Pros
If you identify as male and have outdated gender norms, this is the place for you.
Cons
West Bend Mutual Insurance may be beautiful and flashy on the outside, but it hides a truly hideous culture. While applying and during the first few years of employment, you will be treated like royalty. Once you get a few raises and start making the money you deserve, prepare to get written up for questionable reasons; one write up (which can happen at any time with or without a verbal warning) means the loss of your bonus and raise with no chance of earning it back. A written warning also comes with the stipulation that you need to improve immediately otherwise the next “warning” will be termination. How this company continues to earn a spot on the Best Places to Work in WI list is beyond me (although I do have my guesses on how they make the list – cough MONEY cough). There are far too many middle managers, most of whom do not trust their employees. If you need help or bring a situation to a middle manager, excuses will be made that they are incredibly busy supervising the team to catch “everything that happens.” Understandable, but when the unnoticed items could result in E&O claims, workplace violations, or HR complaints, it might be a sign that your priorities are in the wrong area. Instead of continuously monitoring employees’ messages and phone calls, and treating employees like kindergarteners, perhaps the focus could shift to more big picture items to ensure the safety of employees and customers. Human Resources will not take your medical condition seriously unless you [figuratively] have a bone sticking out of your body. Even when the condition is recognized by the ADA as a disability, HR will be of little to no help. West Bend Mutual does not share any information with employees on how to request a work accommodation, so prepare to go around in circles if you need to do so. You could wait weeks or even months for a final decision, all while being forced to go to multiple doctor visits to ask your doctor to confirm the diagnosis you already received and are being treated for. You will be illustrated as a bad employee and a bad person for having a condition you literally have no control over. If there are situations that escalate to a middle manager, they will always take the side of the caller and make the employee look like an absolute fool. Keep in mind that am insurance policy is a contract that details what can and cannot be done. Employees are expected to know all the policies and their stipulations like the back of their hand, then the managers come in and magically bend the rules as is the policy is solely a guideline. The manager will expect you to work with the customer from there, so you put your tail between your legs and try to figure out how to tell underwriting that we're going to do something that literally can't be done. If you want to work at West Bend, work at one of the agencies that sells West Bend products instead. The agents are treated like gods and can do no wrong. Employees are pressured to bend over backward for the agents, and the agents are profusely rewarded with profit sharing, tickets to outings, even front row seats and a catered dinner for an event that was meant as a thank you for the employees. The employees were given food and drink tickets and forced to wait in long lines for a slice of pizza or a beverage, while the agents were wined and dined to the nines. West Bend claims they value their employees, but in the same breath they will downplay the threat of a global pandemic while making jokes about the "body count" in certain counties. Higher ups would send weekly emails to "check-in" during the pandemic while explaining how they were traveling, seeing friends, "tolerating" working from home with their wives and kids, all while demanding employees to continue taking their children to daycare because you were not allowed to have your kids at home while you were working unless there was a separate caretaker there. During the start and height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, West Bend refused to acknowledge it. Emails were sent to HR that were forwarded to the corporate communications department with no response. Even if follow up attempts were made, a generic response would presented stating it was “being worked on.” An email then went out from the CEO to all employees that was avoidant at best. There wasn't any information shared about how they were going to increase and celebrate the diversity at the company; it was very passive and embarrassing. Direct responses to emails that had been sent to HR/corporate communications were never sent out. It’s more than a little concerning how a company will refuse to acknowledge or answer employees’ questions especially when it’s surrounding high-importance issues. The employment experience at West Bend lacks more than their non-existent inclusion/diversity training: - The workload is outrageous, especially if you are trying to "prove yourself" for a promotion, which is always required before you will even be considered to move up. - If you can't handle the outrageous workload, they will take note even if you ask for help before you fall behind. - There is absolutely no privacy and no discretion. If you go to your supervisor’s boss with a private concern, your supervisor will know all about it within a few hours. If you go to HR in search of support, they will inform your supervisor and direct you back to your supervisor for an awkward conversation. - Flex time does not exist even for salaried employees. If you do get a chance to use flex time, you will need to make it up down to the minute and it will be thrown in your face whenever you ask for something else. - PTO around the holidays is insufferable and the favorites will always get their requests honored. - YES, there are favorites that get whatever they want and can do no wrong, will get all the holiday PTO, seemingly have endless PTO, and never get talked to no matter how terrible their work output is. - Meanwhile, productive, responsible employees will be pushed to the brink and under a microscope at all times. - Managers will sit at their desks and shop online while your inbox is full and your phone rings back-to-back (not an exaggeration, this happened multiple times), yet you will be expected to hit service level agreements that are near impossible. - If you somehow do get your manager to help out, they will do a task or two, then pass unfinished work off to you. - Managers have no idea what you do during the day, but rely on numbers to hold you accountable, even when they admit that the numbers are inaccurate and do not paint a good picture of what the true workload is. - All situations are boiled down to numbers and touchpoints, no matter how nuanced. - People who identify as women will remain in service-centered roles or mid-level managers. - People who identify as men will always be taken more seriously and promoted first. - People who identify not as man or woman: I wish you luck if you choose to work here. - The salary will make you want to stay but I promise you, you will be happier elsewhere where you are not treated like a child. - You will be thrown some bones to hold you over during the year, probably a gift box full of food you can't eat due to dietary restrictions even though you've let them know multiple times of said dietary restrictions. The area of the country and state is very indicative of the culture at West Bend. Change is bad unless it means more money for the company. Acceptance of different people and cultures is slim. Elders must be respected and have their word treated as the gospel truth (unless you are the offspring of a higher-up, in which case you will inherit their position with ease). Women are to be seen and not heard. Men are to be respected and promoted. If you've read this far, here is a last tidbit. The company sends out a weekly newsletter in which they sometimes brag about how they got out of paying money to claimants. When they say they're not like most insurance companies, proceed with caution.
