insurance agent

business coordinator

sales associate

customer service representative

insurance producer

Indiana-Farmers-Insurance-2

My tenure at Farmers started well enough. I was heavily recruited to lead a nascent organization through multiple leadership changes and internal tensions with their stakeholders -- largely brought upon by their previous leaders. It was no small task to take on, yet I was feeling energized as I started conversations with their recruiters mainly because the fellow I’d be working for was so engaged and on fire with a deep passion for the program. It was easy to connect with him. That’s how my whole sad saga at Farmer’s began. . .

One shouldn’t judge an entire organization by a few bad apples. That was true of my organization that I was tasked to lead, and it is certainly true of Farmer’s as a whole. I met many great folks there at all levels, and frequently felt impressed by a level of professionalism, dedication and deep passion for the customer. Yet, the career track that takes one off the floor towards leadership roles is fraught with cronyism, favoritism, sexism, ageism, and HR casting a blind eye to all of it. I found myself in the midst of this stew of chaos shortly after joining at senior manager level. I quickly found that I couldn’t trust anyone and that the ladder climbing culture from manager to above was off the charts -- throwing peers and lower level staff under the bus was a standard practice. As an outsider, I found myself looking every direction for those buses and I could not avoid them even with the sincerest intentions. It was my duty to lead my team effectively and that frequently meant stepping right into the political tollway at Farmers and those twenty-ton buses that drive down it at 100 miles an hour. Thankfully, I had a leader that I felt genuinely led by and cared for. 50-70 hour weeks were rewarded by him in his generosity of front line support, spirit and experience. He was rare among the leadership team. Then he took a lateral role inside the organization so that a replacement could be mentored and bred to lead his old team. What a hot mess that was…

Six months in, I quickly saw the signs that I was within six months of being out. All those aspects I mentioned that were endemic to customer service organizations started emanating through this new leader. As I aligned to lead my group through troubled waters with the previous leader, I quickly saw there would be no dock to safely harbor that ship with the new leader. I found myself retooling to re-organize, re-align, and buy time for my people. In the midst of that, the lack of emotionally intelligent leadership exhibited by the leadership team was beginning to take a toll on me and the rest of my group. The linkages to sexism and ageism were clearly on the display as I found myself setup to be pushed out. I’d follow directions to take decisive action and communications only to be punished for it later. The support one would expect from one’s leaders had disappeared overnight. HR was in the pocket of Directors and above. I couldn’t appeal to anyone with the systemic issues I was having as a middle-aged male in their organization. No one wanted to truly listen. The middle-aged males in senior manager and director roles were candidly terrified of their peers. In an environment of bus shoving, I found myself shoved under the biggest bus with one of the biggest movers and shakers in the organization becoming my boss. She was assigned to be the final push and within two months of her assignment I had resigned. 

If it isn’t already abundantly clear, this is not an organization for out of the box thinkers, agile digital practitioners or emotionally intelligent leaders. It’s a maternal organization designed to keep their status-quo in place as long as possible to promote within their own ranks. Their starting salaries are artificially low to start to attract that kind of moldable person, and they will steadily bring those folks up in the organization to keep them in. If that is you, you will love this organization. You’ll work hard and be rewarded. If it isn’t, even if you are of the same gender, you will find yourself frequently at odds and quietly punished. 

Customer service in general is not for the faint of heart. It can quickly make a person weary. Farmers competes in a tight and narrow margin for their target demographic. They must retain customers as their competitors generally fare better when it comes to rates. So, the ferocity that drives strong customer service to retain business is important. But it creates a downstream effect of tension at all leadership levels to maintain that. The state regulations that Farmer’s has to live within constrain them even more. So, that balance of tensions is always at the forefront. I could feel it even in the most frivolous and fun celebratory occasions. It makes it hard to connect with your co-workers, and especially with your collaborators to get work done. 

I say all this and I still would say I would have fought it out a bit longer if there wasn’t such a clear agenda laid out to be pushed out. I loved my team. I loved leading them. They were incredibly responsive and careful with their work. They advised me in ways that led to a rare mutual trust that developed quickly. Certainly, they were craving leadership when I came in. What I failed to realize was that going to bat for them and the goals of the group, even though they were the goals ultimately of the entire organization, would mean we’d all go through fire together. That’s just how the dynamic works there. It's just inherently toxic.  

