Pros

Straight sales..If you can make it you will have all the freedom in the world.

Cons

Experienced producers will split all of your business and give nothing back. If there is ever a disagreement the partners will always back the top producer Only way to make money is to sell to family/friends.

Advice to Senior Management

Only trained on whole life insurance which limited sales opportunity.

Pros

Good Location to the city, little traffic going to and from work (Head office).
Great as a started job, young adults will find the environment helpful to gain work experience.

Cons

Executive have little regard for staff and how they are to be treated.
Management often use bully tactics instead of positive reinforcement when trying to motivate staff.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat staff members with more respect.
Staff that enjoy a healthy working environment will work harder for the company as opposed to staff members being threatened by layoffs to preform.

Pros

The long-time associates (non-management personnel) have a heart and are very pleasant to work with.

Cons

Layoffs, layoffs, layoffs. Many layoffs just about every month. I saw them get rid of long-tenured employees (who were here 10+, 15+, 20+ years) throughout the year. Practically every week you see another employee or two being laid off. How do they do it? Do they throw the long-tenured employees a going-away party and thank them for their contribution? No, they call him/her into a conference room, coldly say that he/she is being laid off, then tell him/her to go down to HR and then go back upstairs to pack their stuff into a box and to leave immediately (like they are a criminal). Morale is in the toilet - the way they treated their staff is absolutely unforgiveable. People absolutely hate working there, are scared for their jobs, and are utterly disgusted at how rudely they throw long-time associates out of the building (just pack up and leave immediately). High turnover.

Advice to Senior Management

This company is not the same ever since the new CEO started around 2000. When you treat your employees that rotten, have no heart and throw them out of the building like criminals, you reap what you sow.

Pros

Great atmosphere - Great people to work with. I have worked in many areas of the company and had many different bosses, I have enjoyed everyone that I've worked with. It must be noted, however, that the atmosphere has changed since new CEOs at the very top have come in.

Cons

Many dept heads/managers seem stressed by those at the very top -- it's taken out on those that they manage. The stress is palpable.

Guardian is a very frugal company. Merit raises are 3% max. If you are promoted, you will never get more than a 2 grade promotion in salary. An outsider getting a Guardian job will be better paid than an insider will be. This system does not reward/encourage career advancement within the company.

Health benefits leave MUCH to be desired.

Did I mention that the company is very frugal? IT IS. In every area. For example: employee discounts for lunch in cafeteria but full price for breakfast. Interns, consultants, and temp workers do not get discounts. Carpets in buildings are old, ratty -- too cheap to replace it. COFFEE MACHINE IS PAY ONLY.etc. Horrible tuition reimbursement program...

Advice to Senior Management

Reward employees that want to advance in their careers and stay within the company. Pay your employees what they are worth - Also, I know several people that love working here but left to work at places where they are paid at market value, not at "barely market value" like Guardian does.

Pros

Adequate time off. Good benefits.

Cons

Decent company, but raises are few and hard to come by. They keep expecting more and more for less money

Advice to Senior Management

Appreciate your employees.

Pros

Because Guardian is a mutual insurance company and accountable to its policy holders, Guardian has the ability to pursue long term goals without stockholder pressure. It also tends to be conservative in its investments, which has allowed it to escape much of the financial wreckage the current economic climate has wrought.

Cons

Guardian's greatest strength is possibly its greatest weakness. Its insulation from short term pressures allows less than stellar people to remain and also gives senior management fiefdoms, in which they are are allowed to pursue individual agendas. These agendas can easily descend into the petty and emotional where it is more important to eliminate a rival than address long-term goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Guardian has enormous potential, so concentrate on at hiring/retaining management that wants to do the right thing for the company rather than play politics. While conservative investment is good, Guardian also needs to invest in a long term management strategy that will build upon its assets to grow the company.

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.

Pros

Flexible work hours as an intern and going to school full time.
The pay is decent.
People are nice and respectful of you.
My supervisor understands me and listens to my problems.
25% off lunch at their cafeteria. The food isn't bad either.
I get a lot of freedom to do my work, depending on your supervisor though. Mine was very nice.

Cons

Can't move up anywhere as an intern (or perhaps I never tried, I just worked there part time to get through school).
Tasks gets repetitive and boring.
Sit at a desk most of the day with the computer.

Advice to Senior Management

I think they should try to give more responsibilities to interns to ease their monotony.

Pros

Lower-level employees are a great group of people to work with - great diversity of employees, friendly, and the types of people you enjoy working with

Cons

With budget cutbacks, the workload is huge and many employees are working evenings & over the weekend just to keep up. Management is unappreciative, demanding and condescending at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote from within instead of constantly hiring people from the outside (in other words, show that you believe in the current staff), and hire additional workers to lessen the severe workload.

Pros

Guardian Life enjoys a well deserved reputation as a well capitalized mutual life insurance company offering a wide range of retail and employer-sponsored financial products, such as group health, variable annuities, and 401(k) plans. It has a lean home office staff which, by necessity, requires its associates to wear many 'hats,' engage in activities outside their narrow band of expertise, and continue to grow their skill set.

Cons

Guardian hires new talent from the outside rather than developing and promoting talented associates from within, leading to poor morale and suspicion of new initiatives and change. Raises are low and bonuses are allocated to officers only, so in most instances, associates with long-term records of success face career and compensation stagnation that does not reflect their professional growth in taking on new challenges and developing new skill sets.

Advice to Senior Management

Make long-term commitments and stick with them. Too often investments in projects or products are abandoned prematurely because management is impatient with results and discontinues funding at critical make-or-break opportunities. Senior management also needs to develop appropriate metrics; for example, re-define its peer competitor group rather than comparing itself to other insurance and financial service firms that can raise capital through stock or through mergers and acquisitions are able to dominate market share as a result of 'deep pocket' parent companies. Also, Guardian needs to have more confidence in its existing, experienced staff and stop reacting in knee-jerk fasion to the many B-teams of well known consulting firms constantly evaluating the company's operations and intellectual capital.