I honestly don't see that the morale is any lower than it was in previous years. But okay, I'll believe those who say morale has never been lower.
So what is it that demoralizes you the most? I ask, because I’ve noticed that most here fantasize about some ideal workplace that probably doesn’t exist.
15 replies (most recent on top)
Ford HR moderates this website. Obviously.
Its a shame they dont have time to do real human resources work for the company.
Constant reorgs because management doesn't know what else to do. Management can only think in the immediate moment in time. Even if you're job doesn't get cut, reorgs will sc--w up a nice job into one that is a mess. We are always waiting for the "other shoe to drop".
@2who Great observation. We have also seen this redundancy when they stood up Model E. Over 2 years or so, they quietly built that organization up to 8k people, essentially shadowing what is now Ford Blue. During this time, Blue went through all those Conway reorganizations, people were walked out or spun to new areas. The remaining work was sent to SA, Mexico or overseas. While the observant could see all of this taking shape, it wasn't until the last month that they became a bit more transparent, in at least acknowledging Model E. We know they will continue to ramp down Ford Blue and send the work overseas.
Additionally, listen carefully to Farley. Early this year, he mentioned China will be lead. Remember when it used to be "China First?" Well, now it is "China Led." He has no intention of keeping jobs in the US.
@2fiv. Watch carefully 35k is realistic. Look carefully at the F of I staffing uptick, in preparation for redundancies. For example: many Ford Credit teams are on the redundancy lists, both financial and IT. Having done the needful, documenting their tasks and in some cases training their replacements they are no longer needed.
It will be painful to watch. Many depend on Ford employment to stay in US. Many thought they would retire from Ford. Many will be surprised that they are redundant.
For those thinking it is not possible to shift so rapidly to lower cost countries, just look around at other client companies of BGC, Bain and their ilk. And note how rapidly they shifted from 85% US workers to 15% US workers. IBM rapidly transitioned to 85% low cost workers. The key is to stealthily prepare so that workers don’t jump ship before the company is ready to cut them loose.
I don't see 35,000 NA - this would be about 1/2 the NA workforce, unless they were to say 35,000 over 5 years or something. Something like that might be in the cards, given smaller vehicle lineups and our pivot to a startup or Tesla model. Yep, can't figure out our own brand proposition and strategy so we have to copy somebody else's. In any event I don't believe they're going to announce it because they think this will help minimize the chances of people finding out about each other and suing. They'll just go in and do it. They'll schedule a face to face since we'll be back to the office or they'll get you on WebEx and that will be it. Gone will be your access and your PC equipment instantly.
I'm hearing 8-10%, which is more realistic for now. We'll have to listen carefully to town halls and these one off all hands to see if they spill. But the whole idea of the Tesla model is to dramatically reduce complexity, shorten supply chains, vertically integrate, reduce marketing budgets (ever see a Tesla commercial?), and maybe most of all reduce headcount. In thinking it through as I write, this may be the start of it people. Thankfully I'm much much closer to the end of my career than the beginning. All I have to do is survive about 8 more months and I'll welcome something like this.
Lack of realistic Leadership and a clear vision. Also, the trust factor is gone. Nobody believes a thing that comes out from the top level. The body language is not there.
The excuses given are not true. Also, when you watch the senior management on stage it looks phony. Looks like a first rehearsal for a play vs news.
I'm not going to bother with all the reasons. Ford HR and or layoff mods with just delete the comment. Sad that this forum went full dictator.
None of the many comments deleted this week broke the rules.
Ahhh - same stuff that has been talked about since the eighties. Different names but same stuff.
This exists at any large company. Either leave, stay and work, or stay and work the system. This is the easiest 6 figure job available.
I stayed, worked, and worked the system. I never complained about working at Ford - decent living and low stress most of the time.
Took the PRP gift, pension lump and never looked back!
