When I hired into Ford many years ago it was one of the happies, proudest days of my engineering career. A.M. knew what he was doing and motivated everyone to work a little harder and smarter to deliver great cars and trucks. Then came the pathetic parade of CEOs who have no idea how to build a successful company or motivate people. They only know how to terminate "High Cost Country" employees, close plants, short cut engineering/quality, blame workers for their failures and out source jobs to third world countries. Not surprising Ford's quality is getting worse each year. I have survived eight rounds of major terminations in the last ten+ years. Ford's leadership hates that we (NA salaried employees) exist. J.F. and D.F. tell us every townhall they plan to terminate every salaried employee (AKA untrainable waste) and send the jobs to Mexico/India/etc. J.F. and D.F have been actively trying to make life miserable for US employees and have changed how the AICP will be paid out to try and make more US employees quit. As the days tick by we wait for our turn to be terminated. There is no career or pride working at Ford, its a job that pays the rent. I think I have Ford PTSD but I will not quit. I am looking forward to my future happiest proudest day at Ford; the day Ford terminates me and pays me my severance to leave. That will be my happiest proudest Ford day :-)
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If you are under the age of 55 and have the hopes of a pension. Note there is a target on your back. Ford is only (legally bound to) offering packages to LL3 and above. All else is health overhead to harvest. This is the way of big company’s like ford. It’s their cultural. It’s been that way for many decades. Good luck. Hope you do survive. Note I gave my heart and soul to ford. They crushed it in 15 minutes and destroyed my hopes for retirement. Note the selected include those with 36 to 1 month before retirement eligibility.
CEO only care about their bonus and short stay!
If you an Engineer working for a company you have failed to start your own business!
You know the saddest part of your list ( I agree that Trottman and Mulally were the only two good to great CEO’ - I’ll give a
Good to Ok to Fields, as he wasn’t bad just arrogant , but he knew what he was doing in terms of product development and the process of how to do product launched) - Bill Ford’s name is on this list, and he wasn’t good, either. I’d put him on par with JF and Professor Moonbeam - not good and shouldn’t have ever got the nod.
@thp+1kQguXvA Please remember that AM was brought during probably the worst Ford crisis, shortly followed for the second worst economy meltdown. How could AM avoid outsourcing or cutting jobs? His accomplishment was to save the company, so not ALL jobs were lost.
To all the people who just want to bash AM lets look at the list of Ford CEO I have worked under after I joined FMC straight out of University.
Alexander Trotman 1993 1998
Jacques Nasser 1999 2001
Bill Ford 2001 2006
Alan Mulally 2006 2014
Mark Fields 2014 2017
James Hackett 2017 2020
Jim Farley 2020 Present
Trotman and Mulally are the only two that came close to inspiring any confidence in Fords future. I do not know anyone today who honestly can say they have faith in our leadership or the future of Ford. The last three can only cut heads / products / quality and have guarantied Ford's decline. God willing Ford and I will survive 5 more years so I can make 55 and take my lump sum. Good luck, "May the odds be ever in your favor".
Oh, you know what?
As someone familiar with history and Bolshevism, it sounds just right!
Maybe some movies would be good reminders. Doctor Zhivago, or The Chekist
Or Burnt by the Sun and there are few more Soviet Ford copies, very very fitting indeed
Certified by Comrade St-lin and Molotov
To be honest as I get older and more confused, I mistake Ford and USSR more and more often recently as I try to recall things
People did not know in advance they were losing their jobs under Mulally....a vague announcement, rumors, and then an impromptu request to meet in the conference room. Layoffs were just as sh---y under Mulally as the were under Hackett and Farley.
Alan Mullaly, unlike Farley, was not a coward. He was clear and transparent with the separations. People knew in advance when they were being laidoff so they can prepare. There was also a crystal clear strategy, no ambiguity, no ' how might we ', no backpeddling; everyone knew exactly what to do and got it done and Ford survived a horrific financial crisis. Farley and almost all the VPs are clearly incompetent. Their lack of decisions to create profitable products are causing anger and frustration expressed on this forum. Their lies and resentment of workers reverberate amongst the investor community and continue to keep the stock low. To even state that Ford is a data and subscription company is laughable. By contrast, GM has introduced successful EVs while Ford continues to simply ' talk ' about a transformation. GM generates profits with Brightdrop, while Ford Pro and especially Next loose billions. Those of us working on ICE vehicles are well aware our jobs will more than likely be gone. All we ask is for a coward to simply tell the truth so we can prepare and move on. It is also why the Townhalls have no credibility.
Ugh. Do us all a favor and leave already. It is people like you (and the rest of this board) full of constant complaining who bring down the culture of the company.
For anyone, at any job, if you are not happy, please go look for a new gig. You are not living up to your own potential.
Don't forget that under Mulally, (nearly) everyone was offered a buyout and then afterwards, he still cut a tons of people. A ton of work was also offshored. He fu---d over the agency and the hourly employees. Moving work to India is not something that started after he left. If you miss your US based HR and IT, don't give Mulally a free pass.
OP - if you were hired in during the Mulally era, you are not 'trapped' by the GRP. If you are so unhappy, why wait to get axed? Find yourself another job.
I am not going put AM on a pedestal but JFC was he better than this stooge circus from the last 9 years. Can you believe that this poor company has had to suffer for almost a decade with incompetent leadership? Amazing that it has survived this long, almost like the pandemic saved Ford because it slammed all the OEMs at once. Had it not occurred I predict Ford would be much worse off. We locked in a lower interest revolving line of credit at that time which is saving our butts right now.
Why u put Alan mullaly on pedestal? He destroyed this company just like others. He shrunk it and wanted to compete on higher price per unit, while Toyota, vw, gm, and Nissan/Renault was growing volume. Now Ford is the new Chrysler pre1998 waiting to fall on its azz.