I've stopped worrying about layoffs a while ago. So many people are leaving and preparing to leave that they're doing the ELT's cost-cutting job for them and better than they ever could with layoffs. After all, if somebody leaves on his or her own, there's no severance involved. We have a lot of things to stress about right now (being overworked among them) but layoffs are not one of them.
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I have never laughed so hard during my miserable tenure at NM than I did just now reading this previous. I don't if it is frighteningly legit, or a spoof, but thank you for making me need to change underwear. I needed this!
I agree with the previous poster - NM was a different company and we were a different people. More grateful, and more of a community. We shared coffee, banana bread, and sometimes our wives. It was a different time... a better time.
This greatly upsets me. When I started at home office many years ago we were proud to join Northwestern Mutual. We respected the company leadership. We didn't make waves. We conformed. We dutifully came into the office and put in an honest day's work. We didn't gripe. When I started, we were given desk chairs with no arms. Chairs with arms were only allocated to people who had been with the company for quite awhile and had seniority. If you wanted a chair with arms, then you accrued time on the job to earn that luxury. When I started we didn't have fancy lunch options, like a full salad bar or Taco Day and things like that. We gladly consumed are well prepared but non-fanciful and economic lunch, and did so within the allotment of a 45 minute lunch. We didn't linger in the cafetorium. No, we went right back to our work area and got going on our afternoons. We'd have meetings, and we didn't restrict attendance but warmly invited many to attend. And if there weren't enough chairs around the table, then you knew to stand against the wall and not grouse about it. When you needed office supplies, you didn't pitch a fit about there not being any brand new highlighters available. Or multiple colors available. No, you gladly accepted what the department administrative assistant would give you. Because we were glad to work for Northwestern Mutual, and treated company expenses like we would our own household budgets. And annually, the company provided wonderful summer picnic. Where you could bring your spouse, children and mother for a lovely day. And all the expenses for the venue and the hamburgers, hotdogs, sodas, etc. was generously paid for by Northwestern Mutual. And when you worked at Northwestern Mutual, then you knew you had an obligation to by a whole life insurance policy from a valued local Milwaukee agent. And this was a marvelous thing because not only were you helping the company and that agent, but you provided your family with measure of sound financial security. And you gladly paid those monthly premiums and felt great pride when the cash value of your policy steadily increased. Financial security was the name of the game, not rolling the dice on the stock market and thinking like a riverboat gambler. A steady 6% dividend from Northwestern Mutual made you sleep good at night. And provided an extra measure of comfort knowing, that if you needed a new wash machine that you had a rainy day fund of sorts that you could tap into for the unexpected expense. And when we drove our cars to work, we were grateful for a parking spot. You didn't see all the extravagant cars that are in the Northwestern Mutual lots of today, but good honest unpretentious cars like a Ford LTD or a Buick Century. This great company needs to be mindful of its roots, and we as employees need to be humbled and appreciative. And culturally speaking, get back to our knitting. No more of these hotshot young people who enter with an entitlement mentality, and demand things like the availability of a fancy $6.00 coffee in the lobby. In my day, we gladly consumed the Folgers coffee that was brewed on each floor. And we each chipped in a few bucks once a month to make sure that a can of Sanka was on hand, plus sugar cubes and creamer. And it was typically the case that if you made extra banana bread at home, that you'd bring some to work and share it with everyone in your department. Maybe one day I bring the banana bread, and another you would bring 3 bean salad that was leftover from Sunday dinner. This is how we worked and liked and supported one another. A real delight to work for Northwestern Mutual. And to walk the halls with your head held up.
I left a while ago and probably a good decision