If you are coming into this organization at mid-career, I’d suggest you look elsewhere. They need the talent, but they don’t know how to lead the outside talent. The leadership team is so tenured that they look upon what other companies are doing with distrust, mockery, and disdain. If you are coming in at the beginning of your career, buckle up and get ready for what could potentially be a great ride. The long term benefits of working at Farmers are abundant: very good benefits, a fantastic 401k, great profit sharing and options to bank nearly 100% of it in your 401k each year. That’s just the start. But be warned. You might find yourself stuck at some point -- not moving anywhere, deeply confused by a bureaucratic system that is wielded similarly to an authoritarian’s whims. You will likely find yourself thinking you were successful only to be told you aren’t. Or the inverse, clearly not successful yet getting opportunity after opportunity and all the benefits that come with them. If you want to gamble with all that drama and manufactured confusion, Farmer’s service organizations are a great place for you. 

Good luck.

I’ll start by saying that Farmers is an awesome company with great benefits and I believe they care about having a great work culture. Most people take an entry-level position (customer service, adjuster, etc.) and use it as a stepping stone to move to a different department.


I would like to preface this by saying that this job is not for everyone. There are a handful of people who are consistently successful, but that is not the reality for most. The workload can be unbearable from about May to September. The turnover rate is extremely high, and because of this, the department recently tried to extend time in position from 1 year to 18 months before you are able to apply to a different department. 


Being an adjuster at Farmers is one of the most challenging jobs I have ever had, but I have learned A LOT about insurance coverage and construction. The training makes you think you won the lottery in terms of employment. The training is fun, interesting and engaging; they definitely pick the right personalities to sell the position in a way that makes it seem like a dream job.


I really enjoy my coworkers and most management members are cool, but I don’t enjoy the office politics that come with a large department. Opportunity seems to exist only for those willing to say “yes” without any pushback. If you speak up against a process or attempt to advocate for someone, you are seen as negative and will end up with a target on your back. Your success is somewhat defined by the supervisor you are assigned from Day 1 - some are easygoing and understanding, others are by the book and put up a road block for you.


This is a mentally demanding job. At times, it can feel like the work/life balance doesn’t exist. You have a flexible schedule (7:30 AM to 7:00 PM, 40 hours a week), which is great for appointments and personal life. With that being said, be prepared to spend most of your time off thinking about work, or wake up thinking about how much you have going on. Most coworkers you talk to have gotten back on or started taking medication (anti-depressants or anti-anxiety) just to try and cope with the stress. 


Going on PTO for a week during busy season? You will likely come back to untouched work and will be digging yourself out of a hole for the next week or so. They turn you off from receiving claims half a day for each day you’re gone (i.e. one day of PTO = cut off from new claims at noon the day before you leave). This model is not set up in your favor, as most people receive their full claim load before noon. The idea is you work ahead, so that you are caught up through the day you return, but it is not possible to do this. They encourage taking time off, but good luck getting time off in summer. The department bids for vacation time at the end of the year and the people familiar with the situation scramble to take every Monday and Friday from June to August. Most people are strategic and take the day after a holiday to avoid being filled with the claims that came in during the day off. This is not fair to new employees who start at the beginning of the year only to find they can’t take a single day off when the weather is nice. Sporadic days pop up on the calendar, but it’s like striking gold when you see a Monday or Friday. No issues with finding extended time off January through mid-May and September through December. 


This is a heavily metrics-based position where you feel like you’ve been set up to fail. The job cannot be done in 40 hours in the summer, and even management is aware of this, but instead of recognizing that they’re at fault for not figuring out an appropriate staffing model, they continue to push overtime and blame the employees for any customer complaints on delays (“You didn’t set proper expectations”). Outside of busy season, it can be enjoyable because you have things to do, but can deliver great service and wrap things up quickly. 


You are measured on customer surveys, but customers can give you a bad survey if they were upset about the type of policy they have and it will count against you, possibly even ruining your overall rating for the year. No matter how much they try to say they aren’t focused on numbers, numbers are brought up during every meeting. The most recent number being thrown around is the percentage of calls that go to voicemail.  


