Is Ford the worst company/ among the worst companies you’ve worked for?
As someone has already mentioned, there are many who say that nowhere is the grass much greener than at Ford. Yet I have changed multiple companies and my worst experience was here...
6 replies (most recent on top)
Yes Ford is the worst
Back when I hired in Ford was the #3 company to work for. Over the years I have seen that erode. With any big company if you stay long enough you will have both good and bad management. Your direct repots are the ones who really make it for you. The benefits they offered back then was a ways to keep you there. Every dog has its days Ford, GM, & Chrysler have all had their days. I feel sorry for this people that stay in this business. I know change has to come but usually morale is high. But now people are looking over their shoulder for the "GRIM REAPER" to come along with the MIBs.
I have worked at other companies that initially seemed to have the greenest grass around until new management made significant changes for the worst. You hang around for a while hoping things become positive again before moving on. When I first joined Ford I felt like I was working for the best company ever. Again much has changed and I no longer feel that way.
There is one thing I like about Ford that I didn’t find at other companies. Your view of a company directly relates to how you view your management team. Managers move around so much at Ford that you won’t be stuck forever with a bad one and usually you can move to a different team if you have a manager you just can’t tolerate. At the other companies where I have worked managers stayed put and I had no influence over moves to a new team or project. There are many things I don’t like about Ford. The posts on this site are pretty accurate so I won’t go into detail.
All jobs have pros and cons and finding a perfect job is no guarantee that it won’t change for the worse. At best you find a job that has “cons” that you can tolerate. If the cons are making you miserable and that follows you home it’s time to move on.
I think some posters assessment's are right on - a lot really depends on your local management chain. Having a great one usually makes for a good to great situation with interesting work, good atmosphere with engaged fun people.
That being said, I have two issues I've seen crop up over the last 5 years plus at Ford:
1) Quality a new management promotions and outside management hires is just not good anymore. It seems like there are many factors involved other than leadership ability or even technical knowledge (Ford always has been a technology company, but even more so today it should be mandatory your leader has good technical experience)
2) If for some reason you don't make the cut to the LL level or you out right refuse to go that route (I'll raise my hand and say "I") then your career will no longer be that, and you will likely struggle at times to find a place that you will have meaningful work for periods of time. It is what it is......they will be very helpful and nice to you while you are young and an up and coming GSR, but once you reach GSR8 and have been there more than 15 years and have not made management, you are pretty much on your own.
Every job has it's pros and cons. But when it comes right down to it, you can switch logos with any company and there you would see no difference in leadership' arrogance, so-called 'family' mentality, poor pay raises, teammates not carrying their weight, daily grind, etc...
I know covid changed things but the biggest detriment to Ford was the mandatory policy of being onsite. I hated that daily hour drive to and from Dearborn. I wasted 2+ hours of my day in traffic. Most companies I worked for had some sort of WFH policy prior to covid.
I don't recall seeing anyone say "that nowhere is the grass much greener that at Ford", but if you're talking automotive (Ford, GM, Chrysler, Bosch, Visteon, etc), I would say they are similar and it mostly depends on your local management w.r.t. the quality of your experience.