Chris Lantzy’s 16-year career ended in a hotel room in Newton, Iowa. The call came as he was road-tripping from Colorado with his five sons, headed to Mom’s house in Cleveland for Thanksgiving. His wife was back in Colorado, pregnant with their seventh child and unable to make the trek.
Lantzy could afford a big family, thanks to paychecks from one of Northeast Ohio’s most successful companies, Progressive. He had worked his way up from lowly temp to senior IT programmer, earning $75,000 in a good year. He’d moved to Colorado Springs from the company’s Mayfield Village headquarters just two years before, and always planned to retire from the insurance giant.
Now it had come to this: laid off at the age of 44, just in time for Christmas.
Lantzy was one of more than 340 people to receive pink slips in November. Facing a plummeting stock price, declining profits, and a losing advertising war, the nation’s third-largest auto insurer was faltering. The “reduction in force” was supposed to trim the fat.
But two months after the layoffs became public, the company bought the naming rights to Jacobs Field. It was a savvy marketing move, perhaps, but one that angered both Indians fans and employees, who saw the $50 million advertising buy as an insult.
Suddenly, one of Greater Cleveland’s best employers, a beacon of stability with 9,400 jobs, became a target of ridicule and resentment. While Wall Street analysts may not have been overly bothered by the slump, Clevelanders couldn’t help but take it to heart. The region doesn’t have many Fortune 500 companies left. If Progressive stumbles, where does that leave us?
In 2000, Peter B. Lewis was headed through security at the Auckland, New Zealand airport when drug-sniffing dogs discovered an ounce of pot in his briefcase. The 66-year-old billionaire philanthropist, who had recently had his leg amputated, endured a cavity search and a night in jail. This is the man who built Progressive.
Raised in Cleveland Heights during World War II, Lewis took over his father’s company in the ’60s and grew it from a small outfit to a national name brand with 27,000 employees nationwide. Around the Mayfield campus, “Peter B.” was a deity.
He hired bright young people and gave them the power to make decisions. They were encouraged to question authority and be honest with their customers — a novel approach in the insurance world.
Under his leadership, the company earned a reputation for innovation. In the ’50s, it started insuring high-risk drivers when no one else was interested, and those customers helped business explode. Then, in the booming ’90s, Progressive became notoriously efficient. Independent insurance agents could send a customer’s information to Progressive and get a policy faster than anywhere else.
It was one of the first companies to sell insurance online. It launched 24-hour phone lines, and even took the unusual step of providing customers with quotes from competitors.
Meanwhile, employees were treated royally with on-site gyms and doctors’ services. Lewis’ ex-wife, Toby, helped build what became one of the most impressive corporate art collections in the world.
New ideas were welcomed, and if you worked hard, it paid off with promotions and prestige.
“[Lewis] treated his employees as assets to the company and as real human beings,” says one former employee.
“There was just a camaraderie,” adds Lantzy. “You took care of them; they took care of you.”
Lewis was so dedicated to the company that he told a reporter his fantasy was “to be carried feet first out of my office.” About eight years ago, thanks to circulatory problems that led to partial amputation of his leg, he ceded the spotlight, resigning as CEO. These days, he enjoys his private jet and homes in Beachwood, New York, and Colorado, and spends nearly half the year on a luxury yacht overseas. Renowned for his love of art, women, and weed, he makes a habit of giving the finger to Cleveland’s civic establishment, withholding donations from institutions like Case Western Reserve and University Circle if he decides they’re poorly run.
He’s still the chairman of Progressive’s board, but when he departed, he made Glenn Renwick his handpicked CEO. Some employees say nothing has been the same since.
“Until the reorganization was announced, I could’ve written a commercial for how much I loved Progressive,” says one veteran manager.
“Everybody wanted to be there,” adds another longtime employee. “Now it’s quite the opposite.”
When contacted by Scene, most employees were afraid to speak publicly about the company. Some fear they’ll be fired. The laid-off still have friends and family on the job. And Progressive, they say, is no longer a place where people are encouraged to speak openly.
In the years after Lewis left, new layers of management appeared. Analysts and MBAs were hired to examine processes and procedures, rather than bring money in the door. “Things quit getting done,” one former manager recalls.
Office politics became more important, Lantzy says, causing the company to lose focus. New managers would reorganize things. Six months later, everything would be reshuffled again. It had become something of a Dilbert cartoon — management for management’s sake. “It didn’t seem like being a loyal, hard worker counted as much anymore, whereas it always had,” he says.
