An anonymous reader responds to “Empire Regressed,” the recent Scene story about the troubles of Progressive Insurance. Great article! A few years back, after nearly 20 years of working at Progressive and each year receiving outstanding performance evaluations, they decided to let me go, “because they wanted a different perspective.” Progressive touts itself as a young company. There’s a reason for that … once you hit 15 or 20 years, there’s a good chance you’ll be gone. There was a point when they valued their employees; now there is literally no commitment of any kind on their end. They replace long-time, knowledgable employees with Harvard and Wharton MBAs at the drop of a hat. I don’t think Peter would have laid off a 20-year person “just because.” If you look into it, you’ll see these types of individual “layoffs” happen much more than you’d think. Look at where it’s gotten them. Since Glenn has been in charge, Progressive has lacked the innovation that made them great, and it shows in a stock price that’s a few cents higher than it was 5 years ago. Anyway, great article and definitely on-point.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2008.
You know, I am so tired of this crap about a company owes an employee something for working for them for 15 to 20 years. Then what does the employee owe the company for giving them a paycheck for 15 to 20 years, a bonus check (at times)? It is THAT thought pattern that is the problem! A job is exactly that, a JOB! The company gets something from you, you get something from the company.
It has taken me several years, but my goal at a company is to make sure that it will cause the company more pain to let me go then not too.. The company doesn’t “owe” me anything, I get paid for what I do.. The minute someone can do your job cheaper and NOT cause pain is a good reason for you to leave. Tell me if the gas station down the road sells the gas for $2.45 a gallon and your “favorite” gas station is selling it for $3.50, where are you going? You might give your favorite some money, but after a few months, you will kick out the favorite for the cost when it doesn’t cause you any more pain..
Welcome to the real world…
I love the cookie cutter responses you will elicit from HR or Upper Management at Progressive that will try to crush the opinions and character of others when they speak negatively about Progressive. Lisa’s article is 100% on the money. It went from an organization that discussed customers and claims to one that holds conference call after another, just to discuss the previous conference call. Manage numbers, not people- don’t give a process time to soak in to let it work itself out, if it doesn’t change numbers tomorrow, try a new program. This corporate mentality was brought on by the UM and the gool ‘ole boys club, managers who hire in their friends based on frendship, not knowledge. Keep making the management structure top heavy with buddies, eventually you’ll smother the ones at the bottom who produce. I was there 10+ years, and kept feeling more and more pressure on numbers, etc; I feel pushed out due to the fact I am older and have a family; they’ll bring in another youngster. Glenn has undone the company; I don’t think Griffith can stop the bleeding now.