Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Terminated with no notice

So many posts about being terminated without notice. How should it have been done differently? What would be the benefit of letting an involuntarily terminated employee stick around for two weeks? No notice is rough but forcing to stick around and train their backfill is cruel. Those let go under 2019 SRD had the option of working until the end of the month but I don't know anyone who did.

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| 2121 views | | 18 replies (last September 20, 2022) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1iKYzL60

18 replies (most recent on top)

to the @OP, no, people cut in May of 2019 were not all given the choice to stay for the 10 days. Many were cut, walked out, and when Ford was offering the callins/zoom, about the benefits, the servers would only answer to traffic on Ford's internal network. If you were walked out on May 21, 2019, you couldn't get to the information you needed for your benefits. I was on a few calls with absolutely hysterical mainframe people, who were close to retirement, who had no MS Word information and were quite literally being blocked from getting the information they needed.

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Post ID: @4gxv+1iKYzL60

Ford sent me a JD Powers on my U625. Sent it after they let me go. This should be fun

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Post ID: @3gnn+1iKYzL60

"And to the poster commenting about the two week notice, you are not required to give any notice. We are an employment at-will state. " - For your info, we are talking about what we think is right and how things should be, not obviously how it is. We are well aware that the laws are stacked in favor of the rich and powerful including companies and sc--w the "little guy". Why do you think we are complaining?

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Post ID: @3hkr+1iKYzL60

Companies expect 2 weeks notice when employees resign and therefore they should give the same when letting someone go for financial reasons. Management expects employees to trust them but management never trusts employees and assume that if they don't rush you out the door on the spot, the employee will steal proprietary secrets or otherwise do bad things. If they treat us correctly and with respect, it will rarely if ever happen. Employees predisposed to do bad things, will do them long before a layoff.
Senior executives get "golden parachutes" when this happens to them so a two week notice with pay for all others should be the norm. I was let go at 8:30AM August 22nd and my email + computer access was cut within the hour despite having excellent performance reviews will all one-on-one manager discussions being very positive. Nevertheless, I was cut off from even downloading my payroll records or to ask questions and treated like a criminal/persona non-grata. Eeveryone laid off that I have read comments from, had a similar experience. You are "family" until Farley does not want you anymore, then you are public enemy #1 including never being able to work at Ford again as if I was caught in bed with Farley's wife!

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Post ID: @3zos+1iKYzL60

Many of my friends and family members bought Ford vehicles because I recommended them for over 25+ years.

I now go out of my way to tell them that I will never purchase another Ford vehicle ever and recommend they don't as well.

At one point I would bleed Ford blue. Those days are long gone. Ford has no loyalty or respect for their employees so now I discourage everyone I know from buying one.

This is now the common message that most of my coworkers are telling. No one speaks openly about these views. We are at least still entitled to our opinions.

Bill Ford made is bed. Now he can sleep in it.

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Post ID: @2qdj+1iKYzL60

It's always a good idea to forward a group email to your personal email account (like ones you receive about a department meeting, which shows everyone's email address). That way, you have the email addresses to send a goodbye email to your co-workers. Just keep it classy, despite any hard feelings you may have from being walked out.

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Post ID: @2zrc+1iKYzL60

As a Ford lifer, I would have worked a couple of more days to hand off my projects to others and say good bye. I would not have trained anyone though. Unlike the SRD folks, we were not given that option. I didn't even get to send out a goodbye email, because my Outlook access was taken away at 2:30pm. I had to send an IM to my department instead. Had just enough time to IM a business person that her project was dead, as the people working on it had been fired.

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Post ID: @2tsq+1iKYzL60

Nothing wrong with being let-go with ZERO NOTICE.
9 times out of 10... it aint personal.

The employer just needs to be sure to pay the ex-employee an extra 2-weeks.

All cool.

~But, of course.... they DON'T,
no do they?
LOL

And for THAT reason....
NEVER give a "2-week NOTICE" to an Employer who has 'screwed' previous employees.

~volfkhat

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Post ID: @1mvz+1iKYzL60

Ok, Ford and it's continuous creation of it's own problems coupled with repeated rounds of unceremonious layoffs and people being walked out etc ... has taken it's toll on their employees.
Other than the Alan Mullaly portion it has been a shitshow for morale.
SRD did absolutely nothing.
We had to listen to that clown Hackett blather on like he has a brain and has done something (he sat the bench at U of M) and ran a furniture business that he gutted.
Now we are doing it again.
Yes, there is a better way.
Don't play one part of the company against the other.
Don't talk to us like we are id--ts.
Don't lie to our face.
Ask for voluntaries from people first.
Make a Model e - a quality, reasonably priced electric vehicle for the masses in black only.

