Pros
The best part about this job is that their is no dress code. Men can come in their favorite sports team jerseys and women can come dressed for the club. Other than great people watching, it's a trash job. The people who boast about the benefits have obviously never had better, which is honestly sad.
Cons
There are so many cons! Let's start with management. The team managers are all part of a "good 'ol boy" system. They knew somebody who knew somebody, which is how they went into management. Some are by-the-book and others are very lax. The point system they have is a joke. It's a 100-year old company, and they JUST implemented a sick-days type of leave, but they only give you five days worth. They expect you to have the immune system of a god, but literally all you hear all day is coughing and sneezing. It's a cesspool of germs! They don't care if you broke your leg on the way into work. You'd better still be there on time! Most companies will start you off with at least some days of vacation time along with sick days, BUT NOT THIS ONE! The traffic in, out, and around the building is ridiculous coming into work and leaving as well. Lunch is 45-minutes long, and unless you bring lunch everyday, you'll be lucky enough to get 15 minutes to eat or even eat at all because it takes almost 10 minutes to get to your car. They have six elevators, and it always seems like only one or two function. They limit bathroom time to 15 minutes a day, so if you're trying to be hashtag fit life and drink a gallon of water a day, they will be on you for getting up often. The pay is pathetic as well as their little bonus. It's the most expensive car insurance company to have a policy with, but they don't pay their employees like it. You'll never work an 8-hour day... You work 7 hours and 45 minutes, so you don't even work 40-hour weeks! You can work unlimited amount of optional overtime to offset the sad hourly wage, but after 8 hours of answering phones all day, it's truly not worth it! The health insurance is about 180 a month, and you don't get paid enough to begin with! The 18.25 an hour is so sad. Geico is up the street, and they pay more for the same job. When you start training, they have several people come in and talk to you about how long they've been there and what they like about it, but I feel like they boost State Farm so much because they know the call center department of the company are the bottom feeders, and it has a high turnover rate. Several people who were in my training class have already quit. I see the lifelessness in everyone's faces in my building. People hop on the elevator in the morning and joke about how they're ready to go home, but they really mean it. Answering phone calls all day for 8 hours a day becomes repetitive and tedious. You don't have time to talk to people around you because they want you answering calls, which is a sweat shop mentality. Your lunch and break times are also never at the same time, which can be annoying if they have you go to lunch too early or break too late toward the end of your shift. They've also become backed up on task work because of the lack of claim associates in the department. They make it seem like you can be promoted within at least your first year there with State Farm, but don't count on it unless you brown nose. There are people who have been just a claim associate for 5+ years. Even if you have a degree, don't expect to be promoted easily. I know someone there with a MS in computer science, and I overheard his team manager indirectly discouraging him in applying to higher positions, and this goes back to me saying how desperate State Farm is for claim associates. The older folks don't want to retire, making it harder to move up. There is no work-life balance here. They have you bid on shifts once a year, and they tell you that most people get their top three picks of shifts, which is another lie they feed you. If you get a shift that doesn't work for you, oh well so sorry, they expect you to be flexible for any time you get. You can swap shifts with other people, but if it's a late shift or you have weird days off, no one will switch with you, and this is another reason why people quit. The only thing that has come out of my time here is that I've made life-long friendships with classmates. You're lucky if you get to know the right people, and you can network with them when you leave as well.