There is a huge disconnect between management and their employees. There seems to be a GIANT push to eliminate field adjuster jobs and retain as much on the inside as possible. They think this is what customers want, but it really isn’t, and we would know because we hear them complain about it on a daily basis. Because of this push to shift to a more virtual approach, the inside adjusters are overwhelmed with work, handling not only their own new claims, but finalizing field claims, as well. This results in each field adjuster having 15 or less claims and the inside adjusters having between double and quadruple that amount. 


You are given 20 days PTO starting out, can work from home at least two days a week, flexible hours, up to a 10% annual bonus based on personal performance and company goals, and decent health benefits with HSA. 10 weeks paid PATERNITY leave was recently added. They contribute a base % for 401k and also match up to a certain %. It is really hard to find other jobs that provide 4 full working weeks of time off with the option to work from home and leave early every Friday. 


Management often wonders how they can prepare or convey to new hires how stressful this job can be, but it’s something you have to experience for yourself in order to understand what it’s like. I took time to write this review to try and put it into words, so that prospective employees can make an informed decision about this position. Farmers really is an amazing company with a lot to offer, but call center type departments could use a huge reform to keep up with the ever-changing expectations. I believe if they got a handle on the workload situation and focused less on metrics, there would be significantly less turnover. 

I am an agent.  I love my coworkers, I love my location (near my home) and my income, so far if my PIF doesnt keep falling, is kinda paying the bills. My work/life balance is OK. As a new agent you work very hard and long hours. Im under the new contract with the new quotas which are difficult attain and maintain! go to www.ufaa.com to see it,..I believe its there. 

I have been reading the posts on here and it's been quite educating. I knew things at the service center were screwed up since I deal with them all day long. I cring when I have to call them. If we dont like the answer we got, we hang up and call back. We know that the people there arent trained adequately so its very frustrating when we depend on getting the correct answer. 

Im calling because I need clarification on the policy language or how to write something correctly. What the service center dont realize is that we deal with people's lives and families. People's homes who have burned to the ground and that tornados have destroyed everything. They look to me as an expert on what to do. To get someone in the service center to "tell them the wrong answer but be confident" is simply unacceptable!!!! I was HORRIFIED to read that!!! 

I admit, I have hung up on a CSR lately because our gray world didnt fit in their black and white little box. They arent given the authority to think for themselves as to what is logical and the right thing to do. 

We are so busy with getting "signed requests from insureds" that we cant sell insurance which is what helps keep this company alive and my children fed that it is now to difficult to deal with. The paperwork we have to do by scanning things in, take photos and scan those in, make a service request only to have it denied when the correct information is there is so awful. 

We are in Sales. We deal with People. Its hard enough to get people to buy a product that is higher than most other AM Best rated insurance carriers, based on service that we are incapable of providing past the level of the local agent, Once we have secured the client and sold the policy corporate now wants us to do more work by getting additional documentation or sign this or that is redundant at best. We should be able to sell insurance, underwrite the product without being harassed for additional documentation. which wasnt requested at the time the policy was bound, this all takes time away from selling new housholds.

We are now asked to take photos of homes that are ALREADY BEING INSPECTED BY AN OUTSIDE VENDOR!! Why does this make sense? why do we need to upload them to the Image center when somone is already doing this? The only benefit is that I get to write more miles off on my taxes. No to mention the time it takes to drive out to the property and back to the office when we are sending a vendor out anyway.

The largest part of my day is fighting "concurrent transactions" on the Slow Dashboard, calling the 800 # only to have them give me wrong info (now I know that they know nothing about insurance or the system, and saving business because our rates are so skewed and high) It used to be fun to sell insurance because I was helping families protect their assets with higher limits, more coverage in other areas and add products they didnt have to better serve them. 

Now I feel guilty selling the products after I find out how this company is run and I STILL get to deal with the service center on issues. FUN!! 

You may be in a cube farm with supevisors but have customers who trusted you and loved you and had you in their home at their kitchen table call you and say "Farmers has been raping me!! What in the hell are you doing over there??" (in regards to rate) that is an awful feeling to do to someone that you have a personal relationship with. My clients are like friends/family to me. People buy from me because of ME and when they feel robbed by my company they turn to me to fix it and when I cant they blame me in a way because I am the face of Farmers to them. 

