customer service representative

actuary

program manager

senior business analyst

business analyst

Blue-Cross-Blue-Shield

After spending more than 13 years with this company with extensive medical training and knowledge I found that some supervisors were willing to use my skills and were willing to help me to advance and I was even compensated very well for a good couple of years as my supervisors at the time felt I worked hard and deserved it. Later when upper management kept changing out our supervisors before a year could finish our teams moral faded fast. No more smiles, talking, or even laughing. As a telecommuter working in the office at that time once a month, the change was so apparent. Everyone spoke in whispers and looked over shoulders to make sure they were not being seen. I had never seen this before in our department. It was like walking into a funeral. The life was gone. And if you we're not in with the "popular" in office workers as a telecommuter I was not allowed to speak at all. I know this because of the co- supervisor of the Triage team let me know in front of the entire team from in front of her cubicle one day as I was asking a work related question. I of course was in shock and embarrassed. I could tell some other co workers were also and some even sent me emails saying how sorry they were on how I was treated. This type of treatment did not stop. I reported it, I asked for help. My reporting of the harassment I know I was receiving did not remain confidential. Others found out, including the person and the people I reported. I had asked to be transferred to another department, my supervisor stated that she knew this would get better as she did not want to lose me from this team. I stayed for as long as I could emotionally and mentally. I did like my job, but what management had done to me over the past year was wrong. I was not treated with respect, dignity or given anything this company had promised over the last 13 + years. After seeking advice from my long term family physician, I made the decision to resign as I deserved to be treated much better and I deserved to be treated as an equal human being, not like someone's dog or even less. We as all human beings deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, not just a other ID number on a paycheck. This was a hard decision to make, my dignity, emotional and mental health that I was letting this person drag me down and make me terrified to go into the office or stand up for myself and take the high road. I chose the high road and I tell the truth when I am looking for work. It feels wonderful and I feel totally released. To add being forced to change my personal healthcare providers after 15 years to a group that has no record of any form of excellent care and less physicians to choose from was also another way of those in SF to show force and the power of what they are truly capable of. This company is no longer for the people or it's employee's. The company is for those executives who are running it and how much they can line their pockets. Beware employees, they will not help you line your savings accounts because they will no longer be giving you the 4-5% raises. Do not trust this company. Especially when they hire from the outside instead of promoting from the inside. They will keep you where you are unless you force the change for YOU.

BSC is re-orging and laying people off left and right, to reduce admin. Basically, it's getting worse and worse at Blue Shield of CA. The poor hiring decisions and promotions made during this re-org are terrifying. We're facing the biggest changes ever to our industry (healthcare reform) and it's essentially "amateur hour" all over the place in this company. They didn't plan, or staff-up appropriately for the healthcare reform work.

The Bad:
They don't promote people, even when it's well deserved.
Upper management is woefully disconnected.
They hire incompetent people into roles because they are unsuccessful at recruiting.
The communication is some of the worst I've ever seen in my career.
Silos are everywhere (which ties into the above comment).
Very old school, conservative culture.
They do not encourage free thinking or empower employees to make decisions.
They do not "manage out" bad employees, but rather saddle the good employees with them.
There are no perks. NONE! You have to fight for a $2 pen.
In general, raises for a "good" review are below inflation, so unless you're promoted (which they never do), you don't want to stay too long at BSC or your salary will lag.
BSC is very frenetic.
No matter what job you take there, you'll end up being in crisis mode.

Additional Badness:
Great Place to Work scores are still abysmal (2nd yr).
There is a retaliatory culture at BSC - don't be direct or ask good questions. You will only be labeled negatively for doing so. It doesn't matter if your question is for the betterment of the company, it only matters if your question may make some insecure, middle manager "look bad."

They changed the review policy this year to avoid "forced ranking," yet SVPs, VPs, Sr. Directors and Directors are circulating emails directing you not to give your employees ratings higher than "meets expectations" and not to use all of the money you are budgeted for increases.

Advice to Senior Management – Follow your policies consistently! Don't circulate an email about "no more forced rankings" under the guise of an improved culture, while concurrently, half of your leaders are dictating review rankings to their staff. Why even bother? I'll forward you my staff's self assessments and you can review them.

If you're going to re-org, please don't follow the, "this is going to take a year to finish" process.

Don't staff all of your leadership roles with people who only have experience in one segment of the business, particularly when the other segments are the ones changing under the approaching healthcare reform marketplace. This was no re-org - this was a hostile takeover.

