Thinking of Joining General Motors? Think Again! Layoffs have become a part of corporate America and that is something I know firsthand. In fact, they have become something incredibly common. Several times a year, the business section of a newspaper mentions another large layoff at a renowned company. At first, I didn’t believe them and thought they were stories, but then it happened to me while I was employed at General Motors! However, before getting to my story, let me state the facts first: on December 8, 2014, General Motors decided to lay off 510 workers at plants in Metro Detroit and Lansing. They did so because of the weak demand for the Cadillac ATS, Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano. Reason for the weak demand: Gas prices being lowered and benefiting the SUVs and full-size pickup trucks segment.
Therefore, the sudden demand for small cars dropped drastically, thus resulting in huge losses for the company. So, General Motors then prepared to kick me out along with 509 other people and saying that “These jobs will be coming back when production of the Camaro begins”. I felt relieved by hearing that, but then they would not say when the next-generation Camaro will begin production! I immediately asked other employees if they knew about anything and they said that since the 2015 Camaro would be the last of the current generation, the switch could take till next year. The decision was made and the company was now looking for people who could do a complete ‘one shift’ instead of two. Since I had joined the company only a few months before this happened, I was relatively inexperienced.
And, this ultimately led to the decision of the company choosing its older employees over the newer ones, thus I was out of a job! Regardless, apart from the weak demands for small cars, General Motors also suffered a charge of $0.8 billion related to redemption, and according to recent reports, the compensation expenses for recall-related repairs also weigh on the company’s financials. Therefore, if you ask me I don’t think these layoffs will end any time soon.