Thread regarding Ford layoffs

The PBGC covers “normal” levels of pension. For example a 65 year old would be covered to 6000 per month. Anything over 6000 would be lost by the pensioner if PBGC took over a company pension.

Yes if you are one of the people who had a “rich” pension and were counting on that pension to live really well in retirement that is going to be unpleasant.
But if you do the math, the person with the “rich” pension is also going to be getting 3000 a month from Social Security. So 6000+3000 is 108,000 a year. The median US household income is 56k. The limits set by PBCG seem fair when looking at the big picture.

Sure the bait and switch by Delphi and Ford is ethically questionable. The companies should be punished though, not the US taxpayers.

with the Delphi white collar pension scam still going on, it was only a matter of time before it started migrating to other companies: https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/white-house-review-delphi-pension-terminations ... the new way seems to be : scam the employees Before official retirement instead of After. rough days for loyal employees.

I do hope they win! I was one of those approaching a retirement milestone and SRDd. My pension amount was less than if I had hit the milestone but not nearly as bad as some of those who are suing. I did not sue because of what was mentioned below, legal fees and years of reliving the anger. I just want to move on. I might have made a different decision if I had lost as much as the folks who are suing.

• and we all know that the 8 employees will receive nothing, except for:

Putting their life on hold reliving the misery
Empty their savings to pay for lawyer bills
Hinder future employment opportunities

This is nothing new for a large company. They have teams of lawyers on staff - even if you win, the lawyers on both sides are the folks getting paid, leaving you with $0.67 (Three Stooges reference!).

It is a family company but not the kind of family you see on the Hallmark channel. I have some people in my family who are shady and dishonest. If you spend time with them you’ll be ripped off and taken advantage of. In my personal life I can choose to avoid “family” like that, it’s harder to avoid at work. Ford is still technically a family owned company but that doesn’t mean they incorporate warm and fuzzy, healthy family values where individuals are treated like valued family members.

@2jew+1ccIWcmi If you look at it from a purely monetary perspective, then true that.

The interesting part about the SRD was many of the people chosen were what I would call the unofficial leaders of their areas. The ones who strategically set goals for coworkers and ensured they were all learning and growing while at the same time ensuring the company business was handled. They were the answer desk and problem solvers. After the SRD the groups crumbled as the official leaders had no desire to mentor others. The employees who could leave did. The employees who couldn’t leave had no mentor and no assignments, things ground to a halt. Employees purposefully threw monkey wrenches into projects. Humans are going to human when they perceive injustice.

The people SRDed had a temporary loss of identity and were thrown for a loop. They felt badly for those left behind. So emotionally it was not so pleasant for them.

People who were let go in SRD got so much up front money! If I had been able to receive 6 months salary to go get a job with better pay I would’ve done it in a heartbeat

I don’t know if it was discriminatory. I do know that the people who mattered are gone now. The people who made our company thrive are missing, and those left over are hanging by a thread. We’re doing more work, still haven’t seen a “good year” for company metrics, and we get to work with buffoons that can barely log on to their computers. I’m sick of the massive layer of incompetence between me and other employees.

Ford has been doing this for years. I will be shocked if they win, even if their cases are valid. If you make it to 30 years in that company, it is now a rarity.

Discrimination isn’t limited to SRD, it is still going on.

All my performance reviews were excellent. Excelled at every position I have ever had. I have had multiple promotions over the years. Every interview I ever had I got hired for the position. That is until I turned 55. After turning 55 I applied for THIRTEEN positions, all of which I was well qualified for based on experience. I am now 0 for my last 13. Didn’t even get interviewed for a number of them. In about 10 out of the 13 cases the positions were filled by employees with 5-7 years experience, primarily from the college grad program, and all with limited to no experience for the position.

I hope these individuals win their lawsuit and I’d be surprised if they don’t. I was one of those SRDd and I was initially shocked because I always received very good reviews. I worked long and hard and never made any enemies. .... was approaching a pension milestone.

It's the same thing Jacques pulled to cut costs in an immoral way. Force stack ranking of all employees after making it clear that X percentage of budget must be cut. For some strange reason a lot of employees who were over 50 and had great PRs for years and years straight were suddenly the low performers on the team. Just in time for the Enron-like move of cutting the bottom 10% of performers.

I hope these individuals win their lawsuit and I’d be surprised if they don’t. I was one of those SRDd and I was initially shocked because I always received very good reviews. I worked long and hard and never made any enemies. I was also a bit dismayed because I was approaching a pension milestone. After hearing the names of others I was initially puzzled because there were extremely well respected people on that list. Only took a few seconds to figure out what that culling was about.

After the dust settled I was at peace with myself although still disappointed that Ford would cull high performers to save a few bucks. That bad decision is on them. You don’t have to be a genius to know that one experienced high performer can out perform two or three inexperienced recent college graduates. I’m happy to say this did me no emotional or financial damage and I’m still enjoying life. If great reviews and giving my all wasn’t enough it was outside my control and no reflection on my skills or abilities. With all that’s going on around us I feel blessed to be financially stable and thankful for my family’s health.

