Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Talk is cheap. I'll believe that Ford is committed to celebrating Juneteenth when I see it added to the list of paid holidays.

Folks, this wokeness push is not a new phenomenon..... dont you remember the email that came out of HR 2,3,4 years ago asking straight people not to refer to their girlfriends/boyfriends, wives/husbands, sons/daughters in conversations because it would be insensitive to the LGBTQ employees? I am waiting for a directive that demands people not refer to their poodles and gold fish because it might make non pet owners uncomfortable.

That was the beginning of the end for me.

Agree 100% with the commenter below. I have no issue with people wanting to celebrate/discuss and it can be done as such on a voluntary basis. When you start forcing these things as the company is doing now with these “meetings”, you are not creating unity, you are creating dissension. People are p*ssed!

My supervisor has been directed to host a Juneteenth awareness seminar for the group at the next section meeting. This the first time since I've been at Ford this sort of required meeting has been directed from on high.

I work for Ford and have always treated everyone I worked with, and for, with only respect but I will not let them force their views on me as to what they perceive as social justice. I lived in Texas 40 years ago and understand the significance of the day very well. Funny after all these years they suddenly feel that now it is important to them.

Lucky, I'm within a year of retirement. I love the people I work with, best in all my years. I love the job but hate their new found Wokeness,

I accepted the meeting notice but will be putting in a personal day request the morning of the meeting. Give our liberal time off policy it won't be questioned.

Yup, got a Juneteenth meeting from my LL5 as well. It’s basically a “let’s get together and discuss” with a talking points sheet. It’s not optional.

Unlike some of the poster', I have not been asked (directed) to attend any of the culture appreciation or Wokeness webinars so far this year. Actually, that has not happened in the 15 years I've been with the company. It is mentioned at our supervisor' and manager' meetings but only as an awareness of what the company is highlighting. The other 55 minutes is dedicated to operational issues.

Well, one of the things about remote work is you can multi-task easier while participating in such meetings..

What is strange is that there seems to be, how shall I put it?, a coordinated effort to make this an 'event' within Ford.

Seems to have come from high up, as my area just got an invite for a Juneteenth Celebration and it is from my L5...

One of the commenters hit the nail on the head. It’s about talent. You know it when you see it, and you certainly know it when you don’t. All the great PR in the world will not make up for a product that suffers because of woke mindset that refuses to truly put the best people in the best leadership roles.

I retired January 2021, I haven’t been to any wokeness meetings since then. No diversity and inclusion babblers. No CEOs and management falling down over themselves to see how much they relate to all diversity. No “we are all family and in this together,” etc. etc. It’s been great.

I clicked on the link for Juneteenth training, and it went to youtube. The first thing that came up was a Stacey Abrams ad. Then I noticed the tutorial was produced by Vox. It included BLM references, including a Mike Brown reference. Recall, the officer involved was found not guilty by a grand jury, then the Obama DOJ under Eric Holder not only found the officer not guilty of mu---r, but did not even find grounds for civil rights charges. Cmon Vox and Ford. There are legitimate lessons from Juneteenth - you failed.

Been with Ford and have been through this dance before. Management runs through the "find anyone with any type of ethnicity (double pts if they are female) and promote them regardless if they know what they are doing or not. Keep promoting every year for 3 years. Then, these people inevitably know they are in over their heads but are smart enough to then better deal their high status out of Ford and into an even high position at another company that needs "diversity". Soon, so many of the fast track diversity promotions have left Ford that we are once again left with a bunch of white guys. And so the cycle starts again.

The Ford PR machine believes they can make the customers love them and be loyal to them by advertising how woke they are.
The Ford leadership isn’t competent enough to attend to the actual business of building quality affordable cars so they focus on Tird Buffing.
Everyone can see that there are gapping discrepancies between what they say and what they do.
Chicago Plant anyone? It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to name a dozen more discrepancies in Dearborn. Anyone who speaks up gets shuffled out.

Because Ford leadership are fallen beings who serve the inverted morality of their father the Devil.

Ford only does this so when they get sued for discrimination, like for age discrimination, when Ford SRD’d all the people close to retirement so they didn’t have to pay full retirement benefits, Ford can deny it and tell the judge and jury how much diversity and anti discrimination training Ford has and Ford cares about its employees and how wonderful they are.

Agreed OP - I started to check out when leadership felt they had to “make a statement” about the GF trial verdict. Didn’t realize Ford Motor Co is now Ford Social Justice Company

Original Question: What is up with all the Wokeness at Ford?

Answer: Duh -- this is Ford Motor Company. It is not like there has ever in the history of Ford over the past 50 years or so been any interest in -- Product Quality, Better Pricing, Customer Satisfaction, Supplier Relations, Company Culture, etc.

Ford spent the last 20-30 years being masters at Talking about all the above topics, Buzzwords, Reorgs, Useless Meetings, Surveys, Outsourcing Work/Managing Suppliers (is there really any talent left at Ford - there is definitely a bunch of arrogant know-it-alls flapping their gums all the time), Blaming suppliers, Demanding Cost Cuts from Suppliers, Talking about Customer Satisfaction or Being Consumer Focused (but then actually treating customers like dirt), and more.

This hasn't seemed to work, so now Ford moves on to "Wokeness". It is always important to have a plan and this is Ford's latest, greatest plan from the leadership team!

The real question to ask is "Why Does Anyone Want to Work at Ford?" Answer: Because everyone is overpaid at Ford and every employee knows that they can't go anywhere else and get the same pay and benefits, so they sell their soul and self respect for the money and then whine about how bad it is at Ford all the time saying they will leave if they are given a "package". If you want to stay, you have to put up with horrible products (who at Ford wants to tell their extended family members to buy a Ford anymore - I don't), a pathetic management team, and the knowledge that you hate going to work after remembering the reasons you started your career in the first place, and now going to Wokeness presentations.