Thread regarding Allstate Corp. layoffs

Only 11 jobs going at time of writing on the ANI website. That's a good day, recently it has been only 2 jobs going and in the very good times it was at least 30 jobs going.

All the 'old heads' with experience are away and now they are recruiting graduates who don't know the history and current situation but are glad to have a job.

ANI is finished, it's just a matter of time.

Last person out turn off the lights etc.

I doubt there are many of us 10+ year veterans left who could genuinely give a damn at this point. ANI is dead, that's why John Healey walked, he saw it coming.... and probably objected to what they wanted to do.

Everything will be shipped to India so it can be incompetently managed for less money.

@1qb similar situation. Any open position on the team is being backfilled in India. The management is in India too and you are absolutely correct on all account RE woeful leadership and sweatshop conditions.

How does one get a package?

17 years here and praying for redundancy.

I may be in NI but am working entirely under Indian management and they are dreadful. Zero management support; project requirements changed on a whim consistently; unrealistic deadlines imposed etc.

I know ANI was somewhat of a joke previously with the amount of wastrels we had to carry, but now the pendulum has swung into Indian sweatshop territory.

Can't wait to leave.

@vw isn't wrong....

@vw get back under your bridge Donald.

ANI is hot garbage that was initially meant to take American jobs. Now these hacks want to cry and bi--h about being miserable and prone to layoffs. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

@tb not the most ‘professional’ advice that. The only thing perplexed will be the poor sod that lies on their CV/ Interview. Do not heed this ‘advice’ people. It’s not a bit of wonder the industry/ company is in the state it’s in.

If you’re in a challenging position - Do yourselves a favour - raise your concerns with your line manager, HR and training department. Find out what skills the company are seeking, make an internal move. Hone your new skills and then make a move out of this place. Either that, or make a decision to call time on the IT industry. The amount of knowledge you’re expected to retain, maintain and refresh is unlike any other industry and it isn’t changing any time soon. Mix that in with non supportive leaders and it’s a recipe for mental health disaster.

There’s other ways to make a living. Be happy.

@pa 1.
The wider the skillset you have the wider the range of jobs you can apply for and the more chance you have of securing a decent job, and if the selection process comes down to a tie break it can swing things in your favour.

1. I'm not talking about just writing Hello World here. If that' your definition of upskilling then why even bother. Learn something well and become proficient at it and you don't necessarily have to have years of experience in that skill. If you can demonstrate a high level of competence in it, it shows an employer that you have the ability to learn and that you are motivated - both are attractive qualities to an employer.

2. If you demonstrate a good level of competence on a skill and LIE that you have 3 years commercial experience in it (lets face it, we've all done it at interviews), how will the interviewer know you don't? When's the last time a perspective employer contacted your current employer to verify if you worked on a certain project with certain skills - I've never done it in any of the interviews I've conducted over the years.

3. If you go to an interview and they ask you what new skills you have learned on the last few years and/or how do you keep your skills up to date (a question asked a lot) and you say you haven't done anything, then it can be construed as a lack of motivation - often a red flag to many employers.

I'm genuinely perplexed that I'm having this discussion with an IT professional and having to point out the benefits of upskilling. I get that you're not motivated to upskill and that's fair enough. You may not need to as your current skills will be sufficient to secure you a new job, and I hope when you do you are successful. But not everyone's in that boat. I know people who have worked on mainframe for their entire career within Allstate (ANI and further afield) and who are now sh-----g themselves at the prospect of finding a new job as there's very little demand for their skillset any more. And that comment is straight from several horse's mouths.

@p6 Thank you for the advice!

@p5 it’s all very well ‘upskilling’…but your upskilling will mean jack sh-t unless you’ve got a proven track record of applying said skill in a commercial setting for X number of years frankly. What I’m saying is, don’t mistake writing a ‘hello world’ springboot app as having Springboot experience.

Anyone have an example of a ‘legacy’ developer skillset?

@ng Yea I agree it is horrible. Haven't heard about any layoffs this quarter but ANI are so fu--ing sleeked about the whole thing there could have been and HR just swept it under the rug. Re upskilling. Depends on the type of job you want but as a developer and looking at what the majority of employers are currently looking for I'm focused on Python, advanced Java, Spring boot especially microservices, security and data access, Javascript, CICD, Monitoring, TDD and testing frameworks, Cloud platforms, AWS, MS Azure and AI. Hope that helps!

@nr That was your take away from my rant?! No what I'm trying to point out is that for many long termers in ANI in a developer role and who have worked on the same system for a long time, the IT world passes them by. While those skills are useful to Allstate for now, they won't always be. Will they be lucky to get another job with the same skillset elsewhere? Possibly but unlikely. Will a perspective employer be likely to trade off hiring an experienced person who doesn't have the skillset they currently require but who does have experience under their belt? Possibly but unlikely when they can hire grads fresh out of Uni who do have those skills for half the salary (which ANI currently does). My point is that if you are facing redundancy, which many of us are, if we want the best chance to get a decent job then you need to be prepared for it. And the only way to mitigate the risk of not being able to find a decent job and to not have to take something half assed in order to survive, is to be as attractive to an employer as you can possibly be. And the best way to do that is to have an up to date skillset which will make them want to hire you. Yeah its a real pain in the ar-e to have to have to upskill in the little spare time I have and yes it does take it out of me. But being a father, a husband, a home owner and someone who has the number one priority of seeing my family happy, if I have to bust my ba--s for a while to ensure that happens then I will. And I really don't understand how others in the same position as me don't clearly see that and aren't prepared to do the same.

