insurance advisor

insurance agent

claims adjuster

actuary

team leader

TD Insurance

Micromanagement will be the reoccurring theme of this position because there’s no escaping it.

Initially you will be doing training for about 3 months which is the fun part, but they don’t nearly train you enough to know about all the details of the policies you’ll be selling. Here you will get a gut feeling of what you’re getting into. 

Once you’re on the phones things get much worse. You are monitored the entire shift using a timer. It times how long between calls, how long calls take, your breaks, etc. Your entire life now revolves around this timer. If you’re 2 min late from lunch, expect an email from management. Fortunately there is ways to exploit It (at the expense of the customers) but you’ll learn to do it anyway and not care (Mainly calling busy departments like IT so you can sit on hold for 20 min and catch your breath while looking like you’re on the phone).

You will realize fast that you have no time to do any off phone duties. If a client needs some document  that isn’t pre made by the system, you’ll have to make it yourself. This wouldn’t be a problem normally,  except that management doesn’t want you off the phone to do it. They expect you to do any off phone duties on your lunch. In reality what happens is they never get done and customers will phone back angry. Clients have no way of reaching the same advisor consistently so you’ll get yelled at for stuff you didn’t do and they’ll leave a bad review about it, which will fall on you because you just so happened to be the last person they called. 

TD also frowns upon following up with clients to close sales. Why? I’m not sure, but they’d rather have the client sit in an hour long que to buy the policy they already were quoted. Expect to have a lot of your work poached from another advisor or learn to be very pushy.

The company is insanely  bureaucratic. You will have to sometimes have policies approved by underwriting before they can be sold. The underwriters are the most useless people in the entire company. It takes 2-3 days for them to respond, and sometimes they just turn around and ask for more irrelevant info and make you wait again. (Pro tip: make every request an urgent rush request which will upset them but who cares. This makes them respond overnight). Instead of talking to the client themselves, they will have you just go back and fourth as a middle man, even though you don’t know exactly what to do or ask. 

Premiums generally go up each year for clients and you’ll have no way of actually knowing why, outside of a small handful of cases. You’re just going to have to lie or make something up. You will also not know why premiums between two different houses/cars and different and you’re going to have to make it up. Clients are almost always mad because of this. 

The work life balance sucks. The hours are divided into morning and afternoon shifts and I got stuck with afternoons. They’re 12-8pm, and you’ll have to work Saturdays as well. They give you an extra premium for this, which translates into an extra $3000 a year. You’ll get Sunday and some random day in the work week day off. Have fun making plans around this. You will get an opportunity to vote to have your hours changed but senior staff get priority so if you’re lucky your hours will stay the same. 

Overall if you take the job, get the experience you need and get out. I lasted 5 months (not including training) before I quit. This is a reoccurring theme as turnover is quite high. 

I have started early 2020 with this organization and I had over 7 years experience in call centers. My reason to move here was to expand my career goals in a well known organization. Little that I have known, this place is extremely micromanaged that anyone can get frustrated and insane at end of shifts. They expect you to take non-stop calls with minimum breaks between calls. They expect to follow rules, procedures of binding and also maintain minimum wrap time, call handing time, Quality of calls and take LONG notes. This call center is extremely busy with long wait time  for customers. As it is the customers are upset when they get an agent but to spice it up agents have to ask several pressing questions to maintain compliance requirements of the company. As agents, many feels that it's not just customers who shows their frustration but the managers are also after the agents to micro manage. The managers are extremely rude if you ask them anything. They try to frighten you with your performance report day in day out. They don't show any positive awareness to any agents for their hard work. The worst is when agents can't even take washroom breaks without waiting for their scheduled breaks. This is an Inbound call center with high volume of calls but to make the agents more frustrated the managers expect to take Breaks/ Lunch, attending meetings exactly as per the schedule. This brings out the worst of the agents. I now know over five agents including myself already decided to leave this job and currently hunting for jobs in other organizations.  It is a toxic work environment and with Zero potential for improvement. I only see managers scaring their agents where other organizations would provide coaching and training opportunities for betterment and improvement. This call center is so busy that they ask you to do things after your shifts or during your lunch breaks. Rather than proving time for coaching they send emails that generates fear in your mind. Agents are not happy working in this environment. My advise to you all that if you're experienced in this role and a positive person then this is not a place of work for you. There are many call centers around the city will give you the opportunity to develop way better than this place.   

