Pros
Some great coworkers. Steady Paycheck. Remote Work. Decent Benefits.
Cons
I had a horribly abusive, vindictive, petty, gaslighting manager which Voya seemed to condone. I started to type all the things this manager did and how she behaved, and it was literally pages long. However, I will type some of her actions because my manager was an absolute monster. She weaponized company policies for her own benefit, would rescind time off if you angered her, within minutes of whatever triggered her anger. She was nasty and venomous when I sent her an email expressing my concerns over the work environment. She responded to that email by calling my concerns 'YOUR CLAIMS!'. When I was transferred to her team all of my VTO (this is voluntary time off which is offered by the company) was abruptly stopped. Not one of my requests was ever approved again forcing me to use my PTO. I strongly believe the manager had something to do with this because she appeared to hate the fact, we even had time off, lying in one meeting that those of us in States that did not mandate time off may not have it. SHE KNEW THIS WAS A LIE. She had managed a remote team for years. I had to contact HR who informed me that regardless of the state or its politics Voya gave everyone up to one-week sick time and an allotment of PTO. I couldn't even use company offered time off when my 27 yr old cousin was murdered. I wanted to speak with her mom. I reached out to my Team Seniors as I had done on the previous team who were always kind enough to oblige, to ask if they would speak with WFM to see if they could approve the time off only to get a response saying 'WE DON'T DO THAT HERE!'. They wouldn't even lift the finger to try and be accommodating. When I expressed my feelings with the manager about this she responded with 'My condolences on the loss of your cousin' but then said 'IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT TAKE IT TO HR! OR YOU CAN GO TO EAP!'. In so many words. (I'm using capitalization for effect because that's how it came across to me). This was basically her response to everything. She was unaccommodating, at least with me, and could be nasty. In our first meeting with the manager, she introduced herself by telling us she was 'STRICTER THAN OUR PREVIOUS MANAGER' and she then introduced us to all the ways she would keep us in line by documenting 'every, single, mistake, we, ever, made, via, a, paper-trail'. Whereas the previous team would have a quick video meet with us to update us on policies or procedures, this new manager would send out a 'CORRECTIVE ACTION' which had several people cc'd to point out our error. Often, in my case, this would come with a long, strongly worded, email from a lead. The manager would use her leads to target and harass agents she did not like or who she took issue with. I say this because I was a fairly strong agent. Even the manager said so when I was first transferred to her team in a one on one with me looking at my numbers. However, after I notified her she was creating a toxic work environment by her behaviors, suddenly I couldn't do anything right. Overnight, the number of Corrective actions and strongly worded emails from leads amplifying my errors shot up over 400%. I found my time logs pulled and parsed, and one-to-two-page emails with several people cc'd being sent explaining, down to the SECONDS, when I was out of compliance. The emails were accusatory and nasty in my opinion. YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! Never =WE. Never = How can we help you. Never = What is going on? Just accusations with lots of finger pointing with this big bully of a manager being cc'd on every single document sent to me. She was behind it all. They had suddenly increased after I said I was going to HR on how she treated me. This was nothing but retaliation. It's not being a team or fostering a cooperative environment by simply pointing fingers. HR was abreast of all of this. I had started filing complaints with them. The manager had created games for the Team Huddles. If you did not want to take part in the games the manager found this unacceptable. She would respond with 'THIS IS YOUR JOB TOO!'. Games.. Is "YOUR JOB TOO!'. Wow. Just wow Voya. The manager seemed to fly into a rage whenever my coworker and I spoke positively about our previous manager. This led the manager to in some ways TRASH the new manager and imply she didn't know what she was doing. HR was notified of that too. In one meeting with the manager, she became angered over something I had said and abruptly cut me off by waiving her hand at me dismissively and angrily saying 'I'VE GOT SOMEWHERE TO GO!'. I was surprised by this. But I shouldn't have been. This manager was so nasty. She then glared at me angrily with her face into a deep angry frown and she was trembling. Her hands were in fists and she just looked at me in silence trembling. All I could think of was 'Voya - We have a problem'. We later found out the manager was also going back and carrying false messages. Changing what we had said to imply the manager wasn't following policies. We never said that at all. She was trying to create discord. What manager does that Voya? She would even forward my emails I sent to her with my concerns to others without my knowledge. I was having stomach issues that caused me to have longer restroom breaks. The company gave us 20 minutes in time to deviate from schedule for unforeseen occurrences that may arise. This wasn't good enough for the manager. She demanded to be informed whenever our restroom breaks went over 5 minutes. However, I had teammates reach out and say they went over 5 minutes, and she never said a word to them. Everything, even the way she enforced company policies, was all targeted towards me and others she took issue with. In one group huddle, a teammate was in pain and moaning and groaning. I heard no