Remember folks, there is no such thing as loyalty in Corporate America for its customers, workers, or even its brand: just the shareholders. Our salaries are only based on how hard it is to replace us and with AI and increased offshoring we are seen more as a burden and expense than as an asset. Ive been with this company for 25+ years. When I started it was preached that the lower pay was because the company was a place where if you worked hard, they would invest in your development, you can advance, and your job security was pretty high because where we like a family. That was true for the first 15 years of my career here, the workplace culture was excellent. That drastically changed since the end of the pandemic. Im hoping to make it a few more years before a RIF so I can just retire. I feel bad for those having to deal with this here or any major company in the United States. Get ready for two major items in the next 6 months: Major RIFs/layoffs and a full return to office mandate. If you don't come back to the office because you believed the company a few years ago about living wherever you wanted and being able to work or work life balance, you might want to start looking for a new job/career now. If you are an office or hybrid worker, new tech is coming to help HR track you better even if your manager is located in a completely different office or continent. AI is getting better and offshoring is increasing. The talk about doing the "right thing" has been stifled if it does not align with the new "model." The only thing that will make this company improve its workers culture is if the economy, job markets, and competition improve, and until there is a new administration, I doubt that will happen.
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Having customers buy online, service own policy, file claim on app with no human interaction? Mabe if you straemline it but when you make a $0 cost glass option on comprehensive that customers don't select and find out the hard way isn't good. Read consumer reports reviews, they are all real from customers with recent experiences.
@OP I would agree with you. There seems to be a serious push on at the minute to implement AI systems across the company, in fact there seems to be a competition on in the higher echelons to to see who can get it done first (Tom Wilson wanna be replacements?). Whether they can do it properly is a different matter, let's face it most of the top brass are full of cr-p, ideas men who lack the intelligence to implement that vision themselves, they just come up with ideas and hand it off to their subordinates who are told to make it happen by a certain date. The main drive seems to be to automate as much as possible - do away with agents and the support staff who surround them completely and let the customers log in to an Allstate account on line to shop for and manage their insurance, do away with two thirds of the claim handlers and have an agentic AI system manage the majority of claims, do away with admin staff and have all documents and communications automated. The only loyalty the higher echelons have is to their bank accounts, they don't give a sh-t about the workers, each others or even the share holders.
Allstate offloaded the office space/expense during the Covid period, which is different than many of the other companies profiled in the media that are requiring workers to return. Those firms supported WFH/Hybrid while also paying for space. TW celebrated the reduction in expense ratio, and the effectiveness of leadership in managing virtually. Perhaps a new CEO changes direction, but it would be costly to get back into the real estate market. It also limits your access to talent to specific geographic areas as opposed to broader sourcing. In any scenario, between offshoring and AI, the headcount and opportunities in the States is likely to decline.
I don't doubt an RTO mandate may happen eventually, but has anyone heard or seen plans to actually move in this direction? It seems to be the way many companies are going, but I'm curious about the potential time horizon....2 years out? 5 years out? Or is this conjecture based on trends? After substantial RIFs, I can see where how there could be fewer people to cram into physical offices...especially if they're done with an eye to "thin the herd" based on geography.
A return to office mandate is inevitable, I actually am surprised it hasn't happened yet.