Travelers Companies Reviews

Pros

Generous amount of paid time off
Stable job as long as you meet requirements
Great benefit package including 401k match and pension

Cons

No sick days (must take vacation time and you are penalized for it)
Not enough room for advancement; have to go to other departments if you want to advance

Advice to Senior Management

Try hiring management from within the company instead of hiring people that know nothing about the job you do; its hard to escalate a situation to a manager if they have just as much or less experience as you do.

Pros

Travelers seems to compensate their employees fairly and a little above market value. They give plenty of time off for someone who is just starting with the company. Travelers is a nationwide leader in insurance and seems to have avoided some of the pit falls that took down AIG, Safeco, and others.

Cons

While plenty of time off is given, one comes back to nightmarish work load that makes you re-think taking any time off. Their market strategies also go back and forth too often and will often change is a single year. This constant shift is greeted w/ skepticism by our agents.

Advice to Senior Management

Within my business unit, I feel that we need to formulate strategies that don't shift so frequently...allowing our customers (agents) to receive a consistent message.

Pros

paid for doing nothing, good benefits

Cons

Micro-Managed to death, dozens of middle-managers

Advice to Senior Management

Get the stock price Up!

Pros

Good place to work if you do not want to be micro managed

Cons

No growth opportunity what so ever!!!

Advice to Senior Management

follow through with promises made

Pros

Good people
Plenty of horizontal and vertical growth opportunities

Cons

Conservative management
Can be a sales driven culture, but without the tools to produce

Pros

benefits are wonderful, pay is good, time off can be hard to schedule

Cons

Quit sending jobs overseas ! Keep this a good company by keeping the jobs here instead of India.
Quit knick picking employees to the point of departure. I worked there for almost 20 yrs and just got tired of the stress due to knick picking. Several of the long timers have quit within the past year (just in Knoxville)...when is Travelers going to listen.

Advice to Senior Management

The issues with Travelers seem to be higher up than with local management. Therefore, my advise is for them....remember the old adage before you cross a street...stop, look both ways, listen ! You might want to be careful of what bridges you are burning and what streets/oceans you are crossing.

Sr management needs to come down from your high place and walk amongst the employees that you are laying off as well as the ones that you are not laying off.

Pros

The pay is good, also the 401(k) options are good. For some positions flex-time is an option. There are medical, dental, vision benefits.

Cons

Your time is micro-managed. You need to account for how you spend every minute of the day and charge it back to some code.

Pros

Salary, benefits, great coworkers, good pto policy.

Cons

Too much work, unreasonable time frames.

Advice to Senior Management

Make feedback process productive, not punitive.

Pros

good name in the insurance industry.

Cons

management team does not share information.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to keep those that help run the business in the loop

Pros

The Travelers has a great history and an excellent CEO in Jay Fishman. His "C" level managers are also very effective. The company is well positioned financially.

Cons

- Promotions are made based on image vs. what you know. Junior people are promoted to senior levels with minimal experience while folks with superior skills, experience and track records are overlooked.

- You'll need a "Mommy" or "Daddy" in senior management to coordinate your career for you. Your individuality, initiative, drive and style will get you nowhere, you'll have to emulate theirs.

- More than once since working there I've woken up to discover the "Management Gods" had decided a new, ill defined role would be suit me better than the one I had. Career plan? Yeah, right.

- Hartford is a dead city. A one mile walk in any direction from the downtown office threatens bodily harm.

- "That's Travelers," is an oft heard refrain used to describe the place's heavily bureaucratic, hierarchical and political way of life. It means associates have accepted this as their "fate," never a good sign.

- Roles are fragmented and compartmentalized until nobody owns anything. Don't expect to act independently, expect to work through layers of bureaucracy and personality to achieve modest goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Emulate Jay Fishman throughout the organization. And Jay, do what Jack Welch did at GE back in the early eighties and "blow the place up:" delayer, remove the deadwood and incent substance over sizzle. And get out of Hartford, the place does absolutely nothing for you.