Soon, the trademark collegial office culture was replaced by fear. One longtime employee says that if someone complains in his out-of-state office, the bosses will put a newspaper on his desk, opened to the want ads.
“They pretty much rule with an iron fist,” he explains. “They want you out, they’ll get you out.”
A former local manager, who was earning more than $100,000 a year, learned of his impending layoff at a hastily convened meeting in November. Progressive’s call-center chief actually read from a script. The manager’s position was being eliminated, they told him. There just wasn’t a place for him.
He might have mistaken this for a scene from Office Space, if not for the extra security guards outside the door. He grabbed his coat, turned in his key card, and walked out.
The days of Peter B.’s swaggering honesty and fearless innovation were officially over.
Some trace the decline to Progressive’s dubious decision, four years ago, to split the company into two brands. Drive would sell policies the traditional way, through agents in neighborhood offices. Progressive Direct would sell via the phone and the internet.
For reasons no one can seem to explain, the company believed the split would help them win favor with independent agents, who hawked the policies of multiple companies. Progressive invested heavily in the idea, wining and dining agents in Vegas, and renting out a racetrack so they could see the Drive car compete, one veteran employee recalls.
The execs didn’t seem to realize that diluting their name recognition by splitting into two lesser-known brands was asking for trouble.
The decision didn’t sit well with many independent agents. They were already peeved about Progressive’s low commissions and worried that its online and phone sales would put them out of business. Trying to get them to sell an unknown brand wasn’t going to help.
“Everybody saw that it was ridiculous,” one Cleveland manager says.
Yet the split remained in place until last September, when the company folded back under the single Progressive banner. But by that time, agents had already taken to placing their business elsewhere, says Brian Sullivan, editor of the trade newsletter Auto Insurance Report.
Meanwhile, competitors began to target Progressive’s greatest strengths. Other companies jumped into online sales and sought high-risk drivers. And Progressive continued to get pummeled in the area that’s always been its weakness: marketing.
According to TNS Media Intelligence, nationwide spending on car insurance ads exploded from $600 million in 2003 to $1.6 billion in 2006. GEICO alone spent at least $500 million that year.
Progressive had long believed that customers would automatically recognize its superior service, Sullivan says, though it might not offer the cheapest policies. But that’s not a message that sells well in a sound bite. Slogans such as “Think easier; think Progressive” and “Relax. Just drive” weren’t the kind of catchphrases you could hum in a carpool.
Nine years ago, the company ran a Super Bowl ad featuring E.T. as a spokesman for safe driving. It was supposed to be part of a larger branding campaign, complete with propaganda in drivers’ ed courses and an E.T. Safety Club for kids. But it all had the feel of a public service announcement. When new customers failed to arrive, Lewis fired the ad company.
“They really don’t understand advertising and marketing,” Sullivan says. “That’s what’s playing the game right now.”
GEICO is just the opposite. With its faintly British gecko mascot and Caveman commercials — so popular they spawned a sitcom — it offers a counterpoint as a friendly, likable company with a healthy sense of humor.
Allstate, meanwhile, portrays itself as a reliable, comforting hand you can depend on during a disaster. Its spokesman, naturally, is the cello-voiced Dennis Haysbert, who played the president on 24.
By comparison, Progressive’s ads seem more like software commercials. They are sleek and tech-savvy, but hardly distinguishable from thousands of others. The current slogan, “It’s about you. And it’s about time,” is as bland as its predecessors. Its latest commercial features a nondescript guy in a checkout line. The cashier claims he just saved $350, then touts the company’s “concierge claims service” and 24/7 help online.
Within the blizzard of ads that pound consumers daily, it has all the ingredients to be eminently forgettable.
“Progressive has consistently proven that it doesn’t know what funny is,” Sullivan says. “It’s just bad.”
Progressive seems to be aware of the problem. It recently moved its brand development division under CEO Renwick’s direct supervision. One of its biggest moves was to buy the naming rights to Jacobs Field. The question is whether displaying its logo at Tribe games will be enough to make a difference.
Sullivan says the name game is helpful, because it builds branding and puts Progressive’s name on the lips of baseball fans everywhere. But the dizzying pace at which stadiums change names leaves it unclear whether fans remember any field’s name.
“This is a spectacular insurance company with a very powerful foundation,” Sullivan says. “Four really smart people can fix the advertising. The problem is, they haven’t found those four people.”
