financial representative

customer advocate

planning consultant

software engineer

planner

Fidelity Investments

Fidelity consistently lied about and refused to consider Remote or Hybrid options – the Pandemic forced them to this model and ALL lies were exposed. Fidelity benefited from a pandemic bump on business and was more profitable and productive than ever before. 

With the pandemic, the remote-work genie is out of the bag. 

There is a belief of a certain cohort of Fidelity management, and they are represented across all sectors, that “presentee-ism,” or the need to show facetime at work, is often assumed to be necessary for productivity. However, Fidelity’s own productivity data during the pandemic demonstrated that people could perform productively without being monitored for time spent at work or being physically present.

Some Fidelity managers are upfront that they don’t think working from home is “real” work.  And employees have to be there, in front of them, so they can ensure they're working.

When mast majority of Fidelity employees were forced to start working from home, these managers didn’t have a magical change of heart. Instead, many of them continued to believe that employees working from home aren’t really working or will only work if they’re carefully monitored—often in intrusive and insulting ways.

Fidelity Managers replicated it by insisting on multiple detailed status updates, holding unnecessary lengthy daily team meetings (sometimes hours a day) to monitor their people remotely. But monitoring isn’t management.

The Fidelity management teams don't know how their people work. Even in the Fidelity Office, the majority of our meetings are conducted via Teams, Skype, Zoom, or other video conferencing tools. 

The Pandemic proved Fidelity’s push back into the office is productivity and communication propaganda that keeps getting resurfaced.

Just because someone was sitting in the Fidelity office didn’t make them productive.

People who fully failed at remote work were those who went to meetings in person, signed up for non-work activities (party planners), played on their phone and watched YouTube underneath their in-office work desk, took repeated coffee breaks to discuss Soccer and other non-work current events, or walked around with a piece of paper, and looked busy — but weren't actually getting much done. 

Effectiveness can't be measured by the number of hours people spend in an office.

But self-starters and motivated people with goals excel with remote work.
Remote work puts the emphasis on outputs — doing actually work that was measurable (metrics).

Unfortunately, Fidelity draws from the "command and control" playbook as a way to rebuild the employee base that fits their idea of being productive and diligent. 

Remote work called into question the purpose of Fidelity’s micromanagers. Too many of these managers depend on the sense of control they get by seeing workers in front of them when everyone’s in the office—"they’re here and I can see them, so they must be hard at work.” 

It’s certainly true that some people genuinely don’t do well working from home! But when that’s the case, managers need to work with those people individually to resolve whatever the issues are. There’s no need to paint their entire workforce with that brush.



This was a specialized Call Center position specifically to assist customers calling in who were requesting Loans , Withdrawals, exchanges of funds,rebalancing, as well as IRA Rollovers  within their 401K accounts.  

In addition, I assisted customers with Education regarding the navigation of the Net Benefits site which housed their 401K accounts and how they could make their own changes as needed. 

The training was intense and Voluminous, 8 weeks Classroom , notes , constant testing and passing required to advance to next piece of curriculum. Intense  and Stressful, over the top pressure to achieve and perform that was not necessary to get the results needed. 

After 8 weeks of Fidelity In house Training , I received a Defined Benefits certificate and began work on the phone. 

As with Citi the style of Management  was less so, but all the same - punitive and not respectful of the employee, with no latitude for knowledge  or judgment, strictly task oriented and metrics were addressed daily. 

This left me with an unprofessional view of Fidelity as a company . I would only assume that the Management would have been of a higher level and  Quality . It was insultive and employees were treated like and spoken to like  children and not adults , as with Citi. 

Right after I began the full time work on the phones in Oct 2007, we were informed that we needed to complete our Series 6 Licensing Coursework  in order to take the exam and continue to be in compliance for this position. A group of us filled out our forms for NASD to become licensed and they were submitted . 

 During the Working day, I was given several hours to go study the Kaplan Series 6 coursework  to prepare for the exam in Feb 2008 . I also studied for the Series 63 simultaneously .

