customer support representative

actuary

information technology specialist

account executive

administrator

Equitable

4 stars overall.

I start with negatives, but make sure you get to the positives.

Negatives:
Training was not very thorough and it's fast. It shows if you end up having to complete someone else's work. 
If you're good at your job, they pile the work onto you. More than others doing your same position and getting the same pay, or more. So there's a level of unfairness. 

The benefits are not great. For an insurance company you would think we would get great benefits. This is not subjective, it's the employees greatest request company wide every year that we get better benefits, it hasn't happened.

In our department specifically there's one manager that makes their team's life awful (telling them they're bad employees, micromanaging, insinuating you need to work after hours and take on more work than is required, adding an incredible about of mental health stress). 
And they tend to get a lot of the new hires since their team has the highest turnover rate ... Everyone is aware of how awful it is to work under that manager, even the people who manage the managers. But... They're still at Equitable making their team cry (literally). We have no idea what to do about it other than bring it to upper managements attention, which we have, but they've done nothing (that has resulted in positive change, YET). It's been years and I'm told from more senior people that manager has been this way for decades. 

With that being said, all other managers in the department are a breath of fresh air. Truly lovely to work with. 

This job in general is stressful, high turnover rate, high communication required, time management and being organized is essential. 

PLEASE NOTE: 
Specifically for disability- when you are taking any time off you are expected to, somehow, work ahead and clear out the work for your time away. If you've ever worked in a position like this before, pick your jaw up off the ground. It's not a joke. 
This is incredibly stressful and intense, it usually causes people to not want to take vacation and/or makes it so you don't even get relaxed until the end of your time off when you have to come back. 
And when you come back you're still going to be overwhelmed by the work piled up. 

***If you're taking this job, make sure you have incredible boundaries and separation skills so this doesn't eat you alive.

Positives:

FLEXIBILITY! 
Although it needs improvement, it's still flexible! 

It's currently a hybrid situation. 5 days a month office. If you're looking for fully remote, this isn't the place unless you do not live in Ontario. They don't treat everyone equally regarding WFH. If you live in Ontario, you're expected to be in office a lot. If you don't live in Ontario, you can be fully remote. I do wish they treated us all equally in this regard. 

Manulife offers fully WFH for people in Ontario, so I'm hopeful Equitable will eventually let us be reviewed for WFH full time to be competitive. 

CULTURE
I would say *most* people at Equitable are really great and great to work with. I have heard people in other departments talk about how it really matters who your manager is. And it's the same in my department (as mentioned above). 
With that being said, every time I go into work it feels like I'm going to another HOME. I know that sounds weird, but it's true.

INCLUSIVITY
They really do try hard for this and it's fun and appreciated. Different groups to join, lots of activities. 

COMMUNITY
Volunteering in our community is incredibly important at Equitable. They provide a volunteer day and boy, you won't forget about it. They really want you to use it. Equitable also donates A LOT to the community. 
It's a gentle reminder that there's more out there than your office job. 

It's a hard job, but it has it's positives. 

Equitable Life provides Group and individual Insurance in Canada and US. This project involves the
development of adding new functions in their existing BMS Legacy system. The New function is the
Addition of Flex process so that people who have insurance with the company has more flexibility to
choose benefits individually rather then there employer select the benefits for them. 
•	Responsible for deliverables, developing the Test Plans, Test Scenarios, and detailed Test Cases, based on the Use Case Documents, Business Requirements and Functional Specifications. 
•	Reviewed the architecture of the application and understood the requirements of the project 
•	Created Test scenarios based on Functional requirements and provided them to the Business Analyst for Sign-off. 
•	Created Test cases in Quality Center test plan tab and mapped to requirements 
•	Mapped the Test cases to the requirements using Requirement coverage tab in Quality Center 
•	Performed Sanity testing by executing Sanity test cases on newly received application builds in QA environment 
•	Provided build acceptance confirmation to the project members of successful Sanity testing 
•	Performed Cross Browser testing on different browser to check the compatibility of the application with the browsers 
•	Performed Regression testing on the new build after defect fixes and code enhancements 
•	Created defect reports and provided to the management 
•	Handling coordination of offshore, onsite team activities, regular interaction with Client, providing them project status, daily and weekly reports, discussions on issues and dependencies. 
•	Provided daily execution and defect reports to QA lead using customized reports from Quality center. 
•	Environment: Agile methodology, BMS, HP-QTP & QC, VB Script, HTML, XML, DHTML, Oracle, SQL, MS