one offer to let her go off camera. She was quite apologetic too even mentioning she kept standing up where her face was not shown because of the pain. This particular manager was quite ocd about not being on camera. Unreasonably so. She was unreasonable with how rigid she was with many policies. I was told by the manager to only log in ONE MINUTE BEFORE! even though she knew we had several programs to go into. When I expressed disbelief with this instruction she failed to correct it too leaving me to reach out to seniors to find "Ok. You can log in TWO minutes before'. Yet my team mates had never been told this. They were logging in up to FIVE minutes before. Yet I was grudgingly given TWO minutes to keep my adherence numbers as high as possible. Yet this same manager demanded I, and another associate, log out TWO MINUTES LATER than our assigned shift time FOR WHICH WE WERE NOT PAID just to make sure there was coverage. She said nothing about how that would affect adherence. Right after being transferred to the new managers team, I, along with another coworker, had both gone to HR on the manager and one coworker was placed on a final (which I disagreed with because the manager was very rude and condescending often ending her statements with "DO YOU UNDERSTAND MEEEEE?!!!' and that just hits wrong when you are talking to adults. She was informed to speak respectfully and she in turn had the worker placed on a final. Yet she also had an issue with me. So, what did the manager now do?! She started to excessively gaslight and praise the third agent because you know... it wouldn't look good if all three agents who were transferred to her team had issues with her. We later found one or two of the folks transferred off her team were moved because, it is stated, they also had issues with her. HR was receptive. They were professional and they listened. But I was left with the impression that Voya knows this manager has issues with people and communications but maybe they don't have the budget now to search for a replacement for her. This manager was just wildly abusive and nasty. You don't get that way unless you believe the company has greenlit you to be that way. 2. You are chained to your desk. Literally. I gained so much weight while on that job and I heard from others they had gained weight too. The calls would come through automatically. you didn't answer them. So you always had to be ready for them. 8 hrs. of the entire day. Some people had wireless headsets that allowed them the ability to walk around. But even with that - it still felt like you were chained down. 3. You will be trained in everything. For Group, you'll be trained to take calls for every department. 4. Voya hires only a few U.S. Bound agents. The bulk of their agents are being hired abroad and in my opinion the service severely lacks in some instances with the overseas support. After I left Voya, I called to figure out if my insurance had been set up in the system. I was porting the supplemental group coverage. The term coverage. The agent was just so confused. About everything. At first, she said she didn't see the coverage. Then she said, 'Oh everything is set up'. I then asked about payment. I needed to make a payment. She then said, "Oh no payment is due'. But a payment should be due. Then she said, 'Oh I have to get you to SHB'. SHB handles compass. Not term coverage. I found myself explaining to this bewildered agent that SHB was the wrong department. And the agent was so confused I eventually just ended the call. Dear Voya - Stop sending these jobs to the low wage markets. You do get what you pay for, and you have entire training classes over there which are quitting because so many American companies are sending jobs over there - evidently the people don't want the stress you put on them. Again, entire overseas training classes are QUITTING. 5. Voya - Be honest with potential candidates that you allow managers to withhold Charity time, at the managers discretion, if the manager feels the persons behavior isn't right or they have not met metrics, or any other reason at the managers discretion. You advertise this as a benefit, but it is regulated differently within your organization. 6. Managers can pick their own teams and their own seniors. This is a practice that needs to stop because it was my belief, and the belief of others, that some of these managers are picking people who will lie for them. Cover for them. Engage in harassment for them. Let a third party randomly assign these agents to managers. The same with leads. 7. There is no clear way forward. The call center appears to be a dead end. I say this because we saw people being moved up out of the call center who did not have stellar metrics. Two people who were moved out of the call center and promoted, one had rather horrible metrics and call scores, and the other was caught on a call horribly disparaging and demeaning an elderly woman who had called in regarding the death of a loved one. He was so rude that it was shocking to the training class who listened to the call. What happened to him? He was promoted. Yet no one knows how you get promoted. And it's my belief the manager can hold you back. 8. All benefits stop on your last day of employment, instead of lasting the entire month. At least this was the case with me. I resigned around Nov 9th. My dental, vision, and medical insurance all ended immediately on Nov. 9th. This just didn't surprise me, it also surprised my dentist, my doctor, and the coworkers who learned of it. 9. I sent an email about the managers behavior to company execs and I knew they received it because I received one of the auto responses and no one ever responded. Although I do believe she had the manager spoken to. 10. Again, Abusive management practices. Lying, gaslighting, being rude. All that needs to stop Voya. I started and will close on that point.