I was hired as a behavioral health customer advocate. Upon hire, I was offered a specific department and shift. In the offer letter and verbally on the phone when offered the job. On the first day of training, I was informed of the pay increase scale, sign-on bonus, training duration, attendance policy, PTO, and benefits. The usual. Needless to say, nothing my training class and I were told held up. We couldn't use PTO when management said we could. We worked in 2 departments instead of 1. Training as well as the extremely strict attendance policy lasted 13 weeks instead of 6. (literally your house could be on fire and it didn't matter). The pay scale was “corrected”  11 WEEKS INTO TRAINING with no efforts to uphold the offer made upon hire to 11 employees. Management behaved like high schoolers. I'm not even being bitter guys. They quite literally behaved like teenagers. For perspective, I'm only 25. Half of my training class had to quit once training was completed and our “official shifts” were assigned. You guessed it, we did not receive the shifts offered to us when we accepted the job offer. There was no interest in accommodation with the exception of those who disclosed the personal conversations of fellow employees to the higher-ups. Our trainer slipped up during our web-ex meeting and showed the managers group chat. They were COMFORTABLY laughing at and making fun of those who had to quit due to conflicts with child care and the schedules they were assigned. Our supervisor didn't know anything about behavioral health. It was a mess. When I addressed the manager above my department concerning all of these issues I was told verbatim “It is what it is”. I got reported my last week there because a supervisor from another department asked me to move my car because she felt it was too close to hers. All I said was okay and moved my car. Not even 5 minutes later I was called into my supervisor's cubical, and informed I had been reported. She stated that I was reported due to the inflection in my voice. I told my supervisor I just said ok at and moved my car. Her response was “You must not know that she's a supervisor”. I left the following week. The work itself was fine. I ended up being the top performer of my training class despite the drawn-out yet still very poor training. Your employment will be hung over your head for going to the bathroom. Everyone is super friendly at first. Out of 11 people there were 2 people remaining when I resigned. Good luck if you go for it. Benefits are awesome.

Although Blueshield has very good benefits it’s a very stressful job. I feel like a lot of the managers there do care about you but the supervisors are not super supportive. Sometimes when you really need help on certain calls you get push backs and their auditing is super hard. If you miss one sentence at the end of your call or you forget to recap or use a closing sentence it is 50% off your audit. They expect you to have audit scores that are 90% and higher. And if you go through three months of getting 50% or anything less than 75% that is an automatic PIP. After your third PIP you are fired.  It doesn’t even matter how good your call was. Even if you made that person feel like the happiest person ever, if you did not tell them to leave you a survey because they were in a rush, if you did not tell them or ask if you had helped them with everything they called in for even though you know that you did, or if you forget to go over all the stuff that you already did with that person because they were in a rush that is 50% off your call For auditing. Congratulations you have three PIP and you cannot use any community day off, you will be audited 10 different calls even if you score 100% on three already they will need 10. You will have three PIP and get fired. 
Also if you provide any wrong information on accident guarantee that is less than 50% on your auditing scores. They provide you after call Work button to do any after work and literally you have to be less than 35 seconds for the whole entire month that’s like not even giving you enough time to take a breath before the next call comes in. If you get more than 35 seconds and after call Work for more than three months that’s another PIP and after three PiP in that section you are fired as well too. Imagine someone wanting to get off the phone as soon as possible because everybody works and the only time they can call you is during their break it’s a 15 minute break. You’ve already been on hold for about 10 minutes before a representative come on. And all you want is something to be fixed very little that can be done but the other person on the phone cannot complete it because they cannot be in after call. What is the after call even made for! 

This is a call center so you do have take a lot of I coming calls coming through back to back. You also have to make outbound calls to do follow ups on members referrals, claims etc. If you speak Spanish you can interview to get the green light and take Spanish calls as well. You don’t get paid much extra for taking Spanish calls which I feel is not very fair since you get double the volume in calls compared to reps who only take English calls. So when it’s a slow day for them, it’s a busy day for you. If you are looking for a stable job with good pay plus bonuses and time off this is a great company. You get PTO & Health days which come in handy. Management is very supportive and they are always there to help when you find yourself in need of it. They don’t leave you hanging and you are definitely provided with all the resources you could ever need to be successful. They let’s us work from home during the pandemic and provided is with all the equipment we needed. If you plan on expanding your family this company give you a xtra break and lunch time for pumping which I loved! They have nursing rooms and they have an amazing cafeteria. I worked in the Medicare department which is very regulated but the federal government. You have to be very careful with the information you give out to members. Your computer screens and phone calls are monitored and you do get reviewed on hold time, outbound & inbound call lengths are never and issue unless the day is very busy and you can’t make calls or follow up on cases until call volume goes down. Member can be very nice but some can be very mean and extremely entitled to the point they will apply pressure on you and test your patience. Don’t take anything personal here, remember you are simply here to help members and call it a day.  The only reason I stopped working is due to childcare problems during the pandemic and I had to go back ti being a stay at home mother. I would definitely re apply here if the opportunity presents itself because of how good they take care of their employees and show they care about each and very one of us. 

After being employed by this company for more than 10 years moving laterally about 4 times in hopes of promotion I was denied time and time again. During my time there I created or updated many processes, trained 6+ classes, found system issues that when reported saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties with association and lead many team building events, yet regardless of which positions I applied for, (analyst, trainer, auditor), I was passed over for someone with no experience in that line of business or had only a few years experience with the company. When all of this had mentally exhausted me along with an unexpected tragedy in my personal life I decided to take a leave of absence. After having me spend most of my loa jumping through their ridiculous hoops they retroactively denied my request meaning I now had an attendance issue for Unexcused  absences. The company was amazing when I was hired but as time has gone on the quality of leadership has declined drastically and the understanding and compassion they tout is not offered to employees. Constant reorganization of departments means your supervisors and management changes often so it’s hard to have a trusting relationship with management. Yearly reviews result in confusing critiques, what I like to call but statements. “Very knowledgeable and willing to help coworkers when leadership is unavailable, brings a positive energy to the team, BUT needs to work on down time and spend less time talking with coworkers.”  All in all I would NOT recommend this company unless you are okay with stabbing backs to get up the food chain. Lots of politics and favoritism with an expectation of perfection. Meet production standards at 100-110%  and 1 audit error in a year is considered meeting expectations at a level 3 however your compensation increase is based on this level. 

