Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Are these the kind of threads that management looks to bury?

I think how well HR works really comes down to the specific people in the department. Every team has some slackers, and HR is no different. Plus, they often get set up for failure by office Karens and the 'leaders' who enable it. That said, I still get nervous about HR because of the bad stories people share about certain toxic individuals. But hey, life is like a box of chocolates, right?

@19j HR can feel pretty useless sometimes. I’ve got an HR degree and was taught that if you’re senior in the field, about 80% of the job should be coaching. But these days, everything turns into an investigation. Don’t call HR if you actually want help. They’re more like the final boss that ends careers. Too many managers are struggling, and too many employees think walking into HR will magically get their boss fired. Without real coaching, counseling, and honest talks, things just go sideways for everyone.

Ford exemplifies the worst in class HR practices.

One of the most evident indicators of a dysfunctional workplace culture is the absence of basic human judgment.

Numerous situations could have been resolved amicably through a personal conversation, common sense, humility, and a genuine effort to comprehend the underlying issues. However, companies often resort to aggressive, impersonal, and risk-averse behaviors, such as conducting formal investigations, documenting defensive information, positioning themselves legally, surveilling employees, excluding them, and concocting fabricated “business reasons.”

Ironically, these tactics often inadvertently create the very risks they are ostensibly intended to prevent.

When an employee raises a concern, the appropriate response should not be to isolate them, scrutinize them, or treat them as a legal threat. Instead, the right course of action is to listen attentively, ask probing questions, acknowledge the impact of the issue, and resolve it promptly before it escalates.

In unhealthy organizations, no one appears empowered or willing to employ common sense. Managers hide behind processes, HR hides behind policies, and leaders hide behind carefully crafted statements. Consequently, employees are left to contend with a cold, adversarial system rather than individuals capable of basic fairness.

The absence of personal touch has significant consequences. It transforms misunderstandings into disputes, concerns into formal complaints, and preventable harm into liability. It turns individuals who sought resolution into those who feel they have no safe internal avenues left.

A healthy company does not require an aggressive response to every uncomfortable issue. It can exercise judgment, demonstrate empathy, acknowledge mistakes, and resolve problems like responsible adults.

If a company’s initial instinct is consistently to protect itself from employees rather than safeguarding them from harm, then it should not be surprised when trust erodes and risk increases.

@OP

Sadly, it sounds like this has gone so far it's like stopping a freight train; it will hurt, but why not embarrass them all on the way out?

Essentially, if you're getting pushed out anyway, most of the LL2s aren't completely incompetent and will likely come up with a good excuse to fire you. However, that doesn't mean they're immune to embarrassment in front of their own bosses for how they allow politics to cloud their judgment. Society needs to recognize that poor choices have implications. If you're in that predicament, you might as well teach them a lesson.

@16c Sadly, I think they were the only ones with a bit of sense in them, the rest of the kangaroo party seemed d-mber than a bag of rocks.

Serious question, did health and safety follow you into the bathroom too after lying to your face, thinking you're so dim you don't notice? I gotta ask, I was under the impression a lot of these guys were retired FBI/Secret Service, so I made a few calls - I found out the DOJ has a strict no bathroom follow policy, so where do they get these bozos? I can think of a few stupider things I saw around the same time, but I'll refrain.

Psychopath

I got in trouble for looking at strong po-nography on my work laptop back in the day, when you could watch po-n through image searches.

Hi, I'm earth, have we met?

@OP Michael Pitt, attorney, represented former Ford employees in age discrimination suit. Consult with him to protect yourself. Do not go internally.

@qt hr encouraged me to turn in documentation against my LLS, I refused, might still be getting forced out, but I’ll get a nice package, use hr to defend yourself and the company, it’s not a we-pon

Many, many moons ago I was a d-mb young pup. I made the mistake of reporting my LL4 to HR. Needless to say, I had a target from that point on and my workplace became pretty unpleasant and I was forced to resign. All is well though, had a much better job and higher pay after I left. Never ever go to HR. Going to HR equals getting yourself fired or forced out.

