legal assistant

attorney

litigation associate

associate attorney

debt collector

Zwicker & Associates

First and foremost, abysmal pay, and even worse and more humiliating pay increases. For example, I got $0.70 or so for my 1-year raise. However, the dehumanization doesn't stop there. Your PTO (they call it CTO for some reason) not only accrues at a rate of 0.0425 for the first year of your employment, but it is also considered your sick time as well. Read that again, and run if you're already turned off from the company.

If you're applying in Andover, MA for any position like "Document Service Assistant", "Document Production Assistant", etc. (the position I worked), ask which team you'll be on within the Document Service Department. It will be something like Activations, Affidavit, Templates, or Mailing/Production. The team you get put on will massively dictate your experience at Zwicker. For example, the Activations team can work from home 100%, but none of the other teams can, despite all these teams technically using the same position. Teams like the Mailing/Production team involve physically printing, stuffing (using machines), and sorting mail in a mailroom every day of your employment.

With that out of the way, moving on to workplace culture. As far as coworkers go, there seem to be good people in general on the bulk of the teams previously mentioned—both as friends and simply as coworkers to help you out with a work problem. Which is actually very reassuring, as management starting from your manager and up is completely tone-deaf to the ripple effect the changes they make can have on the people beneath them.

So it basically is just your manager not wanting to say no to their manager, and so on and so forth. This ends up breeding an attitude of "let's just hit our KPI/metric, I don't care about what it takes." A perfect example of this: the mail team had their envelope folding machine for the approximately 6k letters they put out in a day. The machine broke due to poor maintenance and poor use. When broken, I have seen team members of the Mailing Team hand-folding letters. Mind you, this machine has been at the company for some 3–4 years, it seems, so even the VP of the department knows the machine is bad. Yet rather than break their lease on the machine, they want to wait it out, with zero regard for how that choice impacts employees at the bottom of the org chart.

Regarding management—at least from a Human Resources perspective—you’re basically just a number if you are below a manager. If it isn't already apparent, this company has an extremely high turnover rate. To quickly highlight how HR works at Zwicker, I've seen this happen: a manager was spending roughly 3–4 hours cumulatively (but not consecutively) per day in his office with a subordinate female new hire of about 5–6 months. The time in the office was never behind closed doors and was always referred to as "training", but it really just seemed like the manager and the employee were not actually doing much work. Eventually, this preferential treatment led to the female subordinate feeling too big for her britches, resulting in her verbally harassing and cussing out one of her direct coworkers. The end result was HR firing the female for her actions, and the manager was left unscathed from all of it.

That all being said, I have certainly learned a lot being here—and that is not sarcasm. This was my first traditional corporate white-collar office job, and Zwicker has served as a great place to learn a lot of red flags in a company, and to understand just what my own worth is and how to handle certain situations going forward into my corporate career. So while I could never actually recommend this company wholeheartedly, I can certainly say: if you want good resume fodder for something like data entry or other basic office work, and think you could stick it out for a year or so like me—well, it's certainly a way to get your foot into corporate America

The workload can be intense. It is a very corporate-like job. I had to clock in at 8:30 and take my lunch and breaks at the same written time. I was not able to have much wiggle room on lunch time if something like an important phone call with a family member or zoom meeting for grad school  came up. I tried to balance grad school, personal life, and law school applications with this job, but it was difficult. The most negative aspect of the job is the turnover rate. This office had so little assistants, many new folks, and so little retained people that it made it very hard to get work done efficiently and effectively. This company refuses to hire enough people to support the independence office. It’s a joke, The only reason I stuck it out for so long was because of the managing attorney and office manager, who were both incredibly smart, talented, and kind people. The refusal to allow the managing attorney to hire more assistants definitely was a large reason for turnover. You cannot expect someone to take phone calls all day, do their expected daily tasks, do tasks that come up throughout day, AND fill the work for new people or people who left. There should be someone doing customer service. This company makes the litigation assistants get paid to do the computer work, but then also answer the calls from debtors. Calls should only be going to the assistants for lawyers and the courts. It’s a joke that this company manages their branches this way. A little before I left, two other people quit, which made me had to take on more of their load inevitably. I was already regularly working overtime, so the higher-up corporate office is too blame— not the managing attorney and office manager. There was rarely ever free lunch, which is rather normal for corporate-like offices. I’m pretty sure the managing attorney paid with her own money for the times we did have that. Also the whole no phone rule is hilarious to me. I interned at the federal government working with information that was not disclosed to public and was still able to have my phone on me. The company makes a mockery of that all, as they have cameras around office set up like we’re in some 1984 George Orwell world. The pay is low for the amount of work done, and the only way to actually make decent pay is to work overtime, which I did very often. If you wanna lose your hair or have it go gray and work for a company that treats workers with disrespect, this is the place for you! Not sure who reads this, but recommendation for the corporate office is to actually higher more full-time people for the independent office, make phone calls by debtors go to an assigned customer service rep in the office to allow other assistants to focus on their job, increase pay, allow more flexibility for lunch, stop with the stupid no phone rule like you’re the CIA handling top-level clearance documents (you’re not) , let ALL the workers have the day before and after off for some holidays (people have families you know), pay to have team building days and free lunch to foster an actually semi-work family environment, and allow the managing attorney and office manager to have more flexibility with their managing style. The company right now is a joke, but the boss and supervisor in the Independence office is 100% the only positive. 

