I am genuinely worried about the state of affairs at State Farm after reading these posts. I had a beautiful 30 years with State Farm, but the last three years were unbearable. The first 30 years were wonderful dealing with the customer. There were by far more good days than bad days. I always gave SF more than what I was getting paid because I truly believed and stood up for its reputation. When I say I gave more before time card, many days I came into the office when no one was there and many days I worked past the 5 pm closing time and weekends. I worked many extra curricular details that were personally rewarding. Near the end of my career, I began to see the politics destroy the reputation my heart was sold on.
Upon retiring the rewards paid off. The company thought I was in debt and could not retire. I was told by a claim consultant and my TM I could not retire after 33 years. I checked into it with many financial institutions who came back with: "Why didn't you do this 2 years ago?" Because I was upset at the time, those comments angered me. It took me two years to finally understand SF did me a favor for wanting me to retire. At the time, I did not see it. Today, I look at it as a blessing because now I have my freedoms and no worries financially.
For those of you that are still in there with 30 years or more, take a serious look at it. It is doable to get out at 70% of your pension. It's not the money, it's how you want to live. Do you really need that 500.00 plus handbag while working? Do you need to take lavish vacations? Do you really need to draw equity out of your home for an asset that depreciates? The old saying is watch your pennies and the dollars will follow is so true and you don't need a CPCU book to figure that out.
Long story short. I was extremely blessed by SF to have served on the front lines for as long as I did. The only thing that concerns me now are the remarks on this site. It strikes me as a monster they will soon be unable to control.