I worked at TD Insurance for close to three years and gained a strong understanding of the operations and expectations within the contact center environment. While there were some positive aspects to the role, there were also significant challenges that impacted my overall experience.

One of the biggest drawbacks was the lack of schedule stability. While I was fortunate at one point to secure an 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. shift with weekends off, that was short-lived. The shift bid process is unpredictable, and a schedule can be reassigned with little warning. New hires (Western Market) are placed on a 3 p.m. – 11 p.m. shift with split days off, which can make achieving a healthy work-life balance extremely difficult. Unfortunately, the company reserves the right to change how shift bids are conducted at any time, leaving employees with little control over their working hours.

I also found inconsistencies in the enforcement of policies. For example, although the office dress code is business casual, it was apparent that long-tenured employees were given more leniency, whereas newer employees were held to stricter standards. This inconsistency contributed to a sense of favoritism and inequity among staff.

The role demands strict adherence to compliance standards, and calls are routinely reviewed and scored. Even small deviations can result in failing a compliance check, which may lead to disciplinary action. This high level of scrutiny may not be suitable for everyone, especially those who prefer a more flexible or collaborative working environment.

That said, there are a few positive aspects worth mentioning. The compensation and benefits are competitive (for the insurance industry), and the office offers amenities such as free coffee and occasional team lunches, which help foster some team spirit. However, the overall culture felt impersonal to me. I often felt like just another number, especially since teams and managers could be switched at any time. During my time there, I was reassigned to three different teams, which made it difficult to build long-term relationships with leadership.

Overall, while the position may suit those who thrive in a highly structured and metrics-driven environment, I found the lack of schedule consistency, rigid oversight, and inconsistent policy enforcement challenging.


It's a decent job overall. I worked there for three years from 2019-2022. When I was first hired TDI was so understaffed I don't understand how they were functioning. The Halifax office had 3 (literally only 3 employees) staff total taking Ontario calls. The queue for calls would typically have over 400 clients waiting to speak with an advisor, with a minimum wait time of 4 hours. This meant every single time you answered the phone you were basically being yelled at, and as soon as you hung up the phone you were on another call with someone waiting over 4 hours. In the last three years the wait times have improved - but at the expense of the customer experience. TDI went from having a huge focus on client experience to moving 100% focus towards average handle times for calls. As a result this affected employee performance. It quickly became better for your own performance to hang up on clients, or transfer them back into the queue if they were upset, or weren't looking to make a purchase - and since they were only really monitoring sales and handle time, this made terrible employees look above average. There is also a clear trend with management and promotions - it's brownnosing and bootlicking like never before. The people in management positions genuinely don't know how to do the role they manage. Every single minute of your day is micromanaged. If you log into your shift 1 minute late, expect to be spoken to by management. Need to use the bathroom? Better schedule it on your 15 minute break in three hours as there is 0 time allowed off of the phones. Any follow up work regarding client files is all expected to be done on your own time (unpaid), as your performance will be impacted if you aren't on the phones your entire shift. When I first began at TDI I felt the high pay and good benefits were enough to compensate for the insane micromanagement and overall poorly managed workload. However the base pay has not kept up with inflation, and at this point you can easily find another customer service job that pays just as well. Overall - was a good employer 3 years ago, but has not kept pace with inflation and work-life balance needs. 

