March 01, 2010

Dewey

In lieu of paying me off your UNUM debt. Hook up NolaFest with EMC, we could use a corporate sponsor. It may be cheaper for you.

7 comments:

Al said...

I work at Unum. There many different lines of insurance and underwriting under the UNUM umbrella. While it is true that Chattanooga is the largest office, Portland is next, then Worcester and the Glendale CA. The Worcester office is unique and supports a block of business not managed at other locations. The other locations are not equipped to handle the business that Worcester does and it is not realistic to train 500 inexperienced people at those locations. The business would suffer to greatly. Therefore, Worcester continues to operate and is operating at a high level. Any move would be costly, time consuming and would be a detriment to the business.

With that said, we are told by company leaders behind closed doors that Citysquare is still likely but that re-negotiating is in process. No such move to Marlboro or another location is being considered.

David Z. said...

Bill,

I can’t promise anything but I’ll make some inquiries for you and Paul about a sponsorship. The way things are going (or not) with CitySquare, we may not be celebrating over drinks until this year’s NOLA fest. LOL

Jahn said...

As I have said before, NOLA Fest 2010 should send requests to McGovern, Deval Murry, Brown & Kerry to be in attendance. Paid attendance.

Send them 2 tix each in the mail. That way they have to pay or send the Tix back unpaid. Send em certified mail, RRR.

The Demos in the above group should then be outted if they fail to visit Paulies Piedmont Village this summer.

Imagine getting Mcgovern off of Seagull Beach in the middle of the summer and getting Kerry away from his Nantucket recreational surfing with the plumbers & the electricians. Or getting Deval and Tobey out of their Berkshire swimming pool

Time for Worc to run Elmer Fudd outta town.

Bill Randell said...

Al:

Couple questions..

UNUM owns the real estate that you are in right?

If so, why move and stay in Worcester when you already own office space? Wouldn't you be better off upgrading what you own already??

Thanks

Bill

David Z. said...

Bill,

IIRC, UNUM addressed this when they first announced their move to CitySquare. They have much more space than they need at the present location. Also it is not conducive to have departments scattered about their current location when they could be consolidated in a much more orderly fashion in one modern building.

Al, please clarify this for us if I don't have the reasoning straight on this.

Al said...

Unum has made many upgrades already. I am not privy to UNUM's reasons for moving but the buildings are about 60% full. This is because when the multiple merger's happened some positions were eliminated or consolidated. So we are not utilizing the space we have. This may be one reason for moving downtown. We don't even have conference rooms larger enough to support our bigger staff meetings and we need to rent out Mechanics Hall to have them. I have been to the Chattanooga and Portland office and they are spectacular compared to Worcester.

Al said...

David i think you are right on. The company wants new modern space. Is it possible they have a secret agenda to leave town eventually? maybe. But i don't buy it. I think they sincerely want to upgrade the building and sell off the aging buildings and numerous parking lots. The office space is not in great shape and was downgraded to class B office space. it would make sense to seek something better.