When I started the hours was Monday-Thursday 9-6pm and Friday rotates 6hr shifts. During Monday- Thursday one of those days you’ll work 10-7pm. Hours changed to 7-4, a late day of 10-7, and Fridays still rotates. 
Poor training. It’s not the trainers fault because there’s only so much they can teach you. However, the phone system should have been taught prior to going on the floor. Instead of having them learn moments before going on the floor. Also, didn’t teach how to dispo the call.
When you get on the floor you’re expected to just know everything and when asking managers for help they always say they're busy. There’s only 3 managers and 2 of them have been there over 7 years. They only care about helping their team members even sometimes with that there’s frustration. There’s absolutely NO growth there’s ppl who have been there over 2yrs in the same predicament. 
Bonus is non-existent. My first month I hit what was required and received a $16 bonus. You’re better off just finding a job that pays $20/hr.  You better collect down payment of 4 digit numbers in order to have a decent bonus. 
The problem isn’t the customers it’s management and they require so much work for little pay. Only people who likes this job tends to be fresh out of high school/people who are comfortable. Oh I got defects for crazy stuff such as: not putting in the notes I read disclosures or recorded line. They literally hear you say it but you still get dinged for it. For it not being in the notes. You get dinged for little things when so much is going on in these calls, working off 1 monitor, with multiple applications, and a lot of T codes. If you get below a 98 in audits that’s 10% from ur bonus.  Also, people ( I mean management/trainers) dry snitch. They’re so fast to run to hr about something. It could be something as simple as saying you had surgery a year ago and someone will go tell hr. This place is like high school. It says a lot when managers tell you to keep to yourself and not trust anybody.  Also, one of the managers recent left a review on here as well. 

The typical day at work
Review all my accounts that I was signed to. make sure my payments were being posted. If they had not posted, call the debt management company. Then figure out when the payment was made or going to change date to pay debt on time . If the payment was made get information from DMC on the date will be paid  or if it had been paid to get the conformation code to track payment then note account . We would have a spread sheet to call DMC's to check to see if the consumer has any funds to settle account or a payment arrangement. First we have to verified personal information on consumer to make sure we are speaking to the correct person. Once verified had to give mini Miranda. If the DMC had not had the funds  from consumer then we would give them a settlement or payment arrangement to contact the consumer with. We would also go over all the consumer information before giving settlement or payment arrangement plans. If we could not come to an agreement with the DMC or consumer did not have funds we would notate account and move to the next account.

co-workers 
we worked independently. We were all respected each other and helped each other as much as possible.

most enjoyable part of the job 
was being able to settle or make a payment arrangement on accounts that are in litigation. The monthly meeting for the company for the over all of the month. we got recognized for collecting over fee.

This company was a good learning experience for an entry level employee, and a good stepping stone to move onto bigger and better things as far as a legal career goes. It wasn't the ideal firm that I felt like I could work for long term. The managing attorney was very difficult to work for. He was very hard to communicate with, was not very patient with employees still in their training period and with the learning process. The lack of communication among managers, employees, and other co-workers was very poor. The hardest part of this job was knowing that there was not much room to grow and move up within the company. It was not a privately owned law firm, It was a Corporation with 21 other offices in different states, so if an employee needed guidance from a higher up, or needed information or to talk to Human Resources, it was next to impossible to reach anyone. It gave me a good start on the steps to learning the legal process, but I am looking for a career where there is room to grow and move up within the company. I am a "go getter" and this just was not the place for someone who is ambitious. 

