Avoid if you can - EAP Counselor Optum Employee Review

2.0
Jan 29, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It had great staff when you could keep them a nice team.

Cons

Micromanagement caused excellent clinicians, quality counsellors and SRs to leave the team. There was also too much office politics. Expectations are too high, especially for not having enough pay. Management would throw you under a bus and let callers abuse you. and if you terminated the call, You would get in trouble. Just went downhill overall with the change in management and too much meddling from Oxford and the states. Honestly, it's okay if you only need it for a few months, but if you can avoid them. It's not worth your mental health. Also, poor hiring impacts the staff, who often have to make calls from their and another counsellor's diaries. They talk a good game about protecting their staff, but it's just words. They tell you not to take calls after your time, but if you're not in an active take-call mode in the last 10 minutes, they throw it in your face at the end of the month, and if you ever work holidays for them, Yes they pay well, but anything happens management will throw you under a bus.

avatar
Optum Response
2y
Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Please know that we are committed to fostering a culture of trust and empowerment within our teams. Your comments will help us to assess our processes so that we may continue to improve as a company and better support our employees.

Explore other reviews about Optum

5.0
Mar 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very good culture and managers are very helpful, good work benefits

Cons

not much movement or increment

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some very talented people give so much of themselves to the company, the clients and their co-workers. I work with (and have worked with) some excellent, smart, supportive people.

Cons

Too many layoffs. Upper management is clueless about how the day to day work gets done, what it takes to make certain changes to processes, and how to treat employees. Some are great. Mostly, they just look at numbers. So many of us have been doing our jobs long enough to know what is needed for certain requests. But we don't get a voice. We just have to do it and suck it up. They are firing ('reduction in force') all of the seasoned staff and let the rest deal with the fall-out. So many teams are losing good people but those people are training their off-shore replacements before they are told about being cut. So how is that a reduction in force? It's just a reduction in payroll numbers. Everyone is on edge just waiting for the next axe to fall. And we have to try and learn or teach another role with less experienced people and more work. It's crazy. On milestone anniversaries, they send an email recognition but once the milestone gets to over 15 years, you are a target. Pay and benefits are fine by me. Raises are practically non-existent, even after layoffs and asking employees to take on more responsibility. that's messed up. They talk about work/life balance but that doesn't trickle down to the actual workers who are so stressed they fear for their jobs if they don't do the extra mile. Many of us are just hanging on instead of quitting so we can at least get some severance. Others are actively looking.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All