Basically I can write write a book on this insanity
If you want to turn into robot- work here
If you hate yourself- work here
If you doesn’t care about your mental & physical health- work here
Soulless management who doesn’t  see you as human being
Micromanaging to the extreme 
Insanely stressful work environment 
Useless Human Resources 
No fix time to take breaks if you are on call you might be able to taking in another late hour or so
& every time you have late taking breaks you need to report
Internal jobs are posted but they have already preferred canadidates & you need to have your manager approval before you apply - another way of micromanaging & holding you back
Never heard in any other company 
Oh the internal competition is fierce
No work life balance at all
Basically no time off forget about your family or you have family
Hard to book vacations get the time off as you have to between choose 20 weeks in 30 mins
5 personal days are there but you cannot take it
Extremely unorganized departments
Basically taking maximum calls as possible with maximum compliance you can
They talk about empathy for customers but there is actual no empathy for the employees or well being they just pretend 
So called leaders have nothing to do except micromanaging or walking around talking & as there is nothing to do
Basically a specifically genders on the top of management dictating how to work
Extremely breaurucratic 
In a nutshell they didn’t care about anyone as you are just another number 
People come & go like herds of sheeps 
Constant system issues but ya workaround is a skill
Forcing people to stay home or come at work as they mentioned they listened to you
There is fitness place no one use them 
Half of the people hired usually leave within 2 years
People who stayed for long time they pretend to be happy or think they are happy - god bless them 

I can write a lot these things are enough for a sensible person to make a decision
Basically if I can I will give them
Only 1 star for the salary & benefits

It’s worth working somewhere else with little less money but have better work life balance, for good mental & physical health well being


Great pay....that's about it. They brag and brag about how amazing the job is in training, then you go out to the floor and it's a different story. I failed a call review and got spoken to from my manager about it. In training they told us that we would have somebody sit with us once per week for the first 4 weeks to review our calls with us. I had that happen ONCE, and she had to leave half way throughout the call to attend to something else. If you cant do the job, they will get you to y-cord with another rep for a week, then back on the phones with you. You don't get breaks, just a 1 hour lunch, so your stuck on the phone for 4 hours or more at a time per shift. People are dropping like flies in the Halifax office and for good reason. The people who were hired in the last 6 months realize that the training was absolute garbage. It does not prepare you for the job whatsoever. Trying to get assistance where to find something, managers say "Oh, just check your resources", yes thats a great idea, but people do that. Its difficult to find the answer to one specific question a customer has in a database of over 10,000 pages. They insist on you saying all this "legal disclosure" stuff over the phone, and they say if you dont the company can be sued. That is a complete lie. If you go to a insurance broker, they do not have to shoot off the same things TD makes you say on the phone to customers, making the calls over a hour and making the wait time for customers longer than it should be.  If you work there, you will meet 2 types of people. The ones that have been there for years, and think it is the best job they ever had, or the people who were recently hired who hate going to work everyday. To top it off, getting 2 days off in a row is virtually impossible unless you manage to work there for 5+ years. It is very hard getting stuff done on one day off, where your other day off is Sunday, where nothing is open medical or government wise.

You start in the job with big ambitions , once you're licensed and thrown into the business you start realizing it ain't what it looks like, don't get me wrong it's no con or scam but not for everyone, i found myself in trouble and non compliant for stuff that makes no sense to me , like failing to offer a home insurance quote to a widow calling to notify of her husband's death, compliance agent will be on you for stuff that makes no sense , it's only good for someone comfortable with sales no matter the circumstances
Management? Mine went to bat for me multiple times, but also made me feel unappreciated and made it look like every good thing i did was due to them, i found myself more than often stuck in calls an hour after my shift ended with little to no support
Shifts are the worst and the scheduling is not always fair
Heavily regulated is an understatement but that's normal in the insurance business 
I don't regret joining but don't regret leaving either, over the last couple of months every day felt like the last with the threat of termination being loud and clear
And yeah , training sucks, i succeeded in the OTL and AMF exams 90% by studying on my own time, and the so called senior agents that were helping us during practicum were the worst
I hated it and felt miserable while others thrived in it , it's not for everyone , i felt like taking money outta folks pockets every day, others find it challenging and rewarding, think twice before signing the contract and joining, and if you are looking to evolve internally in a year or so based on just competence this ain't the place for you, I'm really happy I left cause a few months in it felt like i sold my soul

I started working with TDI in April of 2020, now to be hired during a pandemic I have had a very different experience. 

