As employers across industries have tightened their budgets and cut jobs, it seems like no worker is safe from the threat of layoffs. But at Maximus—a major call center contractor for the federal government that helps Americans access Medicare benefits and affordable health insurance through the Affordable Care Act—workers claim that layoffs at the company have become almost routine. Former employees told Fast Company that they have faced multiple terminations in the span of just a few years, citing a pattern of extensive hiring during the open enrollment period followed by job cuts soon after.
The labor union Communications Workers of America (CWA), which has been organizing Maximus workers across the country, has estimated that the company dismissed more than 800 workers over a six-month period in 2023 with little notice. Unlike many employers, Maximus has not made public announcements about its decision to trim headcount. The company, which reported revenue of nearly $5 billion in fiscal year 2023, employs more than 39,000 people, the majority of whom are women (73%) and people of color (66%), according to its latest diversity report. A large portion of those employees—about 10,000—work in the company’s call centers, and in 2022, Maximus won a $6.6 billion nine-year contract to continue fielding health insurance inquiries for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Beyond the lack of job security, employees have come forward with a number of other claims against Maximus, alleging low wages, poor working conditions, and more recently, union busting. Call center workers say they are closely monitored by an AI tool that tracks their performance and an automated system that grants them just under six minutes to leave their post and use the bathroom. (If they hit or exceeded six minutes, workers claim they were docked hourly pay.) Many workers have also noted the irony of helping Americans find affordable health insurance while struggling to cover their own healthcare costs.
In a statement to Fast Company, Maximus spokesperson Eileen Rivera said, “Maximus is proud of our workforce and the career opportunities we provide in communities across the country. The misinformation being spread to our employees and the public about employment at Maximus call centers is false and irresponsible.”
Rivera claims that between October and January, Maximus hires additional staff, “like other industries with spikes in demand due to seasonal requirements,” and that the new hires are informed that their employment is temporary. “We welcome many former temporary employees back each season who are well trained and knowledgeable about the processes,” Rivera said. “Once the spike in call volume subsides and the open enrollment periods have ended, we work to provide a path for as many temporary employees as possible to continue employment with Maximus as regular-status employees, as staffing plans allow.” She also pointed to the company’s recent employee engagement survey, in which she said 75% of people surveyed said they would recommend Maximus as a great place to work.
Rivera also said reports of an AI tool being used to track employee performance were “blatantly false” and denied the allegations about limited bathroom breaks, adding that “there is no such thing as a six-minute bathroom break.” Maximus does use technology from the customer engagement company Verint at its call centers, per the terms of its contract with CMS, but Rivera denied that there was AI involved and claimed that Maximus only uses basic call recordings. (Verint does have several AI-powered offerings, but Fast Company was unable to confirm which products are used in Maximus call centers; Verint did not respond to requests for comment.)
In November, more than 700 Maximus workers went on strike across seven states where the company operates call centers—the largest federal call center strike to date, by the CWA’s count. Since then, the CWA has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Maximus, in response to claims that employees were told they would face consequences if they went on strike. (Rivera called these claims “completely baseless” and said Maximus “follows all labor laws and regulations.”)
Last month, former workers delivered a job security petition to Xavier Becerra, the secretary of Health and Human Services, demanding that Maximus provide 60 days of notice for layoffs or the equivalent in severance, along with clear communication and transfer opportunities prior to a termination. The move is also designed to put more pressure on Maximus by commanding the attention of the Biden administration, especially given its focus on creating “good jobs.”
In the meantime, SOC Investment Group—a group that works with union-backed pension funds and has previously focused its shareholder advocacy on companies like Starbucks and Amazon—has introduced a shareholder proposal calling for a third-party assessment of Maximus’s commitment to its employee’s right to organize and pursue collective action. (The proposal will be put to a vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting later this month.)
Fast Company spoke to Sarah Jeffers and Gabrielle Scurry, two former employees who say they were recently terminated by Maximus with virtually no notice. Both of them report being let go after the open enrollment period ended in January—with Scurry impacted in 2022 and Jeffers in 2023—and then being hired back by Maximus in fall 2023, only to have their employment terminated yet again last month. Jeffers and Scurry also claim that while they were rehired in the call center last fall leading up to the open enrollment period, Maximus did not say they would be classified as temporary employees.
When their employment was terminated in January, both of them were dealing with medical conditions and claim they had notified the company accordingly. Jeffers was in the midst of requesting an accommodation from Maximus to work from home. Scurry believes that the paid time she took off due to health issues may have contributed to her termination. (Rivera told Fast Company that “Maximus does not comment on the specific circumstances or performance of individual employees due to privacy concerns.”) Their accounts have been edited for space and clarity.
Sarah Jeffers, former Maximus employee in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
I was first let go in January of 2023. Once open enrollment ended, we were given two weeks’ notice. And then [Maximus] said “hey, for any of you that lost jobs, here are two projects. Go ahead and apply for those and see if you get hired.”
