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struck by Gecko's arrow Local singles have found paychecks and partners at GEICO

February 14, 2006 2:36 am

By SUSAN SCOTT NEAL

EICO has some good news this Valentine's Day.

You've probably al-ready heard the ads touting that you "could save hundreds of dollars on your car insurance."

But did you know you also could meet the love of your life by going with GEICO?

Romance is rampant at GEICO's Fredericksburg office on U.S. 17, where Cupid works even longer hours than the little green gecko.

Sparks fly among singles, and dozens of married couples work in the same building, all brought together by GEICO.

Make no mistake--GEICO is in the insurance business, not the dating business. The office environment is professional and proper, and you won't see public displays of affection.

And there's a strict policy against supervisors dating anyone they supervise.

But when as many as 3,000 males and females come together every day, all day, well, things happen behind the scenes. Hearts flutter and cheeks flush, palms get sweaty and tongues get tied.

It's one of the sweetest job perks of all.

"We have a fair workplace policy that addresses situations involving people in the same chain of command," said Theresa Livelsberger, director of human resources and a GEICO employee for 25 years.

"But we don't have a policy against workplace romance. In fact, our work culture is such that we encourage a friendly work environment and the development of long-term friendships."

Nobody's quite sure how many couples-in-love meet on the job at GEICO, one of the largest private auto insurance companies in the country.

Livelsberger said GEICO doesn't track the number of marriages within employee ranks because it doesn't believe in meddling in their private lives.

"But we do seem to have a lot of couples here," she said. "Though I don't think it's unique to GEICO or to any other large employer."

Livelsberger herself met her husband on the job at GEICO 17 years ago.

GEICO has been around since 1936 when Leo and Lillian Goodwin, a husband and wife working side by side, established the Government Employees Insurance Company in Washington.

There's been an office in Fredericksburg since 1991. The large regional facility on U.S. 17 opened in 1994, replacing the small local office on Tidewater Trail.

Now GEICO's Fredericksburg office is one of the company's 12 major offices in the United States and the second-largest employer in the Fredericksburg area after Mary Washington Hospital.

GEICO has become the nation's fourth-largest private auto insurer, with more than 6 million policyholders and 23,000 employees.

The company was purchased in 1995 by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway investment firm.

GEICO's work force of 3,000 people in Fredericksburg in-cludes a lot of young singles with similar interests, creating an attractive social environment.

Many of the young adults work night shifts, fostering a sense of camaraderie.

The company's 467,000-square-foot facility has a cafeteria, gym, convenience store, credit union, refreshment centers and snack bars, so there are lots of places to meet fellow employees.

"It's a great place to work and a great place to meet people," said Chris Stover of Spotsylvania.

Stover met his wife, Beth, when both were brand-new employees at GEICO in early 1994.

She was fresh out of Radford University and the small town of Marion in southwest Virginia, and he was a Spotsylvania boy and a graduate of Old Dominion University.

They first saw each other in a training class, but didn't become acquainted until later in the year when they wound up in the same evening licensing class.

They sat side by side, and soon they were studying together and making an effort to get to know each other. One night, Beth exclaimed that the night class was causing her to miss "Melrose Place" on television.

"Oh, my mom's taping that for me," Chris said. "You can come watch it with me."

After their first date on Dec. 11, 1994 (the date is etched in their minds), Chris realized Beth was interested in him.

"We went to play pool at Sylvia's Palomino Club in Stafford because my best friend was playing in a heavy metal band there," he said. "She likes country and hates that kind of music, but she went anyway."

At work, their departments were in close proximity, so they saw each other several times a day. They tried to get together for lunch as often as possible, and soon they were dating exclusively.

"Being from southwestern Virginia, Beth had this wonderful open personality," Chris said. "She was just so open and so genuine, and it was easy for me to be myself around her. And after work she cooked these big Southern meals for me. I knew she was trying to lure me in, and it worked. I was hooked."

Exactly 11 years ago today, Chris uttered those three little words every girl wants to hear from the guy she adores.

He'd previously said "I love you" to two other women: his mother and grandmother.

Then in the spring of 1996, he popped the question on bended knee at a Garth Brooks concert, waiting anxiously until the third encore when Garth finally crooned the sentimental words to one of Beth's favorite songs, "Dance." The crowd around them went wild.

They got married in June 1997, and now their family consists of 17-month-old Dawson and a second baby boy due in May. He'll be named Gavin.

The Stovers work the same hours every day so they carpool together from their home in Spotsylvania, stopping off both ways at Dawson's day-care center.

They don't see each other at work, and they don't talk about work at home. "We made a family decision to leave work at the office," Beth said.

But they treasure the company for which they work. "GEICO brought our family together," she said.

"I feel like Chris is my best friend, and he always looks out for my best interests. And I'd never have met him if we hadn't both worked at GEICO."

GEICO also brought together Kristin and Danny Frizzell, newlyweds as of last October, friends at GEICO for six years.

A native of Blacksburg and graduate of Christopher Newport University, Danny worked for GEICO for eight months in the 1990s before leaving to open a business with a friend. He returned to GEICO in June of 1998.

Kristin's a graduate of Courtland High School and Virginia Commonwealth University. She, too, is on her second stint of employment at GEICO, having worked there for a year before leaving to finish college. She returned to the company in 1999.

She and Danny first met in the gym at GEICO. They were both working night shifts at the time and sometimes passed in the hallways. But they're both the quiet type, and nothing happened.

Then one night Danny recognized her at a restaurant in Central Park, and his friends had bet him that he wouldn't have the nerve to go talk to any girls. So he marched up to Kristin, who recognized him, too, and said hello.

