Pros
I will list Pros if I can think of any.
Cons
The Standard Culture: The Buddy System Picture a company that thrives on the creative energy of its employees. Think of your dream work environment. Now, close your eyes and imagine a company that is the polar opposite. There you are, Standard Insurance Company (aka The Standard). The Standard functions according to a Buddy System. If you want to advance in any way, you need to become a Buddy with a manager. Remember teacher’s pets back in grade school? It’s not about being a conscientious worker. In fact, attempts to provide an honest assessment of issues and constructive suggestions result in reprimands if you are not a Buddy. Company touts core values, such as “Care About People”, and “Take the High Road”. Just nonsense. CEO is the biggest violator. Sounding self-important at meetings counts more than whether you actually know how to do anything. Listen to me! I’ve got a BIG, BOOMING VOICE! Managers are more like politicians and lawyers than true business leaders. Politics is preferred to results. A person’s job title and position in the hierarchy are far more important than the underlying merits of his or her ideas. Subject matter experts are routinely ignored and brushed off like high school students. The contempt for individual contributors is palpable. Thinking outside the box is not valued. There is always immediate push back and visceral skepticism about any new idea, killing hope for innovation. At the same time, there is no hesitation to defend stupid or outdated ways of doing things. The Standard functions very much like government, an Orwellian nightmare. Management is stuck in 1950s mentality: rigid, top-down, vertically aligned. Decisions come from on high and are passed down the line to workers without any forum for dialogue. There is no tolerance for disagreement, however well intentioned. Only yes-men are selected for management positions, perpetuating the quagmire ad infinitum. 1970s billing systems, paper records, passive aggressive culture, etc. An internal job posting for a mortgage loan officer listed a requirement of being able to lift thirty pounds (massive paper bundles). Not joking. Individual Annuities is another festering cesspool. And don’t waste your time with HR with a legitimate issue. Their sole function is to protect owners and managers from workers. To be sure, I have met high-energy, creative people at The Standard: they’ve all quit. Nearly everyone I know who left The Standard ended up improving their career with a sizeable salary increase, more interesting work, higher levels of responsibility, and more respect. Employees who offer serious ideas for improving the business are labeled as uppity. Once branded, you are finished. You will never be a Buddy. Punishments include exclusion from meetings, denied promotions, rejection from growth opportunities, and termination without cause. People who aren’t Buddies need to keep their head down and check their intellect at the lobby elevator each morning. A Job Offer From The Standard? Thinking about moving to Portland to join Individual Annuities? At The Standard, you will feel more like a contractor than a valued employee, just an overhead expense. If you do choose to join Individual Annuities, bring a barrel of anti-depressants and get signed up with a therapist. Don’t work lots of extra hours because there will be no recognition, no pay increases, no comp days, and instead of appreciation, only mud in your face in an intolerant, unwelcoming, and totally dysfunctional environment. You can expect perpetual disempowerment. If you don’t become a Buddy, always remember the Three Standard Golden Rules: Keep your mouth shut, keep your mouth shut, and (did I tell you?) keep your mouth shut. Merely stating a fact that is printed on the front page of major newspapers can get you in trouble. Individual Annuities: Turnstile Central In a short period of time, seven of the nine actuaries working in Individual Annuities left the company. My God! Even an assistant manager at McDonalds would be alarmed at this turnover rate. It’s beyond absurdity. The financial harm from this extreme turnover rate must run into millions of dollars. Desperate efforts to replace people have been unsuccessful. One hole is patched, and three new leaks spring up. The actuarial group is in a complete state of disarray, a total train wreck. Is HR asleep at the wheel? People don’t leave companies, people leave bosses. Small group of actuary managers have taken over Individual Annuities. A classic old boy network, they’ve created an artificial, members-only kingdom to serve their own personal interests. Joined firmly at the hip, Das Storm Troopers speak with one voice and protect each other daily with admirable displays of quid pro quo as they lovingly scratch each other’s back. These testosterone-laden and self-congratulatory boys hang tight with grams, perched high in the sky on a pretend pedestal. With precise goose steps executed with perfect unity, they waddle together on their way to lounge in their own private pigsty, stomping on people who get in the way. The damage done by these self-serving, egotistical donkeys will be felt for years to come. Endless Secrecy Communication of information is always a challenge at larger organizations. There’s an old joke that engineers at GM who design front seats don’t even know who designs the back seats. At The Standard, this sort of disconnect is both deliberate and routine. Walls are built between divisions, departments, teams, and individuals. There is a place on the company intranet where employees are supposedly encouraged to post ideas and suggestions. But it only lists upcoming bake sales because people learned that if you post messages containing anything of substance, the thought police swoop down (literally) and order you to SHUT UP. Fall-out of Acquisition by Meiji Yasuda When The Standard was acquired by Meiji Yasuda, everyone was assured that nothing would change. This assurance came from the same people who kept telling us that The Standard would never be acquired. No wonder the lowest scores on opinion surveys were always about upper management trustworthiness. The questions about trustworthiness were quietly removed from the opinion survey. Annual Performance Reviews were phased out to make it easier to fire people since there is no paper trail for anything. The toxic atmosphere in this fear-driven environment is nauseating. Of course, Buddies maintain their protected status. Just as the deal was announced, turncoat CEO bought himself a 3.5 million dollar luxury home in Lake Oswego. He definitely has a lock on the Oregonian Traitor of the Decade award for being a striking personification of the notion that “Greed is Good”. The Emperor is wearing no clothes. As a cost-cutting measure, employees are now packed into Japanese-style open office areas with minuscule desks with no borders. There is no privacy, you can reach out and touch your neighbors. If you interview for a job at The Standard, make sure you ask to see an actual work area. Every three months, a large quarterly dividend check is delivered to Japan. Tens of millions of dollars, forever more sucked out of the local economy. Historic downtown buildings are now foreign-owned. One hundred years of wealth generated by Oregonians is gone.
