After listening to the town hall, it is obvious that more cuts are coming. Has anyone heard about what departments will be targeted next?
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Right you are @8yby
In strategic meetings some decisions boggle one’s mind.
In one such meeting a decision was made to replace the worker bees with Kyndryl in a gradual manner. First augment with 5 resources, then 3 months later replace all staff except a Ford facilitator. To prepare for this a GSR 8 was promoted to LL6 to be the facilitator of the Kyndryl resources. The kicker is the facilitator chosen is the village id10t, so by design the whole endeavor will fail, as everything this guy is associated with crashes and burns. Now if they would of chosen a competent person to facilitate it would likely have worked out well for Ford as Kyndryl is free from the Ford bureaucracy and has capable staff in this arena.
It is humorous how leadership always thinks that they are the critical resources and the workers are a dime a dozen. They really should hire great workers and listen to them when they tell them what should be done. Maybe, Just maybe, they will listen to Kyndryl since they are paying them to be the experts.
Thanks for that pointer about sleazy IBM wiggling in yet again despite being a fiasco multiple times over the last 20+ years.
And as a reminder that nobody is safe, including those busting their butts to get GCP ramped up fast as possible, there is this tidbit which was announced a mere month after Kyndryl was spun-off:
Kyndryl formed a strategic partnership with Google Cloud focused on digital transformation projects and helping enterprise customers become more data-driven and sustainable, combining the firms' capabilities in data and analytics, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure modernization.[20]
2ygl ITO outsourcing to IBM (Kyndryl) has begun and will rapidly expand. There were difficulties with worker turnover in Ford of India and difficulties with skill gaps. There are difficulties with moldy skill sets in Ford North America. Some Ford ITO may be offered positions at Kyndryl, but most will not.
The cuts will not be done until anyone hired before 2004 is gone. Ford wants their pension liability greatly reduced. Like the deal GM and Chrysler got when they declared bankruptcy. Letting pension eligible employees go before they've reached full pension maturity accomplishes that. So which parts of the company have no pre 2004 hired employees? The answer is NONE! So, no, cuts are not done. And no area is safe.
Turns out the golden handcuffs come with a huge target for your back.
There are more than a few teams where that team's Indian contingent is entirely dependent on EU/USA folks for all problem solving that requires more than surface-level understanding. It's been this way for years and despite all efforts to train the Indians into independence, most of them cannot get there. Of course there are exceptions and there is some stellar talent in India but they are rare. It'll be interesting when there's an outage at a plant and India finally has no one left to call for help.
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2021/09/09/ford-restructures-india-operations.html
Paragraphs within state the direction as well as several of CarCar speeches
Ford of India
What does F of I mean?
Current LL2 (HR - PD) here ---key areas (on the PD Blue side) ----Body Engineering, Product Planning, Program Mgt, Studio PM and large portions of Powertrain
All areas will be hit. The perennial game of shuffle friends of management into “critical” groups and then trim existing employees in those groups is happening.
If you are in the friends and family club or the good ole boy club, you won’t be cut, everyone else, sadly, is fair game.
There are data and IT areas that are in for large cuts such as “legacy IT”, ITO, IT app development, architecture, DBAs, and app maintenance and support. None of these areas should really be surprised as LL5s have had the directive to fill all open slots with F of I resources, and to work towards a 75% F of I , 25% Dearborn mix for many years now.
If your team currently has any F of I employees expect heavy Dearborn cuts in 2022 and 2023, management was expecting a much higher number of voluntary retirements the past 5 years. Dept LL5 gritching about how some of the old timers haven’t taken packages so she could off shore positions. Her group has 3 70+, 11 65-69, 28 59-64 that she can’t get to retire no matter how badly she treats them. She took away all the responsibilities from the 65+ crowd thinking they would get the hint and retire. They aren’t d-mb, they are collecting a paycheck for doing nothing, Sweet! 120k x 5 years x 14 people = 8.4 million.
@1vmk+1gtHK4tT is clueless. The layoffs this week WERE in data and software!!! And we are being told that more are coming!!
Nice try, but no one is safe.
Ford Blue may be next, and they will have a huge layoff. In the thousands. But make no mistake, no one is safe. And there is no clear formula for who is targeted. There were some pretty high performing software engineers let go this week!
The only safe areas in Ford now are positions in data and software. That is where growth and profits are. I don't know why you're not hearing this, HTT, Doug Field, and Jim Farley all clearly stated this fact all week.
I pray everyone who gets cut lands on their feet and wish for a smooth transition to something better.
As always, it's a good reminder to make sure you've always got an updated resume, clean your LinkedIn up and keep your ear to the ground. The best time to look for a job is when you don't need to. Throw some applications out just to make sure you're skills can be transferred and get feedback if you get any interviews so you can adapt. When looking at jobs, make an inventory of your skills and pick the high points that mirror the description. Be specific with your accomplishments and quantify when you can.
My years of service aren't double digits but I've seen enough to know that you shouldn't get comfortable here. I always keep my eye out for interesting opportunities and I'll usually speak with recruiters if they reach out. For the most part, I enjoy what I do here but I'm not going to fall in the trap of thinking I'll stay forever til retirement.
Folks, no group is safe. Our stock continues to crater. The messaging from leadership is fragmented and has no consistency. New leaders being hired have zero experience in automotive.
But hey, our CEO plays auto racer! Yeay!
The bloodletting it just beginning. And UAW you better be ready because look where the production is headed! Old Mexico! Even hourly union heads are on the chopping block.
Any group in VEV that is not attached to EV development, and primary supports ICE testing will be under the microscope and on the short list for cuts.
@twf+1gtHK4tT - He meant Joe Hendricks, not Prof Moonbeam!
There was an oil change CEO. Then came the one focus on making cars. A bicycle CEO followed. Next it was a furniture CEO. Now it more looks like a hot air balloon CEO. One out of five is not a high percentage success rate.
reductions are guaranteed with planet heading into recession caused by china russia etc
Jim Hackett is what the company needed?!?!?!?!?
ARE YOU INSANE?
I feel for anyone left there. I took the package out last year as I saw the handwriting on the wall. It was difficult to see the town halls and watch JF. When they let JH go I thought then that it wasn't the right decision. AM and JH I thought were very close to being what the company needed.
Wishing everyone there all the best.
This time is very hush-hush with LL6's not knowing they're losing people until quite literally "that day". Best to all of you, it's going to be a bear trying to focus on being productive while the grim reaper is out at about. I personally made it through this most recent round but it looks like it's going to be a very stressful '22 with the potential (guarantee?) of further reductions. Take care.