 After my workday from 1100am-700pm, I went home and studied some more until about 1000pm each night , took practice exams and then would get up early in the am at 400pm to continue to study again before work. I worked at this diligently from Oct to FEB 2008 . I took both exams and passed the 6 but missed the 63 by 1 point . 

Right after this, as I was having my review to go over  my metrics with my supervisor, a manager stated that we no longer needed the Series 6 License for this position. All the work I had done was for naught . 

I continued to perform well while the management made arrangements to stack rank people, have them change desks and then began to let people go due to business changes. 

I was very happy and felt very privileged to have been employed by Fidelity and was excited about a new career and to be able to grow and advance. Unfortunately, with the state of the economy at that point , that all changed. 

The best part of the job was the knowledge I gained and the opportunity to enter this field of Financial Services at a higher level. 

The hardest part of this job was the surprisingly poor management skills, philosophy which was not fluid or certain, but uncertain and punitive.  

I learned and worked on the BWS , Fidelity Benefits Workstation

Fidelity as a whole is great to have on your resume. As a firm it's too big. You get lost in the noise and concerns  that you bring up make you a target or a nuisance. Advancement has dried up in recent years and in the WI (workplace investment, basically the call center) is filled with management that is cliquey.

They regularly put people on "loan" when they need a spot filled with a tenured person they feel can get the job done with no additional pay of the responsibilities would justify it while they interview someone to fill the role permanently who is typically less tenured and more appealing in some other way. I've witnessed first hand someone on loan fully qualified and capable of taking the full time position they are filling and having someone less skilled and tenured be given that position over them.

They regularly set up new roles or sub groups in certain business units with little to no training structure and leave new hire in those vertically moving positions struggling to succeed. The management tells them reach out for help but never offer the help proactively in other ways so you regularly see a revolving door of people joining and leaving your teams chats silently as they are coached and performance managed out the door and wasting talent.


On top of that if you do get termed because you fail to come back from a performance plan you get blacklisted from rehire for an undisclosed amount of time, effectively eliminating your chances of ever coming back if you were legitimately trying to succeed and wanted to remain with the firm. They ignore mental health issues that may contribute to your struggles in a role as well, considering it a lack of caring or using it as an excuse to purposely perform poorly, especially when it's been well known someone is struggling mentally and in their personal lives. 

Instead of helping someone shift to a role they were at before, or providing more support, they raise goals when placed on a final warning and expect improvement within 30 days which they regularly reduce to less than that when you continue to struggle.


It's fairly absurd. The best thing is the pay, opportunity for OT in almost any hourly role, the benefits are pretty stellar, and the profit sharing is good along with the company match. Advancement opportunity is promised in general but, is rarely seen being lower levels. Mid level management people don't move for several years and senior management regularly shifts due to negative attrition, leaving new hires into those senior roles with a "something to prove" mentality and begin coaching people for firing to look good in their new roles.



During my tenure at Fidelity Investments, I was initially brought on board for my Drupal skills to assist with new Drupal websites. The work always presented interesting problems to solve, which I found intellectually stimulating. However, my overall experience was overshadowed by several challenges and a lack of support from management.

One recurring issue I observed was typical corporate problems such as duplications of efforts, office politics, and middle managers prioritizing the creation of corporate clones over nurturing productive employees. This environment hindered collaboration and hindered the overall efficiency of the team.

Despite being contracted for three years, it took a considerable amount of time before I was offered a full-time position to work in the email channel. In this role, I developed an innovative framework that greatly enhanced efficiencies within the channel. However, throughout my employment, management provided minimal support for my career growth. They were largely absent when it counted, failing to hire necessary replacements, which resulted in the team being consistently understaffed. Additionally, many of the development associates exhibited dubious skills that were left unaddressed.

A significant challenge I faced as a neurodiverse individual was my difficulty with administrative tasks such as timesheets and required training. Despite making substantial contributions worth millions to the firm, I felt held back professionally due to feedback related to these issues and occasional communication gaffes—both of which are symptoms of Asperger's. Unfortunately, management seemed to adhere to an unfair policy of "it's all good or no good," rather than providing constructive support tailored to individual needs.

