Thread regarding State Farm Insurance layoffs

Stay thrifty, my friend. You will have so many more options if you do so. Think of it this way...is it worth staying in a soul-crushing situation just so you can have a new truck?

Ya well the Select Service job is gone. No one is looking at the cars. Estimate assist is a whole other animal those shops have no contract with SF. I see it everyday we are getting screwed.

@3yor—I must respectfully disagree. I was in auto claims in late 80’s or early 90’s when we were told one morning that we were going to let shops do the estimates. We thought it would be the end of the world. A few months later, we couldn’t believe how much better it made the whole process. The estimators I worked with every day were the biggest believers. Most were former body shop guys and said relations were much improved when we got out of the way and allowed them to run their shops efficiently. No more torn down cars taking up active floor space while they waited for us to come out and approve obvious supplements, etc. State Farm micro manages other people’s businesses almost as well as they micro manage their own.

Not too long after that, we had Reinspector/Trainers rather than the army of estimators. That did a pretty good job of randomly keeping the shops honest.

Several of the jobs I’ve done at the Farm over the years are gone. I have fond memories, but don’t believe for a minute that most of them will or should come back.

30 year poster While you have some good points, you are so wrong about repair estimates. Body shops do not work for SF nor do they care about SF. Yes there are some honest ones, even they want to maximise their profits. Then there are the dishonest ones. They will and do hit us hard. The appraisers have a direct impact on our bottom line. They are on of the few jobs that are customer facing. Yes I am an estimator I have been in this crazy business my entire life. Lucky for me I am on the tail end of it. They say it costs 150.00 per car for me to write a sheet much of that is bs. I would gladly take 100.00 per car straight commission take all my benefits I will supply car and computer. I can look at 10 cars a day. Trust me the shops on estimate assist or hitting us for more than 100.00 a car alot lot more.

Live a little. You could die in a car wreck on your way home from work on Monday. You could drop dead of a heart attack the day your retire.

It’s important to save for retirement. It’s also important to enjoy your life and not live for a future you might never see.

Living below my means is what allowed me to finally get fed up and walk away.

Best decision I ever made.

Thanks for the perspectives shared.

For those with small incomes, SF used to be a great place that developed people from within. My salary is 4X my salary 20 yrs ago, and the responsibilitites have also multiplied.

I believe the pension is safe. Maybe not, but I will be ok either way.

Without faith from the employee base in executive leadership unfortunately I see no end to the current trends of low morale, loosing customers, and people considering SF a job rather than a career

SF does not have leadership, they have management. There is a difference. Calling someone a leader does not make them one.

The 30 year poster makes excellent points but thats no excuse for treatng those who are left like dirt. If someone cant even get time off for a Dr apot that is criminal and needs to be addressed. Our executives fly here and there for little trips all the time. They need to treat people like humans not zoo animals.

Pension bye bye good luck u are going to need it no social skills and tech skills

30 years at the Farm in various roles. It’s not the same company it used to be. But it’s not the same world it used to be, and these aren’t the same customers we used to have. I am a dinosaur and so are many of us here. Many folks here talk about how somebody else’s position is outdated or unnecessary. But nobody seems to recognize the same about their own position. To wit:

1. Customers don’t need an agent to buy minimum required limits auto insurance and change companies every 6 months. They do need somebody to provide real advice about insurance, but the newer customer doesn’t care.

2. Customers don’t need an estimator to spend three days driving to a body shop to see their car, preparing an estimate, and delivering it back to the shop. Estimatics is computerized and standardized. Any “padding” that occurs is minimal and more than offset by the savings of estimator salaries. Home claims are much the same.

3. Customers don’t need an underwriter looking at their application. The Clue reports, MVR’s prior auto loss history, and consumer reports are automated and can be calculated much more accurately by the computer than by a human. And since regulation has virtually eliminated the right to make judgement calls....underwriters are not needed. Especially given the quick turnover (industry wide)-policy acquisition cost has to be next to nothing.

4. Claims adjusters are not needed to look at the repair paperwork and authorize a check. Simple processors can do that, and AI will soon replace them.

If your day is not spent making a noticeable difference to the customer, your job is not needed. Executive’s job, like it or not, is to reduce all unnecessary expenses to deliver the best combination of product and price to the customer, thereby saving the enterprise.

Ha. Be single and don’t even make 4K a month let alone save it. Wow.

Sadly, you pretty much summed up what many of us non- St Farm employee's have been dealing with for as long as I can remember. And while it's a good idea to have savings, vacations have gone bye bye, new cars, furniture, more modern appliances etc etc have all been put on hold. And if everyone is doing this, then no wonder everything is closing up. Keep replacing employee's with machines, and build massive company profits and one day who will buy anything......

State Farm has ridden their dedicated employees so hard through this future State rodeo that everyone's spirit is broken. No existing employees will ever trust this company again. They'll have to replace all of us so there is no institutional memory left. Once your spirit is broken you come to terms with the inevitable, and stop caring. I'm hoarding my PTO, saving as much as I can, and no longer have the determination to deliver remarkable service like we used to. My career has become a job.

Keep living below you means, it's liberating!

Man, if you're socking away 4k a month on top of retirement contributions and angsting over getting a new truck or leaving, you've truly got first world problems. No offense, and I appreciate your candor, but really?

I retired in 2016. May not be traveling the world and getting a new designer handbag each season but I am happier than I’ve ever been and have so much peace and contentment in my life. Wish I would have done it sooner.

i have spoken to many people that have been let go. These are great people that are very capable and work very hard in their job. In L and D there are one to two people that are making these decisions. Everyone knows who they are and they know who they are. So sad how these people are hurting families!

In Proximity we have been going though this on a regular basis every 3 - 5 years since the 90's. Welcome to our hell! It does get worse each time, especially seeing good people screwed over. My advice to everyone - It will be you that gets screwed over. It is not a question of if, it is a question of when. Don't place any trust in Leadership because it will be broken. You will be disappointed by the decisions made, as well as the lack of care or concern that you are shown. This is a business and you are replaceable with cheaper labor. Make financial plans for this and leave on your terms, not theirs. Never forget that you are expendable...

You are not alone. Most of the survivors I know say they will never trust State Farm leadership ever again. At least not all the present leadership that got us to this mess. It feels like this will all happen again in the future. How could it not? Same people up top, same actions, same results.