I need more information to complete the request or I cannot proceed.

I’ll reach out by phone call, text message, email. Everything aside from a damn smoke signal. They don’t respond. I finally give up. They call back months later, mad, because change was never done. Well, Susan. You told me you wanted to add a car to your policy but all you gave me was the make, model, and color. We don’t need the color but we definitely need at least the VIN. I called you, texted you, sent you an email and…crickets. So no, it was never completed because you had the communication skills of a potato.

“My insurance canceled for non pay three months ago?!?” Yes, George. And we called you, texted you, emailed you. But you ignored us.

Communication skills of 2026= Potato.

And for the record, and I will check this, the number they call/text from all pissed off is the one we used to make several attempts follow up. Majority of these lacking on follow up is not because of new contact info. Those do happen but they are very few and far between.

This customer’s insurance is decreasing in premium when she renews in a couple months. Instead of being happy, she is literally complaining about her premium still being higher than what it was years ago.

Mind you, she had a 2002 vehicle and went to a 2020 a couple years ago. She doesn’t understand why her rate isn’t what it was when she had an 02.’

I do not get paid enough to deal with this bullsh*t.

Oh. And this all happened because the agent wants me to utilize premium decreases as a way to reach out to customers and get appointments set up to “review their insurance” (it’s really just a way for sales to cross sell.) I don’t think I’ll be doing this anymore. I’m not in sales. I won’t get commission on anything sold during these appointments I set up. Just a waste of my time of people are going to use this as an opportunity to argue.

From now on when customers call all frantic over non-urgent matters, continue to freak out and complain, as I'm literally solving their problem as we speak, I am not going to entertain it. If they continue to rant, rave, and try to extract some kind of feedback I don’t owe them, questions I do not have the answer to, I’m going to act like I didn’t hear them and continue resolving their non-emergency issue.

A perfect example would be this customer on the phone was freaking out and griping non-stop about our online payment portal. I have zero control over our company websites. As I work for the agent who has a contract with the company. I don’t work for the company. I am not IT. Anyway, I offered to take her payment over the phone. She was happy I could but instead of just being content with that, she kept freaking out over the online system. She wouldn’t be quiet long enough for me to confirm her payment method. I didn’t respond to any of her continual griping, waited for a pause, and went straight to confirming method of payment and moving the transaction along.

Another customer this morning was absolutely frantic over a billing inquiry. Wouldn’t chill out long enough to hear me tell her it has been resolved. So I literally told her “You are absolutely frantic and talking very fast. So much you’re stressing me out. Let’s take a moment to breathe.”

I don’t care anymore. I will tell you to calm down. Unless you are in a truly life threatening situation, this level of panic and anger over something this minuscule is unnecessary.

I’m not absorbing these people’s cortisol spikes. I’m done. I will put you on hold if you keep talking and getting worked up after I’ve offered a solution. Control your emotions. If not for your health, than others you’re imposing yourself on.

Or babysitting full grown adults, trying to get them to pay their bills, instead of genuinely helping people (helping them understand coverage, help calm them after accident, etc.) I wouldnt have bothered.

I don’t remember it being this bad when I got into insurance in 2018. But it seems like I have little opportunity to actually help people and I spend more time trying to set boundaries and not let them draw me into a fight I didn’t ask for.

Someone just yesterday threw an absolute fit because he didn’t get an immediate answer to why his insurance went up $4. He was a complete jerk. Recently retired and clearly bored.

Meanwhile, a couple got stranded in 90 degree temps with extremely high humidity, out in the middle of nowhere, and were very appreciative when we did everything we could to help them. Even though we were limited. They were highly stressed but didn’t take it out on those trying to help.

Unfortunately I deal with the first example far more than the second. And I’m exhausted.

Oh! And I guess people think office hours are a suggestion not the rule, because they show up to the office on Saturdays (they gripe about us not being there over the weekend when they come back on Monday) and leave us voicemails after hours and during the weekend that they need a call back immediately. Meanwhile our hours are not a secret. And they are not a suggestion. Instant gratification only works on the internet, not in real life with real people.

Boundaries. That’s all I can say. Boundaries are the only thing keeping me from complete burnout. I wanted to help people. And I used to.