One disappointing aspect was the absence of a comprehensive "playbook" for accommodations specifically designed for neurodiverse individuals. It seemed odd for a company of this size not to have established protocols in place. Instead, there was a greater emphasis on obtaining a doctor's note, which placed unnecessary burdens on employees. In my case, there was also a lack of merit compensation for the valuable capabilities I brought to the email channel.

Overall, my experience at Fidelity Investments was marked by limited support from management, a failure to address the unique challenges faced by neurodiverse individuals, and a lack of recognition for my contributions. While the work itself was engaging, the organizational shortcomings significantly impacted my professional growth and overall satisfaction with the company.

Fidelity investments has many faces. Some parts of the company are genuinely nice to work for. But not the customer service facing end. 

The work at first is alright, its hard at the start as any job is, because your learning to do it. Then you get into a rhythm and things start to get easier. Then they change up your management team because someone got promoted. No biggy, but now requirements are different. Then this keeps happening every six or so months. Still, not really a big deal. Who cares if your only with certain coworkers for so long and cant really build relationships before your team is reconstructed due to attrition and movement (Not upwards movement, lateral movement.) 

The first two years I was with the company was alright. I was slowly going up, getting paid more, being given more responsibilities - Again, normal things. 2023 though, things kind of petered out. I was up for promotion, and so was someone I had been coaching. The associate I was coaching got the job, and I was refused the position because "I needed more experience". Frustrating, but not the end of the world. This has happened 3 times now. Its to a point where its past frustrating. But again, I could point the finger at myself and say I needed to grow more to be worthy, save for something the company kept asking me to do, before I refused a manager multiple times - Coaching new hires...for the position I wanted to be promoted to. Those requests were beyond insulting and had me dumbfounded. Little did I know the worst was yet to come.

I have spent a lot of time coaching new hires, training them, sitting in with them on calls, I even led an entire class and got special access to review calls! The thing is though this entire time I never asked the important question - What do I get out of this? They keep telling me I need more experience, so experience right? Well its not quite enough for them. Then maybe pay? Nope, I was told verbatim "We dont pay our associates based off personal merit, you are all paid based off a competitive market rate. Currently its the most competitive it can be." Maybe, then one would think, at the bare minimum word would be out there with management I am a good associate...which it supposedly is. But all that means is I get asked to work on projects which I am expected to work OT for, taking more time from the days I already dont have enough time in for my personal life.

The entire time I have worked for the company I have called out 3 times, in my 3 or so years with them. Twice was due to a death in the family, and the third was because I was sick. The one time I was sick the treated me as if I was always calling out, made me get a doctors note, and tried to push me to come in despite being sick enough I could barely get out of bed. 


Inbound service calls where expediency and customer satisfaction are your metrics to meet. This role is very stressful and difficult because of the lack of time not inbound on the phone calls which results in 80-100 calls per day which is absolutely exhausting and so strenuous and unpleasant the entire workday without relief other than running to grab food or rushing to use the restroom finally on breaks. 

The managers directly that I had were amazing and so willing to help in anyway you needed but the upper management was less personable or even in the picture at all for the front line employees. Besides the occasional email saying thanks for working so hard for our customers while we worked OT constantly, had less off phone time, and no ability to take sick or Paid time due to volumes they would send these emails to keep people a guess kind of happy. 

The culture was great in the beginning but became more and more negative, single minded, not company or goal oriented, bitter, and unpleasant in the end because of changes and role removals resulting in demotions and no other options for employees who were then forced to work a role they not only did not apply for but never would have wanted to have a career path towards. This role was generally the entry level phone role that those of us more tenured had worked so hard to be promoted out of and never go back to because that is what you did to get into the company is put in your dues on the phones. So going back to this role was not only a very upsetting move career wise but also a very stressful and step back in growth in your career.

