Insurer’s Employees Get Their Digs in With Underground Paper

An underground needle keeps popping corporate balloons at 20th Century Insurance Co. despite the company’s best efforts to blunt it.

For three years, workers have stashed copies of an underground newspaper, dubbed 20th Century RagTime, in elevators, on desks and even in lunchroom refrigerators at California’s sixth-largest insurer. The two-page paper is packed with mock interviews, spoofs and jibes at what the editors consider stodgy management policies.

Management, for its part, is not amused and has tried to discourage the paper and ferret out its publishers. According to employees and a former manager at the Woodland Hills firm, this effort has included scrutinizing videotapes from the company’s security cameras, “staking out” certain hallways and searching desks.

Only one manager at 20th Century would comment on the newspaper, and his remarks were brief.

“It was unauthorized,” said Rick Andre, vice president of human resources. “I wouldn’t even call it a publication. I don’t know what you’d call it. It was someone’s attempt at being humorous. Beyond that, I have nothing else to add.”

The centerpiece of RagTime is columnist Myra Atkins, a fictitious mailroom-overachiever who appears as a quirky pencil drawing above her column of satirical advice.

“Dear Myra,” a reader writes. “Isn’t charging employees for parking the same as giving us a pay cut?” Replies Myra: “Yes.”

“Dear Myra,” queries another. “Ever since the no-smoking rule went into effect, I’ve noticed that smokers (who must go outside to smoke) get more extra little breaks than nonsmokers. What do you think I should do?” Says Myra: “Take up smoking.”

Several of the company’s 1,700 employees began wearing “I Myra buttons” until company President Melville P. Windle discouraged the display of allegiance. Windle, like other 20th Century executives, declined to be interviewed.

Rex Beaber, a psychologist and attorney in West Los Angeles who has mediated employee-management disputes, said underground newspapers, a rare occurrence in the workplace, appear when other avenues of expression are closed to employees.

“The very existence of such a newspaper suggests employees feel like they work in a repressive environment where open communication about dissatisfaction is too risky,” he said.

Employees who spoke about the newspaper said they generally regard 20th Century as a good place to work but said they are irritated by a constant stream of corporate programs--charity campaigns, incentive and service awards--all delivered with an upbeat tone that they consider patronizing.

One incentive award, immediately lampooned in RagTime, was a a hockey-puck-sized medallion with the company emblem on one side and a likeness of Chairman Lewis W. Foster on the other.

“It was originally done just for a laugh,” a RagTime editor said of the newspaper. “I found people could really relate to Myra, so I used her. She’s one of us, a decent person who has a sense of humor. She’s a straight-shooter who doesn’t use corporate doublespeak. Myra voices what most people think, but are afraid to say.”

“I don’t think (the administration) understood RagTime’s intent,” said former auditing director Jim Prater. “I think they were intimidated by it.” Some managers were amused by the publication at first, Prater said, but after observing the reaction at the executive level, they realized that the publication was not to be openly enjoyed.

RagTime has appeared just seven times. But growing circulation of back issues and Atkins’ widespread popularity prompted administrators to strengthen their resistence.

Prater said he used to spend hours screening videotapes from the security cameras trying to spot employees carrying large handbags or bulging briefcases that might contain bundles of the banned publication.

Other employees said desks have been searched, hallways staked out and several suspects questioned, but few solid clues have appeared.

In response to the corporate warnings, RagTime editors have only redoubled their efforts. After the second issue appeared, administrators distributed memos labeling the paper illegal and libelous. The memo was printed in the next issue of RagTime.

The editors simultaneously faxed the April issue--the latest--to six locations within the home office and to six branch offices. In an effort to trace the sender, auditing director Larry Johnson followed a paper trail leading to several stores where the faxed copies originated.

“He’s been here four times in the past week,” said Marc Wagman, manager of QIP Printing in Woodland Hills. “He was very persistent. He brought in pictures of employees who he wanted me to identify. He basically wanted to know who sent the fax, but I didn’t know.”

Because in-house distribution has grown risky, recent issues were mailed from corner mailboxes. And now, a growing number of employees who want to contribute to the paper are anonymously linked by a voice mail telephone number printed in an April issue.

“Most callers want back issues or future issues mailed directly to their homes,” said a RagTime editor.

“People definitely know where to get it,” said an employee who asked to be anonymous. “Everybody loves it. We’re always waiting for the next issue.”