We all have our own issues with the company, I understand. Im suprised other agents havent posted on here. As I stated, It has been worthwhile to read what your lives are like. As far as claims go, My clients have been very happy with the process and outcomes so thank you claims dept! At least here in TN/MS I have been happy and have called our BCO myself with questions on policy clarifications and it has been great. 

They make promises of being in business for your self but not by myself, I have paid more money to farmers for things like my webpage, directory listings, lead generation, printed materials, Direct mail with the district office number printed not mine, other agents have reaped the reward of me paying for the direct mailers (since the calls come in the office and go something like this, I'm sorry she is not here at the moment can help you with something).  Once you go through the initial basic online training at least in my office the district provides little of no direction with the systems or processes, things that could have been done in 10th of the time took me longer to learn because I was told to just call the customer care, wait on hold when the local trainer could have shown me in far less time.

The local trainer also was relucant to show new career agents how to get finacial assistance and reimbursment for leads, materials, training simply because that came out of the district office budget, I love what I do I just can not afford to continue to pay farmers to work for them I pay out more than I make trying to genrate business that farmers dont get because our rates are so high and if we due they usually leave the next year due to billing system, rate increases and and the amount of mail customers receive from farmers.

I was an employee with Farmers for over 10 years and I worked in 5 different departments. My biggest piece of advise to anyone seeking employment here is to move around often. Do not stay in any position for over 2 years. Also, be prepared to be stressed out especially if you are handling more complex claims such as field auto or property claims. If you suffer from anxiety and cannot handle stress well, this is absolutely not the job for you. I think that it is imperative that an employee working here has a strong support system because there will be days that you come home and all you need is a big bear hug. 

The Good: 
Profit Sharing- every employee is entitled to a yearly bonus based on a combination of both the worker and the company’s performance. It has the potential to be quite a hefty sum of cash.

Benefits- health, life, dental, and vision are offered to every full time employee. Tuition assistance is also offered. Employees must be in good standing to obtain the tuition coverage but I was able to get my Masters degree completely paid for.

Pay- depending on the complexity of the job, pay is relatively decent especially taking profit sharing into consideration.

Relationships- your coworkers are your lifeblood and will help get you through the hard times

Perks- field employees get a company car, cell phone, laptop, mobile hotspot, and gas card that are 100% paid for by Farmers.

The Not so good:

Benefits cost- let’s face it, insurance is expensive everywhere. Be prepared to pay for it.

Claim volume- there will be times when you want to quit on spot because of the amount of claims you get. It’s especially difficult if you are working in the field because you are working more complex claims.

Upward mobility- it is HARD to move up to management if you don’t know the right people. 

Pay- starting pay for field reps given the complexity of the position is not enough. Since a company car and gas card is given to each employee it helps offset a lot of expenses but I’m not sure it’s still worth all the stress you have.

Weather- take into consideration the extreme weather conditions if you are taking a field job.

On the fence:

Training- depending on the type of learner you are, training can be really good or really challenging. Liability  and estimate training it lasted 8 weeks, half of which was hands on which was sufficient. Field on the other hand was about the same and to be honest, you don’t learn anything until you are out handing your own claims which is scary but the best way to make the knowledge stick.

Management- overall I had great experiences with the managers I was assigned to. There were just a couple who I had over the years that I felt weren’t competent and 1 was let go because of it.

In closing, this job is for people comfortable with being put in uncomfortable situations and have tough skin. You can’t be easily offended if you want to work here long. A week working with the customers will break you in real good. Training is the easiest part. If you are struggling through it, cut your losses early, nobody will blame you. Farmers helped me grow professionally in ways that I didn’t think were possible. There will be both good and bad times. I had a 4 year run when I was in total bliss but I became complacent. Farmers has the capacity to make industry leaders, it just takes support and perseverance to have it recognized.

