Work at Home Company Review: Westat in Rockville, Maryland

It can be difficult to find a legitimate work at home position. When I read on a work at home forum that Westat was hiring data collectors, I applied and was hired right away. But is Westat a good company to work for?

Training

Training was supposed to be divided between learning about Westat and then about your specific project. However, a lot of time in training was spent on how to use a computer. Considering the job description said that computer knowledge was required, it was shocking that computer illiterate people were hired. Several of them had no idea how to use an instant messenger, which was important since that is how Westat communicates during a shift with the at-home employees.

Availability of hours

Westat is pretty good about letting the employees choose their hours. They announce the needed hours for the project, and the employees choose their hours within that time frame. The downside is that hours can vary weekly and it's possible to go long stretches of time without a schedule. As projects come to a close, it's a very real possibility that the employees will be laid off for long periods of time or permanently.

Salary and raises

Westat hires their data collectors as employees (as opposed to independent contractors) with a starting pay usually of $8.25 an hour. There is a $2 an hour increase for working after 9pm and on the weekends.

Another way to make more per hour is by working refusals. The new hires are usually trained to do refusals after about a month of employment. Working refusals means an extra dollar per hour.

Westat does employee performance reviews after six weeks of employment. However, the six week reviews aren't usually done until months later. But if a raise is given, it is retroactive. The typical first raise is 35 cents.

Westat frequently offers bonuses for working a certain number of hours in a given time period. Overall, Westat pays well and always on time with direct deposit.

Call monitoring

The downside to working for Westat comes from the levels of management above the data collectors. The team leaders are often spoken of negatively. Since the team leaders monitor all the studies, it is understandable that none of them know 100% of everything about all of the studies. However, this doesn't stop them from saying that we should do something in a way they think is right when it is actually against the study's rules.

My personal experience

I was told that I was one of Westat's top performing employees. I was one of the few people who were trained to work two studies at the same time so that I would smoothly move from one to the other without any down time when the first study ended. I worked refusals on both projects as well. Also, I was trained to work several special case groups within the projects.

I prided myself on knowing my project fully. I knew more about my project than the team leaders. I would often have to tell them the correct way to do things that I'd heard from the project's coordinator.

There was one incident when a new team leader gave me a bad review for bypassing a number instead of calling it. During training we were taught that if a call back had been set for the household, that all the household members should be changed. However, some people weren't trained properly and would only change the call back for the call that they were on. If the others weren't changed, the call scheduling system would put the number back out to the data collector who made the next call. This meant that we were calling into a house directly after another data collector had already called, which is something you certainly don't want to do when the family had already scheduled a call back. I was following the proper procedure, and the new team leader was completely unaware.

Once a bad review has been submitted, no one in the company can edit it. It's a part of your record for as long as you're with the company.

When the team leaders can't find fault with the data collectors' work, they weren't above lying. The team leaders often gave undeserved negative reviews on a daily basis. Most of the data collectors felt this problem stemmed from the team leaders desire to make their jobs needed.

Another time I was on with a survey taker that I could not understand. He had recently had his throat cut and talking was clearly painful. He was also nearly impossible to understand. There was no one else to do the survey for him either. I contacted a team leader and told him about the situation. I asked if maybe someone else should contact him since I was having so much trouble understanding him.

In his report, the team leader said that I told him that I could not handle my job. Even though he completely lied, I was removed from doing the special case queue that I had been assigned. My mentor, Anna, assured me that this was temporary. She said I had nothing to worry about.

I was fired not long after that. This all happened not long after I'd submitted my name for promotion consideration, which seemed suspicious. It was shocking how easily they fire people. I had been given a raise, worked in three special call queues, and was considered one of their best employees. All it took to get me fired was a couple team leader mistakes, one team leader to twist what happened, and one customer's complaint stemming from being fed up of the repeated calling Westat does.

The bottom-line is that Westat does not stand behind their employees. They have a huge turnover rate. When working for them it's best to keep in mind that you are only temporary.