If you announced you were giving all of your employees a much needed generous raise I would believe you and other corporations would follow suit but you didn’t.
Don’t waste our time with your BS lip service.
Never forget the day I quit. My boss called me back for a review, I stood up in the middle of the work space and said that wont be necessary, I’m going to work for State Farm. Oh the humanity.
Really Tom? I remember Big A taking away company cars, forcing the older, higher paid employees out. The established agents, who made the Company a boatload of money, were replaced with slimmer contracted new producers. My guess, the job creation he speaks of will be outside of the US.
“Sure, the unemployment rate is near a record low, but that figure masks the fact that many families are not financially secure,” Wilson writes. “Being broke while working is not an American value. Poor financial health creates stress, reduces hope and undermines capitalism.”
But so many people live well above their means and refuse to cut back or prioritize what essentials they actually need vs. want……paying higher wages is just going to increase these already bad spending habits……
It’s interesting how spending habits and “necessities” have changed over time. In the past it wasn’t necessary for every member of the household to have an Iphone, internet, direct TV, and a blow dryer under every bathroom cabinet. Plus more people ate at home instead of fast food out. The quality of life has certainly improved by some standards but you have to wonder how much of the personal financial problems of today are caused by low wages versus the need to buy & own things we didn’t have in the past.
But maybe not so much as lack of access to health care, access to education, reduced life spans,–etc. You can’t practice unfettered consumption & unchecked spending habits until you have access to financing these unfettered habits.
Unfettered spending on endless wars & welfare corporations is the more likely root cause. Take off that “Make America Great Again” hat & maybe your thinking process will begin to heal.
SWFL……I completely agree…….there is so much focus on higher wages being needed as so many people do not have enough to live on. It would be very interesting to see how people are actually spending their money. I know people that have good paying jobs and live paycheck to paycheck because they need to buy the latest and greatest and go out to eat all the time. I also know others who work low paying jobs but can afford to have some pretty nice extras because they are ok with not having cable, they are ok eating at home, they are ok with a cell phone that is several years old…..
Please, Allstate is famous for cutting agents commissions. I do not know how they are going to make it in Northern Virginia with cuts. With one of the highest cost of living in the USA and with the 40th highest Home and Auto rates. This is an example of an executive that is 30,000 feet in the air and look out the window and says “We have some agents down below us right. Agents will make less percentage of premium when they work out of Sears with no overhead. Talk about out of touch.
Make your numbers are you get up to 14%. How is that a bad amount of pay? It isn’t. 10% is plenty to run an agency even in expensive cost of living areas. OR, move someplace else that isn’t so expensive. We’re killing it in Texas.
Now your at 9 percent with 8 percent in your near future while allowing IS which is the service center servicing your accounts staffed by Allstate employees who are not trained as well as your current staff and have no skin in the game. Yet, Mr. Wilson tells the shareholders that his service centers are doing it faster and better which is totally false. If your knocking it out of the park, imagine how well you would be doing with as an Independent making 15 percent. Allstate wants to be more like Progressive, yet progressive pays THE LOWEST COMMISION to Independents which is 10 percent and if you do a certain amount of volume it increases to 12 percent. To top it off, Progressive has much better rates in Texas than Allstate for some time now.
You are really clueless Tom! You may want to focus on staff training and education first. If you are considering higher pay to the majority of incompetent agency support staff and not increasing agency commissions, you are way out of touch with your own operations.
Agency support staff and agents are not employees. Actual employees of Allstate are generally well paid and they start with a full 28 days of paid vacation time plus holidays. I’m sorry, but Allstate is generous to their employees compared to other big corporations.
Their agents were employees before they fired them all. When I worked there, it was common knowledge that their pay was below average and the vacation package was really bad. Admittedly, that was a long time ago so things may have changed.
Honestly, they just hacked the PTO days, now fresh employees start at 22 and then it goes up over time with a cap of 32 to what i heard. So the 40+ year employees get grandfathered in, but are not allowed to buy PTO anymore since they have above the new cap. So there’s been a lot of change. The health benefits we used to get have been cut, like the incentive programs to get choice dollars to spend on medical needs. Among other things, some employees haven’t had pay raises in over 3 years, if anything its been “minimum inflation adjustments” at 2% to offset the loss of value to the dollar. It’s not as bad as some businesses, but it could be so much more and be a better example of what is being preached.
Remember the old slogan, “when you are in good hands ……whops” Old enough to remember going to Sears and seeing the Allstate booth. So, where are the booths now. The same place the Craftsman tool guarantee has gone. ANYONE that buys on line is a FOOL.
This is a way for the CEO to say “back off” when employees and in his case the agents are expecting more. Or it perhaps can be rephrased as ‘I care and that is all the counts.’ I don’t know how Allstate treats it’s employees, but it treats it agents horribly, especially when it comes to compensation. Sadly Allstate stands out in the insurance industry as having one of the most phony leaderships. This is the case today and it was the case for the last 50 years.