The hardest part of the job was ever getting to utilize all of the benefits, career growth opportunities an special events they would have to thank us because we couldn't get time off of the phones, as well as, the lack of training and consistent feeling of being thrown into the lions den and having to cope with the unbearable stress of not knowing anything while being yelled at and then coached and graded on your performance and success in the role. Also, career growth was not only rare but nearly impossible due to the lack of ability to network, shadow, or have any career development or coaching besides an email or something. 

Most enjoyable part of the role was the beautiful campus, benefits, the licensing and great resume builder working for the company offers outside firms in the industry, a good starting place to get what you need to start the career path then move on and up somewhere else.

A typical day of a CDS associate requires on average 18,000 steps per day.  We would start our day by receiving and reconciling on average 3,000 envelopes and 180 packages from different couriers like UPS, FedEx, and DHL.  We did this with RF Scanning equipment linked with our shipping and receiving program SendSuite.  The envelopes were sorted then scanned to their designated groups, and delivered close by to labeled racks to be processed accordingly.  The packages were received, reconciled, and routed, using the same RF Scanning equipment and SentSuite program before being loaded onto carts put into vans, and delivered in bulk to designated administrators.  Management appointed each associate designated building rotations using a weekly schedule coupled with a consistent daily pick up and drop off time of 11AM, 2PM, and 4PM.  Management would also make sure one associate stayed back in the central location to answer phones, do research, and meter mail that amounted on average to 5,000 pieces per day.  Packages and Mail picked up from each building were scanned upon pickup, sorted into designated bins marked by courier, reconciled again for tracking purposes at the central location then sorted by courier placed on skids to meet the 5PM daily shipment requirement.

During my career at Fidelity I learned how to conduct myself in a corporate environment.  I also learned how to use RF Scanning equipment, and computer programs linked to it.  I learned how to constructively criticize my peers, myself, and my management team.  It was my first 8AM to 5PM job and because of this I have learned dependability, responsibility, and humility working beside the same people day in and day out.  This was also the first time I worked with a team of people rather than individually.  Knowing I had a united front of diligent workers behind me made me realize how important and efficient a cohesive team environment can be.  My favorite and most rewarding part of the job was the rewards and recognitions programs Fidelity offered.  I was able to award my teammates as well as other individual in different departments, receiving awards wasn’t so bad either.  The most difficult part of the job was around the holidays when business partners and customers would send gifts to associates working at Fidelity.  On average in November and December our incoming mail volumes doubled which made for a physically demanding day that challenged the might of our CDS associates and the processes we performed.

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Fidelity Investments is meh. Don’t write hm ab it,

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Fidelity Investments were ok.Bonus was nice

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Fidelity Investments, I think once u turn 40...keep your eyes and options open.a

Management
In general, managers at Fidelity Investments talk the talk, but don’t walk the talk. Millennial obsessed at the expense of their best employees who usually get kicked out via a “voluntary buyout” or layoff so they can hire younger and cheaper. what else is new. You’re a #.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Fidelity Investments was fantastic until we got a new boss who was more interested in not managing ppl, and more into kissing his boss’s a** to further his career. Never saw him. Not the most warm and secure environment.

It was a culture of fear and waiting for the other shoe to drop constantly...esp if you’re over 40. That place felt like a modern day “Logan’s Run.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film))

Overall
My experience working at Fidelity Investments started out terrifically, had a wonderful boss; but he left 6 mos before our demise, and the new ladder-climbing gnome of a boss comes in and that was that. We knew our group was toast when this new guy started hiring “contractors” who did exactly what we did....only to hire them later.  Basically my time w Fido ended shortly thereafter by being laid off with 39 other colleagues VIA CONFERENCE CALL. It was the most chicken-sh**, unprofessional thing I’d ever witnessed.

 At the end of the bloodbath conference call, these “managers” so graciously informed us they had “40 new jobs” we could “interview” for that they were about to post publicly, but supposedly wanted to give us first crack at applying. First crack...sure..The reality was, we had the opp to apply, but there was ZERO guarantee of an interview. I know several who applied but didn’t get interviews. And to no ones surprise, they started posting these 40 jobs on Linked in within 2 days. Transparent AF. 