By last fall, Progressive’s stock price had fallen to $18.21 — the lowest it had been in four years.
This raises questions about the company’s capacity to grow. People clearly aren’t buying its stock, and that problem has persisted for months (the price was down to $17.76 in early March).
Last month, Progressive’s claims chief of the past nine years, Brian Passell, was “separated” from the company without explanation. Such moves don’t inspire confidence. “They’re not growing,” Sullivan says. “They need to get this figured out.”
It’s perhaps a sign of how bad things have gotten that corporate officials refused to talk to Scene for this story. There was a time when reporters could reach Lewis directly. Now calls are vetted through a PR team. Answers to Scene‘s questions were provided via e-mail and attributed to the company’s human resources chief, Tricia Griffith.
She admits that having a well-known brand is key to competing with the GEICOs of the world and says that the Jacobs Field deal is designed to make that happen. As for the employees, they’re still enjoying the same gyms, yoga classes, health centers, dry cleaning, and profit-sharing perks they always have. Those who were laid off were considered either “redundant” after Drive and Direct merged, or simply not necessary. She says the company’s IT department was “overstaffed.” In fact, she suggests that the layoffs, many of which affected higher-paid veterans, would help save Progressive from the problems that concern Sullivan.
“These changes allow us to operate more efficiently, which can help us bring competitive prices to more customers and grow our business,” Griffith wrote.
But as one manager points out, it’s been four months since the layoffs, and “Our stock prices are still not moving.” She can’t help but blame the people on top.
“Peter would have found some way to stimulate the business,” she says. “He would’ve put Progressive out there in the forefront.”
These days, the mood in Mayfield is dark. No one’s sure whether more cuts are coming, and managers feel their every move is being examined from above. One says she used to be free to make many of her own decisions. Now, “I could still do that, but only after I get permission to do that.”
She won’t leave, because she has a son in college and “couldn’t touch” the salary she’s earning anywhere else. But she’s frustrated, knowing that a company full of “some of the brightest people I’ve ever worked with” is being choked by fear and micromanagement. “I think that the business would be successful again,” she says. “It’s like you need to unleash those people.”
Of course, no one is ready to write Progressive’s obituary. Some analysts argue that the company’s roaring growth of the ’90s couldn’t last forever — all rising empires inevitably plateau. “They had a golden age,” Sullivan says. “That is rarely sustained for long.”
John Ryan, an analyst for Morningstar, points out that the car insurance industry as a whole is suffering through a natural downturn after a boom. He’s confident it’s a temporary problem, and a well-run company like Progressive will recover in time. “People may be antsy . . . To us, it’s nothing new,” he says from his office in Chicago.
Adds Sullivan: “They’re struggling, but the core of what they do is still excellent.”
In the end, it’s hard to kill the optimism bred by decades of success. Even Lantzy says he recently applied for another job at Progressive. “I really cared about the company,” he says, “and in a funny way, I still do. It’s just a big chunk of me.”
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2008.
Its just a matter of time Progressive rebounds, so its not like the end of the world..period..
Progressive has long faild to appreciate how many thousands of “Anti-sales” agents they have created by their predatory relationships with the Collision Repair Industry all across the country, we consider a more appropriate name could be “Regressive Insurance”
Perhaps if more reductions in force are to be considered, based on the current track record, start with Mr. Glenn Renwick and work their way down through the ranks of the unneccesary MBA’s who have practically destroyed Peter’s dream.
At one time a Progressive job in the shop was OK. The appraisers were keen at what they did, the shops could almost make an honest living. Where did all those Progressive jobs go? We don’t see many now. Hmmmm, seems we are not good enough to work on Progressive claims any more. Progressive will not warranty our work? Additional costs will not be covered by Progressive? No wonder, a big company like Progressive would scare me away from myself.
Trying to get around the steering tactics that don’t exist at Progressive can be all consuming. Finally I had to say UNCLE. its just not worth it. Now when a first party Progressive job stumbles in here, especialy newer valuable vehicles, I can only say, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING. And third party, PLEASE CALL YOUR CARRIER, I will pay your deductable.
Yes, Progressive, You are not worth the trouble.
So, a few employees are scared to speak their minds and a few ex-employees hold a grudge or have bad things to say about their previous employer and that’s big news? Must be a slow “news” day for Scene…
Since all you did was tear into Progressive, how about some feedback from a GEICO employee?
