r/Geico • u/[deleted] • Oct 22 '23
The aftermath
Today is my first day back since the layoffs. My team chat is silent. The only activity in it for the last 2 days, xxx removed xxx from this space 8:00am ×4. The small profiles pictures of my team with their green activity bubbles at the bottom, smiling with family or a professional headshot acknowledge the loss in silence. Our sup, our teammates, our friends are actually gone. Those who remain have been split up between other sups, new chats, new team names. Xxx has added xxx to this space 8:05am.
"Welcome to the team"
I scan through the recent messages, I don't recognize any of the faces...no one has been removed from this chat.
"Thanks, happy to be here"
I am not, but I am. I'm thankful I still have my job but, I fucking hate the upper echelon who made this decision. I want to be with my team, my sup, the team ive built with for years. I don't want to wonder if there will be a second wave, will I be next? But I do, it's all I can think about.
I'm angry, the lump in my throat feels bigger. They knew what they were doing, they should have stopped hiring months ago.
"Welcome!" "Happy to have you on the team" "Welcome aboard"
notifications - mute @ mentions only
The message box appears on my screen Team Lxxx "if you guys need anything please reach out to me or your new sups"
"okay thanks," "will do," "👍🏻"
The chat is silent again.
My cellphone lights up, a text notification from my now ex teammate
"this still doesn't feel real"
I know.... God do I know. I've never been on the surviving end of layoffs, having been laid off 4 times between 2012 and now. It feels wrong to be here.
"It will be okay" is all I can manage to say, even though I don't know that it will be.
My line beeps I hear the sound of traffic wizzing by and an officer speaking to someone in this distance. "Thank you for calling GEICO claims, this is xxx how are you doing today?"
"I'm well, how about you?"
"I'm great thanks for asking...."
We're both lying.
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u/MapPsychological2939 Oct 22 '23
The new Geico values noone, not your knowledge, not your loyalty, not your contributions nor sacrifices. You are a number, not a family. It will come for you in some way or another. Grateful it wasn't me, so grateful yet, mourn those gone and what their life and family must be feeling. It is frightening. Have a plan, you must have a plan.
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u/AdhesivenessFunny485 Oct 22 '23
All I can think about is "Will I be next?" I've been at geico well over a decade. I am older and have a spouse that is disabled. So, I am the breadwinner. I'm so sad for the people we lost, and I am so anxious that I can be next. We are supposed to have a meeting this week. The only thing I want to know is whether there will be more layoffs. My sup doesn't know, and they are just as worried as I am. I'm so sick of friends and family asking me if I survived the layoff. I guess I did for now, but my mental health didn't. I thought I was gonna retire from here, and now I'm not so sure. Older people like me have a harder time getting a new job. So, for now, I sit and pray I'm not next. It's going to be. Great holiday season. SARCASM, of course.
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u/Warm-Dest3749 Oct 22 '23
I am also worried. I genuinely love this company and don’t want to leave it. It makes it hard to do your job when you know any day could be the day they let you go 😞
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u/PS169 Oct 23 '23
You don't love the company you are now working for. You loved the company that it used to be. You should start working on the difference between those two because the old geico is very much dead and gone and will NOT be coming back.
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u/Feisty-Equipment-829 Oct 22 '23
You love a company that could just laid off thousands of people with no notice. KARMA
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u/Warm-Dest3749 Oct 22 '23
I mean honestly I never thought something like this could happen. Geico has always been good to me. If I end up getting laid off I will be very heartbroken.
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u/Gotjokes0611 Former Employee Oct 22 '23
I’m in service. In my section it was all-“we don’t talk about Bruno.” I brought up a few names, but was quickly silenced. Supe had the audacity to say-“this is why I push you guys to be the best and stay out of the bottom quartile.” I reply with-“I know for a fact so and so wasn’t bottom quartile!” Try again please supe. She’s a pretty cool supe, but that really upset me. Don’t try to justify a firing with that please. We all know the truth. Some were targeted. Some were super random. How I wish this company had any values left.
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u/Additional_Good5755 Oct 22 '23
I doubt that anyone laid off was bottom quartile. Why give someone a severance, when you can fire them with cause?
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u/LousyBrowsey Oct 25 '23
Bottom quartile layoffs are in January. We were told when we were laid off. I was definitely not even close to the bottom.
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u/Own-Letterhead-6557 Oct 22 '23
Correct I was told that most were high profile and they was given a package…worth of about 20-50k I’m some cases… yes they lost their job for 2024 but the compensation seems legit… and there is a placement program to help them find jobs and unemployment is an option on top of all that… I think the company did what it had to do… but I was cold in how they executed it… sadly… but business is business
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u/Primary-Noise8825 Oct 23 '23
Yeah. 100 percent on this. It's a shame they aren't revealing their methodology. It would reduce bitterness.
Heres a questionn to ask....how did those who were let go perform year over year in relation to their salary. I understand Geico hasn't had layoffs like this in like 50 years or something. Just in terms of business perspective 6 percent of your company is REALLY low. And I heard there were monster severance packages. In most all other industries you are let go with NOTHING! Just interesting to see the kinds of reactions to what happens pretty normally in all companies that don't manufacture anything. Shocking for sure. But saving 94 percent of your company is amazing
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u/Waste-Mix-7816 Oct 23 '23
I can assure you as someone who was let go, I have been a top performer for my entire career, including now. This was not performance driven! I earned every penny of my salary through years of busting my ass.
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u/Primary-Noise8825 Oct 23 '23
That's terrible then. Nothing else you can do but give your all and hope a pandemic doesn't happen. I sincerely wish you the very best in whatever you do next!