What really doesn’t help is I work in an office that’s so obsessed with revenue they take every customer threatening to leave personally to the point they need to find blame. Even if they cancel for non pay. I once got accused of not reaching out enough when a customer cancelled for non-pay. Mind you I followed the same procedure I had been using for years. A text and a phone call. That is enough in my book with my workload. Someone has to be to blame. When, most of the time the customer just left because they practiced free will that had nothing to do with any of us. Nature of this beast. You win some you lose some. Very rarely do people leave because of an employee. Funny that as a CSR I get that but those in sales in my office don’t seem to. There’s always something we could have done, according to them. No there isn’t. Especially in a captive agency where we are very limited on resources.

Customer called saying he was returning a call from someone yesterday (I wasn’t here). There were no notes in his file but I found out which coworker it was.

When I tried to transfer him to her she said "I just left him a voicemail that he is ineligible." (Insurance quote). So I asked "he's on the phone now, do you want to talk to him and let him know?"

She kept trying to dodge talking to him, leaving me to break the news. but I wouldn’t have it. I said "since you left him the voicemail I figured you’d want to be the one to talk to him." She kept trying to say without saying she wanted me to relay the message. I refused. She finally let me tranfer him to her but I could tell she was not happy with me.

She left him the voicemail. She’s the one who quoted him. I set a boundary. As in, I’m not going to be everyone’s personal messenger. I believe, if to start something, you see it through. You don’t just put it on someone else. Two of my coworkers do this and I’m DONE.

But somehow I’m made to feel like the AH…

I have been setting firmer boundaries lately and I have been getting push back. If anyone else has been through this, has any tips, it’s much appreciated…

As the CSR one of my jobs is receiving copies of underwriter memos, via agency email. Some are copies of letters sent by mail to our customers of policy non-renewals. Most non-renewals are for claims history, repairs needing completed, documents that are missing, etc. 99% of the time they are rescinded once we provide what they are asking for. Claims history is the only one we can’t really fight.

A recent one I received is a homeowners policy non-renewing for a house that underwriting believes is vacant. I don’t know how they came to this conclusion. It’s the only house we have insured for this client and it matches their mailing address and garaging address for their cars. But I set a follow up to confirm with the client as opposed to assuming. I never assume anything in this line of work.

We get these memos way out from renewal, like 5+ months. And we get a lot of them. So I usually set the follow-up 30-60 days before the non-renewal. (Right away if it’s something like a house needing extensive repairs.) I am too busy to do everything the split second I get it so I go in order of urgency. A policy being non-renewed in December when I receive it in June is not an emergency. So set a follow up in plenty of time before, but avoid yet another immediate task.

Today, while we were out of the office our boss/the agent wanted us to check voicemails just in case someone had an emergency (pretty much claims). The customer with the possible vacant home left an absolutely hateful voicemail. Letting us know she recieved a non-renewal letter due to her house possibly being vacant and she expects a call back immediately. Proceeded to tell us "you need to fix this right now!" even though we are not in the office. And she added some colorful language for flare.

I don’t blame her for being alarmed. I would be too. Most people ignore these letters which is why I set follow ups. Some people do read them. Like her for example. But most people are far more reasonable about it. The hateful, demanding, yelling, cussing was uncalled for in my opinion. Her home is not set to non-renew for many months from now and it’s over something very easily fixed. Unlike too many claims or a house that needs an entire roof to stay insured. I don’t know why she couldn’t just be like “Hey, this really concerns me. I hope we can fix this very soon. Please call me as soon as you can.” Instead of being a complete menace and demanding we talk to her during a holiday weekend.

At the end of the day it is not our decision to non-renew these people. Yes it is our job to rectify where we can and notify in a timely manner in case they didn’t receive the letter. But I don’t feel we deserved this. This is what I have the biggest issue with when it comes to our current society. Everyone has gotten so accustomed to instant gratification that, if they have to wait a couple days, they get absolutely unhinged. Now I’m sitting here wondering if I need to start offering instant gratification to be considered a good employee and that is just not sustainable. Most situations in this industry aren’t truly urgent. And if I start loosening on that boundary, treating everything like its an immediate priority, then everything will be “urgent” and that is a good way to allow your job to destroy you. And allow clients to get even more entitled. I’m stuck between maintaining boundaries but simultaneously not appearing neglectful. I’m now worried that if she leaves I’ll be blamed because it’s my job to do these follow ups.

