For those of you who left and have found jobs elsewhere; where did you end up?
What Company / City, State?
And do you like the culture?
18 replies (most recent on top)
cringe whenever someone says “ford’s” (or “meijer’s” or “target’s”).....what era is this...
@5jpg+18ppjm6f I really hope this post was written by a troll.
a) Fords is not the best company on earth. It is a struggling company with a corrosive culture.
b) doing whatever it takes to keep a job at Fords involves selling your soul. It has nothing to do with being competent, conscientious and hard working. It is about knob polishing, back stabbing and servicing the higher ups.
If you truly want to get back to Fords and are willing to do whatever it takes, figure out a way to socialize with the directors, managers and VPs and ask them how you can serve them. Don’t complain later when you feel dirty and slimey with the deal you made.
If you are not willing to sell your soul, then count your blessings and move on. In time you will see that it is the best thing that happened to you.
To the person crying themself to sleep every night over losing the Ford job... there is nothing people could have done to prevent being SRD’d. I worked long hours, was productive, never caused trouble or conflict, never complained, got great reviews, promotions, etc. yet I was still SRD’d. If I had worked one more year my pension would have increased significantly and I believe that was what put the target on my back. While I would have been happy to continue working there I do not have regrets as I don’t believe there was anything I could have done to cause a different outcome.
I’m very happy now but if I do have a little bitterness it’s because the culture changed and the loyalty, hard work and high productivity that helped me do well at Ford for so many years were no longer valued.
@5jpg We know that's you Hackett. You helped destroy Ford and walked away with enough money to retire. Maybe a job asking 'Would you like fries with your order?' is better suited for you.
I was let go May 2019 and still is jobless. Everybody, listen. You need to whatever it takes to keep yourself from letting go from the best company on earth! I cry to sleep everyday and am hoping someday Ford will take me back
FCA Hybrid group. Direct. The culture is much better.
I have migrated to the cloud.
I no longer have a body.
I save a lot on rent and tax.
Thank God for Jim Hackett for releasing me from the constraints of my cubicle and ultimately my body!
@2fxh+18ppjm6f I'd take the 2 months gig in NC, if I didn't have anything else. "Relocating to NC" just means getting a short term rental for 2 months near the job. Getting paid by the hour, and far from home, the best would be 80-100 hours week, so your mind is busy while your wallet bulges. In those 2 months, you'd make enough money to stay afloat several more months and who knows.. maybe you'd like the weather in NC... LOL. That's the contractor's mindset...
Thanks
I was SRD’d in May 2019 and decided to retire after a short job search. There seemed to be jobs available but I was so tired of the long hours, the stress and being undervalued that my heart wasn’t in it. I always lived below my means, have very little debt and a pretty healthy nest egg. I expected to have to tighten my belt but it has been rather comfortable. I’ve even been able to afford to donate monthly to my favorite food bank. It really is true that you spend less in retirement! I’m sure COVID has helped keep expenses low but I’ll be able to afford recreation and some travel once this passes.
My initial plan had been to pursue volunteer opportunities but COVID made it too risky. I’ll revisit that once it’s safe to do so. For now I’ve been staying busy catching up on all those projects that piled up while I worked so much that I had no time for them. I have also been enjoying lots of Zoom c—tail hours.
I’m still very happy with my decision. I’m also thankful that I lived a more moderate lifestyle so that I wasn’t forced to take another high stress job.
@1qjr Good day to you. I am @upc. I agree 100%. I did my best to stay local. When nothing was showing up on the radar, I expanded my search to a 2 hour drive away, then 4 and then settled in St. Louis which is an 8 hour drive - if I couldn't stay local, I wanted to be able to make a short drive on Friday evenings to come back to my home in MI. (As mentioned, I was SRD'd in May 2019. The previous year, I believe it was ?FCA? that also went through with a flame thrower letting people go so they were able to grab up the available local jobs. We knew that layoffs were coming to Ford but they delayed them causing unnecessary stress on people. I remember being concerned about this at the time.... what if?)
I turned down 5 jobs, all contract before accepting the one in St. Louis. One job I turned down was $80 an hour but only a 2-month gig and they wanted me to relocate to NC. (Insert eyeroll.) I knew exactly what was happening without really knowing; the project was so badly in the ditch that they were throwing money at anyone who would come in and help. I knew I would be working 60+ hours a week to get it back on track. A situation I didn't find appealing.
