Mr. Todd Combs,
December would have been my 22nd Anniversary at GEICO. I came to GEICO after being laid of from a former employer. My former employer was generous enough to let the company know about 6 months in advance that layoffs would be occurring. They prepared us for it. I was not surprised when I got the call into my managers office and she told me that the company I worked for was being bought out, and my position would no longer be required. I was given a 6 month severance package, and a reasonable explanation of why I was being laid off. This company employed less than 1000 employees.
Today, I was completely blindsided. I was told that after 22 years of service, to turn in my laptop. I was not given much of an explanation, and when I asked about a severance, it was an insult.
You sir, have been with the company for 2 years. You have made more money in the past 2 months than I made in my entire 22 year career with GEICO. You make more money in one hour than I make in an entire month, yet you cannot afford me. Let me state that again Mr. Combs; you make more money in one HOUR than I make in an entire month. I spoke to multiple individuals today that are already talking about selling their house if they don't find a job by Jan. You see sir, most of us only have one house, and it's our HOME. You probably have multiple houses that sit vacant for a majority of the year. I'm writing this letter more for my peers than myself. Sir, we have families to feed, mortgages to pay, car notes, and ironically enough insurance premiums for those cars and homes. Your $8000 an hour will pay all of my bills in one hour of your work. Yet, GEICO can't afford me. How can GEICO afford to pay you more money in one hour than I make in an entire month? I'm sure you are extremely good at math, so please Mr. Combs explain this to me.
Mr Combs, you have lost the most important thing a company has: the pride of its workforce. You see, before you came here, people enjoyed GEICO. People were proud to say they worked for GEICO. People did more than what was asked because we felt like it mattered. We know if we did our best, we might be rewarded with a larger profit sharing check. That pride is gone. You lost the buy ins of your employees. You lost the passion that we were willing to give. You are now left with fearful employees who do not know if they will have a job in 6 months. EVERYONE I talked to today that is “safe” is in panic mode. Please Mr Combs, have the decency to have a state of the Union Address to your remaining employees and be real with them. Let them know if they need to start looking for a job, or if the are safe. It will take you 15 minutes of your time, and you will still get paid $2500 if you do it during work time.
We are all adults. We understand layoffs occur. We understand that difficult decisions need to be made in business. We only ask for two things: one is transparency. Why are these lay offs happening, how many more will there be, and who is going to be safe. The second thing we ask: how is it that GEICO can afford to pay you $8,000 an hour but you are laying of employees far make less money in a month than you do in an hour. Please explain.
Yours Kindly,
A Former GEICO Analyst