Avoid unless you're desperate - Commercial Underwriter Wawanesa Insurance Employee Review

I doubt I will ever work for a company with a more toxic working environment. Salary is on the low end. They like to hire less experienced people locked in at lower wages, give them poor training, and drag out promotions. Meanwhile they overpay other new hires because they're perpetually desperate to replace the intellectual capital of the experienced underwriters who get fed up and quit or fired. Head office has spent years trying to rework the company image from an outlier to a serious player in the commercial marketplace without a coherent strategy. They spent millions of $$ on a new system but were too inept to put the proper people and processes in place for the transition. When things went spiraling out of control. Management was more interested in pushing unrealistic targets instead of owning and dealing with issues. Management inaction put insureds, brokers, and underwriters in a needlessly prolonged, stressful, embarrassing, and unprofessional situation. You can't use burn out, depression and an unhealthy work/life balance as a job posting selling point so they use: "must thrive in a fast-paced environment and be comfortable with change." Benefits are a "pro" because people are constantly going on stress leave. Employees are terrified to provide feedback to management because they fear reprisal (rightly so). Which takes me to leadership. There is none. VP is disconnected, unqualified and hunting a shrinking number of scapegoats. Middle management is a blend of groupthink, inexperience, poor communication, indecision and deficiency of emotional intelligence. If you a) have formal business education b) value your mental health c) are intelligent d) have a heartbeat…. then do yourself a favour and find something else. If being micromanaged by people who don’t understand the reports they’re evaluating you on is your thing...then godspeed!