Chapter 1

The handwriting had been on the wall for some time and it looked like it finally was going to happen. That was the thought of Ralph Foster who was an office claim manager for an insurance company had when he received a phone call saying that Bryan Cameron was going to be at Ralph’s office tomorrow. Bryan was the head of the Western Territory HR department for this large insurance company. It was Bryan and Donald Palmer, the Western Territory Claims Manager who in the past four months had visited two other claim offices in this State and announced they were being “consolidated” into another claim office which was located in a different State. “Consolidated” was a fancy word for saying they were closing this claim office.

Donald Palmer, who was Ralph’s boss, was in his mid-thirties and a rising star with the company. He had suddenly resigned two weeks ago and no replacement had yet been announced. There was some scuttlebutt going around about a married female assistant who recorded some inappropriate conversations of Donald’s her husband heard which may have caused Palmer to abruptly leave the company. With this consolidation going on in the claim department the thought was that maybe a replacement for Palmer wouldn’t be announced and that his position would be “consolidated.” Ralph was thinking that Bryan Cameron had been given the assignment of announcing this claim office’s closing.

Consolidation of the other offices had meant that some employees were offered positions in this out of State office, some employees were asked to work from their homes, and some employees were laid off. The ones offered out-of-State positions would receive partial assistance in moving expenses if they accepted the job offer and moved. The employees asked to work from home would receive the necessary computer equipment to do that. The employees who were laid off or who decided to leave the company and not make the move would receive severance pay based on how many years they had been employed.

Ralph was fifty-five years of age and had been employed by this large insurance company for thirty years. He had been thinking about what he would do if his office was closed. The other two office managers had been offered an “Area Manager” position at this new location. No matter how much lipstick was put on that job offer, that position was a demotion. Ralph also didn’t care for the weather, namely the summer heat where this large claim office was located. The heat there was heat no matter what the humidity was. Ralph was favoring taking early retirement and would see what he could do to negotiate a better severance package.

Handling personal lines insurance claims had markedly changed from when Ralph was first hired as a claim adjuster. The telephone was the first major change in going from either a mail or a person-to-person contact to contact by telephone being the primary way to adjust claims. The next major claim adjusting change was the use of the internet and smartphones and in some instances drones with cameras. Instead of insureds driving to locations for drive-in claim service or the adjustors going to body shops to write estimates, customers and body shops were asked to take a few photos and e-mail or text the photos in along with if there was an estimate of the damage.

The bullpen was the informal name given to the group of adjusters that would write the estimates of the automobile or property damage claims based on these photos. For body shops, the estimates they were asked to submit would be reviewed, adjusted, and approved. This method of claim handling applied where possible to homeowner claims and it even had some applications on bodily injury claims. Ralph could see that the next major change coming was going to be in the use of artificial intelligence in the evaluation, adjustment, and settlement of claims.

This consolidation of claim offices was being done at the behest of the executives at the Home Office who said it would reduce costs and improve claim service. It was Ralph’s opinion that these Home Office types weren’t deep thinkers but for the most part, were “yes” men types. If the Claim VP had an idea, everyone would tell him that was a great idea and no one would question him or play Devil’s advocate with him because to do so would mean that person was not a team player.

Closing claim offices would save the expense of having the office, but that savings would be lost by the increases in the amount of the claim payments. Management talked a good game about claim satisfaction but their actions didn’t do much to improve it as it took away from the personal touch. Their actions were solely orientated to reducing claim expense by reducing claim employees which resulted in higher claim settlement costs and workloads.

These higher workloads caused the employees to not being happy campers. This was reflected in the surveys that were conducted of employees. Of course, upper management blamed lower management for this disappointing employee attitude. The commercials this insurance company did were about insurance rates and not about claim service.

Another unsaid reason Ralph thought in doing this consolidation was that the company wanted to reduce the number of claim employees working in this State. The company had been playing fast and loose in complying with labor laws as to employee compensation which resulted in some employees filing lawsuits that resulted in the company being on the losing end. Besides the expense involved, the publicity these lawsuits generated was embarrassing and took away from the squeaky clean image the company tried to foster. The company was no longer rated as a great place to work by magazines that did these types of ratings.

The next morning Bryan Cameron was at the office before it officially opened and he asked Ralph not to open the switchboard yet because he wanted to make an announcement to the employees. This was done and he announced that this claim office was being closed. He explained that some employees would be asked to work from their homes and those that weren’t asked to do that would have a position offered to them to work at this new location. He explained the moving assistance being offered and the severance package. Ralph could see the employees were not happy to hear this news.

After this announcement was made Bryan was in Ralph’s office. He said they had learned from closing other offices that by offering all the non-home working employees a position at this new office, only a small percentage of them would accept since for various reasons they couldn’t or wouldn’t want to move.

“Now as to you Ralph, we are offering you the position of being an Area Manager at this out of State claim office.”

“Even though I am single, and probably will only be working for a few more years, moving out of State does not enthuse me so I will be taking an early retirement.”

“The severance package for you because of your position will mean one year of salary.”

“I don’t think that is sufficient for me and it needs to be increased.”

With a somewhat smug look on his face, Bryan said, “Why would we need to do that?”

“If you did, then I wouldn’t be writing a book about my experiences on what I have come to learn and know in the time I worked here.”

“And what are some of those experiences?” asked Bryan still smiling smugly.

“How about Scott who was here before he became a VP in Home Office commenting that using this additional new criterion in underwriting applicants for insurance prevented some people from being insured which just happens to be the people the company doesn’t want to insure because of where they live? There too is him chuckling about how one accident won’t raise an insured’s rates but what the premium will go up to if there is another accident soon after. Those insureds will pay that amount since now they have nowhere to go since no company will want to insure them with two accidents.”

“I will mention the off-the-cuff recorded comments I have of some upper management talking about various programs which they were not fans of and how that affected some people’s careers and not for the better. There are other items I know of that would be highly embarrassing if they were to be known as some of the claims submitted by high-level employees and celebrity-type insureds that were adjusted differently versus how the average insured claims were handled. There are also the claim practices we were directed to install, along with individual job performances being rated on what is paid out on claims. All this and more wouldn’t be well-received if it became known.”