LandAmerica Leaves Much To Be Admired
From the company website and their Press Release: "LandAmerica Shared Resources Center in Richmond, Virginia, supports over 900 company-owned offices and a network of more than 10,000 active agents. LandAmerica serves agent, residential, commercial, and lender customers throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.""LandAmerica is recognized as number one in the mortgage services industry on Fortune's 2007 list of America's Most Admired Companies."
After a lay off of 700 FTE’s (full-time equivalents), that is what the company calls their employees, earlier this year they announced another round of 1,100 people being sent packing.
With the housing market working off the last five years of speculative excesses, it is understandable that they need to reduce staffing. What I find objectionable is that it is packaged with an additional stock repurchase program and in a way intentionally meant to support the company’s stock price.
In their Press Release they discuss the cuts after the stock repurchase announcement: “Also, as part of an effort to reduce costs…”. There is not the slightest bit of compassion or concern shown, nor will they even refer to the employees as people. They only mention severance because it is part of an expense.
From the company’s website:
New artical: The Insult Is Complete At LandAmerica
19 comments:
FYI - When Land America decided to layoff employees at one of it's largest office in Florida, they simply called a meeting of the workers at 10:30 am on 10/10/07 and within 10 minutes told everyone they no longer had jobs. The employees were told that, as of that moment, it was their last day of work and they needed to get their stuff out of the building by Friday. Yes they did pay the FTE's until 10/26/07, which seems rather impressive considering the way they handled the layoffs and the other "hidden" agenda they seem to have. As you mention, little interest in the employee as a person, considering at least half of the employees at the site had been with Land America for 20 to almost 40 years! So much for appreciation and that Fortune 500 company flag they wish to wave.
LandAmerica layed off all its older workers with experience. It is now being run by industry inexperienced management. Watch it fall apart.
I agree with LandAmerica looking at a questionable future. Upper management has made poor decisions and has hired inexperienced workers and let experienced workers go, which in the long haul will lead to major issues with claims and loss of business. Management is overpaid and lacks the ability to make rational and intelligent decisions. This company will suffer for the next ten years if it is still around that long... They were clearly the leader at one time among the other major title companies...
Landamerica is in chaos in Denver, it has closed it's title plant, laid off the employees that have kept the plant running and put inexperienced cheaper employees in charge. I dont give the company the 10 years our previous poster gave them.
Unfortunately Land America Assessment Corp (LAC)is also resorting to using inexperienced "wanna be" environmental consultants and inspectors in their Phase 1 ESA and Property Condition market which will lead to increasing poor decisions based on erroneous data and evaluations being submitted by inspectors. Very few inspectors, as well as LAC management and national client managers at this time, possess the proper state licensing and/or training to perform or evaluate the environmental inspections. They simply rely on a previous inspection,down play or over-look glaring environmental issues, or falsify information. The goal apparently to provide a higher profit margin to their bottom line, while ignoring professional ethics and relying on inspectors who simply jump for a dollar & will provide a "no issue inspection" no matter how low the contract fee, thereby setting up a negative attitude with the inspector and shoddy work ethics. This appears to be driven by both east and west environmental corp offices - but mainly from the Irvine California office. Unfortunately other competing Phase I ESA and PCA firms appear to be following the poor leadership of LAC; as several of those laid off have gone to other firms practicing the same low standard. Sad state for Phase I ESA and Property Condition assessment industry. LAC ESA & PCA division will limp along like other national firms who have replaced higher paid more experienced sub contractors simply because of the momentum of the sub contract ESA/PCA industry which in itself convolutes the importance of Due Diligence training in the real estate market even though ASTM has published standards for these types of inspections.
LandAmerica has a way of not using a sub-contractor if the sub-contractor reports the truth about a field condition, and the truth is not what LandAmerica wants to hear. IS THIS UNETHICAL OR NOT?
FYI - LandAmerica senior employees have allegedly been receiving FINANCIAL KICKBACKS from a large Georgia Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). Kind of interesting, isn't it?
Landamerica just gave 120 employees a 60 day notice 3 days ago. LandAmerica is moving their inland empire production center to Arizona because of cheaper cost of operation.
I worked for this company for six years and can say that management does not respect their employees. They would often make plans for changes in the company that affected employees in some manner such as job function or work location, but would not inform them of the decision until the very last minute. Everything was a secret and I guess they didn't feel that employees had a right to know what may affect their job environment. Awards such as most admired company are worthless. This company is not focused on sustained growth, and is only concerned about how they will do the next quarter. For the long term, LandAmerica is in serious trouble.
Oh, and they also cut severance pay too.
All of the IT employees that were laid off on November 3rd (of which I am one) were told in a Town Hall conference call that the layoffs of approximately 20 to 30 IT personnel in October were made to prevent recurring layoffs. I understand the market sucks, but management deliberately led the company-wide IT department to think that the October cuts were going to be it for a while. Less than 3 weeks later, there was a more significant round of cuts than the previous round. Why hold this farce conference call which seemed to give reassurance only to stab your employees in the back. And I still have not gotten my separation package from the Human Resources. The company is really circling the drain.