For the record, I did not call her. She will be followed up with on Monday.

I don’t mean just expecting guests to bring a side to share, regardless it’s homemade or store bought. That’s fine.

But what about specifically expecting guests to bring something they made? Am I wrong to feel a bit put off by that? You don’t know people’s personal schedules. What if they are completely zapped of time and energy just caring for their family, working full time, etc.? What if they had an extremely difficult week and all they have the time and energy for is to grab a meat and cheese tray with some crackers? Or a pie already made from the bakery?

Why does it matter if what they bring is homemade or not as long as they don’t show up empty handed? I think it’s a bit whack to expect a homemade dish for a cookout. Let people bring what they want. Whether it’s some elaborate, made from scratch dish, or a bag of chips with quac.

Edit: this is specifically for a “casual cookout” as stated in the title. I don’t know where everyone is getting potluck from. Potlucks are different than burgers and hotdogs-on-the-grill cookouts.

In my particular case she was quoting a new insurance policy for a customer with a rather large account. Instead of issuing it while talking to him she pended the quote to have me finish up this week because she was going on vacation.

I called him today to go over the quote and get it issued as I was directed. It ended up being a 20-30 minute conversation with the customer. He was very condescending towards me, kept demanding answers that already gave him. He had me quote 3 different deductibles, which I did, and gave him the price differences. To which he kept demanding I give him the “price difference” over and over. Which was very frustrating. I asked him if he’d be okay writing the price differences down. He snapped “No! I’m driving. You should remember the price differences!” (I somehow was supposed to know he was driving?) So I asked him if he’d be okay calling back while not driving. He refused. I finally told him I’d email him the individual quotes.

I do not get commission because this is just a rewrite.

I am only a CSR.

My boss does this all day. Forwards all customer emails to me for things like premium complaints, billing problems, and changes. Which I’m used to. But then this happens.

I just do not feel this to be an appropriate hand off at all. Boss or not. She started this quote, this was a customer she’s always worked closely with. He also owns a small business in our town. As a fellow business owner in the same town, to a business we insure, my boss should have saw this all the way through. He has a VERY large account. She should have completed all the way through instead of “finish this so I can go play.” She did this because she knows he’s difficult and didn’t want to be bothered with it.

What concerns me is, with how particular this customer is, if I even slightly tip him off (which I’m not comfortable with how the conversation I had with him went) it’s going to be my head. Which is completely unfair when this is something that originally had nothing to do with me.

I’m also kind of pissed that this added undue stress to my day for something I should not have been asked to even so much as look at.

And I’m tired of trying to.

I set boundaries with our customers:

As in if they show up to our office while I’m in my break, the doors are locked because I’m the only one here, they will have to come back when my break is over.

If they continue to complain about an issue I’ve already offered solutions to, and refuse to let me off the phone, I’m telling them to have a nice day and ending the call. I’m not allowing anyone to keep me on the phone to talk in endless circles.

If they directly insult me, I’m ending the call immediately.
I’m not going be an empathetic sounding board, or punching bag, to people who refuse to be respectful. If it’s something that I didn’t directly cause, I am not to blame, and I don’t deserve to be talked to as anything less than human.

If customers will not do what they need to on their end to continue their service with us, I will document my attempts to follow up and then move on. After two attempts, I’m done. I am not a babysitter. They are adults and can show some responsibility on their end.

I set boundaries with my colleagues:

If I am on a vacation, at home after we’ve closed for the day, it’s the weekend, a holiday, etc. I will not answer work texts or phone calls. We will discuss the matter when I’m back on the clock.

I will not even pretend non-urgent matters are urgent. If anyone wants to pass the buck, I will add it to my task list. But I will not prioritize it above what I’m already working on. I don’t care if the customer “wants a call back today.”