Love the people, the pay is fair, the work is okay when we're properly staffed (they do try to make this happen, this is just a stressful high turnover position), if you're with a good manager you'll like the position for the most part due to the flexibility (wfh 25 days a month, 5 days a month in office). 
We've also been recently approved to work out of Canada up to 4 weeks a year, as long as your manager and HR approves. This does depend on where you want to work from. As far as I know, the US is approvable, but for other areas in the world, I'm not sure.
There is one manager who is hard to work with, but they're trying to become better (aren't we all?). 
The only negatives to say about Equitable is the benefits (truly awful) and their wfh policy. The current work from home policy is basically if you live in Ontario, you're required to come into the office 5 days a week. Sometimes you can get approved to work from home full time if you live far enough away and you make it mandatory during your initial interview. 
It's just so unfair for people who live in Ontario, we're punished because of where we live. Whereas we have people all over Canada who get to work from home full-time because they don't live in Ontario or threatened to quit and live over an hour away. It's just not fair, especially if you've been working at the company for years and you still won't get reviewed for work from home full time.
In short: 
It's a good place, we just need better benefits and a good wfh policy (maybe after 5 years of service we could be reviewed for work from home full time? Something to reward us and that makes it fair to all). 

Overall, it seems like a good place to work. Almost every job will be a direct reflection on the manager, so I can understand why some people have drastically different experiences than others. Some managers are good, others not so much. 
Overall, communication seems kind of muddled. I've noticed a lot of people will say two conflicting things, or someone will say something but then do another. 
There isn't a lot of opportunity for career progression, so this means that there isn't a lot of competition between coworkers as there isn't really anything to compete for. That said, there is still a lot of political and ego-driven nonsense that goes on within teams (or mine, at least). 
When I first joined, I was so excited, but with the pandemic the cracks are beginning to show. Maybe things will get better, but right now the company feels like it's in a weird spot. Like parts of the business want to be progressive and more liberal-minded, but the other parts are still very stuck in traditional, outdated ways.  

A typical day included answering phone/email inquiries and issues from MGAs, Advisors and clients.
Problem solving, technical trouble shooting, providing accurate and helpful information was a daily task of this role.
The workplace culture was one of the best parts of the job.  As an employee you were kept in the loop on all aspects.  From company wide developments,  to internal team meetings and community events.
The hardest part of the job was the truly the complexity of the role.  There is a lot of information and details that were hard to grasp/relay to MGAs, advisors and clients.  For me, this was difficult without a background in Life Insurance.
Besides workplace culture, the most enjoyable part of the role was the people i worked with. Truthfully, I have never felt more apart of a team in my life.  We all supported, encouraged and guided each other through the role and with life outside of this role.

During my 5 years at this place of employement I truly felt a sense of teamwork in such a large company.  A typical day at work consisted of assisting clients in a number of ways.  Applying the knowledge obtained to answer questions and enter data appropriately into the computer.  We relied on working together as a team to maintain a healthy working relationship.  As a team we worked together to create the ultimate client experience from helping one another with a problem to engaging in team building exercises.  The most enjoyable part of the job was the team building company events.  For example, company bbqs to company wide adopt-a family programs.  Overall, it was an enjoyable experience.  One in which although was stressful at times, taught me a lot and left me with a sense of accomplishment at the end of everyday.

I came to work here because I heard Equitable was a fantastic place to work. Sadly, this was not the case with my team. 
The teams are very segregated, so it makes sense that others could have a vastly different experience than mine. 
On my team there was a lot of gossiping, grudges, contempt, and favoritism. It wasn't a pleasant place to work. It wasn't just me either; my team members complained to me that they were having problems sleeping and starting to feel ill from all of the stress. They had no confidence in themselves or their abilities, and felt backed into a corner and embarrassed about the work they did. 
It saddened me to leave, because I wanted the job to be so much more than it was. But I had to pull my head out of the sand eventually and move on for my own mental health sake. 

came prepared ready to work. completing contracting process of MGA's, AGA's and Sub-Producers, and resorted to research for accuracy. Worked on a tight time line, including rapid issues, singe case set ups, name changes, transfers and mass agent transfers as well as AGA/MGA transfers and set ups. Also completing credit checks on all agents. I very much enjoyed this position, kept us in touch with team members outside our office and kept us busy. Had a great working atmosphere with other colleagues  

Working at Equitable Life your over worked for multiple departments and pay is not enough. The room to elevate is thin. Multiple calls to be taken back to back, it’s mentally draining and they expect so much of you but pay so little. Benefits could be better! I would recommend this to someone who likes the call centre environment or in need of income however it’s draining. They have unrealistic targets of calls to be taken with the type of inquiries that come in. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Wonderful people. Considered as an individual and respected.


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I havnt experienced any stress.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Fun working environment where everyone  is respected.


What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work, mingle, learn and always able to manage time to work and socialize.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Customer support representative 13 salaries reported	$53,538 per year
Actuary 6 salaries reported	$89,000 per year
Information technology specialist 15 salaries reported	$73,667 per year
Account executive 14 salaries reported	$80,000 per year
Administrator 9 salaries reported	$52,967 per year

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