Three weeks later, I was put on a work-from-home project, still with the company. The project was supposed to be 15 months, but it ended eight months in. I was transferred back to the site, as what I was first hired for, which was a customer service representative. And that was in October of 2023. In training, I found out that I was a limited service employee. [That] wasn’t in the offer letter I signed. There was really no communication regarding the stipulations or rules for limited service [employees].
We were told that we would get offer letters, either stating that we would be transitioning to full-time employees on January 28 or be let go. I did receive a letter stating that I would be transitioning to a full-time employee. But on January 26, I was fired because of exceeding the PTO hours for limited service employees.
My last day of insurance coverage was January 31, and I do have a medical condition. I have a slipped disc and a pinched nerve. When I was let go, I was in the middle of requesting an accommodation to go back to work from home because of my health conditions. You’re only allowed 15 days to get your information together from the doctor to give to the accommodations team, and my 15 days were supposed to be up on February 5. So I still had an accommodation request open. I was able to go see the doctor to have an MRI done on the 31st, so that was taken care of. But now I’m out of insurance. I don’t have a job. I did receive a retention bonus, but they pretty much took half of that in taxes.
[Maximus CEO] Bruce Caswell has stated that you can grow with the company; there’s other positions. So I’m like, “hey look, I’m going from working at the office to working at home and making more money. And once this project ends, I can get on another project.” But it’s not like that at all. It’s like, “hey we need this finished up, so we’re just going to put you here. And then you come back over here, once we need employees again at the site—then we’ll let you go.” I believed that you could grow with the company until this last time.
In two years, I was pain-free for three days. I stayed [at Maximus] and put up with all the nonsense with supervisors and managers, the job security or lack thereof, and the pain that I was dealing with every day from the pinched nerve. This year, we were offered the PPO plan with Anthem, and I had taken that plan; even though I was in so much pain, I was happy that I could finally get decent insurance.
Now I’ve got one bottle of medication sitting here, and I’m out of my other medication. I don’t have health insurance anymore. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I have been putting in job applications. I just started receiving unemployment benefits for the first time ever in my life. It’s kind of hard to try to find work when you’re in pain, and it’s different when you get older. Just to have everything ripped out from under you, it’s kind of depressing.
If I was to be hired back, I want my insurance immediately. I need to be healthy in order to be productive. I honestly don’t care to go back to the site, just because of the way the supervisors and managers run it. But if things were better, I would definitely go back.
Gabrielle Scurry, former Maximus employee in Tampa, Florida
I worked there for 18 months, and then I was called on my day off and laid off [in January 2022]—due to lack of business needs. It was me and probably close to 300 people that were laid off: regular, full-time employees, as far as I know; they had just hired this really big wave of 500 people for open enrollment. They actually told me that I could transfer to a different work from home position that they had available, so I spoke to the operations vendor in charge of that program and gave them my mailing address for them to deliver the equipment. I was supposed to start two weeks later, but that literally never happened. I never got an appointment.
That [prior] November, while I was working at Maximus, I was actually evicted from my home. I was trying to help some friends and family members; I had seven other people living in my two bedroom apartment at the time. And then I was let go a month and a few days later. Thankfully I was blessed with cosmetologist skills, so I did hair on the side or nails whenever I could, to pay for somewhere to lay my head. I was of course looking for jobs, but I wasn’t hired anywhere.
[At Maximus], there’s six minutes to use the bathroom. It’s really 5:59—they will tell you that. They have it set up to where it’s automated. If you hit six minutes, they’re going to send you an email. I asked for small accommodations because I have lymphedema. [They] can see how swollen my leg is; I have to limp to the bathroom and back. I also take water pills, so I definitely use the bathroom even more. I feel like my supervisor tried to help. She was giving me two 10-minute breaks daily to go to the bathroom or use however. But then the manager told her that she wasn’t allowed to do that for me.
I feel like I was kind of forced to go back to Maximus. I knew I could do this job, and I’m great with my performance metrics and all that. So I went back in September of 2023; I was again hired as a regular full-time employee. Then they let me go at the beginning of January. They literally called me on my day off again and just told me, it’s settled; you’re fired. It’s effective immediately.
I almost immediately started crying because I was still trying to get my stuff together. I was still homeless, and I have a chronic medical condition. I was already having to decide whether I want to put my health first and be in the hospital, or risk being fired. So it’s like: Do I eat? Do I go to work? Do I go to the hospital? I asked if I could speak to HR, and they just told me that there was basically nothing I could do. I asked why, and they basically just told me: You know why. I didn’t have a writeup or anything like that time, so I was actually confused.
Of course I lost my health care—again. I wasn’t able to go to any doctors. I’m racking up medical bills, having to go to the emergency room every time that I am ill. I actually went to a job fair the day I was let go. But I still had to wait a month to start the new job that I’m at now. And that’s $3 an hour less in pay. So I’m trying to save and then pay for hotels. I’m at different friends’ houses for a few days, if they let me stay—basically just couch hopping and hotels.
I know it’s fool me once, shame on you, and fool me twice, shame on me. But they fooled me twice already. I could never go back. I would still rather stress myself out mentally and physically than go back to Maximus.