Job is a decent first job. Fast paced environment where much is expected, and chance to develop skills. You develop skills in negotiation, customer service, conflict resolution, salesmanship, as well as gain a stronger understanding of credit and the litigation process. Calling hundreds of strangers a day and addressing accounts with them provides the confidence to walk into almost any other job and succeed. Upper management micromanages- sometimes difficult to complete tasks without someone brutally criticizing your work. There is a lack of transparency and oftentimes goals shift without proper communication-had well performing colleagues who all of a sudden not aware of goal shift, were brought into HR to discuss their "performance". This inspired a number of colleagues to put in their notice or resign immediately. You need to meet a very high collection number at the end of every month,-if you don't meet it, you are let go after a short period of time. It is convenient to be paid weekly, but you only are paid an hourly base rate of 17 an hour. They promise uncapped bonuses, but again you need to meet an extremely high number to even barely get into bonus. Bonuses are very modest. 

While a Zwicker work experience will greatly vary location to location, the one thing all offices have in common is the horrible environment created by HR and the general policies. They'll hire you, but will show zero trust in you. The pay and benefits suck, with them only offering accumulating PTO that doubles as sick time and vacation time, and you can't choose when to use it. If you're sick or a few minutes late, they'll take that out of your PTO. Even if you have the PTO to use, you'll still receive an mark against you for missing work or being late unplanned, and three of those leads to a write up. You only receive 6 holiday per year and those will only be day of. If you ever dare to mention any of it to HR, they'll immediately dismiss your concerns. 

I loved the environment of my office created by my bosses and coworkers, but I would never choose to work for the company itself again. It's worth considering if you have zero legal experience and need a stepping stone, but prepare to be ready to start reapplying a month in like everyone else, keeping the turnover rate ridiculously high. 

The office is driven by a knowledgable and hardworking management team. There are opportunities for those who show initiative and a desire to learn and achieve the next step in their career. It can be difficult to have to deal with individuals that complain about things that can be outside of the control of direct management's control or insignificant issues. I mean, you get paid a rather decent wage for things other firms pay less for. However, the overall workplace environment is collaborative and inviting. Is it a perfect place, no; however, if you put in the effort, you and your hard work are recognized. There's been a recent push in attempting to create a more professional atmosphere, which is going to be a positive overall. Not that it wasn't professional before, it was becoming way to laxed than it should have been.The managers really do care and support the staff to ensure success of their staff and office. It's rare to see individuals that are available during all business hours. There are fun activities throughout the year that are put on by branch management. There is even a MVP program for staff members that go above and beyond. I look forward to seeing how the office continues it's success moving forward

The office is made up entirely of women, and unfortunately, that comes with toxic energy—poor management, fake friendships, and constant gossip. People will talk badly about each other, hang out outside of work like best friends, and then act like nothing ever happened the next day. There’s no room for genuine connections here. The attorneys are extremely disrespectful and unprofessional to the point where you question how they even became lawyers. HR is no help either—they’re just as messy and will side with management every time. Gossip spreads fast, and whatever you say usually ends up in HR’s hands, so there’s no one you can really trust. If you do take the job, stay cordial, do your work, avoid using your phone, and make sure you’re on top of everything to avoid being written up. The workload is intense, the pay is low, and the environment is draining. If you care about your mental health, this isn’t the place for you!!!!! 

Julie Hanestad hired me, and from the date of hire she was an outstanding manager. The environment is also great, if quiet, but simple luxuries are allowed to break up any monotony such as listening to music on an MP3 player.
The hardest part of the job was that it was primarily data entry. This was also the best part in my mind, as job security is absolutely rock solid. if you come in and do your work from day to day, you will always have work.
The best part of the job, for me personally, was being recognized when I went above and beyond and moving to performing new duties where I could challenge myself and not only improve my own knowledge on a range of subjects, but help the company as well.
The benefits are there. Dental was excellent and an even better plan was implemented this year, with the addition of vision. BCBS of MA is the medical insurance though, and not so great as it was expensive and difficult to find in network doctors here in AZ.
In all, great company to work for. Allows for a lot of personal growth if you are self motivated and creative, and it's a great entry level office position. Also a great introduction to law in the real world.

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