Good advice from an old-timer

Thought this could use to be pushed to the top given latest news. Not my post, OP is @RpNmAyg-olkf.

I worked for State Farm for 25 years and left well before retirement age feeling it needed to trim down. It was tiring trying to make a difference; so unlike many that stay and complain..., I left. I was in a Claim Manager job. I sat in planning sessions years ago and was open about the need to more aggressively reorganize and reduce staff at my level and below. The company was resistant to expanding centralization and cost reduction 20 years ago; and an industry selling rather simple P it may seem harsh to be in an organization going through change. Actually State Farm is a benevolent company compared to most. If you are worth more..., leave. If you are clever enough to start a business and do better; do it. I watched employees complain for decades and while difficult at times for me; I am pleased I left. I have done better on my own terms. I hope many that feel uncomfortable find a better path or be thankful and contribute during a time of change.

Comment! It's anonymous!

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Leadership has not received the message that those who put us in this position MUST GO.

Also - @pbr you need to make your long post a thread for itself - it's a well written dissection of the issues and having it buried here in this post does not help the discussion - I can go repost but people would be like 'why are you reposting' - I see value in this as some good posts never get reviewed as they are buried in a long back and forth reply string

i see reposts like retweets - if you do not like just skip them but that's just me

@izf the poster provided a hotlink in the post - you can see it as blue text in the first sentence

you can go to it here

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/RpNmAyg#olkf

or just go here

@RpNmAyg

Oh yeah, this was that thread on how to post non-sequitur BS. Thanks for the heads up!

Read it again. Slowly. It'll come to you.

Never mind. I found it. Surprise, the search function works:

I haven't met a single person who argues that State Farm didn't need to trim down. I've pointed out multiple times on this forum that Systems in particular needed to trim multiple layers of management and to consolidate roles that are far too specialized. This was all clear to me when I started 17 years ago.

It was common knowledge throughout Systems. Whenever you've got a project team meeting with 50 people in it, things have gotten out of hand.

The problem is that instead of beginning the trimming back then, when it could have been done with far less impact to the company, the inept executives came up with CDE, which grew systems to enormous levels while at the same time making it completely dysfunctional. They made it MORE EXPENSIVE and LESS EFFECTIVE.

Then, they panicked and decided to butcher Systems with an ax rather than a scalpel, throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The fools responsible for CDE are still running the show. No one in the trenches will respect leadership until those people are flushed out. Seriously, who can trust this reorganization with those people at the helm?

The State Farm the previous poster knew may have been benevolent. Yes, in fact I know they were, to the point of idiocy.

The new State Farm is anything but

And this re-org isn't the trimming we needed. It's a hack job.

Could you please post what thread you jacked this post from so I could go back and copy my original rebuttal to it here?

Your cooperation is much appreciated.

Thread regarding State Farm Insurance layoffs

Good advice from an old-timer

7 replies (most recent on top)

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