Thread regarding Cox Automotive layoffs

Curious, who would spend time on this site at all if they weren't just laid off or worried about being laid off? Damage control?

disgruntled employee is just a current non-furloughed employee who is just leaking company distributed emails about leadership changes and headcount changes ahead of time. laid off employees get notified first through direct communication with manager and hr. and then unaffected employees get the notice via leaders and emails. and then an official pr is made to public. the inaccuracies lies in the assumptions and degradation of people who work hard to provide services and help for dealers and consumers and clients. why are you more angry than the affected people and why do you not have anyone to vent to? friends or family? is this the only forum you have to communicate with people? try therapy. and find better use of your skills and do good work instead of ranting about things you have no control over. if you're going to complain then have a solution. may god bless you.

Some are getting severance yes, however it’s much less than it’s been in prior rounds of large RIF . 30-50% less then the company used to offer in prior RIF.

There will be another big round of layoffs coming in August. Numbers not confirmed but they’ll be coming soon for sure.... stay tuned.

Seems the "disgruntled employee" is an informed employee and that his posts are unfortunately proving to be accurate.

Was severance offered to layoff employees?

IMHO Sandy was a train wreck. People like to credit him with merging of these different businesses but the value of those acquistions mostly decreased with Cox involvement. For example, Cox bought Dealertrack for $4B - they couldn't sell DT for half that value now. He also ran off countless senior leaders - Harrison, Broe, Luppino, Langhorne, Perry... - and promoted less-experienced, less-capable replacements. Clearly Cox sees a weak leadership team - that's why they brought someone new in to the lead the organization.

Will it get better or worse with Sandy Schwartz leaving and new CEO stepping in?

Who would have been prepared and ready to be furloughed because of a virus? The economy was shut down by force to "save lives", not by choice, the repercussions of rich and powerful people's decisions hit the normal people, not the ultra rich. This isn't about normal lay offs, this is about furloughs, more layoffs, and the way they're handling this. Anyone saying should have seen this coming is out of touch with what's actually going on. It's not just cox, all the big companies are taking advantage of this to reduce head count, stock pile cash reserves to be able to acquire more companies, same thing they did in 2008-2010. Money they could use to pay the 12,500 people that haven't been paid in 4 months. "Digital transformation" was the agenda using the virus as a scapegoat. Convenient timing.

To those saying you should have been prepared, and should have known, and not put all eggs in one basket, and get over it and everything else..... Maybe you'll be prepared also when you're the sole person working in your household and your spouse gets cancer, who cant work and is reliant on health care, and your career to keep your family afloat. You people are so short sighted, self righteous, and beyond arrogant to think the way you do. People deserve to be treated better. For those saying have a side hustle or this is your own fault for not being on top of "market conditions", shame on you, with that attitude you'll also be gone soon enough, enjoy jumping from company to company every few years with no stability, and clearly not enough skill to move up in any company. And since you're not skilled enough to turn your "side hustle" into a real business to support yourself with said "side hustle" I'd suggest finding a different side hustle, or work on your career to be better at what you do, because you're obviously a low level employee who cant afford their life style with out 2 jobs. Not a way to live for very long. You'll be forced to change that mentality or life style sooner or later.

To the current Cox employee who is revealing numbers in emails he/she is still getting, I will gladly take your miserable position from you. Good for you that you survived the rounds, but maybe being furloughed or laid off will make you happier. That way you don't get a Cox account to log into and fume about. Work from home priviledge must not take up too much of your working hours... Not everyone gets to have a job that can be done at home. What are you complaining about????????

Layoffs are coming. Get used to it. Microsoft does their annual purge. Most companies do, especially if people don't want to leave and they have to keep up with competition. The pension plan was only for people hired nearly 5 years ago. It doesn't even apply for recent hires. So it seems like disgruntled employees who were hoping to stay forever without realizing they also had to continually improve their skills. And didn't anyone ever tell you that you should also ALWAYS have a side hustle??? If you're not making enough to save for a year's worth of expenses, you really need to find something else or cut back. Cox pays people pretty decently and provided them with pretty good benefits. Look at corporations like Walmart who provide very little to employees. Look at places like Netflix who will cut you no slack if you don't overwhelmingly exceed expectations. Tesla who will let you go if you are an unhappy employee bringing everyone else down. Cox ain't that bad. And I'm pretty sure there is something in your contract about not slandering the company. The internet is not as anonymous as it says. If Cox is terrible, move on. At-will employment.

The layoff will be new a new normality every month from now on.

