Pros
There are still a few really bright people here who haven't been fired or quit to work somewhere else. The company seems to always be busy hiring and firing executives. Perhaps the latest senior execs will be good. The salary is pretty good.
Cons
Embarrassed to admit many of the claims made by our senior leaders are incredibly exaggerated. Vaporware. Just read the news releases. Filled with lots of Silicon Valley buzz words and jargon, usually by Mike Long. There is a lot of turnover but somehow Mike Long is STILL allowed to run this ship despite so many unforced errors and missteps. Be sure to flatter his ego if you come here. In my experience and what others have shared he is threatened by people who disagree with him and who want a reasonable work-life balance. Most of the senior execs live in far-away cities. There is a lot of micromanagement. Many new executives get fired after a few months or they quit for something better. I think the rest stay because they think the company will be sold or go public and they can cash out some of their stock options. We burn through so much cash. I wonder when all these investors will stop putting crazy amounts of money into a strategy that is always changing? Like does John Doerr actually know what happens on a day-to-day basis at this company? It would be fascinating if our investors had a chance to secretly watch this place for two weeks. I hope it ends well but aside from the Essence health plan in St. Louis I don't think we make any money. So much money going into these ideas Mike Long and his pals have convinced the board are going to be a big deal, but then they everything falls apart when it's time to execute and show results. I think the culture has gotten a little better but it still seems negative. There are some people here who really care and are trying to make a difference. Dr. Doerr is an example but there are others. Not sure I would say the culture is toxic but most of the positive reviews you see here are understood to come from our HR people or the people they convinced to write something nice. Notice how general and superficial most of those are. I think maybe we should have stayed an insurance company. Maybe a small one because people seem to have forgotten all the Essence plans that were started and then didn't work. Go check the Medicare records and see how the Essence model or whatever failed in Kentucky and New York and Washington and I think there were other states. So I'm not sure the model really even works outside of St. Louis. Richard Jones is the guy who basically runs the health plan now, He is a former exec at the big insurance companies that we said we wouldn't become. He is nice in the hallways but in meetings and especially in some of his actions you can tell he is very political and maybe even passive aggressive. I wish he would actually stand up to Mike Long and others and not just be a yes man to those types of people. I wonder how much better we would be if he totally stopped caring what Mike thought of him and what Mike thinks of other people and just did the best things for the business. I'm not sure we've ever seen the best of Richard. By the way, he is a gifted finance and accounting person. Just not very good with team building and stuff. Things seem to have taken a major turn for the worse when Frank Ingari stopped running the entire company. That man earned the respect of so many employees. People LOVED the guy. He was smart and confident and open to new ideas. Sure there were downsides and he was in no way perfect but then he was sort of demoted to run just the health plan. He did a really good job cleaning up the Essence health plan especially since he didn't have any health plan experience. He really cared about details and doing the right thing. He thanked employees in sincere ways for the sacrifices they were making and tried to help them keep some work-life balance. Then he left for NaviNet when we bought some of that company and recently it was bought by some rich guy At least Frank still has a role on our board.