Allstate Agents Bully Agency Employees!

I sat having coffee last weekend with a good friend who wanted to talk shop with me because he was thinking of changing jobs. He said, “I’m just so tired of being bullied by my boss.”
Both conversations got me thinking how some people make a short leap from schoolyard bully to workforce bully in one lifetime. No matter how old you are or where you are in life or career, abuse by a bully can pose a serious threat to your emotional and physical well-being. When bullying happens in the workplace, it creates a dysfunctional environment that can yield high staff turnover, lost productivity and increased litigation—and it may jeopardize employee health and insurance costs.
Ironically, both of us work in insurance. My friend works for an Allstate agency. You know the arrangement, the agent runs it as a business, the agent is not an Allstate employee. The agency, though, has employees. They are not employees of Allstate, they are employees of the agency.

As profits shrink, agents take it out on their employees. Allstate closes down unprofitable agencies and competition these days is fierce. Florida, with its bans, unpopularity with Governor Crist and high payouts from hurricane damage is really bad.