"wow. disgruntled employees. there typically will be articles floating around for mass layoffs from automotive news or respective cities where manheim locations are at. so just rely on those."

The 12500 furlough was in May, the 300 lay offs was in June, now July you have another 1600 going away. (these are not speculation, these are fact, publicized on automotive news or not, came from the top in company email I got yesterday)

August and September too? Haven't heard about that one yet. But sounds correct.

No, jobs aren't forever, but a lot of people have been with Cox a long time, put up with all the chaos, put up with the stress they have caused, because they believed in a good company and are very loyal. But don't see the loyalty in return. Many do plan to retire from Cox, hence the pension plan benefit they tout as being so great. But very few will ever see this benefit, and very few will make it long enough to retire from Cox due to the constant restructuring, and change. No one is upset at peoples success, people are upset because they've put up with the chaos, helped build the success to be tossed to the side. Now you basically say "deal with it, its your fault for not seeing it coming"? Being abreast of business and industry changes is not a tell tale sign you'll lose your job? Being aware of the digital change doesn't mean you assume you're losing your career. You seem to point to being aware of the digital landscape, signifies you should be prepared to restart your career? There are plenty of people who helped build the digital landscape, who are very very up to date on industry changes, they'll be going away also and its their own fault? You're a stand up person. I have 100% certainty that you'll be gone soon enough also. You're not so secure are you? Or you wouldn't be on this thread or website would you?

If more coming in August or Sept. thats really classy. I sure hope they don't bring the furloughed people back just to turn around and lay them off. Just treat people with like human beings, with respect and give them the clarity they deserve right now.

wow. disgruntled employees. there typically will be articles floating around for mass layoffs from automotive news or respective cities where manheim locations are at. so just rely on those.

More coming in Aug or Sept.

Lol, nice, call out spelling errors. While having a couple spelling errors and grammatical errors of their own.... classic superiority complex.

anyone who thinks people furloughed or laid off can’t be upset, saddened, mad or frustrated by this, has no heart. people saying get over it obviously aren’t affected by this and it’s easy to say when you have a paycheck and have had a paycheck the last 4 months. Sounds to me it’s much less the outcome and how cox has handled it. Put yourself in their shoes.

So I’m confused are there 1600 lay-offs or not? Or is this just some disgruntled employee.

okay, yeah, OP is the one who keeps posting in this thread and previous thread that Cox is "SCUM". Why do I know? Because said person thinks "fate" is spelled "fait". Never had I ever seen that spelling before.

Please stop complaining and work. Or find work. And stop putting all your eggs in one basket. It's rather silly to not have anything else to look forward to besides Cox. Maybe go to school so you can have a better career and learn how to spell.

Cox is a rich family business. Who does employ A LOT of people nd have made a lot of lives fulfilling. If you think otherwise, move on. No one wants to employ a person filled with this kind of hate and lack of understanding of current market situations. And couldn't even stay abreast of the industry to find this all shocking.

this thread is ridiculous. people acting like jobs are forever. is Cox sitting on stacks of cash? yes. are they going to evolve as time goes? yes. do they have to keep you? no. But you can still apply for other jobs. Have I been a victim of layoffs? Yes. Twice. Do I reapply? Yes. Have I moved on in past layoffs? Yes.

should you be getting upset at successful people trying to remain successful? no. stop depending on cox for your livelihood. regular employees who stay on top of the market already know the digital switch. dont you even stay up with the market and competition? ignorance is fueling your anger.

They owe people proper communication and ability to make decisions for their lives and livelyhood. They have not done that and continue to lead people along with false hope.

Layoffs are one thing, and it's just what greedy corporations do. This is nothing new. The messed up part is the furloughs, which have now been in effect 3.5 months. Roughly 8-9000 people still out on furlough not being paid, with no idea if they're coming back or being laid off. Id have a lot more respect for Cox if they just laid people off, don't leave people out there hanging with no idea what's going on. At a certain point they need to let people live their lives and be able to move forward or not. a lot of these people are under the assumption they'll be back because thats how it was pitched at the time they left. So now 3.5 months later, after not being paid for 3.5 months, very few jobs available internally or externally, not to mention in the automotive industry, cant really apply for anything in automotive because still technically employed by Cox Automotive. Conflict of interest as it was told before furlough, so automotive is out. So people just sit and wait and wait and wait and wait, hoping to hear something, not applying for jobs, assuming they'll be back, and they cant apply for anything that would be a conflict of interest (almost anything automotive related) just to find out after 16 weeks you're going away anyway? 16 precious weeks of someones life wasted, while Cox decides their fait? The fait that was most likely already decided for them in April and you have the nerve to say "clearly the writing was on the wall"... wow. It's pretty sad to see people treated this way. The only writing on the wall for these affected people was they'd be back "don't worry were working on getting you back as soon as possible" knowing damn well the plan the whole time was to lay off 60% of the furloughed people at the end. Dont pay people for 16 weeks, followed up directly with a lay off. Pretty sad and not a good way to treat people who are "our most important asset"