In the beginning, they did not inform us that the job would be from home until a week before training started - after a bought a ton of new business casual clothes, which now thanks to COVID, I have never worn and they no longer fit lol.

But from day one, they prepare you to make sure that when you hit the floor and start taking calls - you’re ready. Even if you personally aren’t ready, there is ongoing support to help you throughout your shift, even virtually. 

The shift is not the best in the beginning (I work 12-8) but there is opportunity to move your shifts around and make accommodations for appointments or other things. I do love that we are provided with full benefits, vacation, personal, and sick days from day one - no grace period. 

Lots of support is provided to improve your personal stats so you can work on yourself professionally and grow within your role or within the company if you’d like. 

My only down fall is with it still being call centre environment, I just wish we got more personal days to just take a break from the chaos! 

Some may describe the hours as long because they aren’t working their desired shift (like 9-5) but you always work an 8 hour shift - just like any job, some days feel longer than others. It is a call centre environment - it can get stressful when people just call and yell at you all day. But I have learned in insurance is that the customer IS NOT always right and you just gotta be straight with people sometimes lol!

TD is a great place to work and don’t foresee myself working anywhere else 

I was unexpectedly terminated due to alleged performance issues, which came as a complete surprise. Throughout my time there, I was regularly told by my manager that I was trending upward and implementing feedback well. Weekly performance metrics even showed I was outperforming many peers, some with more experience. Despite this, my employment was suddenly ended, leaving me confused and disappointed.

I suspect this may have been influenced by my honest feedback in a confidential employee survey, which calls into question the company’s commitment to open communication. The termination process was handled in a way that felt unprofessional and dismissive, offering no meaningful explanation and even suggesting security involvement despite my calm and respectful behavior.

There were early red flags, such as being assured during the hiring process that vacation for my wedding wouldn’t be an issue, only to later be told I would need to take unpaid time off due to staffing levels.

The work culture at this location is challenging. Employees are expected to work demanding schedules with limited flexibility—late shifts, weekends, and no consecutive days off are the norm. Coaching and development often take a backseat to service levels, making career growth difficult without sacrificing personal time. Work-life balance is not genuinely prioritized, which can be especially difficult for employees with families.

The only positives were good employee benefits and the support I received from my peers during training. Unfortunately, these were outweighed by a culture that, in my experience, does not truly value or support its employees.

A Typical day at work:
Just before my  shift began, I checked  incoming e-mails to be aware of any changes in exiting company policies, procedures as well as of any updates and events. As a first point of contact, it was very important to be ready to take the first call, be enthusiastic and prepared to help customers with their needs. Everyday I had to deal with different client situations that allowed me to use my expertise and professionalism in order to provide a positive solution to their problems.

What I learned:
I learned to always remain calm, professional and be able to diffuse any client's difficult situations.

Management:
My management was always encouraging my self-motivation and goal orientation.My supervisor treated me with respect and was very knowledgeable and willing to help.

My co-workers:
I always had fun at work no matter what. As a part of a team I always encouraged my co-workers to be part of different charitable initiatives (i.e. JDRF Ride for a Cure, support of United Way, Food Bank Programs, Toy Drive).

The hardest part of the job:
I always embraced challenges and enjoy trying new things. My job at the times was too repetitive and in order to gain new skills I usually volunteered to be a part of different projects.

The most enjoyable part of the job:
I really liked having a structure to my day. I new exactly what was expected of me, so I could shoot for a day goal and hit it.

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