Allstate Insurance Company announced last week that it has taken a lesson from other corporations and cancelled several perks to adapt to the current business environment.

With AIG and Merrill Lynch taking huge amounts of heat for accepting federal bailouts with one hand and passing out bonus checks with the other, and with the auto industry being taken to task for using corporate jets to get to Washington to ask for emergency funds, Allstate says it has learned what not to do, and listened to their clients.

According to CEO Tom Wilson, in an email to Allstate staffers, "Customers tell us they oppose recognition trips in this environment, yet they believe it is important to recognize strong performance."

About ten percent of the top Allstate salespeople are awarded free trips during normal years, according to Jim Fish, Executive Director of the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents, Inc.

This year, however, Allstate is cancelling that perk, as well as most employee tickets to company-sponsored events, and company meetings are being held locally, "when possible," Wilson said.

In a statement made to the Chicago Tribune, Fish explained, "In light of the fact that the company's action was based on feedback from customers, consumers and investors, it stands to reason that these same parties would expect and applaud similar financial sacrifices from the company's management."