Simply put, no respect or direction from upper management. When I retired after more than 3 decades of employment with the company, there was simply no recognition from anyone above my manager. All I had hoped for was a simple phone call from the upper management team in my unit saying "thank you" for your dedication and a job well done. Over the final ten years of employment with the company, most of my reviews were exceeds (or extremely high meets), but that did little in regards to compensation for the job done. There was no thanks for putting in long hours. I averaged over 60 hours per week, I worked late nights, on weekends, and even on vacation. There is no balance between work life to personal life. Benefits are expensive, for those recently hired, there is no retirement package other than being told to invest in the 401K. When I retired, it took 6 months before my pension was straightened out. For those lucky enough to have a pension with the company, don't expect to get much direction from those in the pension department. My recommendation would be to hire a good financial adviser, you'll do much better. When I started back in the 70's, and up until about 2000, there was a true family feeling with the company, now you have to look over your shoulders at all times. You don't know who's gunning for you. Consolidation has been the downfall of this company. Granted some of it may have been necessary, and is a part of corporate life, but this was simply done with no real thought other then cutting whatever expenses possible. Many of the former regional operations have no formal office presence, people work from their homes, with no additional compensation from the company for use of there homes to do business from. What second rate sporting event or NASCAR driver is Nationwide going to sink its advertising dollar into next? Some of that money could be better spent on its employees in the form of compensation. As a retiree, I have no real idea on what is going on with the company, as any correspondence with the company has virtually been cut off. In the past 6-8 years the biggest mistake this company made, was to close down one of the most successful corporate credit unions in the country, for a bank that has 2 branches, both in the Columbus area. Employees lost many of the benefits of the credit union, just so the CEO at the time could have his bank, and we all saw what happened to him last year.
