I also worked for Progressive in the late &0's / early 80's. Ironically, as I was rapidly "moving up" amongst the claims ranks, one of the reasons I left was because I didn't like the "political" games played within the company. You definitely wanted to be on the "right side" if you were going to keep moving up over the long haul. Another ironic note - this supposedly enlightened company (and yes, Progressive is THE BEST at determining marketing niches)was not so enlightened in it's early days. I remember my boss (a long time Progressive employee who started with them I believe in the early sixties) telling me how they used to code claims with an "x" to indicate when the insured was a minority (specifically blacks), so they could know when to try to settle claims for less. Wouldn't Mr. Peace, Love, and Joy be found to be quite bigoted if any of those old records could ever be dug up?