Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Nora - dig into how Ford threw away several millions (or more) on such harebrained ventured such as autonomous driving, ride share project for kids in California, rehabbing a dilapidated train station, and thousands of hours in DEI training all while laying off senior engineering staff. End result is the worst quality we have ever seen, highest warranty cost ever, and thousands of vehicles parked outside of plants die to missing parts.

@5oum+1m5tov2t

"not a threat to higher ups." Nailed it. I am not against DEI either, but as a female who does not hang with the cool kids, the good ole boys or the friends and family, I have watched very competent females and minorities passed over for promotion. And to your point, it is because they are a THREAT. I have even watched very competent white males passed over, again, because they know their stuff and are seen as a threat. The test of true leadership is how you function in a crisis. Well, the company is in a crisis and look how we are functioning. No leaders or rather, the wrong leaders.

The upcoming failure of ford motor company.

1. Last years termination of 1000’s of senior engineers, technical and quality experts with no succession plan.

2. The mass retirement exodus of senior leaders and those mentioned in point 1 above. Again with no transition planning or transfer of knowledge.

3. Promoting the wrong people. Ford’s current policy is to promote those that fit the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion profile. They are promoting people that are not the best for the job. People need to be promoted because of their talents and not woke principals. I know 2 diversity candidates that have been promoted to LL4’s in recent years. Sure Lamar and Larry are nice guys but they are not stellar engineers by any sense of the word.

If Ford doesn’t start promoting the right people the company is doomed. Just look at the damage previous CEO’s have done. Fields, Hackett and Farley have cost the company billions of dollars. So Sad that Bill Ford can’t see it.

It's funny when heavy sarcasm can't be distinguished from kissing a sphincter with a bit of tongue cuz that's the way the boss likes it. I gotta say that @2gfl could be be either.

I think automotive media should focus on featuring profiles of Ford's exceptional leadership ranks and Ford+ Plan. Bill Ford himself has stated our current executive levels are the best in the over 100 years of the company's history. Just look at the complete company transformation that is underway. It is an entire new business model for what was an automotive company and now to be the leading mobility and services company in the world. None of the other OEM's can pull off this type of change so successfully.

While many in the automotive ranks already know this, outsiders to Detroit area likely do not even know what Model e is. This needs to be changed. All of the other suggestions here are just negativity topics that no one would care about.

Hi Nora,

Big fan of you (and Dan Neil, full disclosure).

The EV transition in general presents a huge opportunity for automation, especially in the battery plant. The auto sector in the Midwest needs to shed tens of thousands of jobs. Is Detroit’s recovery since 2008 just going to be a dead cat bounce?

Tesla cars are laughable. Especially fit and finish. No quality control...

Expensive toys for wealthy virtue signaling libs.

Report about burning teslas and how heavy EVs are and how they do more damage to human body in a crash. Also report about id--ts that put Tesla on autopilot and sleep in their car or wax their tires while in auto pilot. Show how EVs are good for the environment and how they are bad for the environment. Find out if there are any financial shenanigans going on with auto company finances (Enron/Madoff/bribes style. There is so much to report outside of the cult of Musk or whatever Chris Farley is doing.

This country and this company were both so much better in the 1950s.

The GOP is we-ponizing homophobia...

You have to do your best to ignore it. Even their kids are much more open to LGBT. So this type of attitude will die out in the coming years.

Hey Nora,

See the comment below from @2bei+1m5tov2t

That completely speaks for most of the white male employees (GSRs and LLs) at Ford Motor Company.

They sincerely believe that diversity is a threat that needs to be stopped.

@2bei+1m5tov2t

How dare you say that?!?!

Ford is so far behind our competitors with regards to diversity employees. That's why we are focusing on hiring - and PROMOTING - more and more minority employees.

Can you guys please stop complaining about diversity??

Does it really bother you if a beer can has a rainbow on it? Does it really bother you if a Gillette commercial encourages men to treat women better?

Kid Rock used to be a rapper but you have forgiven him...

Ford and Anheuser Bush have a lot in common lately with all of the DEI initiatives.

I am so sick of people thinking that they can push their beliefs onto others!

Simply put “Ford is worse than Anheuser Bush!!” Should suffer an even worse stock drop. Period.