“I will warn you the WORST part about GEICO is they are NOT family friendly. If you are sick, your child is sick, you are on your death bed, you get in a car accident, you break your neck, IF YOU CAN MOVE AT ALL YOU BETTER BE AT WORK NO MATTER WHAT. Otherwise, you are the weakest link, goodbye. You have to maintain a 98 % dependability NO MATTER WHAT or they will find a way to not make it worth your while to hang around…
…The dental plan doesn’t barely cover anything but is cheap to participate in, NO maternity leave, what did I tell you about missing time?!?!?!, no short term disabilty, by the time the long term disability kicks in you’ll probably be bankrupt, but again the coverage is cheap, and the medical benefits are banging but expensive (about 150 every two weeks for an employee and spouse covered).”
This is a Cleveland paper; hence the name, Cleveland Scene. GEICO isn’t a Cleveland company, nor did it buy the naming rights to Cleveland Indians park.
@ wiseone (ha!)
Then why the heck did the article have nothing but good things to say about a crappy company like GEICO, if it’s supposedly only focused on Cleveland? Did you even RTFA?
BTW, the wildly successful Caveman TV series lasted 1 month. What a friggin flop! Apparently their advertising wasn’t as successful as everyone is claiming. 😀
Geico Field sounds SOOOOO MUCH better than Progressive Field, huh? You’d remember it much more just like their commercials. Does Progressive have commercials? LOL
They could always make the PGR campuses into nice apartment complexes since there already are parking garages…. and even fitness centers too!
The article rightly praises GEICO’s advertising – especially compared to “WOW! I say it louder” – and nothing else. They’ve even got a new commercial making fun of the failed show (god it was awful). By the way, the correct grammar is “Say ANYTHING”, not nothing.
@ wiseone
If you’re going to go all “grammar-nazi” on someone, at least learn how to quote them correctly.
@LOL
Point taken…
Being RIF’d from Progressive was the best career change that ever happened to me. Like the article makes reference to, they can care less about their tenured, dedicated employees. I have heard way more “Great job” and “We are so glad you are working here” comments at my new job in the month and a half since I started, than I did in 12 years at Progressive. And, I am making way more with much better benefits. Sorry folks, but you are nothing but a number to them (and a very disposable one at that).
I only hope they turn it around for my stock’s sake, so I can get back to even and sell it faster than Glenn can say “Pour me another Scotch, while I screw up this company even more”.
Redundant. I was replaced by a contractor and that my former co workers are training. Way to go Progressive.
As a 20 year, then severed employee, I have to say that I DO think that PGR will be back. I DO agree that things were better when Peter B was at the helm. That said, today’s PGR does NOT value thinkers or decision makers. They want people who follow process. Not much room for thinking outside the box. But most importantly, SEVERED was the best thing that ever happened to me. I got a “box” of money and now I am making even more money than I ever did with PGR, even with Gainshare. And my new bosses think I am smart. The tell me so and praise my work. I never realized how much they beat me down. And just for the record I held almost every claims job there was. I bled blue for years, right up to that last day.
Progressive beat me into submition. I use to be a free thinker and contribute ideas, suggestions, and process improvements. Now I lie in the shadows afraid of making decisions. We have no written standard operating procedures just a patchwork of contradicting emails and counterargments that muddy the waters. Every decision one makes needs to be carefully planned so you are able to defend yourself when challenged. The Company is trying to improve work environment but it will not progress unless the attitude at the very top changes. I get criticized for things that are out of my control. I must find a way to meet the number or measurement they want, if I don’t meet the number I am audited until they find something wrong to make it my fault. I’ve been with PRG 18 years.
I left this company after working just 1 year with them. By far the worst company I’ve ever worked for. Unrealistic expectations, constantly reinventing the wheel. There was a new process every 3rd month it seemed. And this article is on target about Progressive’s marketing – no one at our branch thinks the new commercial with the cashier is good. No one. And when I call policy holders and tell them I’m from Progressive, they tell me they have Drive insurance and immediately think I’m calling from the other person’s insurance company. Way to go, Progressive. You not only have the worst marketing department, you also managed to confuse your own customers.
Additional reading available here:
http://www.jobvent.com/companyBrowse.php?CompanyID=232
Over 1350 reviewers can’t be wrong…
At least Glen made Progressive high on some list.