@nb - I think your perspective is a little extreme. Are you seriously suggesting that for the majority of those working at ANI, McDonalds is their only alternative in the event of a layoff?

I agree with you all it is horrible having to live with the constant prospect of logging in only to find you are being let go. Does anyone know if there have been any layoffs yet for this quarter? And for someone interested in up-skilling what would be the best things to upskill to?

Serious question. When your future, your family and your home are under threat cos you are facing the real prospect of being laid off, are you just going to just sit there and moan about how little time you have to do something about it and lie down under it or are you going to put on your big boy pants and do as much as you can in that time to at least try and secure a future for yourself and your family? Half an hour a night for a few nights a week can make a big difference. Or half an hour of your lunch break. Or if you're lucky enough to manage your own work load and not have a manager who's a total ct, you carve out 30 minutes a day of your work time to do it. Yeah I get it, time's precious and we give enough of it to make rich b***ds who don't give a fk about us even richer. But I also get that life is st at times and I just have to su-k it up and do what I have to in order to secure a future for my family. I'd rather be sitting in a nice warm office typing on a computer all day and getting a decent wage than standing behind the counter at McDonalds asking teenagers if they want to supersize their order. and getting paid a pittance.

@j2 Serious question. When work is very grim and you spend the majority of your week at it - who has the energy or drive to upskill in the little free time you do have? God forbid you should have a family, a life etc etc

Have to agree with the majority here. Unless you have the skills ANI needs to modernise the various Allstate systems which, let's face it are in some cases decades behind the curve, your days are numbered.

The transformative growth strategy to modernise and upgrade all the systems doesn't extend to the employees - once they start to replace those systems with new ones, the people who currently maintain them will more than likely be out the door. Some of the old guard I know have been given the chance to modernise their skills and now work in areas like the Compozed labs and that at least seems to guarantee them some sort of future, at least for a few years while they build out the replacement systems. After that, who knows. Allstate have a history of moving systems entering maintenance mode to India and letting teams who know f-all about developing them maintain them.

Add to that the big push to introduce AI into areas like Claims and its not just Developers who should be worried. If I was a Claim Handler or an Agent in the States then I would be seriously worried right now. I know some people laugh at the prospect of Allstate doing something well and within a viable timeframe, but given that there are actually some very talented people in ANI and many of them have been drafted into the transformative growth push, I can actually see it happening in a few years.

My own thoughts, if you intend to stay in the industry then use whatever time you have left at ANI to up-skill as much as possible to have skills which employers need, so once the axe falls you can hit the ground running.

Seriously folks? After those fantastic 3rd Quarter results and ANI winning the "NI Jobfinder best place to work award", there's all this negativity? We're in for massive pay rises and bonuses in March guaranteed... /sarcasm

Yeah the place is absolute misery, anyone I know are just playing the waiting game. Regular grunts, managers, senior leadership are all fed up, disillusioned and hoping for the axe to fall on them. The only ones believing the bullsh-t are our illustrious MD and his gaggle of sycophants.

Everyone I know, leaders included, want redundancy. No one likes working here anymore.

I can only imagine how miserable it is in the states considering they get treated worse than us.

It must so nice for the board of directors to get a bigger bonus. All it takes to pay for it is to layoff employees but also force them to train their replacements who let cows sh-t in their house while eating Hot Fish Curry.

@bs I heard it was 1 month salary per year of service capped at 12 years IF you sign the NDA.

Getting the redundancy is supposedly the hard part. They know people are holding out for it and they’re playing a sick game of who blinks first.

How much redundancy do you get at ANI?

First of all, you’re not alone 👍

ANI has been systematically targeting long tenure employees over the last 4 years, and that isn’t changing.

It’s a poisonous atmosphere for experienced ANI employees, as the process of managing you out the door (i.e. the no notice call from HR, with a slightly enhanced package that is contingent upon signing a NDA, and you then having to resign), is the reward you get for long term service.

The trust in senior management is gone since J Healy left, and no amount of company events will ever change that. Although there has been some sporadic local press reporting on it, the additional factor of local press continually pumping out pro-ANI puff PR pieces, rather than investigating & reporting on this employee exit strategy, adds to the level of despair.

Re: your mental health, most people I know are afraid to open up to anyone to get some help, as the fear is you will automatically put a target on your back to be next out the door.

Re: potentially getting a payoff and then moving on to another role outside of IT, it’s a gamble. Although ANI is a traumatic place to work, there are other employers out there who actually value their employees rather than gaslighting them. Is it worth your mental health to put the effort into cling on in the hope of a payoff, or do you prioritise yourself & your family?

Only you can answer that 🤷‍♂️

The thought of another year or two is too much for me. I don’t see redundancy in my immediate future. Contemplating resignation to safeguard my mental health.

Im in the acceptance stage. It'll happen in next year or 2 I think. Get me a payout and get me out of I.T. for good