The other day I had a debate with a colleague about whether Ford is a place where someone can develop a marketable skillset.
He is of the opinion that it is up to the personal commitment of each individual how much new knowledge they will adopt here, while I still think that there is not much room here to develop skills that will be highly valued in some competing companies. What do you say, how much room is there for professional development here?
20 replies (most recent on top)
Unethical behavior is clearly on full display at Ford, verses other OEMs. I am aware of many cases of married employees and managers in the same department, affairs, dating between senior managers and new hires, etc. Maybe it's just hidden better at other OEMs but they don't even try to hide it at Ford. If anything is reported to HR, they quickly inform the management which was the subject of the report. In response, the management retaliates against the "tattletale" or does nothing at all.
regarding @5ekh+1erKgbct ... someone posted something along the lines of: why would you look at this site if you dont work for ford any more? this post is the answer! it's way more entertaining and sometimes gives better information than the wall street journal! it also verifies: we are not alone, the crazy is throughout the company.
Good post @5kdb+1erKgbct
Another shining example of how Ford HR is a joke. With little ethics and big incompetence.
In our activity, hey cannot even handle disciplining a employee who consistently steals from the company with his company vehicle use and breaks nearly every single rule in the corporate training and policies. And numerous people ratting him out does nothing. Not a thing.
@2zmg+1erKgbct saw that also. Young newly hired woman married her mentor LL5.
She quickly was promoted to LL6. She never rose beyond LL6 (despite her best efforts) but wreaked major league havoc. She successfully got people who did not worship her fired by her husband. For two years she was allowed to report directly to her husband, despite many complaints to HR of egregious behavior by the woman.
When the husband was promoted to LL4 and moved outside of her leadership chain, she was placed on the 2008 layoff list (rightly so as her only contribution was to sow discord, she was barely competent and focused on office politics). When the 2008 layoff list was published to the LL5+ team, her husband found out and managed to get her name off the final layoff list. Revenge was taken against the LL5 who put her name on the list, he was given a job that required a move and then asked to “retire” after he had relocated his whole family.
The husband retired a year pre-SRD, and the wife was SRD. Of course we all celebrated.
Looking back it is disheartening how HR swept 25 years of reports under the rug. Moreover HR violated their own rules by allowing a wife to report to her husband. Both in roles that had power over other employees, and they did this despite the wife having a large stack of HR reports on her record.
@5sbi+1erKgbct : yeah that's a good one! if the promoted one was competent, it's not such an issue. i've seen worse.
Professional Development? More like regression.
I left in 2018. But I hear since then many LL6 were demoted back to GSR8.
Maybe others can correct/affirm my statements.
To - @2zmg+1erKgbct
I just fell off my chair laughing.
That story is just a joke not real, correct??
Agree with comments there is a decision point where you are chosen to ascend, or not. The hard part is that moment is not of your choosing and there is very little you can do to undo it if the vote is 'no'. I was not able to undo it apparently and decided to just put all effort into everything I did. As it would turn out I still asked for LL promotions and were always told 99 excuses, but every manager also said I did equal or better work than their other LLs a tPRs so that was gratifying and Ford still provided a very good career. If that was on tape I would have quite a legal case. Some will say pushing through things is foolish, I still have to be true to my character and work hard no matter what the Ford overlords do.
Usually, about 2-3 years post FCG program, if your management decides you are leadership material, you will be invited to be on the LDP - Leadership Development Plan. You will then be moved up the ranks. If you are not chosen for this, it still is possible to get a promotion to an LL6, but typically your move upward will stop at the LL6 level.
Side note: in 2000, I was asked if I wanted to be on the LDP. I said, “No.” In 2004, I got the he-l out of Ford to work on my own business and have never looked back.
You are chosen by the powers that be or you languish as a GSR8 for the rest of your working life. You can ingratiate yourself to LLs or up-and-coming LLs. Fawning likely will not work, but if you save their bacon in some way, they might reward you. Perhaps some can even be bribed in various inventive ways. Even with immense charisma, brains, aristocratic genes and a monied background, you might find promotion above GSR8, an insurmountable goal. But should you attain the rank of LL, many privileges would present themselves. The only negative might be if a LL with a higher rank takes a disliking to you.
There isn't much room for professional development. You are either a chosen one or not and if not, it doesn’t matter how much development you do, you’ll never make it to LL ranks. And before anyone says if you are a woman or minority you are golden, I don’t believe that for a second as every person recently promoted in purchasing has been a white male aka, “the chosen ones”. The good ole boys club is very much alive and well.
Personal development can be tough at Ford. It all depends on the area you are in.