Finally, an article that tells the truth about Progressive. As an almost 10 year employee, I can say for me personally,the change for the worst came about when Glenn took over. Why has he not been held accountable for the poor business decision that cost the company millions, lost our agents trust, and is now costing millions to try and “put back”. The human cost is the saddest part of all, the people that are left are treated like cattle, traded around in a desperate measure (yes, desperate) to try and fix and cover up like everything is going to be wonderful, just wait and see. My opinion is, the company needs to pare down the middle management Progressive Robots that spit out Progressive acronyms and other “corporate buzzwords” and doublespeak. The actual people doing the work that keep the company going are told to keep your mouth shut and grin, or you are next to go. I think if they want to weed(pun intended) out all of the bad eggs that are contributing to the dead weight, they should start drug-testing. If I were a hard core drug user, and I still needed a job, where do you think I’m going to go looking? Maybe it wasn’t a problem all those years ago, with the weekend pot smoker, but I know for a fact we have a problem with drug and alcohol abuse in this company (at least the headquarters). Do you think all abusers check their behavior at the door when they show up for work? No, they bring their bad habits with them, because we have no way to prove anything. Also, maybe if they brought back a real dress code, they would lose some of the sweatpants mentality that goes along with it. Coupled with making sure people actually show up on time for work, don’t take 2 hour lunch breaks, and text on their cell phones all day (I’m talking about the Managers). Allow people to give their marketing ideas, and actually use them. We have some very bright, hard working people left at Progressive. You don’t need an MBA to have a brilliant marketing idea. Why do I stay, you ask? I just shut up and grin, the money is too good.
Progressive Insurance is not a good investment.
Read JobVent.com, read between the lines see what people are saying about previous initiatives. The work environment is a powder keg waiting to go off. Progressive Insurance would easily be rated the most “Hated Company in the Country” but JobVent.com is run by a HR PR firm and when the posts hit a little close to home they remove them and the points. We aren’t talking about a few employees, we are talking about hundreds, and the thousands more that would post but they know that at Progressive Insurance your phones, email and web usage are monitored (remember that little deal where they recorded a church group to catch someone). From time to time the company even has someone post something critical of the disenfranchised calling them whiners. Whiners don’t succeed for years upon years, what does happen however is their salary makes them a target. So in effect Progressive Insurance is being run buy the lower paid less experienced.
Nope, not a good investment, a house divided for sure.
The funny thing is, Progressive fools all it’s employees to believe they are a great paying company. The fact is, they are at best (if not below) average among similar jobs within Cleveland. I took a job that pays double-digit thousands above what I made before being RIF’d. All for a position that I have not worked in for over 4 years, with a company that knew I was in a desparate situation. AND, this company also pays profit sharing at the end of the year.
So, let’s see, a cr_pload more money, better benefits, cheaper healthclub fees, more vacation time. Yes, I think there are a lot better job choices out there than Progressive.
THANK YOU GLENN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think this article is right on except. It’s not advertising alone that is the problem or losing Peter B. 1) It’s you need people to have a vision so you can find new and better ways to serve the customers and 2) that it is about the customer. This is like Apple after losing Steve Jobs it lost it’s vision. From everything I hear Progressive is making a lot of bad desicions in particular in how it uses it’s human capitol. I feel really bad for the people of Mayfield because when Progressive continues to lose market share and continues to lay off their brightest employee’s there will be no place to work. So the brain drain can continue.
I am unfortunately a current employee at Prog. I work in Claims. This story is dead-on but it’s missing the money drain of the CSC. We have quotas (I mean goals) that we have to meet. The guy from the body shop has it dead-on we are steering. My rate is low (I really don’t care anymore) so I get weekly emails, my calls get listened to for coaching to see how I can get better, my claims get reviewed to see if how many times I offered the sub-par service (CSC) and if I “overcame” objections each and every freakin’ time. Micromanagement doesn’t describe the environment I work in. I’ve been told my manager and I need to get my numbers up otherwise I’ll get on “the list” and you don’t want to be on that list. Talk about fear and intimation, it’s suprising that there hasn’t been a case of workplace violence due to the management inflected fear that is enforced each day. It’s true that many employees live in fear of speaking up. I called Lisa but hung up before the phone finished it’s 1st ring, too scared to say anything. Lower-level management won’t even complain to upper management for fear of being labeled.
