In summer after considering several excellent job offers, I decided to do one last interview, with UGA. While my other offers would have given me nice base salaries and excellent benefits, UGA's offer seemed to top them all, so I took the job.
Unfortunately, I did not understand at the time that I would not be getting paid anytime soon! I did not understand I would not receive a salary. I did not understand that it would be weeks before I could even attempt to sell products, and that would be after I shelled out all kinds of money for training, licensing, a laptop computer, gas and cell phone expenses and etc... And that these would be ongoing expenses out of my pocket.
Not only that, I had to attend weekly meetings and sometimes daily trainings one to three hours from my home - again on my own dime.
I reported on my taxes for 2006 that I SPENT about $9k on working for them.in five months I made only about $2k in commission. As I had already been out of work 3 months prior to taking the job, during my employment I came very close to my house foreclosing.
Eventually my prospects had some questions about the plans.in researching the answers, I came to believe the products were a scam. I realized that if someone were to get cancer or etc., they could be financially ruined as a result of the false sense of security our product was giving them.
This was after I had tried to mingle with some coworkers at the weekly meetings. I tried to exchange phone numbers and was told by my boss not to asssociate with negative people.
I also received phone calls from that same boss threatening to fire me if I didn't shape up (start making sales) fast. My boss was a master of "controlling the conversation" - the key to getting people to buy the insurance. 98% of the large group of people hired at the same time as me (which struck me as unusual - I didn't know they had that many openings) had NO insurance background, and we were told that was better, because we would just do things exactly as we were taught and not get our knowledge and experience "get in the way."
We were all made to feel that it was a great privilege to be chosen to work for UGA and to work under a boss that at one point had risen to the #2 seller in the company. The weekly meetings were mandatory for people all across the states of Virginia and Maryland, because, as they kept reminding us, we were so LUCKY that our boss was WILLING to share their knowledge with us so that we could learn to be successful too.
They want you to start making sales/money as soon as possible... So that by the time you figure out what's really going on, they figure you'll choose to stay and play along - so you won't have to pay back your advance on your commissions. The more you earn, the more you owe.
I am still receiving letters demanding any money I earned back, which, considering what I GAVE, is ridiculous. Now I am worried this is blackmail because it could affect my insurance license if I don't pay it.
0 comments