Thread regarding Ford layoffs

I took the pension. So far, the checks keep coming in. They let a lot of good people go in this last round of buyouts. Skill sets that are not easy to come by.

@iup+1e0LfvCA Just remember, after you stick it out for your pension, hopefully it is still there when you retire. After that, you'll have to buy your health insurance with the ACA at healtcare.gov. Plan on getting another job anyway.

Yup, if I am lucky I can stay another 2 to 3 years, then the pension will be up to about half a million - then will be out and like others, take it in cash. 1000 percent correct only reason I am still there - the passion of working for one of the big three died a long time ago.

The pension and benefits were "the golden handcuffs."

I took the lump sum in 2020'. Turned a 20 year pension into a 30 year pension by the end of the year in the market.

No inflation eating away at a lil oh 20 year pension payment for the next 30 years.

Feds put a floor under the market and I made out like a bandit.

@lxm+1e0LfvCA, it seems that the legacy of Jacques the Kn--e is still harming us two decades later. Too much focus on immediate/obvious cost reductions and nearly none on structural long-term approaches that can make a business Best in Class.

Pensions can be a great way to encourage the best employees to stick around, as long as poor performers are "highly encouraged" to find some other company to warm a chair for. Newer employees who are on 401k's have little incentive to stick around long-term after the company match vests, and even that has zero encouragement to stay when an employee chooses to not pay into it and foregoes the company match.

As the rate of churn goes up the institutional memory goes way down and lessons learned need to be learned over and over again. This reduces the value of salaries paid out and creates long term disadvantages, look at how the warranty spend is continually rising.

Likewise here. Offered jobs elsewhere but the pension always won out in the financial calculation. When you have a family to support, you have to be practical. Fast forward to now where you have a company quoting family values but working feverishly behind the scenes to undercut and eliminate their long term and for the most part dedicated people.

That is a true statement. I was recruited by Ford out of college. the pension and the benefits are what kept me there until now. Like a lot of people, I made some good and bad choice sin my time at Ford. probably cost me a few promotions. But I do remember being offered jobs in the 2000s making substantially more money outside automotive but the pension was always the deciding factor. If I was coming out of college right now, I would not ever consider automotive. I would go the way of software. Now since the benefits are pretty much gone, I wander who will be left? I will say back in the early 90s it was fun to work at Ford. The products were very good and it seemed like from a truck standpoint we could not miss. Then Ford 2000 comes along and we seemed to have lost our focus. Ford no longer leads. We follow. Back then we understood our customers. Now we copy what our competition does. Look at our product launches since 1998. The Focus and Escape had more recalls than Larry Birds average points per game. Fast forward to now we cannot launch a vehicle without a major problem. I hope those people near the 55 years of age and 30-year mark can make it. I never wish people to lose a job. Because those type benefits are major game changers to a lot of people.

The problem is, the defined benefits pension plan combined with almost never getting rid of non productive employees also created a huge incentive for some people to skate along for years doing very little work, sometimes even impeding progress. If they want fresh ideas, they have to stop rewarding this behavior. There are (were) huge rewards for skating along and not rocking the boat until you hit your 30 years. People will often optimize what is best for themselves. Basic economics.

Pension AND Benefits for me.