Unfortunately, I have bills to pay otherwise I would have quit along time ago. I am sure I will be RIF’d sometime soon due to ‘being on the list’. I live in a rural area of another state so moving to another insurance company would require a 1-2 hr. commute each way daily and believe me I’ve looked and have come to grips with being stuck. Progressive will not grow until they get rid of their upteen layers of management and remove the fear and repressive environment – in my branch it’s so bad we have assigned seating. I’ve heard it was great to work years ago unfortunately, that changed before I got a chance to really experience it.
Signed just plain miserable.
Ok, so obviously the people that think this article is not important OBVIOUSLY arent the ones that got pink slips and 4 months later STILL cant find jobs because the economy is doing so bad. One thing this story forgot to point out is Progressive did an excellent job laying off over 300 people alone in the IT dept BUT…kept the contractors working in the IT dept & since have seeked contractors to fill the positions that were eliminated. Progressive….what a way to give back to the hard working American people that worked hard for this company!
Finally, an article that says exactly what most of the ‘long timers’ at Progressive have been saying to one another for a while now… I could have wrote it myself! In my area, very talented dedicated tenured resources were recently stripped of any decision making power or input and meetings behind closed doors (‘Manager only’ meetings) started occuring to take over ‘running the business’. What a joke!!!! I’ve watched moral plummet due to bad decisions by management in an attempt to fix ‘the problem’. Funny thing was…our area really didn’t have a big problem! Work perks that were once the ‘norm’ such as working from home on occasion and flexible hours were stripped away along with certain job ‘titles’ that one may have earned over the years. Micro managing along with multiple places to document ones’ time down to the minute (feels like second) were given and we were told that it would help us ‘work on the right things’. These right ‘things’ now need to be blessed with holy water before you can work on them. A dictatorship was put into place to get ‘a handle’ on our situation. Great move ‘upper’ Management!!! Rather than working with those that you just might need to help bring the company ‘back’, you opted to create an ‘us vs. them’ environment, the preferbial straw that will eventually break the camel’s back. My heart goes out to all at Progressive who have experienced what I have experienced this past year – the death of a great work environment – a place where you worked hard because you wanted to, because you knew you were appreciated and because you were treated with respect – not like a number that’s part of a headcount. Only those that experienced what once was ‘good’ can grieve this death.
All I can say is “Glenn has ruined the company.” If anyone thinks he is NOT going to ship the Customer Service jobs to India, they are living in a dream world. And Progressive’s advertisement executives are totally off the mark. Using ET, and B-tv actors in commercials? Learn something from Geico & Safe Auto —- that is, come up with a jingle, or use a dog or cat in your commercials !!!!! Just think, you didn’t have to pay me $2 million for that advise ! Enjoy !
This article is right on. I have worked there for 7 years. It’s just gotten more unrealistic as the years have gone by. I am in customer service and sales. In my opinion it’s too many chiefs and not enough Indians. When I started, climbing the ladder was a real possibility. Now, forget it. I’ll be stuck in my job until I retire. And the part of “open door” policy is sooo true. You speak your mind you are looked at as a troublemaker or outspoken. That is not good. The job expectations are ridiculous. there is a survey every year on how we feel about our job and the expectation set on us. No really speaks their minds. It’s supposed to be anonymous but when you log in to get to the survey it verifies your name. What does that tell you? The article mentioned. Right!! But with all of this being said and more can be told, I need a paycheck. So I got to work every day. Grin and bear it.
As someone who worked for Progressive for 18 years, I find it sad to see what Glenn Renwick has done to this once great company. Oust him and get your humanity back. Better yet, bring Uncle Pete back. You can still be successful and treat your employees well. This is something you have clearly forgotten. And PS, I quit Progressive to make less money. Now I am treated like a human being and not worked to death. It’s fabulous!
I am a long time Progressive employee and very proud to be so. Yes, we have experienced some disappointment in business growth of late and had to take corrective actions that can be both painful and unpopular. It has been my experience, however, that our management team very carefully considers options and tries to package courses of action that will best support the business goals while respecting and encouraging our employee base. Your recent article focused heavily on the negative. There are always opportunities to do that in any situation, but what purpose does that serve. There is no perfect way to deliver a tough message and no one took joy in taking this tough business decision path, but in the end, we must focus on what’s best for the long term success of Progressive. As a Progressive employee, I have enjoyed the culture that is strongly focused on our well known and highly published CORE values. That is still the case despite recent tough times. A year as recent as 2000 presented tough business conditions and our business leaders quickly took tough measures to turn around our economic climate. While general industry conditions as well as competition in the insurance space are much more complex now, I have every faith that our current business leaders, led by Glenn Renwick, who already was our President and CEO in 2000, will turn Progressive’s economics around. In the meantime, I will continue to do my part to be a proud employee contributing to the bottom line.
