Pros
Before the company was bought, American National was the golden child of a stable corporate entity for its employees and original stakeholders. This company had stable but mediocre profits. Technology however has been outdated and had been an ongoing struggle. It’s behind its competitors by over a decade in software development. The company was bought out by stakeholders that took advantage of American National and its employees.
Cons
American National does not have an identity or backbone. It prides itself to of not had any layoffs even during the Great Depression. The CEO in our last quarterly meeting finally made an official statement there have been layoffs and dramatic cuts in positions. This is not the place to grow your career, and I quote from a slide in the last quarterly meeting, “Where we’re going…’AI: Minimal number of cases requiring human interaction”. This company tried to take the easy way out not making the needed improvements for years and sold itself recently to Brookefield to fix its procrastination in technological development. Cutting jobs and automation to improve the client experience does not have to be synonymous. There is no guarantee from any source from direct supervisors or the CEO what jobs will stay and what jobs will be phased out. Immediately after Biden announced the ending of the COVID emergency (May 1st), the following week (May 8th) the company made an official statement to have a full return to office. As I will repeat: the Company does not have a backbone. The higher up management are even being cut unexpectedly, this company is being gutted. For a stakeholder: American National might be heading into the right direction showing an increase in profits (from cutting positions). For a potential employee: unless you’re able to sit at the table and can parrot the word “AI” and “BI” (business intelligence) you don’t have a future here. There are plenty of better paying jobs within this industry that you can have a stable, growing career. Automation and AI have the potential to make employees more productive - ANICO is not looking into the future on the necessity of preparing its employees for an adjustment. The human aspect is always going to be needed. Treating your employees as an obstacle will not help in the long run.