An Allstate agent belongs to my country club. He owns a $600k house, plays golf 4-5 days a week, travels around the country to play golf, always has a wad of cash (about $1500) in his pocket and is very generous with tips to club employees. Sure doesn’t seem like he has been treated horribly – he worked hard when he was young, grew his agency and has been compensated very well (And I know he does not come from family money.)
Agents are not employees, they are independent contractors. That being said, the cream does rise to the top.
My nephew is an adjuster for Allstate. He seems to be doing well for himself.
Based on my observation & experience, he probably first went to work as a “green” Allstate agent, failed, then was hired into Allstate management as a district agency manager, telling successful agents how to succeed,— did that for several years while he polished his “connections” with upper management. He then was given the combined results of several years of hard work of several terminated Allstate agents. I will assure you he didn’t build a successful agency traveling around the country playing golf & hobnobbing at the country club. A certain “blanket” Insurer decided to imitate Allstate & hired a lot of failed & fired Allstate agents who tried to repeat that same process. This didn’t work out too well for the “blanket” company that has now decided that they will make the agents buy the business they thought they had already bought,— and in the process make every other independent agent in town a “blanket” dealer competitor.
25years as an agent. I make less today than i did 25 years ago. Our rates are the highest on the market and agents can’t pay their bills. Read Allstate’s annual report if you want to see how much the ivory tower people make.
Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth, you mindless midget. My friend is a 30+ year employee of your company and works most nights and weekends making sure they are on top of their assignments saving your company millions of dollars when your agents screw up or your customers lie and what do they get for that, I ask? They are at the top of their ‘band’ and will receive no increase in annual salary this year. You will be bonus-ed on how many employees you screw over, taking more money to the bottom line, but employees who help you take even more money to profit get screwed. Your buddy Len Shapiro will cause the end of Allstate that people have come to know and like. You are despicable with your pronouncements.
interesting statement considering a year later he’s is letting go thousands of employees. Annouced it in June. Now thousand of employees many of whom are long term had to take a bizarre assessment test to see if we are fit into there transformation
If you announced you were giving all of your employees a much needed generous raise I would believe you and other corporations would follow suit but you didn’t.
Don’t waste our time with your BS lip service.
Worked for them for 5 years, all they care about at the top is the stock price. PC BS from them as usual.
Never forget the day I quit. My boss called me back for a review, I stood up in the middle of the work space and said that wont be necessary, I’m going to work for State Farm. Oh the humanity.
Really Tom? I remember Big A taking away company cars, forcing the older, higher paid employees out. The established agents, who made the Company a boatload of money, were replaced with slimmer contracted new producers. My guess, the job creation he speaks of will be outside of the US.
“Sure, the unemployment rate is near a record low, but that figure masks the fact that many families are not financially secure,” Wilson writes. “Being broke while working is not an American value. Poor financial health creates stress, reduces hope and undermines capitalism.”
But so many people live well above their means and refuse to cut back or prioritize what essentials they actually need vs. want……paying higher wages is just going to increase these already bad spending habits……
It’s interesting how spending habits and “necessities” have changed over time. In the past it wasn’t necessary for every member of the household to have an Iphone, internet, direct TV, and a blow dryer under every bathroom cabinet. Plus more people ate at home instead of fast food out. The quality of life has certainly improved by some standards but you have to wonder how much of the personal financial problems of today are caused by low wages versus the need to buy & own things we didn’t have in the past.
Unchecked spending habits on unfettered consumption is the root cause of downfalls of households and empire nations.
I totally agree! I do volunteer work and have never been in a low income house that didn’t have a big screen tv and Xbox.
But maybe not so much as lack of access to health care, access to education, reduced life spans,–etc. You can’t practice unfettered consumption & unchecked spending habits until you have access to financing these unfettered habits.
Unfettered spending on endless wars & welfare corporations is the more likely root cause. Take off that “Make America Great Again” hat & maybe your thinking process will begin to heal.
SWFL……I completely agree…….there is so much focus on higher wages being needed as so many people do not have enough to live on. It would be very interesting to see how people are actually spending their money. I know people that have good paying jobs and live paycheck to paycheck because they need to buy the latest and greatest and go out to eat all the time. I also know others who work low paying jobs but can afford to have some pretty nice extras because they are ok with not having cable, they are ok eating at home, they are ok with a cell phone that is several years old…..
Please, Allstate is famous for cutting agents commissions. I do not know how they are going to make it in Northern Virginia with cuts. With one of the highest cost of living in the USA and with the 40th highest Home and Auto rates. This is an example of an executive that is 30,000 feet in the air and look out the window and says “We have some agents down below us right. Agents will make less percentage of premium when they work out of Sears with no overhead. Talk about out of touch.