I wonder whether the author attempted to contact any members of the Board of Directors? I imagine they are all fearful of their liability for failing to act responsibly when the CEO declared he would lead the marketing effort last year. Don’t be fooled. The CEO has been the person responsible for the marketing effort for a very long time. The guys who used to report to him openly acknowledged that they were forced to become yes-men, because he did not welcome critical or constructive feedback. He made bad marketing decisions in the past and appears to be incapable of doing better. The sooner the Board understands that this CEO is operating in a very large, ego-filled bubble – the better.
Being RIF’d after 20+yrs at the formerly big PROG, the big corp that was going to save Cleveland; has left me scarred, yet faithful and grateful as I did get another job which I love and I now know that there is life after Progressive!!!
I have many life-long friends still at Progressive and they know I still believe in Progressive,and wish them the best of success. (I won’t go as far as Chris Lantzy and go back to work there, as MY CORE values will not allow me to:-).
I feel very sad that recent year(s) decisions have only backfired and have dug Prog into a deeper hole…these decisions do come from the top, behind those proverbial closed dooors. This is a fact. I can only say that I beleieve those making the poor decisions have to live with them. Unfortunately it is all the way to the bank and at the expense of innocent hard working folks.
For those of you who still work there have faith and believe that you can make things better and return Progressive back to a pleasant working atmosphere. (especially management).
Finally, remember and believe everything happens for a reason… what happened at Progressive and continues to happen is happening all over our country. It is sad but true…
Why is everyone behaving as if this is the first RIF ever – Progressive has had major RIFs in the past – remember the one in ’90? Why is everyone so shocked and amazed 0 the RIfs are and have always been cyclical. As i recall KeyBank just had one – I know Geico just laid off several hundred… In fact, I believe the whole country is in a recession right now so it’s abit onoe-sided to blame Progressive for all of Cleveland’s financial woes… What will youguys do when LeBron puts his family first and finally dumps sucky Cavaliers for a winning team (NY perhaps) where he can build a future for his family… admit it Cleveland Sucks, nobody can succeed here.
This is why I don’t read the Scene. This is so one-sided it’s ridiculous. Oh, and by the way, the insurance industry as a whole is struggling to keep profits up, but that was never mentioned.
Family members have told me that they saved 50% going elsewhere.
What really hurts though is the millions of dollars being thrown away for naming rights to the baseball field, funding the X-Prize competition all the while the CEO is pulling in 9.2M a year down from 9.7M in 2006, just March 19, 2008 Glenn Renwick gave himself a 7.7M bonus.
Now tell me again why my sister-n-law’s rates went up and 342 people were laid of and many more to come by the end of this year?
What kind of vulgar, despicable human being would say to get over it, or suck it in, or we are in a recession. On top of all the evidence only a corporate goon inhumanly brainwashed by a maniacal corporation would taught such mean spirited one liners.
Tell me again how much Glenn Rewick cares about customers and Cleveland, Ohio?
The jobvent site is actually what saved me from taking a job at Progressive. I had gone into the office, passed the test, and was about to get a call from a recruiter. The fact she got in touch with me BARELY 48 hours after submitting a resume should have been a warning sign.
I had recently been laid off, and was desperate in that first week. Luckily, two days before that call, I happened to stumble upon Jobvent; and after reading what was there, I decided to pass, and stopped the recruiter in her tracks.
I waited it out…and now am about to enter a career with a company who values employees, and treats them right.
Good riddance, Proressive. I’ll be watching your decline from the OUTSIDE.
I think that the customers should have a say.
The complaint filed March 17, 2008, is filed by a former Progressive Agent on a policy she wrote herself.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/insurance/progressive_insurance.htm
I insure a couple of bikes with Progressive, and have had as many as four bikes insured with them at one time over the years. I was asked to participate in an Internets based customer forum by Progressive and figured, “Why not?”
The questions that are presented from time to time left me baffled until I read this article. The topics seemed so fundamental to the insurance business that I could not figure out why they were having to poll their clients to get a handle on the relative importance of various subjects. It makes a lot more sense to me now that Progressive is a company that is groping around in the dark in a desperate attempt to understand the market and their own customers.
