I really hope that better days are coming for Ford and for us who work here, but chances are that it's a bumpy road ahead. Does anyone have something optimistic to say?
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i kept hoping for ford to get better when i was there, and it just kept getting worse and worse. your mileage my vary. hope is not a strategy, or so they say. sometimes it is all that is left though.
I vote NO better days are not coming. Ford has not changed for the better, management is rotten to the core. They promote and hire people like themselves.
A friend, Ford employee, was just passed over for a promotion to LL6 again.
This is what happened. The group had 5 LL6 that were nearing retirement.
3 GSRs were brought into the group that had no relevant skills.
3 LL6 retired, the 3 GSRs who had just moved into the group were given the LL6 - no interviews.
2 LL6 retired, 2 GSRs that were friends of LL5 were gifted the positions- no interviews.
But then 1 LL6 unexpectedly retired, the LL5 encouraged everyone to apply. She even personally called my friend and asked him to apply telling him how good he was. There was fierce competition for this spot, including my friend.
A GSR that everyone knows will retire later this year was just given the LL6. It turns out it was all rigged from the beginning, this person was asked to take the position as a favor until they could move a GSR into the group. The LL5 shared with the GSR that she enjoyed giving people hope that they would get a promotion, even though they never would be promoted.
I never much cared for the LL5, one of those mean manipulative girls that presents outwardly as sweet and charming. But dang, intentionally jerking people around is low.
My friend practice interviewed for two weeks and just knew he was going to get promoted, as did twelve other applicants.
One applicant had a heart attack last night, after learning he was not selected.
The GSR who took the promotion and sat and watched the show, well he just showed his true colors as well. My money is on he was guaranteed to get a package in the upcoming involuntary separations, and that shortly another unqualified GSRs (future LL6) will transfer into the group. Fortunately there are many empty GSR positions as the top GSRs have all been leaving for better jobs. No one wants to work for/with an id10t.
So no better days are not coming Ford management is highly skilled at manipulating the system so that threats to them (skilled, respected employees) are released/ pigeonholed and employees that will help them build an empire are retained.
And yes, involuntary separations are coming. But since they are controlled by inept self serving management they will only have more of the same result. Remember Ford management builds their own careers, not cars.
No buyouts planned. Yet. HR and leadership need to find out how many firings they can do with the vax mandate first. After that is determined, then head count reductions can be finalized. Not saying though there will be packages. Why pay for what you can get for free?
Mid year should all be planned and roll out this fall or Q4.
Nope, this is the involuntaries round that follows buyout rounds.
Buyouts are coming.
I got off the train before I was shipped out to the train station. I hope they get it together. The new BO-City is just a field of dreams right now. Will they need a new CEO for that too?
Until they can get a CEO that knows is sfinkter from a ho-e in the ground Ford is doomed. Billy boy is dazzled by shiny things and smart talking people. Farley must have him under some spell.
"follow the pendulum with your eyes....with your eyes....your getting sleepy....I am very inteligent.....ask me.....I know...."
Ford will be Ford. True words. Ford has done in the past and has the potential to do transportation better than anyone if they have the will to do it. Read the guts and fortitude...which they do NOT have now. Did you ever notice no one had to tell you Mullaly was a great leader? and he never EVER put any attention on himself, and he got a standing ovation every time he spoke at a town hall at WHQ. It was a privilege to be an employee under his watch.
So for better days ahead, the answer is not until leadership returns. Politics and posturing are as transparent as saying Detroit has been rebuilt.
Well, if you are REALLY involved in the EV situation at Ford, and know the freaking train wreak going on. You'd recognize the IT hiring frenzy is desperation. The wage increases even more so. The newer hires have not been with Ford long enough to know the well established pattern of senior leadership making grand promises they do not understand nor can execute. Then the wheels start falling off. Then, out of incompetence can only start telling people they just need to do it. Now canceling of programs and re-timing with each cycle plan until the product plan us decimated. The newer hires are oblivious and think it's still ok as they don't realize our leadership is the problem, and have been around forever playing the same song and dance over and over again.
As a couple of posters have already wrote, it all depends on your perspective.
To the over 50 crowd who were still hoping they might get a chance to make it to the 30 year mark, things likely do not look to good - especially if they are in old line areas not factoring in Ford + future plans, like ICE platform development, most legacy IT systems, or back office type areas such as accounting or finance.
If you are under 40, and in the high tech areas that are prioritize for Ford + plans, the next two to three years will be rough but the payoff after year 5 (when most of the development work is well underway and the change over to 60/40 mx of BEV to ICE manufacturing company has been completed, then the payoff could be huge. But this still is really a gamble, and I put the over under at 50% change success rate Ford can pull this off on their own.....so it really is a gamble. Good news if you are still relatively young and you work in one of the "hot" areas, if you play the hand your a dealt well, even if Ford collapses you should have enough skills to land somewhere else.
1glo,
Unfortunately, the salary people in automotive are invisible to the public. How many times have you told people you worked at Ford and they ASSUMED you worked for the UAW line job? Ford will send salary jobs to Mexico/India and then show commercials with UAW line "workers" building "American" cars. See, no jobs being sent overseas here!
Ford will be Ford - always stay prepared just in case! Update the resume, LinkedIn profile, and focus on what you can control
I guess if you live in India and Mexico, I would imagine so. Unfortunately Ford is betraying US workers and funneling its white collar salary jobs there so they can continue to hire executives to 'rule' like overlords from the states. I have yet to figure out how they believe they will survive and make money if they don't really have employees in the US to buy their products. They must really believe people in lower wage countries will make up for customers lost in the US. Not to mention that somehow people are going to opt out of using their personal devices to use vehicle apps so they can harvest and sell their data. I'm sorry, if I am looking for customer data to buy, my first choice would not be to go to Ford to purchase the limited info it has. Nope, I would go to the people that gave the data from the personal devices people carry around 24/7.
Very good question. I plan to retire next year hit the 30yr mark. I feel sorry for those on the pension plan with 8 or more years to go. I don't think they will make it.
Trust for upper management is gone, Confidence if the future questionable, Morale worst I have seen in my 29 years.
So no not confident.
No. Are you nuts?
Nope!
Well, they did bring the dividend back. The new PDC building will start to go vertical this spring. so, not all of the salary jobs will go to Mexico/India.