Long Live Frank Fixaris!

First of all, congrats on getting your bonus today (hopefully you did anyway). My question is this: did your team do anything to celebrate? The people all around us today did a big breakfast, and many teams did lunch as well. My team did absolutely nothing (well, unless you count WATCHING everyone else get to celebrate). Awesome

We did breakfast AND lunch today...sorry Brian. The bonus is what matters though.

UNUM sucks! The Standard rules!

True, but it's very frustrating to see everyone around you getting treated differently. It makes us feel unappreciated.

What makes it worse, I think, is the exact same thing happened at Christmas and now just three months later we're right back in the same boat...

We would squash you like a little bug...I know a few people that work at sub-Standard.

I know a guy who used to work at The Standard. He was a total douche. Fortunately he moved away.

He must have moved to my department, because we have one of those here.

Bring it on, bi-a-tch!

LOL!!! We should do lunch sometime...

The managers had a pizza party here at the contact center on Darling ave for us to feast on. Very nice,. Not to mention that I got a raise yesterday and then my merit raise to take effect in May. So far it has been a good year. Except for that I am stuck in Darling ave looking for another department to transfer to. ANyone looking for help??

P.S. Thank god for the standard. They took over the Cali Teachers Union. What a PITA they are. They can have them!!!

Unum could be your Douch of the Week!!!

Wow, I hear about the CTU all the time when we have those boring phone conferences. Unum had them before us? I am actually on the retirement side of the company, so I not familiar with the insurance side. The bought out our company a couple of years ago.

We had the CTA for something like 50+ years. They were a cash cow for Unum for a long time. But I can see why the students in cali are not the brightest bulbs on the tree. Some of the "teachers" I still talk to today couldnt win a debate with themselves.

I don't think upper management was the problem, I think it was middle managment (our direct managers and their managers) that didn't do anything, consider that EVERYONE ELSE was taken care of.

I see, thats terrible. Nothing like your direct mgr dropping the ball like that. Its a day out of the year that the employees all feel pretty good in getting a pretty good bonus. Not hard to set a little something up for the grunts who got the bonus to start with

I used to work for a large bank that has since been swallowed up by an even larger bank. We had a nifty bonus program set up that was based on divisional performance (which in this case was state-by-state). One year, our division kicked some serious ass and was in line for hefty bonuses. Then we were told that our division's bonus pool was going to be cut so that some other divisions that hadn't performed as well, and therefore hadn't earned a bonus pool of their own, could also get bonuses.

Mind you, this was essentially a local profit-sharing bonus. And they took Maine's profits and distributed them to, I dunno, New York or something. It cost everybody in our division, quite literally, thousands of dollars. It was right out of Office Space.

THAT was a high morale day! That was also the day that I decided I needed to tell Corporate America to kiss my ass! Now I work in the non-profit sector and love it. We of course don't get bonuses, or if we do it's like 100 bucks or so, but somehow getting no bonus at all is better than knowing that your $2,500 is in the pocket of some schmuck who didn't actually earn it.

Which could also describe your typical CEO, but I'm not even going to get started on that!

Up until 2000 the entire company (Unum) used to get bonuses on or around Valentines Day. In 2000 that was stopped and a performance recognition program was started. Basically only the top employees who went above and beyond would get nominated for PRP bonuses. The annual bonuses for all employees were brought back in just within the last few years. There are 4 determining factors...company performance, region performance, your department performance, and individual performance. I hit on all 4 and actually came in above plan so my bonus today was quite nice. My department is being phased out (in 2010), but I was enticed to stay with something called stay pay bonuses. I get one next month.

Brian, it's a shame your manager didn't do anything at all for you guys today. Every team in HO1 pretty much had something going on. The local restaurants made a killing today.

Moose, you should try to get a job shadow within Simply Unum. A coworker of mine just got hired there along with 7 others. They are growing extremely fast.

I heard that Unum was being bought out by Seltzer & Rydholm.

Of Auburn and Portland.

LOL. That rumor is full of fizz.

I see that the bonuses are to be sent out again this year. At least something good is happening considering the "economic disaster" we are currently in

Yup, congrats my fellow Unum employees, this is a very good thing!

Wow, deja vu! UNUM sucks, Standard rules!

Isnt Standard pulling up stakes in Maine and bugging out?

Actually, they are, at least the insurance side in South Portland. We found out a couple of weeks ago that they are eliminating all the positions out by the mall. It really too bad for those people, but I guess turnover was pretty high. It was probably people going from there to UNUM. Luckily for me, on the retirement side, our little office is staying put, at least for now. We have about a dozen people here and I don't see them moving our retirement plans, although you can't count on anything lately.

I thought we would be moving to the mall area once our lease ran out in Portland, but maybe we are staying where we are.

Definitely something to cherish at an economic time like this. We should be thankful that we work for the company that we do.

I changed my mind. As of today, The Standard officially sucks. Go UNUM.

Do tell?

Laid off as of July 10th. They are closing a bunch of offices, including Portland Maine. I have the option of moving to Cincinnatti or Portland, Ore. if I want to keep my job.

Cincinnati is a great city, once you get past their sports teams. On the bright side, if you move there, maybe you could take in a Bengal or two...keep them in line.

But seriously, I've felt for years that if I were to move anywhere, Cincinnati would be at the top of my list. Beautiful city, nothing but nice people. Great disc golf too.

I hear nothing but good things about the other Portland too. I guess what I'm saying is you could do worse as far as options to keep your job. We'd miss you if you moved though...not that that would be a deterrent for you.

If I moved, you would probably see me on here even more so I could keep up on things. But, I think I am staying. If I accept a job somewhere else (relocate) and then change my mind, they will not give me the severance pay. If I take the severance and then decide to move, they will not give me the relocation package. So basically, I have 2 weeks to decide and if I change my mind, I am on my own.