What is your experience of being an older employee here? Ford no longer seems to need older and more experienced employees who have been loyal to this company for years...
Although I can still work much more than my younger colleagues, I have long felt very redundant at Ford. Instead of those who do sloppy work, I am the one who, due to my age, gets very subtle signs every day that it is time to leave.
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I have worked at Ford for some time. Yes the light is at the end of the tunnel. When I sit back and wander why someone one I know or myself did not advance farther, Then you see some people walking around pretty arrogant like they are a gift to the auto industry.. All I have to say is look at the state of the company? Back in the 80s and 90s Ford had products people wanted. BTW Explorer made more money than F-Series with half the volume and look what happened to that? F-series makes over 90% of the profits. WS knows that. So if these legends in there own minds were so smart then why are we in such a sad state?
Incase the middle management has not noticed you no longer get those golden parachutes. Just look at the last package. Headline read LL3 on down. Your now officially a piece of equipment to them now.
There are good people there. they are looking for confident leadership which has been lacking for some time.
As an older person at Ford I was given a very heavy workload, which I managed by working many hours of casual overtime. I took pride in my work and received great reviews with increases and bonuses. I was walked out in SRD. Life has been pretty good since then!
If you’re an older Ford employee my advice would be to work hard but don’t put your job before your family and yourself, keep learning and finding positions that you enjoy to avoid boredom and do not ever think you are valued. From my experience older employs tend to have more expertise, good work ethics and loyalty. None of that is valued.
Yes, it is just life at Ford. I have coworkers who are being signaled to leave (not given good work assignments, not allowed to transfer, excluded from meetings, age related comments and jokes at their expense). Ironically those targeted are the better workers. In the SRD they hit the highest paid and best workers in our area, now they are signaling the next layer of workers to leave.
In the end they get what they deserve, as the caliber of the work force continues to decline.
Just do your best job, keep your mouth shut when managers make bad decisions, break out the popcorn and enjoy the sxxxshow. There is no upside to attempting to prevent your manager from getting egg on his face, and no upside to cleaning the egg up post splat. You have to realize that over half the Ford employees and leaders are on the Friends and Family plan, those people aren’t going anywhere, so they have to target others to leave. Don’t get angry or frustrated with things you cannot change.
:@1baf
Friend, nobody said life was fair. I have always tried to keep in mind what my grandparents when through to get to this country. That seems to keep me focused on my family.
@1pxr Doesn't there come a point where you don't want to move anymore? In my youth I had no problem moving around. I was in the military and was in California, Japan, North Carolina and Saudi Arabia. Afterward, I went to college and chose my career path. I graduated and started off in MI, moved to DE, then back MI. From there I went to IA, WI, AR and back to MI. Then a short stint in MO and finally back to MI. I am over 50 and finally tired of picking up and moving on the average of every 2.5-3 years.
Actually, I am under utilized. My traditional job functions are being reduced to the transition to BEV's
but I will see what happens. If I get laid off I will find an engineering position else where even if I have to relocate. I have had to do this several times over the span of my career. I've been at Ford for 16 years. I am over 50 with a family and mortgage also. I have always made things work out and always will.
Yes, it was a real rotten thing to do. Then now they have the guts to call for hearts and flowers Ford + behaviors. Especially when it was blatant age discrimination with the SRD. In one section they demoted and reassigned one guy with years and age, then left all the other younger early 30s there untouched with their LL6s. And this was a group of all LL6 and no GSRs. Sickening. In another org they demoted a guy w/ years, experience but no retirement who was the absolute best Supervisor anyone could dream of having. Was considered a role model. Demoted him and then proceeded to promote a bunch of newer hire kids. Overall, they just brought these people into conference rooms and told them they were being demoted due to the SRD and not performance issues. They could either accept the demotion and sign a will not sue letter to keep their jobs, or be immediately walked out the door. Sickening way to treat people.
@1khr+1btNWgcN
Knew there were a few LL6 Manager/TS to GSR8 staff demotions....never thought the number would be as high as 100....really?? wow!
and then they wonder ...jeez, why is the morale down?
Sometimes the signs aren't so subtle. In the so-called Smart Redesign, Ford demoted a large group of pension-eligible LL6 technical specialists who were old enough and had enough years of service that pushing them out the door would not have resulted in a large pension cost avoidance. More than 100 people in Product Development, many of them high performers, got this treatment and were reassigned to disagreeable SG8 jobs.
Also over 50 but I have to say, these kids they are hiring are not coming cheap. I have been shocked to hear that many of these new college undergrads with very little experience are coming in at the mid/high 80s and low 90k with expectations and demands for promotion to management within 5 years. That is not a deal. Where does HR think they are going with pay ranges. Also, kids these days are not all that healthy like in decades past. When we were still in the office I was constantly surprised to see many older workers much more fit and active than much younger workers. People need to really let go of some if these "elderly" worker troupes when referring to what, a 52 yr old. You'd swear they were wheelchair bound, depends wearing people.
Yes, Ford looks at you as a liability. Your salary is way too high; Ford could probably hire 3 people for what you make. Also, you have the max amount of vacation time to use that Ford has to pay for and also, you are going to have health problems as you age and might take off more sick time. It’s sad that it’s this way. Laws are in place to protect those over 40, but Ford will just make up excuses that it’s not age discrimination. It’s not like the good old days where my father in law hired in as an engineer in the 60’s and retired in the 90’s, with respect and his full pension.
The leaders at Ford believe that if you are over 40, you have aged out.
As an over 50 person, I am always in fear that I will be released, aka, fired, from a job due to my age and never finding a new one in my career of choice - IT.
Older employees aren't valued, usually because of their high salaries especially if they have been at the same company for decades. I'm not surprised you are getting those subtle signs.