Does anyone know where we stand. The cafe closed, break rooms are being updated. As services said a new roof coming soon! Very confusing.
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Our office has also been remodeling and renovating its 20 year old building for a couple of years now including a new cafeteria, break rooms, and bathrooms. Now the cafeteria is being converted to "grab and go" this month -- this doesn't make sense. Why build a beautiful new kitchen just to close it? It seems they are getting the place ready for a new tenant or doing upgrades to help get out of our lease early (15 year signed in 2013). No one thinks they are doing this for the employees. We lose employees every week and they are not being replaced. We are all just waiting for the announcement that we will be closing. Morale is in the toilet. Leadership can't seem to figure out why we are losing billions. It's because the employees know the company doesn't care about them, so the favor is returned. All anyone cares about in claims is trying to get their unrealistic numbers/metrics that they post on the silly huddle boards so they don't get a bad review and land the late shift getting stuck working to 8pm. Just throw money at claims to make them go away faster. No time for negotiations or to argue about paying something we may not owe.....just pay it and move on! The metrics have removed any incentive to do good work. Just "get the click" for your number count, cut corners, kick the can and get out of the claim as fast as you can so you can get more numbers. Lots of cheating and working the system going on just to get the numbers. Seems like we are heading down the same path that Wells Fargo took....give employees impossible goals/numbers to meet and people will do what ever it takes to get them. The lean six sigma, a.k.a. EOM model has failed miserably. Our CEO thinks the solution is just to cut more costs to get us out of this mess. Too bad he sees the employees as a cost to be eliminated rather then as assets that are needed to take care of our customers.
Remodels don't mean much. They only leased the Tacoma buildings in 2013 and put a lot into remodeling yet we are being closed.
All the new hires in the last few months was just about the shadiest thing they did. We thought we were ok for a few years because they kept hiring but we were not.
I would move to a hub but most of the positions offer no relocation these days
There is an article in time.com August 24, 2017 that is titled "These are the 12 Employers Who Have Laid Off the Most Workers This Year. SF is ranked number 4.
Nothing is safe anymore. It's a very mad dash to some end game and no one knows what that is. Funny, no one is the news - anywhere- are reporting these lay-offs.
The company brought in a group of outside hires Summer 2017 for Newark, OH. Today, we are told our section managers are being relocated. The building is being reorganized, and rumors are flying wildly about. The cafeteria closes this week and converts to a grab-n-go format. Supposedly, the lease has not been renewed. It is confusing and concerning that the company would bring on new hires just to end up letting them go when they could have moved people from other departments and had a quicker training time and less costs associated.
But apparently, this is how Good Neighbors act now.
What is a secretary pool??? The call on Tuesday announced 14ish offices that would have secretaries in them. Of course one was Tacoma, so does that really give a person hope since they are done 12/31/2018.....
Yes, it is safe to presume all non-Hub locations will eventually close. If the work can be handled in a Hub and/or BMI location, why spend money on facilities and the workers within? If there is proximity work, the vendors, the few remaining field staff, or ECRs can handle it.
As mentioned in another thread, ECRs are cheaper than staff claim reps on a per claim handled basis. When the work is done, the ECR gets released. Back in the old days, agents would demand that claims be handled by staff reps and they would get their way. Today, agents don't wield the same influence. When they have questions on a claim, they call the same phone number with the thirteen digit extension as policyholders and have the same wait time on hold.
Concordville is in good spot. Plus they’re getting a secretary pool. I think they’ll be around for a few more years. Ballston Spa is losing employees. They most likely will be done within two years.
Upgraded doors at entrances as well as fencing in any outside cafeteria spaces is most likely due to security concerns. I imagine SF is receiving/concerned about threats. Also increased security presence at Corp. If your building is not Corp or a hub, its going away. They are not going to pay to keep these places open/staffed.
Newark’s cafe is closing down this week also. Have heard they are looking into remodel of break rooms. Have also heard we are getting revolving doors added. At the end of the day I don’t think any of it matters. This is all a master plan to close offices with no blood on SF hands. Funny how we use to always make fun of others insurance companies when they cut staff aka “SF is a mutual company we don’t answer to shareholders”. To bad policyholders don’t know the true problem with rates going up is the sub level claim handlers, or the thousands of ECRs we pay $600 a day. I mean it’s not like the stock market is doing great <— sarcasm.
My office found out in May, 2017, that it will exit in 2019, but departments' work is already being moved out of our location (we don't even think we'll make it through 2018). I assume your building is leased like all the other SF buildings. Don't get your hopes up with the remodels. Our cafeteria went through a MAJOR remodel about 2 years ago (I think), and our entire building's floor plan was completely redesigned to fit more cubicles. The cube walls were replaced with newer panels an several 2-seater dialogue rooms were built to comply with EOM. It was a huge undertaking (the cubicle re-do) that lasted for months, and even outside help came in to assist Ad Services. I think the cube thing happened in 2015. We were a named long-term location, too. We knew we would eventually close, but maybe for not another 10-15 years.
What I'm getting at is, that's great you're getting some remodeling, but don't let it give you false hope of staying open. Possibly the remodels needed to happen because of wear/tear, or maybe to update the building for the next tenant. Regardless, this company wants everyone in the Hubs or in Bloomington with half the workforce. Tips has said in several news article interviews the approximate# of workers each hub will have, and it ain't adding up to 70,000.
Don't be fooled, this company already had their game plan in place long before the s*** started hitting the fan. They just didn't suddenly decide to close 11 more offices between 2018-2021, or suddenly close Tacoma. In fact, they are now likely executing their plans at a faster pace just out of desperation to cut expenses. I don't even see any of the Hubs as safe long-term.
When will the Atlanta Hub be complete? My guess is that they move fire (located in COC and Birmingham) here. Thoughts?
We just had revolving doors installed in Ballston Spa - we were hoping that was a good sign :) Any short term offices also put them in? Pretty sad, right? Grasping at straws ...
Any location other than BN or a Hub is NOT safe.
What's the occupancy rate at Concordville? What's the business climate in PA? How are taxes, and the cost of living in PA? My guess it will close. Same with Ballston Spa based the latter three questions....and their geographical location for the pay structure. Newark OH would be on the chopping block too.
Just my senseless $.02
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