Thread regarding General Motors layoffs

We are a couple weeks away from seeing the 5% cuts roll out.
Informed prediction: Many low performers will be spared while very competent W.M. workers are let go due to DEI. You can disagree. You can get upset. It doesn't matter.
The decisions have been made.
You will absolutely see it.
Enjoy, because you can't do a thing about it.
This will cause a lot of water cooler complaining and grief. Managers are well aware of it and will craft passive-aggressive surveys to address it.

@2zw+1w1jwHd8

Your team should come in at 7 am one day and take all the huddle rooms.

Let the EGM sit out in open seating.

If you aren't failing upwards, you aren't doing it right.

• Team GM means going on vacation a week before your big project is due, so your work is reassigned to someone who will take the blame.
• Team GM means walking around with a GM logo on your coffee cup, wearing official GM branded clothing and having the latest GMC truck.
• Team GM means going on linkedin, and making a show of how much you love GM products.
• Team GM means attending meetings of projects you are barely contributing to, so that you can challenge the meeting organizer with new problems that aren't even part of the discussion.
• Team GM means asking lots of questions at the end of each meeting, especially staff meetings to extend the meeting and prove your loyalty, interest and importance to everyone in earshot.
• Team GM means being a true believer that the company would collapse if you left, and that despite the fact that you do almost nothing, you are working your tail off.
• Team GM means that your entire identity is tied into working at GM and your role at GM. You will tell anyone that didn't ask that you work at GM.

Interesting you bring up open seating and attendance because my team’s EGM finds a huddle room n sits there like it’s his office, we never see him, but our team all sits in one spot. We rarely know where he is unless there’s a meeting.

Now the AI Agents are taking over Facebook:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mark-zuckerberg-announces-new-age-ai-tools-meta-vdoitech

Each business represented by an AI Agent. No need for a social media market staff.
Also, real people will be talking to AI, not real people.
Dehumanization is going super-nova.
When there's no need for you, they won't pay you. They won't feed you. They will eliminate you. And now that AI can replace humans, there's no need for H1-B staff. That conversation is pretty much redundant.

AI can host a staff meeting and talk about safety.

When replacing people, start with the managers.

Their skills and responsibilities are actually much more easily replaceable.

Another thought on AI. One discussion rarely made is the idea that managers could be replaced by AI. Right now, many layers of managers are necessary because of inefficiencies in organizations. With AI, one manager could do the job of many. Think about how this could be done in your area at GM. Could a director easily replace the senior manager, group managers and even leaders by deploying AI?

Start at the bottom with the leaders. What does a leader do? They are subject matter experts. Can AI act as a subject manager? YES. You could give the AI leader a name: B1. B1, I have a suspension that is articulating. It is within 6MM of a brake line. The brake line is also concealed under a rail. Will manufacturing have a difficult time installing the brake line? Is the brake line safe from the moving part? Will there be service issues? "B1" can answer this if you feed it all of the data, requirements and best practices. It can do it in a few seconds. What else does a leader do? Take attendance? That can be automated by card scanners. Be a sounding board for ideas? Provide feedback? Check work? AI can do that too.

Now think about what the group manager does beyond the leader's tasks. They are similar in nature but perhaps at a higher level. Then think about what the senior manager does. Are they really needed? "B1, how many vacation days do I have left?" "B1, can you run a report on tasks done by workers and tell me who the top 3 performers are?"
"B1, can you identify the bottom 10% of workers that generated the fewest mouse clicks, had the lowest in-office attendance and created the smallest amount of files?"
"B1" can absolutely do this. Can it host a staff meeting and talk about saftety, buy drinks, slap backs and drive an all-electric 2025 Hummer? No, it can't. But is that really necessary for the organization?

"Digital workers" are even cheaper than H1-B workers.
Don't forget, AI will enhance your productivity and make your job easier. It won't replace you. LOL
It's already being used to design parts for spaceships that are stronger and lighter than anything a human could create. It's being used to generate enterprise-level computer coding. It can easily replace call-center workers, computer help desks, perform data organization tasks, generate marketing ideas, performing accounting tasks, write stories, generate movies and video games, teach students, generate art & poetry and identify jobs where it can replace humans.

"Oh but it's not good enough! I'm so important that I can never be replaced." - Sure Jan.

Meet the AI agents, aka "digital workers":
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/from-microsoft-to-nvidia-the-ai-agents-are-coming-in-2025-141314094.html

The AI Agents are now able to reason, answer questions faster and more accurately than people. Every subject matter expert, manager, HR staffer, customer service rep, IT help desk worker is 98% obsolete and at a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost. Feeding digital templates into HR and assigning Agents WILL make a accountants and engineers obsolete as well. Can they program in python? Yes.

Look forward to hearing your GM manager wax poetically about AI. They are VERY VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS. Just like the Martians from 'Mars Attacks' saying, "We are your friends"... AI is being billed as your buddy, your friend. You don't need a friend like this.

"But you'll be changing the world here at GM!"

There's a global buildup of automobile inventory and that includes EVs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0krhElD0_s

Beyond this, auto loans are getting harder to obtain because auto loan delinquencies are skyrocketing. There are going to be mass layoffs around the world in the auto industry. Watch the video.

@1qgi+1w1jwHd8

"You're really good at what you do, so we're going to offer you a 40 percent pay cut and a thousand dollars towards your mandatory move from San Jose to Detroit. When can you start? "

@5lqh+1w1jwHd8
If you disagree with anything said by the op, name it and explain why. Otherwise, you are adding no value with the insults.

Writing long essays calms them down

@edn+1w1jwHd8

No kidding. Imo 2/3 of the people that start threads on here need their Xanax dose bumped up.

Superstar employees will want superstar salaries, and GM is too cheap to be able to hire them.

Especially if they demand they move from California and other states, to Michigan.

@edn+1w1jwHd8
"We'll revisit this in a few months"
I hope you do! I fully expected most of this to happen within the first 3 months.
I should have mentioned more about the calibrations. This will not be done in your one-on-one with your boss. People will be notified outside of this process; likely before the managers do their sit-downs. The last thing GM wants/needs is conflict. Gone are the days when they fire people in person. So I expect the calibration firings to happen on a Friday via 4:30am text messages.
The end of hybrid will come later, along with the emphasis on serious commitment and measured work performance. During this period, managers will identify the complainers, the people coming in late, the non-team players, etc. for the next round.

Bonus: After GM is satisfied with their "calibrations", they may even start trying to recruit "superstars"; people with outstanding experience and education.
2025 will be about what people can bring to GM; how they can benefit GM during it's transformation. There will be no more "what can GM do for the employee."

We'll revisit this in a few months and see if anything predicted happened