My husband was in the round of layoffs in the Richmond, VA office 3 weeks ago. Someone in HR screwed up when he was supposed to get his 1 week severance 2 weeks ago. He called HR this morning and because the company filed bankruptcy, it has to go through court, and chances are we'll never see the money. We just got totally screwed!
LandAm was named "Most Admired" by Fortune Magazine for 2008--I wonder who was PAID OFF to get that designation! Bankrupt now---how admirable is that?? This title definitely is NOT based on the management of the LandAmerica Tax and Flood Division! That division is run by Managers who do nothing but "protect themselves" and layoff most of their decent, knowledgeable employees that actually do the work and maintain client relationships. The executives and department heads in this office need to be re-evaluated by corporate and shown the door for mismanagement and office "nepotism." The only way this division will survive is if someone comes in and buys it....but BUYER beware!!!! This company has done nothing but run itself in the ground, lost major clients and lost most of their best staff. Whoever buys them (Fidelity??) better clean house...starting with all those useless, overpaid managers and middle managers. You can start at the top on this one and move down from dept to dept....Most Admired Company---YEAH RIGHT!!!! I wonder how long until we are all out of jobs there! What a waste of a good company.
OMG....there was a pretty decent sized layoff that took place Jan 5 at the Tax and Flood office. Let me tell you how poorly that was handled. First off, they notified those being laid off on a CONFERENCE CALL and said basically "sorry"--oh, but they had to still work an entire week! And.....the MANAGERS did NOT call any of them individually to give any real explanation as to why this was really happening....I mean, a canned response such as "well...times are bad" just does not fly. Especially since the MANAGERS had been LYING to everyone saying "our division was not part of the corporate bankruptcy!!!" Oh and we were told to make sure clients were told that too!!!! R U kidding me...do they think we are all MORONS? But now that I think about it, maybe the managers are just so uneducated in business that they really are that out of touch with reality to believe that they are not "part of the bankruptcy." Oh, they also made all the employees that are still working take a massive pay cut....and are up for sale. They are basically "praying" someone buys us...but the joke is on them....whoever buys this sinking ship will NEVER bring our salaries back!!!! Let alone, why would a buyer keep anyone, especially executives that are still employed? I think the rest of the office is done too....it's a shame. But not shocking. I hope everyone else is also looking for new jobs before the next round of layoffs.
Thanks to the many inept managers that drove the company into the ground. This company went from record earnings to bankruptcy in just under two years. Ted Chandler is a moron, in addition to all of the clueless county managers all over the country who had no clue as to how a company should be managed, especially during a down market. This is critical for survival since sluggish conditions will challenge companies now and then during its existence. This is what separates properly managed organizations from those that eventually crash like LandAmerica. Its easy to succeed when things are rolling along smoothly, but when conditions get tough, LandAmerica managers were clueless. Good luck to all employees that are out of work as a result of this unfortunate circumstance.
I used to be a loyal employee at lawyers/landam escrow dept for over 6 years. i loved the company and worked evenings and weekends to please our clients and to make money for the company. the stats were great and i did not mind working long hours. new i wish i would have charged overtime for all my extra input, as i was one of the unlucky ones that was laid off about 20 months ago. i had 39 years experience in the business and had numerous customers that would have kept our office open for a long time. however, the experienced help were laid off and the blond (sorry) bimbos that had breast implants and showed them at work and had limited experience were kept on. i could have done the job of 3 of these people, which would have been a much better business decision for the company. bad management was the greatest reason for landam's failure. this company could have survived had they used their brains. alot of people have suffered and continue to suffer. the devil is alive and well and we have a long way to go before recovery. thank you for allowing me to vent.
LandAmerica executives file claims for unpaid severance
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/LAND25_20090424-222017/263770/P20/
There are 22 Landamerica executives seeking unpaid termination compensation, including $5.3 Million for Ted Chandler. Obviously they have a right to go to bankruptcy court to seek this, but why aren't these executives being investigated for the 1031 ponzi scheme? It's amazing that these people are actually pursuing this knowing the negative reaction it will receive.
From my observations and in my opinion, with the behaviors of Chandler, etal. being such an apparently blatant "ponzi" in operating the 1031 Corp...does anyone know why the FBI or other authorities have not began an investigation to indict these people for their actions????
My wife was laid off by LandIndia Flood Services in mid-November 2008 after being a full-time equivalent for 12 years. She received her SIGNED severence agreement AND her vacation pay within a couple days, but her modest severence check was not included (imagine that). You all know the story, they filed for protection the next week.
I spent the next 12 months hearing how tax and flood were not in bankruptcy - this seems rather incongruent to put it mildly.
These guys are a bunch of hacks and I pity the fools that ended up buying them (sorry JT) because it will be virtually impossible to turn the clock back to the good old LERETA days. Old Man Quarto must be turning over in his grave as over-automation on flood has turned them into the laughing-stock of the industry.
You know who I am. I am The American Idiot.
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