When the article mentioned their TV advertising I was surprised that I recongnized the description of the ad because I have seen it numerous times, but I did not have any association between the ad and the Progressive name, even as a long-term customer. That should speak to how fully their advertising and branding sucks.
My initial contact with Progressive was because of their association with AMA (American Motorcyclist Association). That relationship was terminated a year or so ago. I’ll have to ask AMA’s management what drove the change. This company sounds more and more like it has lost any sense of direction. I now wonder if it was AMA or Progressive who terminated the relationship.
This article describes the excate same working conditions and problems with Farmers Insurance since 2000 after Zurich starting taking more control and hired many managers and execs from outside the company. Just change the names and change the city ot LA.
The RIF’s hurt many solid workers with families. Fat trimming came at a time when most people were planning their holidays.
Progressive was a fantastic place to work for many years. But once Peter B.left, the company went the way of Standard Oil and other foreign run companies. The employees became expendable, most especially the higher paid, mature employees.
It was very hurtful to hear Mr. Renwick refer to the RIF’d(laid off) employees as ‘mistakes’ that had been corrected during his press conference regarding the Jake. Somehow calling that stadium the ‘P’ just doesn’t seem right.
When Mr. Lewis experienced his little legal snafu, at least he had to good graces to apologize to every single employee for his personal mistake, and any embarassment it may have caused us.
When I compare that to being called a ‘corrected mistake’, its not hard to see just how low Progressive has sunk.
I have to say I agree with this article, I was a progressive employee until a month ago and there was no need for my job anymore. I had great evaluations and worked well with my customers. They have made so many changes in system it is unbelievable. A few years ago they had inside and outside claims reps and realized that it did not work and went back to one adjuster helping a claim, now they have changed back to what they are calling mmr reps who just look at vehicles and they they have people on the phones helping customers. as far as the Service center Shops, I had more complaints and more cars returned because of poor workmanship. They also had the worst turn around time and more rental cost. They do not do what they promise. They have several pilot programs going through the state right now just hoping one will work. They are fighting unemployemt and worker’s comp from others that I know. I have changed insurance companies and would encourage others to do the same. I am a 36 year old single parent who is now unemployed, I have worked hard all my career and many others have. please look at your insurance and see how they actually treat people.
A friend of mine had an interview at Progressive a few months ago. When he pulled into the property, he had to get out of his car, so a guard could search it. The guard even held a mirror underneath his car, looking for…??? It’s as if he was going into a nuclear power plant or the Pentagon, rather than a a private insurance company. My husband said what were they looking for, the GEICO gecko, ha, ha! Jokes aside, if a company is that paranoid towards interviewees, I can’t imagine how they must treat employees. I would not want to work for a company that is that paranoid.
THIS IS IT !
http://surftofind.com/radical
Ahhh, Peter B. Lewis, the guy that donated a BIG chunk of the money for the Case Weatherhead School of Busniess Management. Unfortunately, the architect he selected, Peter Graves, used a design that more appropriately reflects the “Arthur Anderson / Enron School of Business Mangement”. Maybe they were both “Petered out”.
in most cases, the progressive management wants a bunch of kool aid drinkers and management butt kissing goons. Don’t dare question anything, you’ll be on “the list”.
This Progressive insurance spend more money in their stupid adds with that dummy Flo,than in solving peopl s claims.If you have a collision with a Progressive insured then you have to be prepared to fight this crap insurance.They are so griddy and cheap,all the auto repair shops are running away from them.This because they have hands to take money not to honor their duties.What a shame.Avoid this insurance,please people.This is a shameless bunch of swindlers people.
Perhaps the name Progressive is making people want to puke these days. Look around at what the “progressives” are doing to the economy! I won’t buy anything with that name and I don’t need any more tracking devices. Fire Flo too.
What bull – you bought PBL’s BS.
“New ideas were welcomed, and if you worked hard, it paid off with promotions and prestige.
“[Lewis] treated his employees as assets to the company and as real human beings,” says one former employee.”
I was there when PBL was still very active. It was known as a sweat job – but as a work-aholic – I assumed it would not bother me. Problem was – I am a woman and the men harassed and discriminated against me and other women. The only black people in the building were the cleaners and in the top positions there were only two women. That “Art” naked Geisha in the lobby and Tobey’s deranged 10 commandments in the hall .
Typical lying leftist “progressives” – always hypocrites and liars