Do your research with any company you work for and make the best decision you can. If your are buying an existing agency, make sure there are enough policies in the existing book to support yourself and the business expenses, along with the financing expenses. If there are, then you've made a wise decision on your purchase. Then expect to lose 30% of your existing book in your first year and if you can still make it work then you've made the right decision. Also, expect to have service commissions reduced, reducing your income by 11% in 1 year, if you can still make it work, your okay.  You can even Increase your new business commissions by 241% compared to the previous year, and still struggle, if you said no to any or all of the statements above, then you made a bad business decision

That's right, I will say it again. 241% increase in new business commissions my first year and I still struggled. 
Why? 
* You have to be able to sell every line of insurance well, but 
   particularly commercial. If you can't sell commercial insurance then 
   you will not make it. 
* The expense of running an agency is expensive
* Staffing can make you or break you, if you have a commission 
   driven staff, who wants to make money and help your 
   agency grow and succeed, you did good. If they are more 
   concerned with salary or hourly wage increases then their 
   commission rate, send them on down the road, because they will 
   be a liability and not an asset. 
* Service commissions were reduced dramatically in my first year
* False guidance, The managers just go through motions, most of the
   agents snicker behind their back, because many times the 
   information given in the training is inaccurate. 

Many of the agents I know are not the primary bread winner in the family. The agents that are, started out with book, either through purchase or it was handed to them,  that was large already (1500-3000 policies) and with a book that large, they don't have to perform at a high level to make money. 

You will rarely see an agent start from scratch without receiving assistance financially, covering their expenses (leases and utilities paid by someone else for example) Many agents have 2 or even 3 different sources of income, not related to Farmers.

Look you can do well with this company, but it takes time, help, and money. Never buy an agency with less than 1,500 policies and always do your own research when it comes to what you can and can not do. Poor guidance make all the difference in the world. 

The best example I can give, 
The company down sized in 2018, many of the employees were forced to either take over an agency or purchase an agency. When they had the option, they didn't choose to own agency, the chose to keep their salary positions. It was only when they didn't have the option, they chose to own an agency. 

Can you do well with this company? Yes
Can you fail? Yes

The difference between the two, isn't effort or even work ethic. It's the starting point and financial position you are in prior. Don't get into this if you don't have money or financial backing. If you have those two things working in your favor, I say go for it. But if you are the primary bread winner and you aren't doing well financially to start with, don't dig yourself a deeper hole.

I was an employees' personal assistant, so my review may be biased, but her office only consisted of myself, her, and her boss. Although the space was quite small due to the number of people, the atmosphere was great! The two women I worked with were always happy to talk to clients and during my time there, I never heard a complaint. A typical day consisted of checking & sending any and all mail, black-boxing unneeded clientele files, transferring data from paper documents to digital format, and providing anything else my boss needed from me. It is quite difficult for me to speak upon management. My boss was not "the" boss, and the woman who was "the" boss was not around much, but any time she was, she was the nicest person in the room. The hardest part of the job was answering telephone calls. That was never a part of my job until later on, so it was something to adjust to. This being my first job, my social skills were not all that great, so answering phone calls and having to speak to clients was kind of nerve-wrecking. Second hardest part of the job was writing and sending cards. Where I was employed, customer satisfaction was key, and they were constantly sending out "thank you" cards to those who have been loyal to the company. Aside from the "thank you" cards, I also sent birthday cards to clients who had birthdays approaching. That was not the hard part though, the hard part did not come until the holidays came around. During that time, most of my other work was pushed aside because each and every client on their roster got holiday cards, so every day my shifts consisted of writing "Merry Christmas! From ______ To _______" back to back until my shift was over. That definitely was the hardest part, writing the same thing over and over, then licking all the envelopes, stamping them all, and sending them. Lastly, my third & final hardest part of the job is more of a personal thing, I did not enjoy sitting at a desk for so many hours at a time. This being my first job, I was all for it, but a few hours into my shift, I'd stand up instead of sit because staying still and writing things down all day apparently is not my forte. Although these hard parts of the job exist, I enjoyed my experience there. The most enjoyable part of the job was knowing that my co-workers really cared about the clients. I am the type of person to want to provide the best service to anybody that I am assisting, so seeing that the people I worked with had similar mindsets as myself was very refreshing. Now, there are a few perks to being somebodies personal assistant, and a few of those perks included free lunch, as well as working to your own leisure (although I do not recommend slacking off!), and only having to do the smaller things, the things that are too small for anybody else to do. Laziness is not a quality of mine, but when you get lucky enough to have a job that only requires you to pick up somebody else's slack, it is hard to complain.

***Disclaimer
Not all bosses are the same. Getting hired as a personal assistant can be great and full of benefits, but it could also lead you to being somebodies maid. My review is solely from my own perspective. Going into a personal assistant position will not always be pleasing!!!

