Thread regarding Ford layoffs

It is good to hear that some areas at Ford practice 40 green badge caps. Alas that is not the case in my area. There is systematic abuse of weekend OT for green badges. People intentionally set systems and jobs up so that they fail and they are paged on the weekend. The blue badges who fix/report the abuse are told by their supervisor to butt out. The supervisor and managers point to the weekend OT as a sign of how critical their teams are to keeping the systems running. It is all fiction, but hey it works we keep hiring more people.

To the ex GM'er who is now agency at Ford. The only reason your manager does not bother you on Sundays, is that you are Agency. Ford pays 1.5 times to agency folks to work Sundays and extra hours in the week. Regular "blue badges" in my team are working 60-80 hours a week, while the "green badges" are capped at 40 hours.

It is good to hear that there is more managerial courage at GM, because I doubt there is a place with less managerial courage than Ford.

Thanks

As an ex GM'er who is now agency at Ford: The work/life balance at Ford seems better. I used to be bombarded with after hours work, my manager would start requesting things on Sunday afternoons to be ready for 7am Monday meetings. None of that at Ford. I also appreciate organization wide emails from the top on things like leaving at 2pm on the eve of a major holiday, etc. At GM that came word of mouth from your supervisor, and often didn't - leaving you there while you hear other teams leaving.

Ford seems to be better regarding ageism, doesn't seem to be as strong as at GM.

Downsides? It seems there is less managerial courage, less support from supervisors. Don't escalate or 'rock the boat'. At GM I could easily call upon my superiors or those of others to help move someone who wasn't meeting deadlines or being supportive, or to help defeat a roadblock. Not so much at Ford. Your mileage may vary.

Just don't plan on retiring from Ford. And I'm not so certain that having them on your resume actually helps anymore.

@2qnr+18JoaAvT Choking on my cornflakes. I know of noone who takes pride in their work output and wants to make a real difference who thinks Ford is still a great place to work. 20 years ago sure it was a great place to work, now not so much.
There are plenty of slackers and boot lickers who think Ford is a great place to work. We aren’t even a week into 2021 and people on my team are claiming fake OT. Ford is Nirvana cash machine for the slackers and system abusers.

Agree that Ford is a great Company to work for. At the time I hired in 2011 , Ford was way more organized than Chrysler or ( Cyrbus ) who owned them. It Ford is a large ship and doesn’t turn easily without much prodding.

Agree with posters who indicate that Ford is a great place for slackers to work.
If you want to accomplish things and make the company and yourself better, Ford is a horrible place to work. You will constantly be frustrated as most of the management has no interest in anything but self promotion. The red tape elongates every year despite initiatives to reduce red tape.

I can understand your point of view. I worked for other large companies and felt, for a number of years, that Ford was the best place I have ever worked. It was my dream job and I couldn’t imagine ever leaving. I did get a little raw at times because I worked hard, worked long hours and delivered while other seemed to skate through without consequences but it wasn’t enough to spoil my bliss. A few years ago I noticed a change. Managers became more concerned with appearances than delivery, speed over quality and blame over solutions. They wanted you to tell them what they wanted to hear and were not interested in facts or resolving issues. This culture created the perfect breeding ground for slackers who could do well as long as they looked busy, marketed themselves well and blamed others for their failures. Initially I thought it was our team’s new management so I found a new position within Ford only to find the same culture in the new position. Then came SRD and I saw hard working, well respected high performers walked out the door because they were apparently nearing a pension milestone and my trust was shattered. Keeping slackers and getting rid of high performers is not a recipe for success. It also made me realize that doing well at Ford had nothing to do with hard work and performance. I can no longer describe a company with this culture as “the best place I’ve ever worked”.

wow....really....????
no one..... i repeat NO ONE, from the current Ford employees lot will spend even 5 minutes to come on a website like this and post like OP did.......no employee cares about Ford THAT much.......
Ford is a conniving company that wont surprise me if it buys a company just to shut it down soon, just to get it out of the competition. I would not even be surprised if Ford paid someone to post nice things about it on websites. Are these things legal? Hell yeah! Question is, is it moral? No.

@1hff+18JoaAvT said "once they go elsewhere and be forced to perform (I mean, the pressure is much greater in most companies) - they will realize how good Ford was to them"

If we are talking about "easy" jobs, then yes, Ford is a good company to work for. There are a lot of slackers getting paid for just being there, while work piles up. My problem is that I am one of the people that actually delivers, while I have seen others watching videos all day. Even that, I can bear it. What I find hard to swallow is that my technical advice gets ignored by management, sometimes I have to redo certain projects because managers change their minds, and managers cannot enforce any rules outside of their teams causing to have more "exceptions" than people following the rules.
However, if you want to be a good professional, Ford is a bad place. Their processes are convoluted, management's mindset is old fashioned, some technologies are really outdated, and Ford refuses to follow any standards, employing a lot of time and manpower to tweak existing solutions.
My complains about Ford are centered in management because I feel like Sisyphus: pushing a boulder up a hill for eternity. Coworkers are like in other companies: some are really good, some are obnoxious and most of them are OK.

Thanks

What exactly does the Company “ care “ about that is important to you ?

@OP+18JoaAvT
Okay, sure, it is clear that you are from HR.

I used to work at Ford but forced to quit because hubby accepted a job far away and I had to move with him. It was the best job I ever had. A lot of people who have worked at Ford but have little experience elsewhere will not appreciate their experience at Ford until they go to work for different companies. They can bash the company all they want but in the end - once they go elsewhere and be forced to perform (I mean, the pressure is much greater in most companies) - they will realize how good Ford was to them. I really do not understand why people stay so long at a company and then complain about it. Granted management was not perfect and not the brightest, but coworkers were kind for the most part. Never take decent coworkers for granted. There are many toxic ones out there plus weak HR who cannot get rid of them in other companies.

I am not sure if OP had bad luck with all the previous jobs, or it is just that OP hasn't realized the sad truth at Ford. Let me say that Ford is not the best company I have ever worked for. However, I was excited when I got in and saw how bad things were, because I thought I could improve things so much. At the time, my team leader was a very smart person with a similar attitude.

A couple of years later, and a reorg that put me under an stupid SOB manager, destroyed a big chunk of the things we did to improve the company. At that time, I almost left Ford. Once more, another stupid SOB manager (in this case mine) was promoted to LL5 and I was able to breathe again.

But my chances to improve things at Ford diminished substantially in my new position and the dream was over: I knew what kind of company I was dealing with. The cr@ppy things at Ford happen because management is not interested in fixing them. Managers are too busy brownnosing to get a promotion and nobody wants to rock the boat by saying the truth.

I have "survived" all reorgs, the SRD, the pandemic, but I am saying no more. I am leaving the company in a few months. I'll still be in the rat race a little bit longer, but at least will be in another company. I already suspected that GM/Fiat-Chrysler were more of the same, OP just confirmed it. (Thank you for that) So I won't be applying to car manufacturing companies. I am exploring now Defense Contractors companies. Hopefully, I will land a gig soon.

Thanks

Oh Please...........