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Post ID: @1kdo+1iKYzL60

My manager seems really nice but I don't really know him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceCCDFzYkXE

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Post ID: @1sen+1iKYzL60

I think some people are talking about two different situations.

If the company decided to SIRP someone for whatever reason, then it seems to make sense to do so without notice to avoid any potential retribution.

But asking for early retirements or offering buyouts would have been a much better way to handle things. Especially for the employees with long tenures. Like the person below with 30+ years.

In my personal situation, a little over a decade with the company, I would not have volunteered for any separation offers if they had made them. So I would have eventually been SIRP'd.

But I genuinely think this SIRP was driven by spreadsheets and algorithms. I don't think much consideration was put into who was getting axed. I'll always believe it was a combination of how to save the most money the fastest - and how to not be accused of targeting older employees...

Heck, on one of the info sessions I joined that week of being SIRP'd, there was a young guy that asked a question (via chat) saying that he was like 11 days away from hitting his 3 year mark and being vested in his 401k match. They didn't answer publicly, but I believed right then that the company chose him at that time very intentionally...

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Post ID: @1sdy+1iKYzL60

Many of the people who were let go had 30+ years with the company. They are not the people you have to worry about doing something to harm the company. Letting them retire with dignity and say goodbye to people they spent 1/2 of our lives working with would have been the respectful thing to do.

He-l, a good portion of them would have retired at the end of the year anyways. Ford paid them more severance to leave early than they would have letting them retire on their own.

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Post ID: @1tuj+1iKYzL60

They fear the reprisal from the person being involuntarily separated. I head of an agency person that was accidentally notified of his separation by his agency contact the day before. When he returned his MacBook the next day, it was bricked so bad that nothing could be recovered. The IT support team said this was intentionally done.

I was with the company for many years and would have gladly transitioned my work so that my team could have a smooth transition. Instead, after decades of work, my last day was a 4 minute web conference with my ID shut down within 30 minutes.

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Post ID: @1xdu+1iKYzL60

They should have first offered voluntary with severance (not worry people with involuntaries and then a down rated pensions).

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Post ID: @1pgv+1iKYzL60

Are you Fxxxing kidding me.

  1. talk to employee and ask if they are considering retiring. Let employee know 9 months severance is available. F*** F Ford!
  1. let employee retire with respect. Say goodbye to co-workers, suppliers, dealers, etc.

*** F Ford!

  1. let employee transition their job. Some of us did care about our projects and would have liked to see them transition smoothly. *** F Ford!

With 30+ years working hard, caring about Ford success and can now say *** F Ford. I tell everyone not to buy a Ford, although Quality issues is taking care of recommending a Ford product. Ford will lose 100s $ in millions of sales and millions in profits because Ford did not respect us. This is not an exaggeration but a fact from us that had a direct impact on generating cash flow and revenue.

*** F Ford!!!

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Post ID: @1kge+1iKYzL60

So they trusted the SIRP employees for 5, 10, 15, 20+ years, but couldn't for two more weeks?

And when I leave Ford I will burn that bridge. I'll get into my GM vehicle, text my boss that I left my badge and laptop in locker # X-X with a combination 4321. I won't ever be back.

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Post ID: @1jom+1iKYzL60

At my first job out of college, there was a plant closure. And the company president arranged for a security guard to walk each employee out directly from the HR office to get their stuff and leave the property. I never saw so many old men and women crying as they were escorted out of the plant.

Their biggest complaint was that they felt disrespected by the security escort of the property. (for what it's worth, the guard was extremely kind hearted and did his best to be sympathetic and not a hard @$$).

The president later told the remaining office staff that the reason he did that was to avoid any violence, theft, or intentional damage. I guess I understood.

I have to assume that Ford did it this way for the same reason. I agree it would be cruel to ask someone to train their replacement. And seeing so many angry posts on this website,
I genuinely believe people would likely perform very little - if any - value adding work during those final days. And also likely, they would talk trash about leadership and maybe even sabotage projects / tasks...

I do think that paying us through the end of the month was the best outcome we could have hoped for given the circumstances.

And to the poster commenting about the two week notice, you are not required to give any notice. We are an employment at-will state. I know that the system feels stacked in favor of employers - if an employee just leaves without notice, then they are 'burning bridges' and would never be hired back. But for the most part, based on all these recent SIRPs posting here, people who are let go without notice view that as a burned bridge also and would never go back or provide any support to the company ever again regardless of the circumstance.

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Post ID: @hmb+1iKYzL60

Then why am I expected to give a two week notice when I quit? That doesn't seem fair.

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Post ID: @wtu+1iKYzL60

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