I hope these people walk away with pockets full of cash. They deserve it.

Common thread my best friend (consistent top achiever) was asked to develop a detailed technical five year plan early 2019 for a manager, deadline was April 2019. Loads of time and effort were put into the plan. This manager was overjoyed at the results, presented them to LL4 and LL3, got kudos, and requested the same to be developed by other LL6 for other areas she was responsible for ( these were never developed because the remainder of her LL6 were political appointees (aka incompetent)).
Yup you guessed it my best friend was SRD in May 2019.
It has now been over two years since the SRD and not one item on the five year plan has been completed. Why? Because all the competent people who got things done were SRDed. Why would anyone remaining put forth effort and then get canned?

My friend had the last laugh as the Ford Five year plan was implemented in less than six months at their new employer. Just goes to show what a joke Ford management is.

Hope the SRD who filed the lawsuit are well compensated for Ford’s discriminatory actions.

The company core is rotten. They keep layering on Carmel coating to hide the fact that the apple is rotting.

I hope their SRD efforts saved the company money - they're going to need every penny. I was SRD'd, and resented being tasked with typing those HR excel charts. Yes, a lot of job, HR, and LDEP related info was listed on those spreadsheets (probably mostly for show in case it ever became evidence in some lawsuit). However, in the end, if an employee's age and projected retirement year fell within their SRD parameters, you had a bullseye on your back and nothing would change that status. Yes, I too am still angry about it all, especially knowing my replacement was at my desk the following Monday after we left. Yes, I signed the paper saying I wouldn't sue or I'd forfeit my pension -- I figured if you don't want me there, fine, I will leave, and take my auto purchase needs, plus those of my family and friends needs elsewhere. So, the SRD may have reduced costs, but the fall out from SRD was decimination of the company's customer base.

As one of the spouses of an SRD’d employee, it has been a long 27 months. Watching my best friend who was considered a top performer (in Jan2019) on an all-time career high and personally COMMENDED for a job well done by HTT at a Hackett level review ( told he was “THE guy for the job”), to then, literally, a month later knocked down to his knees…was nothing short of gut wrenching, confusing and demoralizing. The social, emotional and psychological impact of what happens to these people is unbelievable. Not sure any amount of money will fix it.

How does it feel that leadership is so spineless? They:

1. Hired BEG do to do their dirty work
2. Relied on some algorithm likely built in excel to cull the herd (because God forbid we value people on a 1 to 1 basis)
3. SRD accomplished nothing but cost savings at the sacrifice of enterprise health
4. SRD wasn't good enough so usher in Conway to create more confusion on who is accountable for what.

Really, the case studies of went wrong are endless. Even to the layman they can easily point out so many mistakes or missed opportunities. You can't make this sh-t up, go from a powerhouse of productivity in the 90s, to on the verge of closing the doors. It's not just stupid, it's criminal. All the years of building up the company to just be decimated by self serving ineffective leaders.

As one of the SRD'd, I can say without a doubt it was a targeted cull and ageism at its finest. I'm still bitter about it 2 years later, and will toss back a cold one when the dust settles and Ford takes it up the shute.

Those in leadership positions at Ford who blindly instituted and followed this flawed plan - your day of reckoning is coming. In more ways than one.

Thanks for posting!

Of course we all knew it was discriminatory. What we didn’t know was if the “leadership” would be d-mb enough to put it in writing. Given the “leadership” arrogance and belief that they are the untouchable anointed deity, it would be surprising if it wasn’t in writing.

The company does not deserve any loyalty. If you must work here do three years for experience and a paycheck and then leave.

Thanks for the excerpt from the article, I wasn't about pay special to read it.

This seems like nothing was really learned from when Jacques pulled this same stunt a couple decades back. I hope that just like then that this gets a quick summary judgement that age discrimination was occurring. Hopefully justice is seen quickly rather than this being dragged through the courts for years until the only winners are the lawyers involved.

And let's not forget all the people targeted for demotion as part of the SRD that had NOTHING to do with performance and everything to do with making space to promote younger less experienced people. These people were forced to take a demotion and sign a paper indicating they will not sue Ford as a condition to remain employed. How is forcing people under duress like that even legal? Slimy HR and senior mgt. practice is what it is. "Most Trusted" my you know what.

Well this will tank the morale at Ford. I can say I will not give my best effort to TVM. Why save money for a place that treats you like this? Now even the young folks will start to rethink their future here. If the BOD signed off on this, What kind of trust do you think the troops will have for management like this?
I bet Jim Hackett is being coached right now.. How would you like to listen in on that one? If Bill Ford / Jim Farley / and Christen were to tell me as I was in the glass house sitting against the window that is was daylight,, I would have to hop into an elevator leave the building to go outside to verify that it is daytime. Sorry but that trust is now gone..

The promotions from Conway as well

Great news! Many thanks to those involved for being brave and bold enough to call Ford out on its discriminatory processes!