My wife worked as a work-from-home insurance claims assistant. She was trained that it didn't matter where an accident occurred – it mattered only where the policy was written. If it is written in some states, she needed to transfer the call to a specialized team for those claims. She was also told that if someone gives you information that cannot be pulled up, you are to take the information and “just file and smile”. This would put it to another team to do the research on.
She got a call from a person that was involved in an accident in one of the special states. They were not a client and the policy information she shared with my wife didn't pull up any information about the insured. My wife did a search on the names of the policy holder and their son (who was in the accident) but their information didn't provide an address for them. So she just did the “smile and file” bit like she was trained.
Well, it turns out that the customer was from one of those specialized states and therefore she was being terminated effective immediately. She pointed out that she was following what she was trained, quoted where in the syllabus she was taught that, and felt it was patently unfair that she is being terminated for this issue. The supervisor told her she should have known that the case was more than likely in one of the special states and therefore should have transferred the claim. My wife then said that she has had numerous other claims where the client was out of state, was in one of the “special” states where the accident occurred, but had been trained to go on where the policy was written, and gave him examples, including one that he did while they were in training showing it is the proper way to handle these issues.
Anyhow, she is now unemployed, she has filed an unemployment claim, and is waiting for the company to try to fight having to pay out the claim. It is pure BS the reason she was terminated but grateful that she left now while the job market is somewhat better for finding a new work from home job.
Sitel, you suck!