I always plan for being laid-off at every job so live well within my means and save. I had the recommended 6 months of savings but I went through that including the unemployment I received. Unfortunately, it got to the point where I had 2 months of mortgage payments remaining in my savings before I had to make some hard decisions which had me taking the St. Louis job. Despite my bills for 2 places, I managed to save enough to be unemployed for a year. (After seeing what a dumpster fire the job was, I was going to make my decision to leave or stay at my 1 year mark.)
People do offer good advice here. I have a 30 year mortgage of $130k. (I couldn't budget for a 20 year one.) My plan was to have it paid off in 10 years. In just 5 years, I have it down to 15k. I should be free and clear of it in another year.
Thanks everyone!
I know lots of people got SRD or took the buyout in 2019. Most of them found gainful employment within a couple of months - often with a pay bump. If you do a proper job search and can wait for a few months (or even a year) for a position to open up - you'll end up in a better place. What you don't want to do is settle for the first job that comes along or let the recruiters talk you into a job that you know sounds shady and has a lot of turnover.
Got contract job at FCA, way better happier people overall
I took a four month vacation and then was offered a job in SE michigan. It is better pay, better culture.
It is the best thing that could of happened. Pile of cash to leave Fords, pension and a fun and rewarding job where I am actually appreciated. They like and value my work so much that they allow me to work hours of my choosing and work remotely (even before Covid).
I laugh every time I hear my old Ford coworkers complaining about the Ford toxic culture.
I would never work for Fords again. The job was needlessly crazy stressful. Good riddance to the toxicity.
I am at Uber Eats! Free Pizza all day!
Don't ever, ever relocate for a contractor job! You would be better off relocating to Las Vegas and
trying to make a living playing slot machines. Also, to go though the expense of relocating and leave friends and family, just to find out the position is designed to be a "fall guy" position.. no thanks.
I was contractor in warranty/quality got cut in April. That was a dumpster fire also, talk about being setup to fail. I'm 56 and have my house paid off, and with the instability of tech positions there is no way relocating will finically make sense. Getting out of IT is a very good idea, this new Presidential admin will open the flood gates for H1B workers, making the IT a dead field. Just be sure to get out of debt! Pay off your house and you will be 75% in the clear. I have an EE degree and have given up hope of finding anything.
The GI Bill is part & parcel of what you were offered for your service. Take advantage of it with a clear conscious, and thank you for your service!
A degree is no replacement for actual competency, but it will ensure that doors aren't closed before you even get there. Plus, even for a diligent auto-didactic a degree program will illuminate any areas you may have missed.
(I have posted this before.) I was SRD'd in May 2019. I was unemployed for 5 months and got a job in St. Louis, MO. (There is a St. Louis, MI.) The salary was too good to be true. And it was. All it did was allow me to continue to pay my mortgage in MI and get an apt in MO.
The job was nothing but support - 12 hours a day of it. No exceptions. I worked 9 months straight with no days off. I was primary on-call 67% of the time and secondary the other 33%. It was on-call hell. That is why the 6 figure salary. The 2 people hired for my position before me turned the job down. I quickly learned why. For those 9 months all I did was work, sleep and stress eat.
I was there for a year before I walked away because the job took my health.
Now, before you ask about my first 3 months rounding out my one year contract.... It took 2 weeks to gain access to the building. I had to go to the guard gate daily, they then had to call my manager to verify I worked there and then had to go to the main entrance to get a guest pass and be escorted around. Two weeks of this idiocracy because my contract company was filled with id–ts.
It took another 2 weeks to get my laptop. It then took another month to get access to anything meaningful to begin to do my job. That's 2 months wasted.
For the third month, since the entire place was one dumpster fire after another, no one had time to train me or for me to shadow someone. I was told to read documentation to understand the processes. Unfortunately, whomever wrote the documentation wrote it in such a way that you already had to know how to do the the task for the docs to even make sense.
I am currently back in MI, halfheartedly looking for another IT job while watching the job market in SE MI, I know I won't find anything here so I plan on going back to school on the taxpayers dime. As a veteran I can go back free of charge to myself. I am getting out of IT. It's no longer worth it. Out of 7 companies I worked for, I was laid off from 4 and left 3 due to intolerable working environments.