Are older employees safe at General Electric? Asking for my stubborn dad who refuses to face reality and at least update his resume and put out a few feelers.
From what I can gather, those with more years and better pay are the first on the list to be shown the door. He keeps claiming that's not the case.
Am I in the wrong?
Get rid of them
They whack young people along with the highly paid older folks to avoid age discrimination suits. The give this age comps to you when they lay you off. This is a play GE has been running for a long time and they are quite good at it.
Older employees are actually safer than younger employees to a certain extent. Because GE has been subjected to many lawsuits over the years they are going to great extents not to discriminate. Layoffs are purely based on financial issues. Now and then you may see some favors done for friends but that happens at all companies. Of course union guys don't need to worry about age discrimination.
Self reporting diversity status is important for any that you fit. John mentioned on the all employee meeting on Friday that leadership needs to help support increasing focus on diversity so all of us who are diverse need to self identify if we have not already.
Tell him to at least go into employeeprofile.ge.com and check the LGBT Self ID checkbox in the Demographics section. It will move him down the layoff priority list and buy him some time.
GE IN Erie pa are getting rid of higher paying jobs and the work is being sent to its non union plant in Texas so whatever is left at GE Erie will be lower paying jobs.I believe the Erie plant will eventually close.
If he is white collar, I wouldn't say you are wrong. More years and higher salary usually have a good correlation. GE is reducing staff to save money, so the people they could save the most money by laying off...
I haven't really noticed any protection provided from expertise. As far as management and HR are concerned, an LP is an LP, and an SPB is an SPB.
I wish him the best of luck.
Am I in the wrong?
Yes, you're wrong.
It depends on a few factors besides age alone.
First, is he politically protected by an Senior Executive, Vice President or Company Officer?
Second, does he have unique knowledge and skills on a business process, Tooling, IT System, Legal/ Accounting Strategy, or EHS/ Environmental Compliance that would be very hard to replace.
Third, does he have any dirt/ leverage on executives that they would not want public and thus would want to keep him happy.
Forth, Is he protected by a union?
Fifth, is he a member of a minority or other protected person such as a GLBTA, African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Veteran, Women, Disability etc. which would give leadership pause due to any legal risk they would face from his termination.
Next, does he qualify for the normal special retirement programs at ages 55 or 60 (SERO, SLVB, etc).
Where does his compensation rank vs similar employees and their expertise?
Finally, how bad is the business case for his part of the business. If things are bad enough financially, even those who in normal times are protected as individuals become targets as entire facilities, HQ’s and divisions get shutdown and sold.
I understand why you would think that but if he works in a union facility, that is not the case. The company would love to get rid of the higher paid employees but they can’t (at least not first). It is all done by seniority.