One reason it is tough is that Ford intentionally chops up the responsibilities into small pieces scattered across multiple leaders, all with strict boundaries.
Take IT as an example. The installers, configures, deployed, security, administrators, users of a technology are all different groups who zealously guard their territories.
Unless you are in the first group (initial installers) you likely won’t have a sandbox in which you can learn ALL aspects of the technology. More than likely at Ford you won’t really know anything of value about the technology, many proclaim to be technology SME, but it is amusing when compared with a real technology SME. The Ford SME is comparing themselves to other people at Ford.
The other thing about Ford is everyone has blinders on and keeps doing things the same way they were done 30 years ago. When someone new comes along and shows a better more efficient way of doing things, they gang up on the newbie and push them out of the company. Because of this institution wide behavior it is very difficult to develop good work skills and transportable knowledge.
When FCGs came thru our area I would advise the talented technicians to leave Ford, their talent would be wasted. The FCGs who were politicians and could hide in the crowd, I advised to stay at Ford and get an MBA at Larry Tech on Ford’s dime and on Ford’s time.
I think you score some good points, but you separate the two pieces of development where I comingle them more to equate it all to a big nothing burger.
It appears we're getting good product out the door with the Maverick, Mach E, Bronco, and Lightning. That said, we're all waiting for the toy soldiers to fall domino style at some point.
I think discrimination is at an all time high and sadly encouraged within Ford, culminating in exactly what you're saying around your employees thinking they'll just get the shaft anyway. I don't think your comments are a typical- many more things destroying morale as well and there doesn't seem to be any sign of this abating.
Still, I don't see the mass exodus associated with a disgruntled/low morale workforce. I hear the 20-30 somethings talk about leaving all the time but their actions aren't matching their words. Covid? Maybe but I can't imagine the job market getting much better if in fact the openings are real. People might be putting their plans together for when most companies finalize their remote work polices and the pandemic subsides. We'll see.
I look at it in two ways.
- Personal development - This is where Ford does a really decent job. They offer both inhouse training & tuition assistance. This is where the employee has to be proactive.
- The second is career development. This is one to be careful Keep in mind actions speak more than words. I tell FCGs and new hires to try and seek out those whose management style you admire and motivated to work for. Also seek out mentors who actually are proactive with your career. This is true in any company not just Ford.
At the same time, you have to sit back and look where the current company is going? What ops do you have? If a white male I would look elsewhere right now. At the end of the day that person may figure out that maybe Ford is not the place for them, and they have to seek out a different job. It is not the same company I started out with. Morale is really low, and people are not motivated. I had my direct reports tell me why bust your bu-t only to be given the shaft. I feel for them. I only ask they finish their assignments and if they plan to stay long term, I try to help them out to further develop themselves and to be happy. . I do not know where the company is going. With work going south of the border how do they expect people to stay motivated?
An FCG in my area was given a special assignment by the LL5. She eventually became his wife and is now a manager also.
@OP I think your friend is right about personal commitment matters. Ford may be of help by providing time and tuition assistance. However, some technologies cannot be learned by reading books only. They need to be practiced intensively for some time, in order to become an expert.
I believe Ford is not a good place for hands on learning new technologies. First of all, managers (and not SMEs) are the ones choosing what technologies to keep and which ones to bring new into the company. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense to use the new technology in the first place, but we are forced to implement it. Secondly, it takes longer than usual to bring a new technology into the company (red tape, lack of SMEs, nobody wants the responsibility, office politics). Lastly, and from my perspective the worst offender, new technologies are tweaked and applied the Ford way, which is unique, and tends to not follow the vendor recommendations nor any standard. Of course, this invalidates the hands on learning because the SME cannot apply the Ford way in his/her next job.
Tuition assistance is actually a thing.
Agree with friend. Whether it is Ford or your real life you get out of it what you put into it. Ford will LET you learn as little as possible and bumble along as Achiever or whatever C+ rating system of the month is for 30 years (or less :) . Question is will you accept that. If you want to do more and be responsible for more just push through your supervisor, manager, or director to get there. Of course many try without the skills to back it up and they get discouraged.
I would agree with your buddy. Development is such a personal ambition. I would suggest you are faced with many new technologies several times a month as you cruise through your daily work. Whether or not you decide that a new software, technology, methodology or process is worth digging deeper into is your choice.
The most impressive young employees are the ones who identify these opportunities and more importantly do the legwork to get themselves up to speed to be a SME at some level and the go-to person for that new challenge. That is how you develop in my opinion.
Most of what any employee learns at Ford is Ford specific.