Every time I hear Ford is laying off people in other countries I get worried we're next. Could be that I'm worrying over nothing but sadly I can't help it. It happened too many times that we've heard of layoffs outside of the U.S. just to be hit with an announcement of our own within weeks.
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If you have to worry about this that much, yes Ford can do without you. Apparently you do not value the work you do or do not add value. Either way do your work or find somewhere else.
Conway Project
How much does a con weigh? Well, a U.S. head count reduction of 5% would be about 1,500. The average American weights 178 lb. This results in a weight of 1,500 x 178 lb = 267,000 lb is the weight of the con job Ford is pulling by keeping the upcoming headcount reduction a secret until it happens.
@ndk & @qgd, it used to be my fear that our location-independent work would be off-shored as a cost savings and US workers laid-off as a result. Having been around for a couple of attempts at sending work out to cheaper locations proving to be a huge waste of effort I'm not worried about work that requires actual competency, creativity and communication skills all going overseas. What is a lot more likely is that we'll see salaries for 'knowledge workers' stagnate or even deflate as US workers move to lower cost of living locales and we're competing against other Americans based on their willingness to relocate to Podunk, USA.
@cnk - I could totally believe an engineer in a GSR8 role only gets 10 productive hours done a week with all the meetings and email/paper shuffling that goes on. But sure sounds like he's saying he's proud to be a thief rather than frustrated by overhead inhibiting efficiency.
If someone is working on a personal project instead of putting in time on tasks for their actual role that's fraud which should be a firing offence. At least I can dream that someone would catch on and do something about it since I'm one of those "s—ers" putting in an honest 40+ week after week. At least by actually working I'm keeping my skills in working order and can hit the ground running somewhere else if it came to that.
Ford's hybrid work model will, intended or unintended, push the higher paying US PD jobs to low-cost markets.
I remember in the early 90's when they announced pilot plans to keep design and modeling in work 24 hours a day. The US designer would check in the drawing, India would work on it next and then China. The idea was widely criticized among the designers in my group. As a result, a good bit of design and modeling work is now done in low countries. It took a while to work out the issues but now Ford can look back to lessoned learned and slowly implement a program similar to this worldwide without anyone really seeing the overall goal.
Anyone that old out there that remembers this?
Layoffs can't happen soon enough right here in Dearborn!!! I hope they get rid of 1/2 (minimum) of all GSR's / LL's / and executives in every department. My neighbor is a GSR-8 (in engineering) and has spent the last year working from home on his race car! He tells me all the time, he hasn't spent more than 10 hours a week doing actual work for Ford. And the bulk of that, in his own words, has been reading/responding to emails. And I know, many of you are going to respond how hard you work and how many hours you put in each week. And I do know many of you do because I still put in my 40 hours per week, too. But you/we do not represent the vast majority of Ford employees (whether you choose to believe that or not). Don't believe me or choose not to. Then all you have to do is have an open mind and read the posts on this board and listen to the stories of dead wood in each department, agency/contractors who have to do the work of the their Ford employee counterparts, endless useless meetings, backstabbing fellow co-workers, managers that don't know anything about their own work groups, quality engineers who can't get our own company to cooperate, etc., etc. And if you don't believe any of the stories on this site, than all you have to do is try and remember back over a year ago before the pandemic and reflect on all the non-productive story/rumor telling, endless coffee breaks, long lunches, team-building outings, Home Depot project shopping, golf outings with suppliers (but golf was business related - wink, wink), etc. that occurred even while people were in the office. I don't think everyone just started being good employees now that they are working at home because of the pandemic. And this is true in every area of the company. I remember a year or so before the pandemic one of my co-workers was trying to get something done with HR (not a personnel issue, but something benefit related). It wasn't difficult to do and there was a time deadline before it became an IRS issue for the employee. A few weeks passed (and they kept telling him - don't worry it will get done). Well, the day before the deadline, the HR employee assigned to correct the payroll problem worked from home. Well, the issue was not taken care of before the deadline even though he had reminded her of the deadline. And when my co-worker inquired why, he was actually told by this person that she had spent her day at home making cookies for her kids! She actually told him it was part of her work-life balance! And for all of you arrogant know-it alls, who will respond how you would have taken it up with your manager or HR management – yeah right! Your ego is bigger than your brain. Our own manager did nothing also, because he didn't want to rock the boat in his own words. HR did eventually fix his issue, but not before he ended up paying a penalty (luckily not huge) with the IRS. But even though the monetary penalty was not huge, the time he spent correcting the issue and the amount of correspondence/forms he had to have/submit with the IRS was a major inconvenience for him. So yes, I say lay off 1/2 of all employees. Hopefully, (but I am not holding my breath) they actually keep the productive ones this time. And if they don't keep the productive ones, how many more years does anyone want to keep working for a leaderless, dying company listening to endless management and executive buzz words, going thru constant reorgs, all the while still having to put up with co-workers not performing while hoping/dreaming that VW buys Ford (which seems a little comical to me at least, but who knows)? And for all of you wondering, based upon the last round of terminations, I give myself at least a 50% chance of getting let go also. I'm not excited about that possibility, but I'm not going to start believing in fantasies that Ford management will do layoffs right this time either! I got rid of most of my debts, updated my resume, improved my professional network, and most importantly have prepared myself psychologically for any possibilities. And that is my recommendation for all current Ford employees. Don't tell yourself it is too late. Yeah, maybe you can't get rid of all your debt before any layoffs occur, but at least start getting your network contacts together and/or update your resume. And if you are a good employee, also don't give in to the mindset that you will do the minimum or just do the same output as some of your less-performing co-workers. It is too easy to take that mindset with you to a new employer. Even if we are let go, go out with your head held high is what I plan to TRY and do. And no I am not a brand-new 20 year old Gen Z employee with no house, kids, etc. who thinks I can solve all the companies woes with my heartless ways. Nor am I a 60 year old plus employee with a company pension and all kids out of college just telling everyone they know that they want a huge package from the company and then they will leave. I am right in the middle, in years of service, kids, mortgage, etc.
Good news/bad news. Actually Ford will start hiring in other countries, and laying off employees here. Since American employees can work form home, Mexican employees can work form home. The same goes for employees working from home in India and China.