This is likely a lesson most will have not learned yet. Perhaps this mass layoff, is their first time....
To the youth of this company, let those that came before tell you a story. This company today, is acting like the company of yesterday, in which you will find yourself again in the future, at it's mercy of another repeat we find ourselves today. Layoffs, replacements, downsizing, it's not random, it's a pattern with this company. This may be your first experience, but you will notice your second experience, and it will again become obvious on your third experience - as the company claims to advance towards new opportunities.
They say, never bite the hand that feeds you. I've heard from countless others, support those that you work for. My question is, what if those that feed you, those that support you, toss you out of the house, naked, cold, hungry, randomly, with nothing left? Who's to blame, and how far and under what conditions should your loyalty remain? What IS your breaking point?
Having vision works both ways. The vision to see where you are going, as well as the vision to avoid the immovable object standing within your path. GM management, only has 50% of this vision, and they do that quite subpar, it's actually an abomination what their level of management actually knows.
Their piece of paper does NOT define intellect, which is proven time and time again. They always look ahead, and will never look at the roadblocks. This is the difference between an intellectual, and someone that wings the situation. They hire temperaments that are NOT intellectuals, and this is part of their downfall.
I am a two year veteran of GM, and have felt the pain of almost a half dozen layoffs. Of those layoffs, I've never once quite a company. It was always corporate downsizing, layoffs, or some other nonsense. It has always been an affliction. You might perhaps think, maybe you weren't pulling your weight. That wasn't true, as I was as talented as some, and more talented as most. I figured out, if I didn't a**kiss a long time ago, I wasn't part of the crew. I bow down to no man. I sell my soul to no one.
So. You should know that idiocracy lives. Those less intelligent than yourself, likely run your affairs. God help you if you are an intellectual, and your superiors are not. Confidence is knowledge, and by understanding of the game in which you exist, helps you to understand your opponent.
Mary Barra, is simply CEO 2.0 of those that came before her. I knew this day would come back in 2015, and it has. She dismissed many of my friends, and worse. It's the single reason, I will NEVER support GM, and I have become an advocate for life. I will exchange mercenary talent for pay, but never anything more. I will purchase her opponents vehicles, and never hers.
Know your enemy, know yourself. If you fail to not understand this, your next layoff, is entirely on your shoulders. Experience, will prove this correct. As I tell my children, you can learn through doing, or your can learn through the experience of your elders. One is significantly more painful than the other.