Nora, as a Ford employee for over 35 years, I see two major issues to focus on. The first has to do with the lack of consistent strategy. This is tied to the frequent changes in leadership. Each leader has their own vision of what should be accomplished. Since they change so frequently, so does our strategy. Most disturbing (to me anyways) is to see a leader who becomes the new CEO dismantle the strategies they put together at a lower level. Secondly comes the issue of managing change. Auto companies are incredibly complex. Change needs to be managed carefully to be successful. The present management is changing processes, people, and strategy at the same time. The careful management of these changes is absent as far as I can see. Additionally, it is clear that employees with Ford experience are a liability to our new management. These factors together are a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, I believe Ford will be acquired be another OEM with management which is capable of managing these issues.

Ms Eckert,
Thank you for using this forum and you have our support #I Stand with Evan.
Clearly there is a story regarding the decision-making of FMCs ' leadership. '
Investment, development and the sale of EVs is NOT new news, a decade has passed when Bill Ford announced at a NAIAS 2013 keynote during the unveiling of the Atlas concept truck of FMC's commitment to EV R&D. What is newsworthy is the family and their BoDs inability to make ethical decisions and execute a profitable plan. Ford within a decade cycled through 3 CEOs, other than Mr Mulally, who presents himself as an American Engineer, Farley nor Fields or Hackett have the capacity to lead Ford into the 21 century. Shameful how Farley claims a bulk of Ford's workforce that rescued the company from the brink of bankruptcy were discarded only to be replaced by ' outsiders ' from industries that have not demonstrated any acumen for an evolving automotive industry. Perhaps a deep dive into Farley's ( lack of ) accomplishments, or the appointment of ' talkers ' as Doug Field, Saurabh Raisinghani or Franck Louis- Victor. Perhaps you can deepdive the dissent within Ford Design. How outsiders as Antony Lo and Ken Musgraves were brought in without clear goals, accomplishments and abilities to unite a workforce with horrific levels of morale.
The story at Ford is not a happy one. It is a story of half-truths, deception, greed and disgrace. My hearts breaks for many dedicated and brilliant folks that were discarded not based on the lies Farley offered the press but on the greed of the Ford family.
I sincerely hope you and WSJ have the courage and will to publish the truth and perhaps be a catalyst for positive change. #Accountability

Nora: I would like to know why WS has not questioned the purchase of the train station?

1. 2018 it was said to become a tech center to rival silicon valley. BF words
2. Then in 2019 word comes out of making it an event center? Again BF own words. btw Ford has event center right next to greenfield village.
3. 2020 word comes out about high end apartments. I believe that one came form JF?

This purchase was a waste of company money. Can you explain why nobody in the press questions Bill Ford on this topic?

I will address other categories if i see an article in the paper on this topic? As of right now I see "ZERO" ROI on this. All I see is someone using company funds for their own legacy.

@1hfd +1 to #2 and #9-11

All of these are good. My top for being exposed:

1. Laying off anyone who has a pension, regardless of work performance, then hiring back H1Bs or people in low cost countries. Expose the BCG algorithm!
2. Separating US employees and then shipping the work to Mexico, Brazil, India or China, where the employees are much less capable of doing the job. (You get what you pay for.)
3. Promoting people solely based on race or gender identification to "tick the box" and appear progressive. These people are largely incompetent.
4. Indoctrinating the workplace with DEI and shaming white men / women into thinking they are everything wrong with the company.
5. Claiming to create a safe workplace free of harassment, yet firing employees who would not get jabbed or divulge their vax status.
6. A workplace completely devoid of objectives for what, 3 years now?
7. Holding employees to said non-existence objectives, then changing performance bonus payout equation just before the bonus is paid. In other words, you work all year, are told you meet non-existent objectives, then find out you only get 80% of your bonus, because you would need to be on the "high vis" projects to get 100%.
8. No promotional opportunities for anyone who is competent and has been at Ford for >5 years, unless you are of a certain race or a member of the alphabet community.
9. Silent promotions given to friends or family without posting the job for interviews.
10. The continued hiring of job jumpers from the tech, hotel, entertainment, cruise ship, amusement park industries and placing them into very high roles where they are incapable of understanding vehicle manufacturing, let alone automotive regulations. They are paid handsomely and will leave when their contract is up, leaving Ford in more chaos and turmoil.
11. Having to work in an environment filled with panic and chaos, leading to fear for one's job and anxiety.

