Thread regarding General Motors layoffs

-azmy

I pulled another persons post to respond to your criticism of me attacking MBs feminist agenda. Also note I did not attack her gender, I called her a feminist (femi-Nazi to be exact).

“What seems shameful is she got the same amount of press coverage when she ended 4,000 salaried peoples careers and home finance. Then she sent the claimed savings to Brazil for them to build a set of factories that the US Workers just had stolen.

Now she is back in the news with "token" PR pieces, like 400 jobs.

She is starting to remind me of Hillary Clinton - Toxic Feminist, with only her personal agenda.”

Originally posted by @YOHgELq-rll

If she was a man, stockholders, media, government and the people would demand her resignation.

The press is too “woke” to call her on her corporate bs. There was no financial justification, just a stunt to boost shareholder confidence... which failed. But oh my gosh! She’s hired on 400 temp factory workers for a third of the cost of a union employee. Awfully generous of her. I’m not a fan of Trump, but at least he had the gall to call her on what she’s doing.

I wonder if it's time for salaried workers to organize and join the UAW. GM is abusing its salaried workforce, without a question, targeting the older workers in these layoffs to save money on their pensions and higher salaries. They abused many other groups as witnessed by their process for identifying who to lay off. Instead of looking at CAP performance measures, they allowed Directors who often were not even familiar with their grunt workers a few levels down to make the call on decisions of layoff; they did not contact the Managers for input on this decision and the Directors are not held accountable for these decisions because they realize that those laid off can do nothing about it. They did not give anyone the time to find another job at GM if they were in a high risk functional area that was likely to be eliminated; if someone that was laid off was able to find another job at GM after the layoff, all of the benefits based on years of service would be zeroed out to amounts a college grad would get starting today ...vacation days, early pension at maximum amount, GM extra contributions to stock savings And then GM tells those that are laid off that we have no legal rights to sue the company for these wrongdoings when we accept their severance pay package. Seriously, beyond unionization what other means are left to keep this MONSTER of a company from abusing its employees going forward? It is obvious that the GM values it demands their employees to follow are not followed by Mary B. Saving $ is all that matters now.

Symptom of the dumbing down of GM

Early on skills and knowledge was valued and rewarded, even in managers. Managers had to know how to do what their subordinates did.

Then at some point managers became full of themselves and decided they did not need to know anything but how to navigate GM politics. He who did that best got promoted so there was a self fulfilling event where managers got dumber and their subordinates got dumber. People not suited for the environment self selected out.

Then came oh since we do not have skills, we outsource design and engineering of parts to suppliers. We hire consultants to do our IT design or outsource it. This allows GM to be able to blame others for any failures.

So, no, it is not about special privilege to some group. It is about rewarding who plays GM politics best. The era of knowledge and skills being king at GM died a long time ago. You need to go to a supplier to be valued. Sorry on that.

You are right. If you need handouts, or help over your competition, you may not be that qualified to begin with. Some people make a living off of pity points.

All today's market is, is affirmative action for every race and gender, that is not a white male. We don't have to hide what it actually is, we can openly state it out-loud.

It is ok.

-1aru

Why attack the CEO for her gender? You de-legitimize your arguments by doing that.

The #MeToo movement originated because good people looked the other way when predators/bullies stalked and abused their prey. Then convinced themselves that the prey asked for and enjoyed the abuse. They even revictimized the prey.

Now that the pendulum has swung, you find yourself in the uncomfortable position that women have been in forever. Oh sweetie, you’LL hurt your brain if you do advanced math, go get me some coffee and freshen up your lipstick.

Everyone knows that predatory/bully males are a small minority. I am sure it doesn’t feel great getting lumped into one male category. Now that you know how it feels, stop looking the other way when predators/bullies victimize others. Then the pendulum will find a happy medium.

Substitute any discipline for engineering.

People buy degrees now so they have increasing less value. LTU MBA is as valuable as a roll of charmin. You can get one in less than a year with little more effort than writing a check.

The quality of new college hires in GM IT has been very disappointing. 2 out of 12 had enough knowledge and skills to do elementary coding projects.

The skilled trades path has disappeared from high schools, funneling many people unsuited for college into college path, driving up college tuition while simultaneously lowering the quality of education.

@3cif...

Mary Barra has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from General Motors Institute ( now Kettering).

Mark Reuss has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt

Just two examples to counter your statement that nobody at the top has a technical background.

Jealous much?

Disrespected? It goes WAY beyond engineering degrees in this country. The US is just about the only country with a culture of making fun of people because they're SMART.

Regardless, engineering is the most consistently high-paying line of work that one can enter with only a 4-year degree. But a degree isn't sufficient. Being able to do something with it, having practical sense, and an understanding of how things ACTUALLY work outside of a classroom are equally as important.