My supervisor's book of business was very large. We had numerous phone calls to attend to daily. The phone rang most of the time at regular intervals of 2-3 minutes throughout the day and often until after closing as well. We assisted many walk-in clients that were both in our book of business and many of whom belonged to other agents as well. They either had policy questions, needed to make a payment or desired to make changes to an existing policy. We also regularly serviced prospective clients needing quotes and shopping for renter's, homeowner's, auto, motorcycle, mobile home, RV, and boat polices. I also assisted clients in many ways such as securing bonds or with DMV issues that were outside of our normal scope of business. 
        I learned how to write professional letters on company head with detailed information to inform clients about upcoming changes to their policies and many other forms of correspondence with clients.  These were used as a template for both the supervisor and my co-workers. In addition, I wrote letters for my supervisor when he needed to communicate something in a professional and polished manner. I also learned how to balance and break up the day which included processing paperwork and resolving various issues for policy holders. 
        The office staff was mostly self-managed. However, for any questions outside of our knowledge or authority we sought out the supervisor to assist us. As a three person staff with several other people available we usually resolved the issues by assisting each other with the information we had readily available to us from both personal experience to bulletins/information provided by the company. We also had an excellent corporate staff available to us by phone during working hours to answer many of the questions that we were unable to resolve in-house.
        My co-workers assisted in answering policy questions and in offering solutions to difficult policy issues. We worked together to resolve many issues and to provide the best service possible to our clients.
        The most difficult part of the job was answering a high volume of phone calls and at the same time having to resolve each issue in a timely manner. Whereas some policy issues could be resolved in a few minutes, some took hours, days or even weeks. It was common to get behind and back-logged with many assignments needing attention simultaneously. 
        The most enjoyable part of the job was establishing trust, friendship and camaraderie with our clients. After satisfying their policy needs and questions there were often many opportunities to develop a relationship with them simply beyond business. That was very satisfying to both them and to me. I was grateful to make policy holders feel like more than just clients.

The pressure is usually cyclical but consistently moving toward having to do more in less time.  Overtime is limited but given when needed (however not enough).  Claims is pressured to write files for QA with judgement and common sense tossed to the wayside.  Basically someone sitting behind a desk will pick a file a part and won’t care if an appropriate explanation is given (it has to be CLEARLY supported with photos - even a few hundred will never be enough to cover every decision).  Writing a file for someone to grade it instead of for the best interest of the customer and by application of the policy is ethically questionable at best.    This company has become very good at driving away good talent to meet upper management’s impossible expectations.  Over a dozen walked away last year to work hurricane claims independently - adjusters and supervisors both.  The job used to be rewarding but is once again too focused on the bottom line to realize they are screwing their employees and customers.  

Replace a roof for wind damage?  Not likely- you should be prepared to spend a good time up their marking every damaged shingle to prove beyond any doubt that more than half of each slope is damaged.  49% wont cut it.  Good luck finding a roofer to change hundreds or more individual shingles, much less warranty it.  You may be given a good amount of settlement authority but that does not mean you have the authority to use your judgment.  The “art of adjusting” is dead.

Supervisors and managers feel the same if not more pressure for not being perfect or productive beyond belief.  It may take a few lawsuits but hopefully the company remember to put their employees and customers first again.  

Benefits- these have previously been pretty good but this year things changed to a healthcare marketplace that is supposed to be better for employees.  The lower deductibles and out of pocket options are gone.  I wouldn’t call that better.  Pension plans were cut back years ago.  They were scrapped altogether for next year and replaced with a 4% 401k contribution.  Guess this was the cheaper option that would sound good to employees.  

Compensation -  still below that of major competitors but not terrible.  Very little catastrophe pay offered anymore; still expected to close three claims a day and in a 10 hour shift.  Again, much more documentation required but must be done in less time - previously 12 hour days would be required and working even 18 hours would be approved so the work could get done.  21 days away from home and family used to be rewarded well, now that’s been cut back significantly.  Many have refused to volunteer due to lack of incentive, although volunteering as a backup is mandatory.

I write this review in the hopes that management will work toward letting reps do their jobs again but anonymously for fear of retribution.  However, you will always be more likely to get fired for a minor time card mistake than making an error on a claim file.