Less than half of the ppl laid off were able to get one of the “new” jobs; but they were mostly 20-30somethings getting the upper level jobs we had. The average age of the rest of the 20 ppl or so who left was 50. 50! I know that’s life...but to inform us via an F-ing conf call! Tacky and classless, and left a lot of ppl with a horrible impression. I couldn’t get my retirement money out of there fast enough, if that’s how they were treating employees.

They can spin it however they want, but they don’t give two sh^^s ab you once you hit a certain age. The timer starts ticking. Run.

The type of company that offers pizza parties instead of raises. 

Amazing opportunity to be paid to study 40 hours a week for 6 months while you obtain your licenses. Definitely worth it. But they pretty much promised from day 1 that after you satisfy your metrics for 3 months after training, you will be moved to the next role. However I had colleagues who had been meeting their metrics for 10+ months with no advancement in sight. Advancement is extremely competitive because it is so scarce. 

Pay is so far below industry average that it is insulting. They just started implementing a new metric which they will base performance on, which affects your quarterly bonus. The metric is fair, it tracks client interaction time, but if you take your break during this time it counts against you. If you take your lunch at a different time than is built in your schedule, it counts against you. If you use your off-phone-time allowance for the week (2 hours), it counts against you. A year ago they were very adamant that they want you to use your break and your lunch whenever you want. But now, you are basically punished for using your break when you're supposed to be taking calls, same with lunch. Taking your break or using your weekly allotted off phone time when you're scheduled to be on the phones will now impact your eligibility for advancement as well as your bonus. Why offer us a paid break or off phone time weekly if we will be penalized for using it? Why would we use our break time or weekly allotted off phone time when we are already off phones?

This company makes so much money but they do not care about their employees as much as they try to convey. For example, if you call out sick, it is counted against you, called an "occurrence". The company culture is great because of the people they hire, everyone I worked with is extremely friendly, but that only goes so far. Fidelity relies on the reputation of their culture so heavily because it distracts from the lack of pay. Rewarding employees with fidelity labeled stanley cups and fleece sweaters, no financial incentives here. 

Competing firms offer like 30% more, base pay, for the exact same job.

Now, at the end of 2020, they were clearly looking to get people hired for the upcoming tax season, as well as continuing to handle all the fallout from pandemic related exceptions and withdrawals from 401 K accounts.  You're given a 3 month period in which to train, and the training modules come at you fast and furious.  You're given a good peer group and virtual classroom environment where you'll become allies in adversity.  And that's really where the good stuff stops.

I've worked in call centers of varying degrees since 1997.  I've done collections, tech support, appointment setting, fundraising... if there's a phone position, I've likely done it.  And for incoming calls, I've never come across a company that gives you NO time between calls.  Fidelity was the first.  The nature of the beast is that you will have difficult calls.  Moreover, given the nature of the 401k based customer service, there will be plenty of notation to be done.  The industry has shifted to working call center staff more mercilessly in recent years.  And here one is expected to be notating every last extremely important detail in their specialized database software, all the while searching up important and relevant data in at least 30 individual tools.  Some dating back to the 1980's in an ASCII interface.  You're expected to hit the ground running with all of this as they alternate your schedule between learning modules and live incoming calls and get it right the first time, or there could be dire financial consequences for both the company and your callers in excess of 5 to 6 figures.  You're given NO time to do this, or recompose yourself after a difficult customer.  There's no wiggle room in the statuses in which you must be logged in for this either.  Statuses like "After Call Work" are there in name only.  You are expected NOT to use them.  Efficiency is the slave drum you will be constantly aware of.  You are monitored relentlessly.  Overtime is scheduled for you without asking, and it's your responsibility to opt out of it.  The heavy implication is that you will not last long there if you refuse overtime.  Lots of cult-like tactics are used to make this place your 'Family', whom you should be willing to sacrifice time for without hesitation.  No regard is given for your life outside of your schedule.  I would not recommend this place unless you're into this kind of masochism.  

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