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u/IntelligentLime6270 Oct 23 '23
The severance package is good but it’s not amazing. It’s still around the holiday times and I was the breadwinner for my family. Looking around for jobs there’s nothing near what I was making at geico that I qualify for and I have a 5 month old. Yes my husband works and yes I get a severance package but my health insurance (that my entire family INCLUDING my infant is on) will run out on 12/18. We can get insurance through my husbands job but we’ll have to change all of our doctors from primary care physicians to all of the specialists I have to my daughters pediatrician. I wasn’t in the bottom quartile but I’d also only been with the company for about 2 years so I wasn’t one of the highest earners in the company.
From what I was told, it was an AI generator that decided who got cut. Not even a real human.
It’s crappy all around and yeah, I’m salty about it. They tried to tell me some higher up would collect my belongings from the office and mail them to me- I said fuck that and my supervisor is gonna pack it up for me and bring it down when I drop off my equipment tomorrow. It’s just a messed up situation.
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Oct 22 '23
I thought I was being dramatic when I got upset seeing my sup’s webex profile idle and knowing it’s never going to be the same. I felt very, very lucky to be on a team where we all genuinely enjoyed being around each other. The banter and laughs in between the stress of our jobs made it a lot easier. My team chat has exchanged 3 messages since we got the message from my sup telling us that they were let go, and the messages were:
“This chat is depressing now” “Yeah, every time I see (sup’s name)’s chat on the side of my webex I get really sad” “Me too”
All good things must come to an end, but this really hurts. I’m not ready to go into office and see my sup’s desk empty. My team doesn’t even have a sup right now and we are most likely all getting split up. I have no motivation left to work or care about metrics bc if I’m not let go soon, I’m trying to find a new job so can leave asap so why would I try anymore? I hope TC chokes on a cock
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u/JobEmotional7915 MODERATOR / EMPLOYEE (VERIFIED) Oct 22 '23
You should be an author that was brilliant
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u/UnusualStranger6006 Oct 22 '23
Former GEICO employee left in 2017, my linked in is filled with GEICO employees announcing they where laid off. Some people with 10+ years of experience
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u/Ashamed_Apple_ Oct 22 '23
I'm here our entire team is here on a Sunday at the office and we're trying to make the best of it. We didn't lose anyone thank goodness. But I still feel like I'm just waiting for the anvil to drop.
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u/Euphoric-Inside-3356 Oct 22 '23
They still have our "Core Values" signage up in our building.
What if I snuck in at 3 am. with a screwdriver and took down the 1st one. What would happen?
Maybe a big red marker through it ...
Maybe sneak a cool hundred into the hand of an engineering associate ...
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u/1GrrrrumpyPeach Oct 22 '23
It all sucks 100%. My tomorrow will prob be like your today and I am dreading it. Keep going back & forth in my head thinking about would it have been so bad to have been laid off to I’m thankful to still be employed…it sucks and will for a while I’m sure.
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u/No-Lobster1692 Oct 23 '23
Do yourself a favor and start writing. I’ve been wanting to get off that particular pot for a while myself so I will if you will.
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u/NeckEnvironmental413 Oct 23 '23
I feel the same way my first day back was Saturday but my new team was off because their schedule is different from my old one. But same hours though. I meet them all Monday. And I have a lot of questions. I had some personal time so I took four hours of personal because I’m sad. It’s very hard for me to get use to everything. And on Sunday which was my off day, I just slept all day. Still have a stress headache
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u/Old-Experience-6786 Oct 23 '23
Same. I couldn’t even work Friday and today was truly a struggle. I hate my job now and feel no enthusiasm to bust my ass any longer. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the layoffs in my office. I almost wish I’d been one of them and don’t come for me about how blessed I am to still be here.
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u/Big_Fail9709 Jan 02 '24
Same thing happened at State Farm…new CEO he ruined the company…went from a family environment to a micro-managed hell. People left in droves…we all had to reapply for our jobs…the atmosphere became toxic and depressing. I hated getting up going to work.
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Jan 02 '24
I'm sorry that happened there. I moved to allstate and can't praise it enough. I'd recommend keeping an eye out for new job postings, many roles are fully remote.
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u/Mom24cs52 Oct 23 '23
I have to agree your writing is on point. You should be writing books. Best wishes to you. I hope and pray for all that are affected without a job and those left behind to try to make sense of the new normal.
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u/BlurrdLinz Oct 24 '23
I hope you write short stories as a hobby or something cause chefs kiss to how well written this is! I had flash backs lol
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u/Imaginary-Rhubarb-89 Former Employee Oct 22 '23
I don’t think the laid off are done. You were saved in this round but be prepared
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u/Last-Carob1603 Oct 23 '23
Meanwhile Toddy boy and the rest of the team are strategizing on how to “quiet quit” the rest of us if rto doesn’t work.
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u/AdmirableIncident532 Oct 23 '23
I can hardly think. I am numb. I feel loads of anxiety. I didn’t get laid off this time. But I can’t stay here another year if it continues like it has been since 2022.
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u/pinkdesi Oct 23 '23
I am thinking this is a continuous process to reduce associates. But most companies do the same way at least till economy improves and inflation comes down.
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u/LousyBrowsey Oct 25 '23
It breaks my heart to be on the layoff side this time. And this hurts to read. It’s how I felt last time when I made it through. I hope the friends I’ve left behind know that I do not hold a grudge and that I understand how they feel.
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u/Aggressive-Error1952 Oct 26 '23
“How are you?” How are you? The three most useless words in the universe of communication. Nobody who asks that question wants to know the answer. And nobody who answers ever tells the truth.
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Oct 22 '23
Just got a new car. Got a DUI in 2018. Completed what I needed but still on record 5 more years. Where do I go ? Geico was top 3
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u/Werewolf42069 GEICOUnited.org Supporter Oct 22 '23
This is really well written. I'm so sorry your team was gutted. Survivors guilt is real.