And with the latest "voluntary cuts" with the predictable 'involuntary' – because regardless of what they say, they will do it ... the Hunger Games have begun again. With a day the backstabbing, refusal to share info or productively work together, or even take the smallest ounce of responsibility. The every person for themselves clearly is initiated. Fast forward a couple quarters and you will see all sort of sh$t storm problems. Oh the Ford way to shoot themselves in the head just when we are entering our biggest make or break period. Just the most ridiculous thing to see.
12 replies (most recent on top)
The key to longevity in this company is a good poker face, and the ability to not express an opinion but mirror back what managers, directors and VPs are saying. A strong stomach is also an asset, along with PowerPoint skills.
Many a meeting where my brain was screaming what are you idixts thinking, but what came out of my mouth was “what is your vision and timeframe for implementing this?” After awhile it becomes a game, and you just calmly watch train wreck after train wreck.
@4jnl+16RlZWgu promotion criteria is absolutely absurd. My experience of those who get promoted to management role: You cannot have an opinion, or have ever questioned the management team. Piss off just one management level, you are done, tossed aside. You must have no standards of your own and must adopt the level above standard right or wrong. Knowledge is not a criteria, just how good of a story teller you are to management. Also need to get into the extra curricular activities; get into the club. And this is why the company is where it is. The management team has been molded over the last 30 years to eliminate all dissenting opinion. It is ruled by fear of loss. Loss of future promotion, loss off visibility, etc. This is how pure garbage has ended up in the customers hands (like DPS6). Denial, followed by endless non productive meetings, all to arrive at the scramble to blame and disown. This company deserves everything it has coming to them. The enterprise is riddled with this bad behavior to the point where it is due for a reset.
Yup. In the last 4 years in the same position I have had 4 different LL-6's. They were all on their rotation schedules, meaning that they were padding their histories for promotion. Not a one of them was there long enough to learn what was really going on. All of them were reasonably bright, but the only skills they really had were powerpoint and excel. You cannot make technical decisions when all you know is how to create a pivot table or insert a pic into a presentation. Although to be fair.... those were some really nice spreadsheets.
To “How about giving raises to people who utilize continuous improvement and stay in one position for 10 years so they become subject matter expert’s.”
Once you realize the game is rigged against you, you have two choices. Instead of leaving, I stayed in dead end supervisor positions (with up to 10 reports) for 21 years becoming an expert.
I retired for over a year but went back to work after getting an offer I couldn’t refuse. I hired in as a manager with 25 reports. After 9 months I’m a director with 150 reports. My age and expertise from the dead end supervisor positions makes me extremely valuable to the new company.
It’s all about promotions..... allowing people to move on so the next guy has to play catch up for 6 months. This is how you get raises. How about giving raises to people who utilize continuous improvement and stay in one position for 10 years so they become subject matter expert’s. They have to keep and update a sop binder or file so the next guy can come up to speed quickly. The new guy can’t change sop he can only make tweaks That are approved by lower rank employees. This is what Toyota, and Honda do. This would also reduce analysis poralisis.
In my area there is definitely fear of failure. Management and teams are playing it safe and putting lipstick on their work to try to make the point they are adding value. In reality very little is getting done to keep the company competitive.
All points mentioned are absolutely correct. I wish I didnt have to c–p all over the face of Ford - because it has been paying for my salary and looking after my family for the past 19 years - BUT, thats not going to be the case.
Other than the salary and some pride amongst family and friends (which is going down rapidly) Ford is the worst company I ever worked for. I saw the best people go away, and its not a great feeling to have the sword dangling over my neck every 5 years....sigh! SMH
For all 25 years I have been at Ford, the IT department I am in has been operated as the Hunger Games so nothing new here.
The problem is there are far to few people doing work and having actual accomplishments.
The remaining are looking for ways to advance themselves without having to do any work. This leads to credit stealing, blame shifting, sabotage, bullying, setting people up for termination/discipline. And this occurs at all levels GSR->CIO.
One example of how dysfunctional the organization is. People were keeping their work products and presentations on their laptop to avoid sabotage and credit stealing. The management declared everything must be kept on Shared drives on threat of termination. So people reluctantly complied. Immediately the non-working contingent spent their entire day watching for uploads to Shared drives. When they saw a new idea/completed work/etc , they immediately grabbed a copy, slapped their name on it and presented to management as their idea. Demoralized the people who were actually doing work and stopped. They also stopped expressing ideas for improvements.
And meanwhile, in the RenCen that we used to own and sold at a discount, General Motors is eating our breakfast, lunch and dinner with their performance. Spinning off Lyft, creating an EV lineup that has significant value, partnerships for producing vehicles and batteries, and profits during a pandemic. And we have: Board seats for Ford kids, buyouts for the most knowledgeable employees, and MULTI BILLION dollar losses. And in Smart Mobility, we believe that all managers should be under 40 years of age. Fact.
More like End of days.
S— it up Buttercup
let the games begin