CEO Mehran Assadi used the occasion of the one-year anniversary of our remote work situation to salute the hard work of all of National Life’s employees and focus us on the future.
“You have shined,” he said. “You have delivered in a very, very challenging environment. While a lot of things have been canceled, hope and the future have not been canceled.”
But he acknowledged that there have been heartbreaks and dreams delayed, along with joys and happiness, for every person at our company.
A panel of six employees spoke with Mehran about their own experiences, ranging from the death of a mother, a months-long separation from family, a frightening medical diagnosis, depression and the joy of a new child’s birth. Watch the recording of that segment here.
“You have seen and you have heard stories of resilience,” Mehran said. “It’s not somebody else’s problem. These are people we know who struggle. There is hope for all of us and there is help for all of us. And there is zero shame in asking for it.”
He said he focused on the employees and their experiences because they reflect precisely the cause that animates everything we do at National Life.
“We are part of middle America,” our core market, Mehran said. “Those are our neighbors. Those are our friends. There are thousands of stories out there like that.”
Mehran himself shared his own Pandemic Diary story earlier this week. He said the past year has been humbling.
“I am so honored to be a member of this organization,” he said. “This past year as we went remote in the middle of a pandemic taught me how much I love doing what I do as a member of the team, as the head coach of the team.”
Although he’s never taken for granted what we do at National Life, “It means a hell of a lot more to me today than it did a year ago.”
He encouraged every employee to continue caring for their physical and mental health while all of us work together on our economic health, a message he has been promoting since before we went remote.
The company is hard at work on Route 175, our strategic vision looking toward our 175th anniversary in 2023. Executive Vice Presidents Bob Cotton and Achim Schwetlick provided an update, describing how the strategy is built as an enhancement of what we already do successfully while leveraging technology and performance to do it even better.
Watch the recording of the whole meeting at this link: