Three years ago I came to work for Humana and felt I had found the best job in the world. The stress was non-existent. We made our calls, got to know our members and felt free to assist them in finding information and supporting their health goals without forced screenings on every single call. We made 8 successful contacts or 20 attempts, and if a call became particularly stressful - going for a walk to decompress was encouraged for our own wellbeing.
Fast forward to now - there is a floating contact/talk time rate based on the previous week's averages that is constantly driven up by "coaches" demanding higher numbers to get to the top for fear of being called to task due to their employees not cutting the mustard and by overachieving line staff who are finding a way to work off the clock in order to be noticed as a numbers leader. If you get a member that actually needs help or is receptive to your call despite the millions of other Humana calls they receive, you find yourself constantly looking at the clock and doing the math to figure out how to get the appropriate amount of contacts for the day. Everything is so black and white......there is no middle ground.
My educational background is in social work. I chose this field to help people. I look forward to doing that again.....somewhere else. It is sad that several on my team have reached out today expressing jealousy and a willingness to switch places if it were an option.
Great job Humana......great job.