Why am I not surprised that Carmichael has joined Proudfoot. Proudfoot was the consulting firm that Ohio Casualty hired in 2003. Proudfoot operated very much like the consulting firm in the movie Office Space. Thanks to Proudfoot, Ohio Casualty laid me off in February 2004 along with hundreds of other Ohio Casualty employees. I guess they needed another jackass to help them fire people.
No surprise here. Why would you be shocked at getting laid off? It’s what Proudfoot does. Their entire business model revolves around reducing head count. This means layoffs. The “savings” they produce for clients is in salaries and HR benefits of employees who are no longer there. It’s a short term solution, because then nobody is left to do the work, and performance and quality suffer. Luiz Carvahlo, CEO of Proudfoot, has gone on record as saying “we operate on two principles: fear and greed.” Anyone who has ever worked for Proudfoot or any of their clients, knows this is true.
Nice comments Joey. The Proudfoot people sure painted a different picture before they fired people. They sat with many of my co-workers and told them that they understood how overworked they were. Ohio Casualty paid Proudfoot $12 million. I was young and naive when I was there. If I ever were to see a consulting firm now I would find another job right away. My wife and I bought a new home 3 months prior to my layoff. I asked my bosses if my job was safe and they told me it was. The day before I got canned OCG sent my wife flowers because she was recovering from surgery. Man did it feel great when I found out that OCG had been sold. Too bad they were sold to a good company like Liberty Mutual.
It started with McKinsey and now Proudfoot is the junkyard dog of downsizing. They tried to make it more PC in the 80’s by calling it “right-sizing”. These people don’t give a damn about anything but their profits and have no concern over the trail of broken bodies left in their wake. Carmichael used to be the president of Shelby Mutual that went the same way as Ohio Casualty. Ohio should cast this guy in bronze for all he’d done for its economy.
Asking who is worse is like asking what snake is worse a copperhead or a rattle snake. If you are working for an insurance company and Carmichael becomes your CEO, you need to find a new job immediately. He has a history ruining companies.
Lots of tough decisions that had to be made to save a company and many jobs were done by a good man in Carmichael. Great job keeping us afloat through the worst of times, and cudos for making us marketable to a very strong Liberty Mutual group.
This company is a scam! I worked for them for 9 horrible months.
The interview process was some ridiculous scam where I had to spend an entire day ‘on stage’ for them in a hotel at an airport.
I asked why they wanted ‘me,’ with no experience in this. They said I had great skills and could teach anyone about consulting. They said I’d be trained.
I was hired within hours, sent a laptop and given an 800 number to call for travel arrangements. I thought I had unknowingly been hired by the CIA. I was told buy a ticket to Canada, stay at a hotel and meet someone there at 8am. The 8am guy tells me, on my way to the project, that (on my first day) I should tell the client I had been with Proudfoot almost a year if they asked.
Instead of training, I was put face to face with clients, having to make it up as I went along.
I continued to be thrown from project to project, one to two weeks at a time (although I was told during the interview that I’d be on a project for about 6-9 months).
Finally, after 9 months, and being thrown around the world (literally), working 7am-midnight everyday, I had enough. They thought so too cause they called me to HQ the same day I was going to quit.
To my surprise they tried to tell me I wasn’t doing well, despite being told by several PMs I was doing a great job. They wanted me to sign a resignation letter accepting a 2 week severance, but when I mentioned that it was odd to be let go without any ‘correction’ process or the fact that I had emails from the same PM who he claimed said I was doing a bad job, saying I was doing a good job, he went silent.
He was ready to let me stay on board, but I said I’d agree to sign the letter with FOUR weeks pay and an extra month of insurance coverage. I got what I wanted.
Unfortunately, it’s now a blemish on my resume.
Don’t be fooled by the promises of traveling the world with them. You’ll either be in the client offices from 7am-7pm or in your room finishing work from 7pm-midnight everyday. You’ll see nothing of the cities, you’ll meet nobody and you’ll have no free time. They own you…for peanuts.
