LARO (LA Regional Office) has been closed. Employees were given the option to relocate to Dearborn while keeping their California salaries. How much more are they earning compared to MI-based?
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True, LARO is available for lease: https://www.3glenbellway.com/
True, Ford once leased the entire property, including what is now Taco Bell HQ.
@bv They are closing the Palo Alto office and making everyone move to Long Beach, including DF. JF made the announcement this morning during an all-hands meeting. Peter Stern is coming back as EVP of Deep Dives. They are installing a fire place in Long Beach to do more Fireside talks with fuzzy slippers and badge swiping mandatory.
@az New office in Long Beach was announced publicly over a year ago. Yes, and also an office in Palo Alto and Dearborn. Long Beach is the hub, with two new large buildings near the airport.
LARO was downsized after Ford dumped Land Rover, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Mazda. Irvine will soon be history. All the people there since I joined are Skunkworks and a group working on Lincoln, but no engineering, all studio and fab prototype.
https://fordcareers.co/GSRSP4
I’m a bit confused on all the office changes in CA. I know GFL is the main hub there, so why are we getting another office nearby (Los Gatos)? And why LARO is closing?
Why did they close LARO? Where is the field team going?
The engineering team that moved to Long Beach is all CE1 and none were offered Dearborn, including other non-engineering teams, but we all knew that when we joined. As far as I know, the only people offered to Dearborn were the Lincoln studio team which is not engineering, and maybe some Fab proto people.
$160k in Long Beach is around $120k in Dearborn or less. GSRs freshers making $160k with equity grants in SoCal should not complain, this isn't the San Francisco Bay Area and salaries are lower and opportunities are little to none, especially considering equity grants that have cash value. A big wave of people leaving in 2026 will happen because equity refreshers are mediocre.
Skunkworks has a big office in Palo Alto with free snacks and games. Long Beach has free coffee and tea, no parking, and not enough bathrooms, and is still a construction zone loud noises during office hours and no plastic utensils. They took away the free lunch from relish, no more Biryani Pot.
They're not overpaid — $180K in California is roughly equivalent to $120K in Michigan when you account for cost of living. But many engineers there are paid under $160K, which makes it nearly impossible to afford a home, especially with prices over $1.2 million. Most are owner-occupied or rented out by investors like DF and others. The rich like the sun for themselves.
then they'll be overpaid and target for letting go.