No. Ford kept the entrenched seniors, who now we-ponize tenure to cannibalize threatening talent, then scapegoat them for ‘attitude’ when the work is fully extracted.
It’s a calculated meat-grinder. Ford calculus: one senior engineering manager + one fresh grad + one tech architect = infinite free ride to the top.
They’ll dangle rotations, free education, career-growth, promotions, false-promises, startup culture, and “new graduate” programs in front of new hires like fishing lures, then yank the line the moment the person starts pulling ahead. Imagine a multidisciplinary engineer joins. First, the “mentoring”, where they mine every thought, then afterward mandate a weekend fire drill, promise “visibility”, and ultimately delete their name from every deliverable and slide deck. The spell essentially begins with a ‘reverse-mentoring program’-- reverse because the mentee teaches everything and gets nothing. They lure the grad with ‘you’ll own it end-to-end’. Spoiler alert, they'll own your weekends and afternoons, no promises upheld.
Every stand-up becomes a vacuum-cleaner nozzle pointed at the kid’s architecture notes and code. By sprint three the tech architect has a shiny powerpoint, the engineering manager has a working demo, and the new grad has a Jira ticket graveyard. Senior then convenes the ‘FCG committee’, which is really just three other friends they've known here for 20 years, to own the story.
Next comes the ‘innovation sprint’: 48 hours of grinding, followed by a Monday morning where the senior’s deck is 100% the kid’s diagrams + writing and 0% the engineer's name. When the engineer notices, the posse launches a campaign: “high-maintenance”, “not a team player", “not professional". Exhaust the rookie, harvest the IP, then toss the husk to HR with a note about “attitude issues”. When they confront them about promises made, they shrug: “budget freeze”, “re-org”, “decision above my pay grade”.
In reality, they’re terrified that someone under 40 might expose how little they actually know.Meanwhile, they’re told to “stay humble” and “learn the culture". When the engineer tries defending themselves, they escalate to full workplace mobbing: HR schedules “alignment” calls, loads the Jira board with impossible deliverables and deadlines, quietly starts rumors that the employee is “looking at Tesla”, then logs a formal complaint about “lack of commitment”. Last step-- when the engineer blinks, HR materializes with a new ‘competency matrix’ that conveniently proves nobody under 40 is manager-ready.
There are people here who have been here for decades that are still mentoring genuinely, giving their time and knowledge selflessly, and lifting others up without selfish motives. They are not the topic of this comment. However, it’s on you to hold your peers accountable.