Just lost two people from our department. Ford is cutting agency folks
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@6jbi+1dFHFpnV Ford replacing home grown software with COTS software (commercial off the shelf) has not reduced employee count.
I am not saying COTS is a bad idea, just stating the facts about headcount.
We have been going down this path off and on for 30 years. Some successes, some failures.
With COTS there is headcount for installing, upgrading, customizing, securing, deploying, auditing, reporting defects, requesting enhancements, managing vendor relationship and contracts, PMs, additional hardware and software may also be required.
In one case Ford went from 5 salaried software engineers to 63 salaried employees and growing. To top it off the solution was less than satisfactory.
This is Ford so IT is treated like an assembly line and bloated bureaucracy must be created to support the assembly line process.
The other problem with COTS is all the shelf-ware (unused software) that Ford buys. Anyone who has been around for a minute knows that multi-million dollars worth of software is purchased and sits rotting on the shelf, and Ford continues to pay the maintenance contract on the shelf-ware. For those of you who are not aware, when you purchase software you also pay a percent of the purchase price each year for maintenance (patches) and support, depending on vendor 10-20%.
Why the shelf-ware? LL5 don’t want to admit they made a purchase mistake so they just let software rot. Why so many purchase mistakes? Vendors sell to management not technicians, and management believes the salesmen over their own employees ( technicians)
Ford is replacing home grown software with packaged software so they just won’t need as many IT if they are successful with their launch in 2022.
@1pwh+1dFHFpnV I was an IT contractor in both Oakville and Dearborn for about 10 years and I was treated better than FTE. I got to work a 4 day work week. I never had to work a Friday. When I left they had a surprise goodbye party for me.
They do this EVERY year. Come Thanksgiving and until years en, the contractors and agency take the hit.
Bill needs to leave the Company entirely and go play at his train station while he fixes society and also saves the world from burning up in 10 years.
In all my years here I’ve never seen such a lackadaisical effort to deliver a product.
I don’t think you’re joking , @dlb+1dFHFpnV. The automotive business has become a sideline now. Every day it seems like five DEI related stories to one about product on the home page.
Each passing day, I despise this company more and more. I used to love it, but it’s turned into everything I hate about corporatism.
Sorry to hear. Never pleasant when there are cuts.
I hope everyone agency and salaried who were told to find a new spot have landed in a new role or are prepared for the upcoming stealth cuts.
Heard that pretty much all the agency will be gone before x-mas. This will be a prelude to the Full time salaried cuts to follow. Same playbook as 08/09
Which department or agency? I haven’t heard anything yet
Ford usually treats contractors as less than a full employee. Unless of course you have an Uncle that is a LL5 or higher then you are onboarded asap and give leadership role and raises. Its the ford way dontyaknow.
Yup, got the axe myself, looks like it was essentially what they did last year in PD, just different department this year. The only way to have been safe was to be fully paid on a government contract (which I wasn’t obviously).
Your friend should have got the vaccine and told Ford he was vaccinated. That is more important now than any past work performance or anything else.
Typical Ford behavior. Cut contractors before the holidays.
Yup, :( A friend of mine was cut yesterday and his agency told him all contract people were being cut. This is awful.
Its going to really skyrocket when Ford announces retiree mandates and possibly vaccine mandates for Ford employee's members in their immediate household.
Think I'm joking? It's already being discussed. Ford wants to be the leader and model in covid safety protocol.
In our department (under VE) they informed some people (agency /contracts on H1B ) to look for other opportunities couple month before.
Obviously that was a favor from some supervisors otherwise they are not allowed to reveal such a thing and they mostly don't care
Thanks Ford for treating agencies as a family member. Happy thanksgiving and Chrismas in advance. Btw how come Ford stock has jumped to almost $20?