Make your numbers are you get up to 14%. How is that a bad amount of pay? It isn’t. 10% is plenty to run an agency even in expensive cost of living areas. OR, move someplace else that isn’t so expensive. We’re killing it in Texas.
Now your at 9 percent with 8 percent in your near future while allowing IS which is the service center servicing your accounts staffed by Allstate employees who are not trained as well as your current staff and have no skin in the game. Yet, Mr. Wilson tells the shareholders that his service centers are doing it faster and better which is totally false. If your knocking it out of the park, imagine how well you would be doing with as an Independent making 15 percent. Allstate wants to be more like Progressive, yet progressive pays THE LOWEST COMMISION to Independents which is 10 percent and if you do a certain amount of volume it increases to 12 percent. To top it off, Progressive has much better rates in Texas than Allstate for some time now.
You are really clueless Tom! You may want to focus on staff training and education first. If you are considering higher pay to the majority of incompetent agency support staff and not increasing agency commissions, you are way out of touch with your own operations.
Agency support staff and agents are not employees. Actual employees of Allstate are generally well paid and they start with a full 28 days of paid vacation time plus holidays. I’m sorry, but Allstate is generous to their employees compared to other big corporations.
Their agents were employees before they fired them all. When I worked there, it was common knowledge that their pay was below average and the vacation package was really bad. Admittedly, that was a long time ago so things may have changed.
Honestly, they just hacked the PTO days, now fresh employees start at 22 and then it goes up over time with a cap of 32 to what i heard. So the 40+ year employees get grandfathered in, but are not allowed to buy PTO anymore since they have above the new cap. So there’s been a lot of change. The health benefits we used to get have been cut, like the incentive programs to get choice dollars to spend on medical needs. Among other things, some employees haven’t had pay raises in over 3 years, if anything its been “minimum inflation adjustments” at 2% to offset the loss of value to the dollar. It’s not as bad as some businesses, but it could be so much more and be a better example of what is being preached.
make more so they’ll buy allstate insurance?????
Remember the old slogan, “when you are in good hands ……whops” Old enough to remember going to Sears and seeing the Allstate booth. So, where are the booths now. The same place the Craftsman tool guarantee has gone. ANYONE that buys on line is a FOOL.
This is a way for the CEO to say “back off” when employees and in his case the agents are expecting more. Or it perhaps can be rephrased as ‘I care and that is all the counts.’ I don’t know how Allstate treats it’s employees, but it treats it agents horribly, especially when it comes to compensation. Sadly Allstate stands out in the insurance industry as having one of the most phony leaderships. This is the case today and it was the case for the last 50 years.
An Allstate agent belongs to my country club. He owns a $600k house, plays golf 4-5 days a week, travels around the country to play golf, always has a wad of cash (about $1500) in his pocket and is very generous with tips to club employees. Sure doesn’t seem like he has been treated horribly – he worked hard when he was young, grew his agency and has been compensated very well (And I know he does not come from family money.)
Agents are not employees, they are independent contractors. That being said, the cream does rise to the top.
My nephew is an adjuster for Allstate. He seems to be doing well for himself.
Based on my observation & experience, he probably first went to work as a “green” Allstate agent, failed, then was hired into Allstate management as a district agency manager, telling successful agents how to succeed,— did that for several years while he polished his “connections” with upper management. He then was given the combined results of several years of hard work of several terminated Allstate agents. I will assure you he didn’t build a successful agency traveling around the country playing golf & hobnobbing at the country club. A certain “blanket” Insurer decided to imitate Allstate & hired a lot of failed & fired Allstate agents who tried to repeat that same process. This didn’t work out too well for the “blanket” company that has now decided that they will make the agents buy the business they thought they had already bought,— and in the process make every other independent agent in town a “blanket” dealer competitor.
You should check with him now and see how he feels about Allstate’s new changes?
If anyone wants to know the definition of virtue signaling, please read this article. :)
25years as an agent. I make less today than i did 25 years ago. Our rates are the highest on the market and agents can’t pay their bills. Read Allstate’s annual report if you want to see how much the ivory tower people make.
Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth, you mindless midget. My friend is a 30+ year employee of your company and works most nights and weekends making sure they are on top of their assignments saving your company millions of dollars when your agents screw up or your customers lie and what do they get for that, I ask? They are at the top of their ‘band’ and will receive no increase in annual salary this year. You will be bonus-ed on how many employees you screw over, taking more money to the bottom line, but employees who help you take even more money to profit get screwed. Your buddy Len Shapiro will cause the end of Allstate that people have come to know and like. You are despicable with your pronouncements.
interesting statement considering a year later he’s is letting go thousands of employees. Annouced it in June. Now thousand of employees many of whom are long term had to take a bizarre assessment test to see if we are fit into there transformation