Ford lays off American engineers and forces people into early retirement only to hire outside the US. So called American company. Opens up engineering centers in Mexico and India. Completely shameful. I fought for my Country oversees joined Ford for 23 years thinking I’m fighting for an American company only to get laid off! Received a 1/3 of my pension after serving 2/3 time. My fault for loving the brand. Now I’m left confused. My kids are confused. Now performers are still there. Hard to comprehend.

The opposition of diversity boils down to qualifications. So many of these hand picked appointments are just to check boxes, and say look at us!
So many have zero knowledge or training for the positions. Then us “old white guys” have to train them, and cover for them. When the appointee doesn’t work out, they just get promoted or transferred around. It is impossible to discipline or terminate the chosen ones.

expose the targeting of older pensioned salaried employees who are eliminated every year regardless of their outstanding performance reviews - many have filed age discrimination lawsuits, ford attempts to conceal this practice by adding younger employees to the mix
research Boston Consulting's contract with Ford to identify these employees - hired before 2001 ( pension eligible ) over 50 ( avg 52 - 60 )

You should contact upper management at Ford to find out what new ideas/products/promotions have been developed by "Ford Next" as this has been a mystery for us workers.

toyota stock price to total sales ratio = 0.70
ford stock price to total sales ratio = 0.32
tsla stock price to total sales ratio = 4.1 (end of 2022), 7.1 now

wall street is valuing these companies vastly differently, normalized for dollar amount of sales. why?

is it: too many mistakes in the past = likelihood of more mistakes in the future?

also note all these other comments on this board. there is clearly enough meat at ford to win you a pulitzer if you do this study right. go for it. when a few people complain, it could be disgruntled employees. when it's hundreds... well, it's either mass psychosis or there really is something going on.

also look into global market share of major auto companies over the past decades (not just U.S.). ford is clearly losing some economies of scale. iconic american company being run into the ground.

You could do a comparison between our last great leader (Al Mulally) and the ones that came after him.

1. Ratio of foreign vs domestic workforce
2. Stock price
3. Recalls
4. Work history and qualifications of leadership
5. Employee morale
6. Average age of employees
7. Social justice initiatives
8. Level of involvement of the Chairman of the Board

It might be a hard to quantify a few of them, but you could probably come pretty close with an educated guess. That analysis should paint a picture for you.

The real story at Ford is the institutional rot at the core of the company. The rot goes all the way back to the end of Mulallay's tenure, and perhaps starts in his last few years at the helm.

Since Mulally retired in 2014 this company has had 3 CEOs who were all hand picked by Bill Ford Jr. The first two, Fields and Hackett, were unmitigated disasters and the third, Farley, is a disaster in progress. All three CEOs have overseen a rapid decline in manufacturing quality -- the core competency of the company. In this same timeframe, cross-town competitor GM has had 1 CEO who has overseen a mostly stable tenure.

Why does turnover at the very top keep happening? Why can't the family appoint a qualified successor who is willing to take on the real problems at the core of the company? Both Hackett and Farley were wildly underqualified and were appointed despite the company having other capable leaders on the bench. Why did this happen twice in a row? In Farley's case, did it have anything to do with him promoting equally unqualified Ford family members to key roles in his organization prior to becoming CEO? Does the CEO contest boil down to a popularity contest with the Ford family who controls the special class of stock and has all the decision making power?

Since becoming CEO, why did Farley force a large number of experienced executives out of the company? Was there a power struggle before his appointment? Was he settling old scores? Did this take his eye off the ball when it came to the company's day to day management?

How long can Ford compete when it is unable to launch a new product successfully? How many more recalls can the company withstand before consumers start flocking to competing brands? How can the company possibly compete in the emerging EV market when it can't reliably produce ICE vehicles?

These are the questions the Detroit automotive press dares not take on. I imagine there is quite the story behind all these whys.

You should write on why EV sales won't take off in the near future for the following reasons:

1. People don't feel safe driving EVs. The charging stations are few and far in between destinations. There are no attendants near the stations and you need several minutes to charge the vehicles. What happens if you run out of electricity before your destination?
2. EVs are heavy. They are going to wear tires much faster than ICE vehicles.
3. EVs are much costlier to repair than ICE vehicles in an accident. This will drive insurance rates higher.
4. EV batteries are extremely expensive to replace (around $20,000). They only have a life of about 5 years.
5. The driving range of an EV diminishes in colder climates.
6. Electricity costs money too. Charging EVs may not be that much cheaper than gas.
7. In the event of a flood, EVs may catch fire. Once on fire, they are harder to put out.