I once went to HR. Not for myself, but the speaker of a group of people working for me who felt discriminated (both men and women). I was called into a meeting with an HR representative and my LL4 who berated me for not deescalating and instead throwing oil on the fire.
It became about me and my performance.

After that I was permanently on the lower ranking performer side when up to this point I had been top achiever. I literally had my leadership team look over my shoulder at all times pointing out daily what I did do or didn’t do right.

Never go to HR.

@af I don't recommend reaching out to Ford Pride (which used to be GLOBE). The low level employees involved are all great, but the LL & C-suite people in the DEI group are not looking out for individuals. This was a big shift under the prior DEI lead who centralized the organization of every ERG.

Ford went to great lengths to gut specific ERGs that were organizing employees to push for better working conditions; GLOBE / Pride was one of them.

Join HEFNER

Heteros-xual Employees of Ford Nurturing Equality Relationships

It is easier to get a new job while still employed. You need to keep your mouth shut and just document. Start sending out resumes and get a better, higher paying job. It is actually a very small percentage chance that you would prevail in a discrimination lawsuit against Ford, because Ford management and HR are trained to make up business reasons on why they would fire you.

Could be as simple as turning down a date. Happening to me too.

Globe...I remember globe. Back in the profs days, if you left your computer with profs open....you were at risk of one of your buddies signing you up for globe so you would get the announcements and be a member.

That was back when this job had some fun in it.

Do not complain to management or HR about this. HR is there to protect the company - not help you. If you were to complain, Ford will make up business reasons to fire you. Simply, quietly document and save any emails and once you are laid off, contact an attorney. All that happened here is there is some manager who is very religious who you got on their bad side. Sorry this is happening to you, but discrimination and harassment happens unfortunately all the time.

Not surprised

@ab Thanks for your kind note. I’ve been documenting everything carefully.

It’s not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I do appreciate knowing I’m not alone in this kind of experience. I’ve also been wondering whether broader company dynamics could be influencing how situations like this are handled.

This has been going on for far too long, and I’m exhausted from worrying about it. At the same time, I feel like my options are limited. How would you feel about reaching out to someone else? I know of at least one higher-up in my area who might be willing to listen, though I’m honestly not sure whether they would help, dismiss it, or simply pass it along (may end up doing more harm).

And just to be clear: I’m not claiming I know exactly what is happening. This is a complicated situation that has been building for a long time, and no one has directly approached me about any concerns. I’m simply trying to be treated fairly and to understand what is going on.

It could be nothing. But given the history and the pattern I’ve been documenting, I have a hard time believing there isn’t something behind it.

Plenty of people who were strong performers and contributors have been terminated. Appreciate that you are uncomfortable at the moment. Many people are regardless of their orientation or other attributes. I’m not sure why there is this knee je-k reaction that for you it must be because you are not heteros-xual. While I am sure not the case with you, have known others who have blamed their termination on that even when part of a larger downsizing when plenty of people of every flavor were let go. But for them it had to be that, right? Just keep doing your job and you may or may not end up like the thousands upon thousands of every flavor already fired.

looks like one more is on on the list...

Maybe you should look for other reasons other than what you identify as. No one brings up the fact that probably 95% of people let go were straight...

Ford did have an organization on the corporate website called GLOBE.

"Ford GLOBE's mission is to foster an inclusive and supportive atmosphere within Ford for LGBT persons and their allies."

Contact them!

I would start keeping documentation of the micro aggressions (ie what you're seeing now). Once it became obvious that I was a target, I revealed that I was LGBTQ. After I was terminated, my lawyer initiated negotiations and I received a good package. Not what you wanted to hear, but that's what happened to me.

With the current political environment, companies that were tolerant are becoming less so. Maybe that's happening in your situation.