My office culture is pretty much the opposite of this. They don’t set firm boundaries with each other or our customers. They will work during vacations. They treat every mundane inquiry, like a billing question, like it’s urgent. They answer work calls and texts while off work. One of them even allows customers to contact her via personal cell. They feel they should help people that call or stop by the office if they are on lunch, instead of just locking the door. Their mentality is “if you’re in the office you are available.”

No. I disagree. A lot of small businesses close during lunch hour. This is not an inappropriate thing for businesses. Everyone is entitled to a full, uninterrupted, break. Regardless if they stay in the building or leave.

I won’t do any of that.

On the contrary with everything else. I will be reliable, showing up to my shifts. I will be as helpful as possible to the people who are being respectful. I will do data entry with precision and detailed note taking. I will work diligently and avoid mistakes as much as humanly possible. I will make clear documentation. I will get my tasks completed in a realistic timely manner. I will communicate well and clear with everyone while I’m here. I just won’t be disrespected or taken advantage of. Even if I work in an office that has lower respect for itself and allows themselves to be both.

You can’t make this up.

Customer; “yes I’d like to speak to_____. It’s about my auto claim.”

Me: “I am sorry but she has left for the day. I can send her a message to call you Monday.”

Customer: “I need to speak with her!”

Me: “I understand that but she is not here. I can have her call you Monday.”

Customer: *sighs really audibly* “That will not work! I need to have the money by Tuesday and claims sent the check to the wrong address!”

Me: “That is frustrating. Have you talked to claims directly about this?”

Customer: “No! I want to talk to______because she has been working to fix this!”

Me: “If she has already been working on this for you, then it’s best to have her be the one to follow up with you on Monday.”

Customer: “That will not work! I need to speak with her!”

Me (finally being fed up): “I can’t exactly go get her for you and bring her back to the office. I will send her a message to call you Monday. That is the best I can….”

That’s when she hangs up on me.

I keep laughing while replaying it in my head. But really. What the hell was she expecting to happen? That I’d call my coworker back to the office just to talk to her (un)happy ass?!

So we can continue working and answering customer calls.

Am I crazy to think this is wildly inappropriate?

We need to leave the building immediately and she’s telling us to go unplug our laptops and take them with us while our building could potentially go “boom” or we are possibly being poisoned by CO…

But...”customer’s calls!” “Laptops!”

Seriously???

Also, I did not grab my laptop. I went clear out to the parking lot and got in my car.

I work as a CSR in small local insurance agency.

Customer canceled his insurance with us because his homeowner’s claim got denied. My coworker in question (we’ll call her Teresa) started yelling up to me (my office is upstairs) that it was basically my fault.

Her reasoning? She found out an adjuster stopped by our office when she was out. I was the one who spoke with him. All he did was introduce himself and talk a little about claims and when they sometimes don’t work out the way the customer wants them to. It was a meet and greet at best.

Teresa threw a fit “Why didn’t you tell me he stopped by? If I had known!” Turns out this adjuster was the one working on the denied claim (again something I had no idea about prior to speaking with him, nor any knowledge Teresa was fighting it.) Anyway, I don’t deny I spoke with him. She keeps shouting up at me, desperate to get some kind of reaction I refused to give her. Guilt? Too bad I didn’t feel an ounce of it.

Let’s say I told her. There would be no saving that client. He left because his claim got denied. As it stands, I had NO idea that she was working with this particular customer prior to the adjuster stopping in. Nothing was ever communicated. How would I know? And what really could have been done?

She finally admits, to our boss not me, that it wasn’t my fault. Yet said to boss “I just don’t understand why she didn’t apologize to me. She barely responded.” Yeah. I “barely responded” because I know she wants a reaction.

(Btw. I went to my boss about the situation, that’s how I know she said this to her.)

Why would you go off on someone for something like that but expect an apology from them? How about apologizing to me for trying to throw me under the bus for something you admitted you knew I wasn’t at fault for? To expect an apology from me??

This is wack, right?

If she had respectfully communicated to me “Hey. Any time an adjuster comes in, regardless of the reason, let me know.” This all would have been avoided. She refuses to communicate in a professional manner. Yet it’s never her fault when results are less than favorable for her.

She wanted an apology from one of my other coworkers recently. Even though *she’s* the one who blew up and slammed doors the rest of the day. Once again over a communication issue on her own behalf.