"....BTW, I dont think as a business you can furlough (not pay employees) and get monetary benefits? Back up your assumptions with link to facts please. Stop hating so much and try to understand. Many things were not handled well but some things were clearly written on the wall."

Facts? corporate tax credits per employee, bail out $ ? Clearly written on what wall? What were the things handled well? What were the things not handled well? What are we trying to understand? That the company has record profitable years, multiple years in a row, then covid happens, and while they'll miss the budget for the year, they're still having some big very profitable months June July to be specific, and project things to be ok by the end of the year .... Tell me how that justifies at least 2,000 lay offs (so far), and 12500 furloughs, with only 30% of the furloughed people returning or returned. Writing on the wall yes for upper management to see, the ones making the decisions. The people affected the only writing on the wall was at the time of the furlough or layoff. They preach transparency, "open, honest, direct", but actions speak louder than words. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, you're right, because big lay offs with cox happen every year, and its masqueraded as "change", we need to be comfortable with "change" aka, be comfortable losing your job, you never know when you'll be next. If it happens to you, hopefully you can "understand", clearly you're not affected... Yet.

The digital switch was going to happen. It was already known it was going to happen by employees. They enhanced the photo taking process at auctions. Unfortunately covid rapidly accelerated that switch. People were not going to be able to physically come back as they had to. As an employee in this sometimes unpredicatable world, but moving towards innovating digital solutions, we do have to adapt. A lot of new companies are getting into strictly facilitating online buying and selling, so there might be jobs popping up more often for locations across the US to handle logistics and reconditioning. I feel like work will no longer be as centralized. But that's not the only issue. Cox also does not seem to be a place for long term employment. They have excellent benefits and they probably dont want to retain individual contributors who just want to continue working at the same level of work until they retire. Many positions were eliminated of longstanding office employees who really paved the way and help guide the company through progress. It's a disappointed conclusion. There are lots of companies trying to come up now with Cargurus, Shift, Rumbleon, carvana... there will be work in the automotive space.

BTW, I dont think as a business you can furlough (not pay employees) and get monetary benefits? Back up your assumptions with link to facts please. Stop hating so much and try to understand. Many things were not handled well but some things were clearly written on the wall.

The way the furloughs have been handled is pretty sad. They treated those people very poorly. To just turn around and lay a bunch of people off anyway. But keep in mind many of the government programs for large companies encouraged them to keep head count in order to maximize their benefit from government $, what better way to keep head count than furlough, collect the money, then lay off. The timing of everything is not a coincidence. It’s almost as if a lot of this was in the works regardless of a pandemic or not. The all digital switch sure was flipped pretty quickly and easy. If I didn’t know better I would say they knew this was coming or had inclination something like this was brewing, or had plans to make large job cuts this year anyway.

Would have been better I think if they actually laid off people they knew they were going to have to lay off sooner than later so that the the extra CARES act money could have been realized.
The automotive buying and selling is going digital. These large physical auction facilities may not even be needed much anymore.

does anyone know if this is true? if so what departments? Im still on furlough and thought I would be back by now because they've brought a lot of people back already !?!

"OP are you the same person that keeps whining about SCUM? It's "affecting" not "effecting". Have some respect for the people that get to stay because they are talented people as well. Have some respect for the privacy of those affected by layoffs while people who don't know the difference between affect and effect are still around to complain."
I don't think OP mentioned anything about scum or the talent of anyone. Im sure many talented and non talented people are or have been eliminated  and many talented people and not talented people are staying. A lot of times there seems to be no rhyme or reason to their madness.

OP are you the same person that keeps whining about SCUM? It's "affecting" not "effecting". Have some respect for the people that get to stay because they are talented people as well. Have some respect for the privacy of those affected by layoffs while people who don't know the difference between affect and effect are still around to complain.

Which sectors? They already let go many on product and development teams. Will this affect more of the Manheim field employees that had been on furlough?

Yes, 1600 will be eliminated today, or already have been eliminated. Wow. Crazy considering in June it looks like they have had their best month ever maybe.