Thread regarding General Motors layoffs

Roughly a year into it, this is my take:

• Managers always will have their favorite employees (human nature), so if all achieve their goals set out for them at the start of the year, they are going to place someone they don't like (if they don't see eye-to-eye with them on certain items, or challenge them on some directions they want to take) in the bottom 2 buckets by making up "soft" behavior targets they don't meet.
• Even if your direct manager didn't place you in the bottom 2 buckets, you may still end up there, and they will tell you it's out of their hands when all managers' evaluations are submitted to directors. How do directors know what you do at their levels to put you in what buckets?
• More employees from certain groups that GM wants to replace with oversea branches, or may be outsourced, to save cost will receive poor rating, even if they achieve all their goals and high customer feedbacks.

@8zth+1uWV6Er5

I disagree. I think most folks know where they stand with respect to their goals metrics. The biggest concern I’m hearing from folks is they still meet or exceed their goal metrics but could get a ‘does not meet’ rating because of how they ‘calibrate’ relative to their peers. During my mid year my boss told me I met all of my metrics by gave a number of subjective, vague feedback on behaviors. I heard this was quite common in salary.

@bldv+1uWV6Er5
By rhetoric, do you mean an emphasis on achievement and goals?
If so, that's what almost every corporation requires and what has been going on at GM for many, many years.
The only new aspect is the 'calibration' wording.

Yikes... I was let go in early 2019 with the massive layoff, but this is the same rhetoric that was being used before I and over 10k others were let go that February.

Good luck everyone.

I can see by the response to @8zth+1uWV6Er5 that this board is frequented by the lazy and incapable who would rather see random, solid people take the hit.
It confirms that GM is doing the right thing with the calibration.
I’ll hold the door for you!

Calibrations are actually a good thing. It is better to align "the talent" with their goals while also making them accountable than to let them flounder. With calibrations, everyone has a very clear understanding of what they offer, what they need to work on and what goals they would like to achieve.

You could look at it another way. Yes, calibrations result in dismissals. But those are dismissals of people who are trouble (complainers, lazy, don't show up, don't meet dates), aren't fitting in or people who aren't up to snuff (not capable, not qualified). Would you rather lose good people in a blanket mass layoff? Of course not. Let's weed out the weeds, not the plants.

Not to mention that when they calibrate ratings between groups, a weak team leader that doesn't fight for his team will take a disproportionate share of low ratings and poor raises for his people, giving the more aggressive team leaders better results for their people.

Individual contributors who work under weak managers have always suffered.

But it's more important now with the corporate plan to get rid of low rated employees and fire them for cause.

@3bln+1uWV6Er5

Wish it worked like that everywhere but in our division there is still a lot of nepotism. If the boss likes someone they’ve been allowed to WFH more but others not so much. Maybe it will show up on their annual calibration but so far what they’ll use to compare folks at each level seems kinda vague imo.

Electric vehicle facts:

• On average, in a crash, EVs suffer 50% more damage than typical gas-powered cars.
• New EV owners are three times more likely to be in a crash partly because drivers aren’t used to instant torque associated with EVs.
• One-third of EV accidents involve cyclists and pedestrians, about 1.5 times more than ICE crashes.
• 47% of EVs involved in high-speed accidents end up being totalled.
• EVs, on average, are 35% heavier than their ICE counterparts. The added weight puts other road users at risk during an accident.
• On average, the cost of EV insurance is 27% higher than that of an ICE vehicle.
• The U.S. has one of the highest rates of motor-vehicle deaths (ICE + EV) in the developed world, with an estimated 46,270 fatalities in 2022. That's 15 911's each year.
• As of January 2024, there were more than 3.14 million electric cars on the road in the U.S., representing roughly 1.2% of all cars in circulation.
• Studies show that if you’re involved in a crash with a heavier vehicle, your chance of fatality increases by 47% with every 1,000 pounds of added weight.
• Electric vehicles run through tires faster than ICE cars. Rivian R1Ts need new tires after as few as 6,000 miles. EV tires are special and cost over $1000 for one set of them.

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Please feel free to share these statistics.
Source: https://www.lookupaplate.com/blog/electric-car-accident-statistics/

EV projection = to the moon
EV actual = early adopters who only want a Tesla.

@2eyq+1uWV6Er5
Your reply will age like milk.
Most corporations are announcing 5 days in office. GM will be no different.
There were people here & on Redd!t saying they would quit over RTO but they are still around complaining. Well, except for the ones that were let go.

Anyone in my team that has been complaining & not showing up since January are at the top of my list. That's how the real world works.

5 day a week back in office for salaried in corporate is not going to happen. The company is just going to manage people out just like other tech companies do. Done end of story. They are clearly force ranking and at some point your time will be up.

C’mon, ASSume goodness!? Or, just get out while you can. There’s a whole different world out there folks, you don’t need to be trapped in the Detroit automotive bubble forever, particularly Mary’s World where you are labeled as cave people if you stick up for yourself! Just not worth your mental health or dignity… you can do it!

Hearing grumblings on end of November. Your EoY cap is pointless. They already made their decision. EOY might save you if you had a dismal mid year then a glow up after the mid year.

Also 5 days is comings. GM needs a 15% in WF reduction since EV cars are not happening at the rate they hoped. They want people to quit

No, a mass layoffs won't happen due to PR's for this year. However, next year indeed - looks like GM is going rank and yank. The town hall earlier in the year where they announced stack ranking made it crystal clear the intentions to start cutting.

I suspect there really is going to be a bias for california SWE's and this is how they're going to start eliminating michigan SWE's. It's an employers market at the moment and they can do what they want. I also think 5 day starting next year.