- The fake-ness of it all. Ford “Leaders” preening and puffing for the press and Wall Street instead of taking care of business. The self proclaimed genius and car guy who seemingly is the only person in Michigan whose grandfather worked in the auto industry. The self proclaimed “Wrench” who suits up in pristine coveralls for pictures to promote himself. Where are the humble true engineers and truly effective and competent leaders like Mulally? Not at Fords that’s for sure.
- The duplicitous-ness of it all. False messaging around skill levels and staffing levels to justify resource actions for temporary cost reductions to temporarily raise the stock price.
“We don’t have talent”, “We have too many people”, “We have too many old dogs that can’t learn new tricks”, “We need to revamp all our offices to open floor plans to attract young workers”
Then HR presentations leak showing the whole game is to push highest paid workers with a pension out the door. Once you see it you can’t un-see how they want to only keep an employee 5-7 years and then replace with a cheaper alternative. And how they don’t want 75% of European and North American workers.
- “Leaders” adopting dictator like behaviors and using data analytics to silence and punish anyone voicing a dissenting opinion. Things like collecting, saving and analyzing your “anonymous” survey responses, your posts, your chats, your IM and email patterns (who you communicate with and how often and on what topics). Oh sure it is for good, not evil. Oh sure it is company equipment. The Ick factor of it all, and then the touting of the resulting high pulse survey results (everything is grand, 99% positive scores) that everyone knows is a joke is nauseating.
It all is wearing, why bother doing the real work, when the rewards are all in fantasy land?
Disorganization, and corporate wasting money up to the billions. Then turning around and say they have to make cuts.
Staffing critical positions with people who only know how to push buttons or follow a process. If it requires real understanding or original thinking to solve the problem they are totally helpless and 100% reliant on someone else. I do my job outside of work as a hobby and it's 99% white guys and East Asians there, but somehow at Ford they hire entirely different demographics. I no longer become excited when they tell us we're getting more developers because the people they give us are invariably useless and a burden.
What demoralize me the most? The fact that Farley said publicly "we don't have that talent", or that he said (again publicly) "we have too many people", instead of telling us FIRST. We know layoffs are coming, and that Ford is moving positions to Mexico and India, but nobody knows exactly when, where and how many. Some rumours say even 35 000 in NA are going to be let go. So why should I do my best, if either way I am going to lose my job and management is STILL not listening to the technical recommendations?
What pi-s me off the most? That a blue eye, white guy raised with a silver spoon in the @ss (Bill Ford), wants to be the "champion" of diversity. I don't recall we asking for your help!!! Then, all the wrong people is promoted because of their skin color or gender (classical definition of racism/sexism), not based on their performance/knowledge. To add salt to the injury, the BoD still is the white guys/gals only club. WTF! All that is coming from the so called "leadership" is lies and deceptions.
You say that in the context of A+ Pulse scores for everybody because Farley said so.
If you were here long enough to understand and observe, you would have noticed Pulse scores suddenly jump from a 60's/maybe low 70's average to well into the 90's overnight or darn close to it.
How is that you might ask? Well, I have the answer. They started monitoring responses or implicitly threatening this through the fact that responses are no longer anonymous. They can track you and HR can easily access these. Second, they push action planning to those who responded unfavorably, creating a complete lose-lose situation for employees. Finally, who is going to respond unfavorably in light of the above when the sword hangs over all of us year over year?
Even if there are areas in which "Do Nothing HR" needs or needed to have gotten involved, they merely rubber stamp management- after all there has to be an explainable reason they too didn't get an A+.
Understand you're only one shuffle, reorg, you name it from things going from lollipops and sunshine to what you read over and over again on these boards. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Flat out incompetence. SRDing knowledgeable employees because they were about to get a pension kick. Moving knowledgeable employees into jobs that have nothing to do with their background. Hiring new employees who don't even have an engineering degree and paying them absurdly high wages. Promoting undeserving employees to check diversity boxes. Lying and deceitful management who directly insult employess by calling them waste or saying they have no talent. As the previous poster says, it has never been this bad and honestly, I'm not sure we've hit rock bottom yet.
You obviously have not worked here very long. I have been here for over 25 years and I have never see morale as low as it is today. The Nasser days don't even come close.