I know I’ve heard that people with a pension have targets on their backs, plus there is age discrimination (tho they deny everything), then there is the friends & family who are protected.
I’m wondering how they decide who to cut. Do they go by segments (Blue, Pro, e), then by divisions (CX, engineering, IT), then by departments, then by salary grades?
I’d love to hear how it rolls out. Not that I expect to be safe, just curious.
the smartest of the smart retired last year when the interest rate was low and the pension was at its highest point ever, or at least in a long time! I feel sorry for the people who are left. Farley is the second coming of Jack Nasser, who tried to destroy the company. Farley is a marketing guy and has no clue about engineering- just ask him!
Meet the Ford new blood, same as the old Ford blood – but probably paid a lot less to repeat all the past mistakes.
Statistics are spun to support whatever story management is spinning.
Ford has been offering packages to upper management. I suspect they will then offer to the lower rank and file. When they don’t get enough heads, the will layoff. In addition during these cycles, they will be putting people on PEPs and expecting that most will take the 6 months to leave.
The when is currently unknown to me. Rumors are before July and someone else said Sept.
All the lean mgmt they are talking about is part of this process. Eliminate waste, determine what projects should stay and which ones go and load up all the people who are left with a huge workload.
Is the implication here that we are gearing up for another round of layoffs in the near future?
Algorithms change with each senior management's opinion. In the 80s, cuts were based on your preassigned number. A huge spreadsheet was typed that listed every employee in a division and included pertinent data to each employee. Specifically, each person's start date / how many college degrees they held / what their product line expertise was / date their current program would launch / etc. Each name was assigned a number and the sheet was sorted by that pre-assigned number (low to high). Starting with highest number, mgmt would cut number 100 to number 75. If the budget didnt balance, numbers 74 to 65 were cut. Continuing up that list of pre-assigned numbers was done until the budget balanced. However when the news media heard about it, they said that process was too cold and impersonal; people who were being cut shouldn't be assigned some
heartless number which determines their fate, it was to harsh. So that algorithm was scraped. In 2019, the SRD algorithm (which came out during the age discrimination trial) had changed to a formula that used the date of hire, age, and proximity to retirement to cut heads. When Ford lost the trial, that algorithm was also scraped. Only those on the 12th floor know what algorithm "flavor of the month" will be used to cut heads next time since history has shown whoever is in charge seems to make it up as they go along.
@ 4thn the team axxhole is invariably the LL6 and/or LL5 or a drinking buddy of an LL
The game we use to play while in the office was to try to stack meetings so the team Alchies (LL6 and 2 GSRs) couldn’t make trips to top off in their car in the parking lot. The sweats, hand shaking and agitation would increase by the hour. The LL6 became a raving lunatic if he didn’t top off by 10:30 am. These same people are making financial and strategic decisions while impaired (they are always impaired).
Everything being equal (performance, technical knowledge, technical respect by your peers (LL's)) Then it is beauty contest, those GSR's who are still employed had someone protecting them. Otherwise older GSR's w/o god father / mother were out. In my division most of LL's are in their mid fifties with 25+ years in the company. only a handful of GRS's are left with the same conditions (age, seniority). Next round of firings will be the old GSR's, they will go first than any LL's unless the directive is to cut those who are more expensive and replace them with new blood. In one department recently promoted LL's are younger than 35 and their LL's peers are in their mid-50's w/30+ years in Ford.
No more hirings, even for Model e projects. But if Ford wants to keep young blood, then the old LL's must go to leave positions open for young g-ns. It may leave a door open for old GSR's to keep their job to mentor new guys until their time is up.
Some people are truley collateral damage. If their department has to make cuts, somebody has to go.
Some people make their manager's decision easy. If you are a complainer, can't work well with others, are openly anti diversity, your job performance wont save you. If you are the team a--hole, expect to be tapped during the next round. Soft skills matter.
The response I received when questioning targeting the best employees in the department.
“You don't need full time village elders to impart wisdom to the village id--ts. You have a budget for consulting dollars to help make decisions. You can’t have ridiculously high paid experts on your staff”
When I questioned who would know if the consultants had our best interests in mind or were selling us a bill of goods. The response was “How often are technical decisions made? Once every few years?”
This is what happens when the leadership has no knowledge or skills about the area they are responsible for. They keep the cheap “village id--ts” (their term) and eject the highly skilled experts, not even realizing that daily decisions and directions are made by the experts. Then the leadership turns around and claims their work force doesn’t have the needed skills. Well Duh you are systematically eliminating the skilled workers.
@1ipl - ur going to totally hate this comment and I suspect I will get hater comments and downvotes but it needs to be said.
Was the percentage of white males consistent with the make up of the workforce in the area? Ie. Were 75% white male in the first place and therefore 75% were laid off and the other 25% were made up of women and minorities consistent with the same percentages?
I don’t know and I suspect they weren’t consistent but it is a possibility.
Wouldn’t be nice to get ur hands on the doc and find out for sure? Nothing like 0 transparency. Of course the only time u might see that doc is in the discovery phase of a legal suit and part of the settlement is an nda.
There was an algorithm in August, 2022. It was based on position and salary. I noticed that most persons who were let go were middle-aged white males.
@1cep+1mLPXj6y I know there was an algorithm during the SRD in 2019, based on age, pension, and salary. It is possible the algorithm is still in use. However, due to all the discrimination lawsuits caused by the SRD process, it is possible also that the algorithm just picks a percentage of the layoffs. The other percentage is given to the managers' choice, where it is used to get rid of threats, A.K.A, the best and brightest.
I am guessing that's why the laid off list makes no sense anymore.
How could there not b an algorithm? Perhaps no one on this site knows the algorithm. I know I don’t.
It should be transparent. However, nothing at Ford is transparent.
@shp+1mLPXj6y Some rock stars get canned because of envy and fear, especially if they are under an id--t LLx (and there are many of those around). Managers don't want to look stupid in front of others (and even when they try with all their might, they end looking as stupid and incompetent as they truly are. Ask Farley how it goes with his war on the Brackets Department). That's why they get rid of the best, particularly if the best voice their concerns on the manager's id--t decision aloud.
TA are also looked at with fear, since too much success could translate into a manager position, replacing the id--t LLx. Success and knowledge are forbidden words at Ford these days.
Even lowering your head and not criticizing the "leadership" doesn't guarantee anything. Any old grudge can also be cause for dismissal. Or if you have the right age/salary to mask the discrimination and ageism during layoffs.
@OP. Just summing it up, there is no algorithm anymore. Just evil and lower morals individuals. If you don't want to join their ranks, and sell your soul, find another job. If you are still needing the Ford's job, I wish you good luck.
The algorithm makes no sense. Top achievers, perople who are awesome at their jobs, and rockstars all get cut. People that couldn't find their aholes with both hands and a map survive.
But rest assured, the people that play their game, no matter how useless, get spared. The CV LL3 makes sure his fellow cheap beer drinkers and gross fast-food cheeseburger eaters get spared. Oh and if you're a young hot chick you're also safe.
This is why Ford is F'd. They keep the wrong period based on shallow politics, and let the real achievers go.