We here at Ford Motor don't want no DEI. we don't want no Critical Race Theory in our schools or in OUR company.

This company is run by majority White Men. This company had better start treating us better!

To the WSJ reporter,

Please shed light on Ford partnership with China and communist party. Our joint venture is in fact a joint venture with the Chinese communist party. How Ford engineers are required to have quarterly DEI goals and take training on ‘doing the right thing’… following the law, equality of people rights, fairness, not cheating, ethics, etc.

However are our engineers in China required to undergo same DEI training, goals, etc?
Awkward question for Bill Ford.

Because the Chinese communist party currently has 2M Uigher Muslims under a detention camp. They abuse these people and have taken away all of their rights. They are ethnic cleansing these folks who just wish to be left alone with their religious practices.

China continues to violate WTO rules on copyright of intelligent property, they harass Taiwan and threaten war to America, they harass their neighbors in South Pacific and build up military islands in disputed areas. They censor any free speech in their country and have ‘police stations’ here in the US to monitor expats speech here and threaten expats family with harm should the expats here say or do the wrong thing.

China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and do not follow 2015 Paris agreement.
China is partner of Putin in the Russia-Ukraine war.

In summary Please focus on the hypocrisy of Fords stance on DEI and human rights and our partnership with CCP.

Thank you.

You could write about how EV's and all the zero carbon fairy tales make no sense unless you believe lots of lies that we are forced to confess are true, and that's just one of the many power grabs that the communists have foisted upon us.

@ewn+1m5tov2t

Since diversity intitiatives are pretty much anti white racism and anti male s-xism at their core it's not surprising that it causes may white men to get angry.

As Ibrim Kendi says the only way to fix past racism is current and future racism... and corporate America is on board with that or they are threatened by the DEI mob racket

https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-bans-53-of-americans-from-buying-cars/
https://www.frontpagemag.com/why-fake-woman-dylan-mulvaney-is-suddenly-everywhere/

In today's woke workplace if you criticize pretty much anything our Maoist/Marxist/Communist overlords from Bill Ford to Justin Trudeau to Mary Barra push onto us you are called racist or s-xist... whether you criticize DEI, mandatory experimental gene therapies, dangerous AI, giving our tech and jobs to China, trans rights are human rights and they will get violent if you question it, 50% of engineers should be women but 85% of teachers indoctrinating kids to be trans should be women, etc.

Drill into the lies that farley tells
Drill into the tax breaks they get for the lies they tell to the government but laying people off on the side.
Drill into their shady partnerships with chinese in order to procure battery supplies.
Drill into their cars that are malfunctioning due to lack of quality and putting lives at risk
Drill into their "One mean place" for shady business practices.

You could write about the damage caused by extracting so much lithium from the earth. Why EV’s are being thrust upon us when no one wants them. The list of negatives for them is extensive.

Nora,
Thanks for asking. My suggestion is to buy a 99 cent subscription to the Detroit Free Ford Press and read the press releases Ford sends to Phoebe Wall Howard that she publishes verbatim as “news.” Then drill into it and write the truth.

Why was this posted ONLY in the Ford layoffs, not in General Motors or Stellantis?

You could write about how there is still a need for quality vehicle manufacturers, so why does Ford think they want to be a software company instead.

My experience?

Hard work and effort don't matter as much as bu-t kissing. Take the LL3 leader of Connected Vehicle. He doesn't care about hard work and know how. Or even if someone can get the job done. But if your are into eating cheap cheeseburgers, cheese sauce covered french fries and drinking cheap beer with him, then you'll be on your way up the corporate ladder.

Or look at the leaders that love to promote attractive females. At Ford it's all shallow, non-substantive garbage that gets you ahead. Farley surrounds himself with yes men, and won't tolerate a dissenting opinion.

That's today's Ford Motor Company. It's been all down hill since Mulally retired.

You can read some good stories here about auto industry.

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1idDSDNY

Or I can tell you few more stories

What you should really take away from this forum is just how many angry white men work for Ford and barely hide their raci$m.

Any diversity initiative is met with strong resistance from this group - calling themselves a silent majority.

How scary is that to think that a company comprised of primarily white men is packed with white men who feel threatened by diversity initiatives.

The raci$m and s-xism on this thread flows so strongly that the mods delete many posts each day.