There is a reason why only the HR guy/gal is called a "Business Partner" by the company. They are a partner of the company in making sure they get the best labor at the least cost or get someone who generates more value than what he/she gets paid. Everyone else is the proletarian "employee" not partner. Actually they changed the nomenclature to "job" or "position" just to make employees feel better. In many other countries a job is called a "service". Yes service - as in you are a servant. If you dont like this, and have capability and capital, leave Ford and start your own business. Else unfortunately, we just have to s— it up.
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Lawyer you paid for, not HR!
What you have to remember is you can only trust yourself when dealing with issues. No one, and I repeat, no one has your back. Your boss can easily turn coat and leave you outside to freeze. Word of advice, the quicker you realize that nobody cares about you the more realistic you will be in what you take on. The concept of employee development is nothing but a formality; you know deep down it is a rat race to nowhere. Your boss's goal is the next promotion. So keep track of the hours you put in, do not show eagerness as you will just be taken advantage of. Ford is not the company that rewards honest hard working people. If you fall into that category you will be used and thrown out like yesterday's newspaper. So be wise about how much you give of yourself to that place. It's just a job, not a career.
The HR department works for the company and not the employee and they exist to protect the company not the employee. Employees need to understand this. You should all know that any contact that you have with HR will be documented and reported to management, that is their job and responsibility. Unless you are a represented employee and have a union on your side, anyone placing their trust in HR is taking a huge risk.
HR may try and tell you that they are your friend, but let this be an early lesson in your career, HR is not your friend.
Don’t contact hr don’t trust what the company says you should do it is all a ruse. Fact LL6’s harassed female employee for months everyone witnessed in this dept. female contact hr hr calls everyone in dept at that time for their story. Nothing was done about LL6’s but he was rotated to another dept.
In decades in IT at Fords I observed mainly what @dqn saw.
HR supported supervisors and managers.
People who submitted anonymous tips +cc to a few strategic senior leadership had much better success. Those cases nearly always ended with the problem supervisor/manager deciding to retire for family reasons rather quickly.
If you go the anonymous tip route be sure to be factual and supply ample evidence.
Do not speak with HR. Their purpose is to protect Ford, not help you. If you are having issues, find another area or company to work for.
My experience, not at Ford, is quite opposite of @uhc. I was a decent employee at a previous company getting good reviews - meets and exceeds expectations. We had a reorg and the office b!tch became my manager - no one got along with her. She p!ssed off almost everyone she worked with and thought her sh!t didn't stink.
Anyway, we butted heads on more than one occasion as did many on the team. She gave me a poor evaluation which was 75% lies - her revenge and holding grudges toward me. I went to HR and had to rebut everything on the I wrote a 7 page rebuttal. HR told me that what she wrote was 'bible' and nothing would change about it. She destroyed my career. I started looking for a new job.
About 6 months later she and I had a come to Jesus meeting. She expected me to sit there and take her criticisms of me. After she was done, I pointed the finger back to her and said my peace. The next day I get a call from HR. She wrote me up for disrespect.
Six months later I received another poor In the meantime, her 10 person team dwindled down to 5 people because of her belligerent attitude and antics toward her team. They all left the company. 3 months later I left. I later learned this manager stepped down. I never found out if she was forced out of her role.
My 22 year career in IT with HR is that it is there to protect the company and it's managers and not the employees.
This depends heavily on who your HR rep/business partner is. Personally. And what happens is whatever you want to happen. Mostly HR will just listen. They won't get directly involved unless you specifically request it. Let me tell you my story.
I had a situation where two of my superiors, LL6 and LL5, were both directly "messing" with me, treating me unfairly, holding unrealistic expectations of me, and having disrespectful, confrontational meetings with me. I chose to involve HR when their treatment of me became condescending, disrespectful and degrading.
In my case, it was incredibly successful. My HR rep listened to me, supported me, and even encouraged and attended a special meeting where I chose to confront my managers. In the meeting, my HR person verbally validated my viewpoint and offered suggestions to my supervisors for what they could do differently in the relationship. My treatment swiftly changed. She also encouraged and enabled me to find a better role and leave that job ASAP, as she knew it was a toxic work environment and the safest bet was for me to leave and not to expect them to truly change for the better.
In most cases, your best bet will be to leave for a new role, rather than stay and fight.
YMMV. Good luck.