This is a great company to work for in terms of benefits. The company provide excellent time off and extra ways to participate in the community. However, management only cares about their numbers and record. Working here, you are just a name and shift. There are so many guidelines and rules you have to remember and follow, if you don’t, you’ll get feedback for it. On top of that, you are required to do side projects and work, including non-related work during the holidays and special events. You are audit on everything you do and sometimes to catch up on your work, you’ll have to use your breaks and lunches to finish them. The company structure definitely needs a lot of improvement. I don’t understand why each department is so hard to get a hold of each other. Some have emails and some don’t. Some have a phone line and some don’t. Some require special process to communicate with them and some don’t. It’s very inconsistent throughout the company. So don’t expect if you hear from someone working in a different department That blue shield is all fun and laughters, that is not true. My customer service department is all about working working working. No time to breathe or have a little bit of fun. And when you are given that time of fun, you’re exhausted and stressed out, you just want to relax and have some alone time to gather yourself. Also, management turnover is huge here, reason why some employees stays at the same position for 10 years. If I can leave, I’ll leave but during this pandemic, unemployment is already at its highest. 

Leaders cannot  easily know when people are merely great in managing up; rather, they reward them with opportunities and question the people who raises this observation to leaders. Leadership time is focused not in honing in on the positive aspect of one's work but rather, on the negative/constructive aspect.Demoralizing words are easily released as reprimand for outcomes not meeting standards, with lack of sensitivity on employee challenges and on the supposedly learning environment that are building. Executives tasked in interpreting and executing strategies are not agreeing with each other, so people in the organization will feel this tug-of-war especially as the matrix organization grows. If you can find another place to work for that has a better culture, please do so. However, if you are aiming for a Director, VP, SVP position, this company pays high, relocates people, and benefits are great for this level. Lots of expectation on you and you will have to deal with difficult people and with high pressure, and demoralizing words at times, but you will be very well compensated and this becomes worth it financially. For managers and below, pay is still good compared to competitors but eventually you will feel that the work, pressure, expectations on your shoulder is not worth it. Directors and above can tolerate it because they are paid very well, and provided with significant pay and benefits and professional/personal investment not offered to the rest of the organization.

Do you want to answer calls all day long from people who are stressed, upset, and confused, which will add to your stress when you can't help them? Then this is the place for you! Do you want to be tied to a phone and made to feel you can't take a break without alerting someone? Join us! When you have a break in between calls, you hope you can finish your previous work. Just as you are getting somewhere, you get another call. Think the training was overwhelming because you had so much information thrown at you? Don't worry. It gets worse when you take a phone call, and you didn't learn any of that in class. Most calls are from people who wait until the last minute for something they need, and they put all the pressure on you to help them immediately. Because of their lack of planning, you have now become their scapegoat. I don't know how some of these people function in life. These people are wasting my time by calling in to berate this company because we can't stop scam phone calls. I can't even remember the last time I called into my insurance company. Maybe it's because I take care of important things in my life, and I know how to get things done without ruining someone else's day by incessantly complaining. The insurance is expensive, so I can't imagine these people don't work. But, they have all the time in the world to call about simple things they can do online. And, the people who are short on time pressure you to solve their issue during their break or lunch from a phone with horrible reception. I literally had someone ask me to help but to hurry up. Really? This isn't a fast food restaurant lady. Unless you enjoy a stressful environment in your own home, please look for another job opportunity. 

Even though you can meet great coworkers, this position severely underpays for the amount of stress you will go through, and you are judged on very arbitrary and unrealistic metrics. Although the first month of training is very supportive and the trainers are very helpful and positive, it is way too short to retain and learn the knowledge that you need to help the company's customers. 

After training, you are made to take phone calls from customers who often have serious and often urgent issues with their insurance, and since you are under trained and have little recourse outside of the team chat, or a list of PDF booklets, which can be very long, complicated, and often vague, the pressure to give the right help to the member can be enormous. This isn't even including the times where you would get rude and hostile members who are angry that the other representatives haven't reached back to them because everybody is so overworked with other cases. 

If that's not bad enough, management will often change our shift time at their own whim, without warning. Needless to say, it led to a lot of quiet discontent at our department because we were told that our schedules would remain the same.

Perhaps because of these reasons, the turnover rate for this position is very high. Even though I have been only working here for two months, I noticed half of my new hire colleagues have already left. 

In conclusion, I can't speak for the other positions at this company, but I highly advise that you refrain from applying to the phone support or customer representative role.

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