Thread regarding Ford layoffs

@12LU7rFj-1fdf I think people try to find some reason why certain people were cut. In my department they cut all the technical LL6 and kept the administrative LL6. So they cut those whose skills were fresh and who did most of the work and project planning and leading. All cut were close to pension milestones. After the shock and horror, the rumor mill started, with people constructing tales why each person was targeted. All total BS but admitting to themselves that the company is strategically eliminating future pension liabilities makes them feel vulnerable.

To your point leadership roles at Ford should be avoided. As well as any Ford BS role like developing KPIs and other useless reporting which easily comprise half of the roles at Ford.

Back in the 90s, they hired in people as LL6's to give them lease cars as a perk. Great move, Ford. Now you're firing these people to save money. Advise your kids and young friends to work elsewhere. That company is spent.

I would avoid any LL6 position at Ford. I was in a similar position at another automotive company and was extremely involved in each project. I was the person who knew the projects and applications from end to end and would provide technical guidance and troubleshooting. I was marketable. At Ford I got so many administrative special assignments that I felt removed from the details of the projects assigned to my direct reports. You spend too much time in a position like that and your skills become useless. I suspect that is the primary reason Ford hits the LL6 level so heavily when they are making cuts. They promote you because you’re good and later they cut you because your skills have become stale.

This advice is spot on. I had maintained my marketable skills until a few years ago when I was given an assignment that was very specific to the way Ford does business. I wasn’t concerned because I had always done well at Ford and assumed I’d move on to a project that would continue developing my skills. When I was SRD’d I assumed I’d find another job but quickly realized my marketable skills had grown stale and there wasn’t much out there for me. Fortunately I was financially able to retire so it wasn’t a devastating situation. Otherwise I would have had a difficult (impossible) time finding a job that wasn’t a significant decrease in salary. Take care of yourself because your employer will not.

@12LU7rFj-zig has good advice
If you are not spending 80% of your time designing, coding, debugging, maintaining real applications that run the business and on technology used by other companies (not obsolete technology or one off technology), your skills are likely not marketable.

If you are in systems infrastructure, you will likely be replaced with an Infrastructure as a service provider in the near future. There is no real need for Ford to pay Infrastructure teams to install products and fixes as the vendors are all going towards providing a service to do that.

If you are an IT supervisor, manager or director you will have a difficult time finding a new job.

I can only speak for IT... there are a number of positions that relate to documentation, process, standards, governance and management of technologies used by all applications. There are also positions that primarily create status reports so that management can monitor projects. Those positions relate to the way Ford does business and may not be marketable. Other companies where I have worked did not have positions like these. Positions where you are designing, developing, testing or supporting a real system or product are more marketable from my experience.

Thank you.
What are those position titles?