And that was the start of a slow, enduring friendship, in which Danny learned Kristin might be reserved, but she was also relaxed and talkative. And Kristin learned that beneath Danny's reserved exterior was a genuinely nice guy who made her laugh.

Kristin's biggest concern was her young son from a previous marriage. She didn't want to bring a man into Hunter's life unless it was for keeps. And Danny had never dated anyone with a child.

The relationship progressed, and Danny and Hunter became buddies, such good buddies that Kristin realized Danny was a keeper.

Nowadays, Danny and Kristin work on the first floor at GEICO, but they rarely run into each other during the day except when they can arrange to go to the gym together.

Ron and Melissa Daniels started working at GEICO on the same day in 1993 and went through the same orientation class. He was from Virginia Beach, and she was from Spotsylvania, a recent graduate of Radford University.

At work they'd sometimes bump into each other in the cafeteria, and Ron frequently went to Melissa's office with work orders to deliver. Melissa's supervisor teased her that Ron seemed to be hanging out in the office a lot.

But both were in other relationships, and it was several years before they wound up going out, on the auspicious occasion of Valentine's Day.

Cupid's arrows hit their mark, and romance blossomed. But wanting to maintain professionalism, they kept a low profile at work.

They were so circumspect that Melissa's supervisor was actually surprised when she found out they were dating.

Ron proposed after a GEICO golf tournament in Virginia Beach, where they both were transferred for several years. They married in 1999 and returned to the Fredericksburg office in 2001.

Now they have two children, a home in Locust Grove in Orange County, and a daily commute together to GEICO. And they eat lunch together every Thursday and Friday, the only days their lunch schedules coincide.

"That's when we can actually talk, without the kids around," said Melissa.

Ron said marrying Melissa is something he'd "do all over again."

Melissa said, "The best thing GEICO has done for me is him!"

Sharing a desk during training in the customer service department in 2003 created a connection between Joe Shinko, 27, and Sarah Duckworth, 21. Her training class was on the night shift, his was during the day.

"We'd met a couple of times, but then he started leaving me notes on the desk, and I thought that was weird," said Sarah, a graduate of Colonial Forge High School.

"I'd seen her and thought she was hot," said Joe, who is from the Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania. "I'd just write these friendly little notes and she'd crinkle them up and throw them away."

Sarah switched to a day shift after the training class was over, and that's when she and Joe became acquainted. Sarah was interested but apprehensive, because she had a toddler at home to think about.

But Joe was persistent, and he and little Matthew gradually became friends. Joe and Sarah were married in October.

Young GEICO couples planning futures together need look no farther for inspiration than Ralph and Judy Davis, GEICO employees for 43 years, partners in marriage for nearly 35.

The Davises have worked at the Fredericksburg office for 12 years, having transferred from corporate headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md.

Both started working for the company in October, 1962, young high school graduates looking for better opportunities than they could find in their hometowns. Ralph had come from Marion in southwestern Virginia, and Judy grew up near Pittsburgh.

They didn't meet right away because they were assigned to different departments at corporate headquarters, located then in Friendship Heights, Md.

But within a couple of years, Ralph was promoted to the policy processing department where Judy worked.

They began having lunch and socializing together with a group of other young co-workers, and they became friends. Before long, Ralph realized he was both smitten and intrigued.

"She had--and still has--those big, pretty eyes," he said. "She was this gorgeous Italian girl from Pennsylvania, and she was just a mystery to me. I was always pretty good with women, but I was a small-town boy from Virginia, and here was one I just couldn't figure out."

But Ralph faced an obstacle in the form of Marilyn, an older woman at GEICO who had become Judy's mentor.

Judy told Marilyn that Ralph was asking her out, and "she told me to stay away from him, that he was too wild," said Judy.

But Ralph wasn't about to give up. He began "buttering up Marilyn," and he finally finagled a date with Judy.

They both agree that Judy said yes "just to get him off my back."

But that evening of dancing at a little rock and roll place called the Rabbit's Foot changed their lives forever. With their two daughters and their families, they'll celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in August.

In 1994 when GEICO's Fredericksburg office opened, Judy's department was scheduled to move here, but Ralph's wasn't. They couldn't imagine one of them having to commute, so Ralph's boss arranged a job switch for him to Fredericksburg.

They bought some land in Stafford, built Judy's dream home, and became active in the community. Ralph says he's become so completely at home here that he finds himself wishing people would stop moving into the area.

Lymphoma and heart problems have plagued Ralph for several years, and though his cancer is in remission, he has been advised to work only two hours a day. Judy works full time, and neither of them envisions retiring any time soon.

Ralph and Judy have witnessed a lot of office romance in their 43 years with GEICO, and they say most young couples they see "are doing it right."

They stress how important it is to avoid the distractions of romance at work and to stay focused on the job you're being paid to do.

"If you think you love that little girl in the next cubicle, let it grow, but stay focused on why you're there," said Ralph. "If you don't perform very well, if you don't create a good future for yourself, you can't live on love alone."

He also says jealousy and possessiveness aren't healthy. "People need their space," he said. "When you try to see each other at every break and every lunch, that's too much togetherness. What in the world do you talk about when you get home?"

And when disagreements enter the picture, try to pick your fights. "Judy and I seem to have this innate ability to know when the other person needs to win."

Ralph says when he and Judy disagree, he doesn't always win, but he always has the last word. And it's always the same:

"Yes, dear."

To reach SUSAN SCOTT NEAL: 540/374-5000, ext. 5701
Email: ssneal@earthlink.net