Pros

Guardian is a mutual life insurance company, owned by its policyholders, and is well capitalized. The company doesn't need to show quarterly profits as a publicly traded company would. Until recently, Guardian was a great place to work; but now new management has been in place for the past 12 months and are eliminating jobs of long-tenured associates with good track records. The 'new' jobs are being filled with cronies of the new management with mixed results.

Cons

For the past ten years, senior management has been very selective about promoting from the ranks to officer level. They have little respect for the contributions of long-tenured associates and prefer to important high priced talent from the outside rather than promoting from the inside even when genuine talent has continuously performed at exceptional levels. If you don't enter Guardian as a corporate officer, chances are you will never become one.

Senior management also relies heavily on consulting firms to provide guidance and direction; however, senior management is not consistent in or persistent withapplying recommendations to effect the cultural change, sales and financial results they are looking for.

Advice to Senior Management

Fish stinks from the head down, so senior management needs to give itself a 'scratch 'n sniff' test to realize they have do not hold themselves accountable for the decisions, good or bad, that they make. Initiatives, good or bad, fall by the wayside because they are inconsistent in sticking to their commitments and vision. Some senior executives also allow themselves to exhibit poor behavior, such as losing their tempers publicly and at times being verbally abusive to their direct reports and middle managers.