Funny how every engineer I worked with over twenty years, wished they could have done it differently.

You will notice that no one at the top, typically holds engineering degrees, only business degrees. The non-technicals, control the technical skill set.

This is why I send my children for masters in business. They control all, regardless where they land. This is the mandate in the land of make believe. I don't agree it's right, only what is. Been in this industry long enough to know the BS involved:

I think that even today, an engineering degree will give you the assets to be stable financially through most of a lifetime.

Especially in a market with 4% unemployment rate.

The job may not be your dream job, but will be compensated appropriately.

Poster @thu is correct

When an engineering degree is disrespected, our country is in trouble

A good engineer from a solid school will always have a great career. Add to that some soft skills (many are struggling with this), I'd say there will be a stellar career. I am an engineer and I have three sons - two of them have done mechanical engineering and the youngest one was a CS major - all three of them are financially doing very well... It's not for everyone but if things align for you it's a good career choice.

Engineers are usually very intelligent people who have the capacity and skill sets to make and do incredible things. Unfortunately a lot of engineers are lazy, probably because they are smart enough to know they can be.

The problem with the SJW/“Woke”/#MeToo movement is good old fashioned hard work is being devalued and traded for a superficial appearance of “diversity in the workplace”. Since when was someone’s race, religion or s-xual preference more important than their body of work and results?

This mindset translates to the woefully underwhelming and underselling product line rolled out by GM. The company was created as an alternative to Henry’s one and only Model-T. GM used to be about having style and setting yourself apart. Unfortunately this Femi-Nazi CEO is taking the company backwards by stifling morale and giving no respect to those who worked hard and delivered results. This whole lay-off situation was a public stunt to pad the inevitable financial downturn that is going to come about from this ridiculous 0-0-0 initiative, delegating it to HR because no accountability exists in the endless ranks on middle managers is a clear sign of what is to come. You can put lipstick on a pig...

Rant over. Good luck to everyone effected by the senseless purge resulting from this toxic culture.

"That's about right. But, fortunately this disease, this SJW mentality should blow over when results start to showcase themselves. "

Wish it was that easy but the SJW mentality is a religious doctrine that many people use to fill the void of not having more traditional values and morals. So the SJW is something people or corporations are willing to lose money for, fight for, and die for. The W stands for warrior and we are embroiled in a civil war.

"""An engineering degree with the other right stuff like female, under rep minority, or lgbtq credential are about as close as you can get to a golden ticket now that GM and many other outfits are socially woke. Because diversity is a strength according to many woke ceos.""

That's about right. But, fortunately this disease, this SJW mentality should blow over when results start to showcase themselves. You see, these companies are late to the game. Other companies, large companies have been attempting this nonsense for some time, and it's been horrible for the product line, the people that represent the company, and the company. The phrase "get woke, go broke", should be a wake up call for any company that continues to follows this path.

I wanted to be a mechanical engineer once ,...once. my advice take it to Aerospace , of I was coming out of school I'd be combing the earth for a job , LinkedIn is a fantastic Portal for incredible opportunity if your a hardcore go getter. I wish to God I would have had it when I was in high school , these kids today have zero excuses and because I am optimistic even in hard times , they will make a solid path , that is my wish for our youth , they will see through the BS as we see through it. I don't know any of you guys here but all I can do is pray we have peace in our lives. It's been to lousy for to long.

An engineering degree with the other right stuff like female, under rep minority, or lgbtq credential are about as close as you can get to a golden ticket now that GM and many other outfits are socially woke. Because diversity is a strength according to many woke ceos.

PS when I started out , I held them in very high regard too , until I realized what a scam some of them actually truly are. I used to have alot of respect but not anymore.

When the technicians know more than the engineering staff the country is in trouble? I only respected the engineering folks that applied their abilities , I learned a great deal from the good ones and that's that as for the rest of them it's more than clear they went for the golden ticket only.

An engineering degree once was a golden ticket to the middle class. Now, no degree is giving enough of a return on investment to justify investing in it and what does that mean for you, someone who doesn't have a degree?

I joined the Navy at 18, severed 6 years and got out and went to college for a degree in mechanical engineering. In the Navy I was a technician and over the years I have worked with many technicians. In the Navy we often didn't like many of our officers (who were all engineers), but we respected them. In civilian life I have met a lot of technicians who have a bad attitude about engineers and, and I often reflect on how much these technicians don't know about what they don't know. They often have such limited knowledge and the truly ignorant don't even realize it.

When an engineering degree is disrespected, our country is in trouble, we have lost the values that made us great and will assure a decent quality of life for people. Our country is in trouble and you are just to ignorant to realize it.