I took a job at Farmers due to the “culture” and work/life balance that is promised. This culture was second to none! Good people at every rung and these people viewed you as the person you were. They celebrated your personal and professional accomplishments every chance possible. The culture that once was, is now long gone. Employee turnover was minimal and people truly believed in the company. Now employee turnover is excessive. Keep in mind, new employees will go through roughly 5-8 months of training before beginning a workload. Exact statistics are not know, but roughly a third of new hires resign after completing training, to hire onto another carrier. Employees now are given unrealistic expectations and workloads that 5 employees used to handle. September 2023, Farmers CEO announced by email that 11% of the company was fired, effective immediately. Employees like myself had to pause field inspections to wait on news of my employment. Career Farmers employees lost their jobs and livelihoods on a “path to profitability”.  Farmers’ supervisors were constant and steady. In our state leadership job vacancies were rare. Almost every tenured supervisor from this time last year has moved on to another company. Some of the best employees of the state have now departed. Our upper management is completely disconnected from reality as only numbers matter. Overtime was once an option. Now overtime is a requirement unless you want to proceed to drown in your work. Annual raises are based on performance, yet most performance goals are simply not realistic. You will not be rewarded for hard work simply because questions will arise why you haven’t completed more and more. In the rare occasion that you can get caught up and “exceed expectations”, you will be get the unique and fun opportunity to do others jobs, sometimes handling other states’ workload. Farmers’ has fully embraced the logic of, if you do your job good enough, you can absolutely do everyone else’s as well. I am all for a “team effort” to help others, however, there is no team anymore. People cannot help but have a negative outlook towards work and culture. We have been told for years that Farmers’ benefits and culture far outweighs other carriers with higher pay. Now, seasoned Farmers’ employees are seeing job listings for identical or lower job titles at other carriers for 10-25K higher salaries. This elephant in the room has torn down the culture that once was. In attempt to negate the salary grade freeze that was seen for almost a year, Famrers’ funded 100% of the yearly bonus. However, a completely subjective analysis of your performance against unrealistic expectations likely prevented an employee from receiving the full “bonus”. I always attempt to be optimistic and once was proud of the company I supported. I am no longer supportive of the company mission. I will seek future employment elsewhere.

Bristol West Wilmington  liability claims has unreasonable expectations for their representatives.  Company is always hiring to be ahead of the expected new claims, however, they cannot keep people so it is a revolving door.

The initial training is first class.  After this it depends on who you report to. Many supervisors were promoted without the experience needed to properly do their job. Recommendation is to try going outside the office for supervisors, you may actually find people who know how to handle parts of the claim they are expected to manage (injury).  

Favorites are protected.   No work/life balance.  If you expect to survive be prepared to work regular overtime to make the numbers and this job is all about the numbers.  

You are expected to handle everything on case,  Coverage, liability investigation, collision, property damage and total losses .  Be available for phone calls all day, do not miss a call, follow on your diary and close files.  Try doing this in 8 hours.  


Adjusters are given no authority.  Everything needs to be coached by a supervisor.   Any coverage issues (and remember you are dealing with a substandard book of business so significant amount of files have coverage issues) or injury evaluation or change to it will need supervisor approval.  You will be lucky if your supervisor comes to you two times a day for these discussions and it is always when they have time with no respect for the adjusters schedules.


There is no consistency between different units but management believes their employees are too ignorant to see this.  

The atmosphere in the office can be very unprofessional.  Activities are held which are cannot be HR approved but  are continued keeping them localized inside the office and rescheduled if guests are expected.

Each office has same standard processes, however, there is no consideration for the significant number of states that are handled by the adjusters compared to other offices.  Adjusters are expected to keep track of specific handling requirements for these states or look up the information consistently. This takes more time than some offices which handle one or two states which give their adjusters a better chance to memorize facts and prevent the delay in seeking to confirm information. 

Some adjusters are tied to the phones and their phone time/desk time is closely tracked.   Other adjusters are free to come in the office when they wish, take multiple long breaks, long lunches and leave early.

Recommendation to management stop just tracking some of the representatives  phone time for availability and track all units. 

Great if you are liked and have children.  No need to get back up child care because you just work from home.  How this may affect the unit as a whole is irrelevant.

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