Why am I not surprised that Carmichael has joined Proudfoot. Proudfoot was the consulting firm that Ohio Casualty hired in 2003. Proudfoot operated very much like the consulting firm in the movie Office Space. Thanks to Proudfoot, Ohio Casualty laid me off in February 2004 along with hundreds of other Ohio Casualty employees. I guess they needed another jackass to help them fire people.
No surprise here. Why would you be shocked at getting laid off? It’s what Proudfoot does. Their entire business model revolves around reducing head count. This means layoffs. The “savings” they produce for clients is in salaries and HR benefits of employees who are no longer there. It’s a short term solution, because then nobody is left to do the work, and performance and quality suffer. Luiz Carvahlo, CEO of Proudfoot, has gone on record as saying “we operate on two principles: fear and greed.” Anyone who has ever worked for Proudfoot or any of their clients, knows this is true.
Nice comments Joey. The Proudfoot people sure painted a different picture before they fired people. They sat with many of my co-workers and told them that they understood how overworked they were. Ohio Casualty paid Proudfoot $12 million. I was young and naive when I was there. If I ever were to see a consulting firm now I would find another job right away. My wife and I bought a new home 3 months prior to my layoff. I asked my bosses if my job was safe and they told me it was. The day before I got canned OCG sent my wife flowers because she was recovering from surgery. Man did it feel great when I found out that OCG had been sold. Too bad they were sold to a good company like Liberty Mutual.
It started with McKinsey and now Proudfoot is the junkyard dog of downsizing. They tried to make it more PC in the 80’s by calling it “right-sizing”. These people don’t give a damn about anything but their profits and have no concern over the trail of broken bodies left in their wake. Carmichael used to be the president of Shelby Mutual that went the same way as Ohio Casualty. Ohio should cast this guy in bronze for all he’d done for its economy.
Who’s worse, Patch or Carmichael? Or is that like asking which type of a terminal disease you prefer?
Good luck in the new role.
Asking who is worse is like asking what snake is worse a copperhead or a rattle snake. If you are working for an insurance company and Carmichael becomes your CEO, you need to find a new job immediately. He has a history ruining companies.
It appears that Proudfoot paid back Carmichael for all the business that he sent their way.
Lots of tough decisions that had to be made to save a company and many jobs were done by a good man in Carmichael. Great job keeping us afloat through the worst of times, and cudos for making us marketable to a very strong Liberty Mutual group.
This company is a scam! I worked for them for 9 horrible months.
The interview process was some ridiculous scam where I had to spend an entire day ‘on stage’ for them in a hotel at an airport.
I asked why they wanted ‘me,’ with no experience in this. They said I had great skills and could teach anyone about consulting. They said I’d be trained.
I was hired within hours, sent a laptop and given an 800 number to call for travel arrangements. I thought I had unknowingly been hired by the CIA. I was told buy a ticket to Canada, stay at a hotel and meet someone there at 8am. The 8am guy tells me, on my way to the project, that (on my first day) I should tell the client I had been with Proudfoot almost a year if they asked.
Instead of training, I was put face to face with clients, having to make it up as I went along.
I continued to be thrown from project to project, one to two weeks at a time (although I was told during the interview that I’d be on a project for about 6-9 months).
Finally, after 9 months, and being thrown around the world (literally), working 7am-midnight everyday, I had enough. They thought so too cause they called me to HQ the same day I was going to quit.
To my surprise they tried to tell me I wasn’t doing well, despite being told by several PMs I was doing a great job. They wanted me to sign a resignation letter accepting a 2 week severance, but when I mentioned that it was odd to be let go without any ‘correction’ process or the fact that I had emails from the same PM who he claimed said I was doing a bad job, saying I was doing a good job, he went silent.
He was ready to let me stay on board, but I said I’d agree to sign the letter with FOUR weeks pay and an extra month of insurance coverage. I got what I wanted.
Unfortunately, it’s now a blemish on my resume.
Don’t be fooled by the promises of traveling the world with them. You’ll either be in the client offices from 7am-7pm or in your room finishing work from 7pm-midnight everyday. You’ll see nothing of the cities, you’ll meet nobody and you’ll have no free time. They own you…for peanuts.