Everyone keeps telling me it hasn’t always been like this and it will change if you wait it out, but this place is wearing me down. I’m getting a lot of cool sht done that you can see in the numbers. I’m a product guy so even product people at other companies are reaching out, but internally I get, “cool but that’s why we hired you so what’s next?” I’m burning out from trying to prove myself, but the work speaks for itself if anyone knew wtf they were looking at. I want to keep doing good stuff but this just isn’t sustainable. To those of you who have been around the block…how exactly does it change? What am I waiting for and looking forward to? Is there a layoff then new culture initiatives then rainbows? Does the CEO get replaced and a new regime is brought in? Give me hope for something besides toxic culture, what have you done for me lately, and 8 hours a week in traffic. And don’t tell me to just leave when 90% of you have been here for your entire career.
13 replies (most recent on top)
@dv we all know what really matters is whether she can beat Farley in a GTD lol
@b4 GM also has an intelligent CEO who is an engineer.
@c6 read the room
Skunkworks unveil August 11th
The big two, Ford and GM, both suffer from the same dinosaur company problems. But GM pays better. For a GSR, the average is about $10k higher plus much better bonuses. So if you want to stay near Detroit and put up with this cr-p, you might as well go there and make more money doing it.
Imma tell it straight - where is exponentially better than Ford? Like miles better in terms of benefits? The slog su-ks and yes I’m dead inside from their corporate antics, but it’s like this across all companies I’ve spoken to in manufacturing sectors, and all have worse benefits.
Believe me, I want to have purpose in my role as an engineer, but corporate culture is waging a war on degreed, American engineers, shutting them out of promotions and undercutting with H1B hires, which su-ks because if the systems were not abused, we wouldn’t have these rubs between the hires.
Tell me where there’s an actual, motivating environment that doesn’t cut you at the knees at this point in terms of benefits and money. Especially where things are trending long-term.
Cooler heads prevail.
@OP from your post I think you already know the answer
I came into Ford in 2000 as an experienced hire. I had worked at start-ups and small innovative companies for 15 years. We relocated to MI to be near elderly parents.
Once I settled into the agonizingly slow pace of Ford, the first few years were ok. I made a lot of improvements that my LL6 and LL5 got public kudos for and I got promoted to tech spec LL6. Then the FnF crowd got jealous, we had a reorg and the spouse of a jealous manipulative FnF became our LL5 and it got decidedly unpleasant (yes HR allowed a wife to report up to a husband). Work hours increased, appreciation decreased. I thought ok I will work harder and rise above eventually there will be another reorg. There were multiple reorgs, a few LL5s squashed the FnF bad behavior and appreciated my work; but most LL5s treated me badly based on FnF made up stories.
In hindsight I realized I should have left Ford when the company first showed me who they were. If they don’t appreciate your work, no matter how hard you work they never will. You can try creating presentations for your LL6 and LL5 that show your contributions and the value of them — be sure to put things in a format that they understand and show $ benefit. Odds are they will just present the work as their own and never give you credit. Been there got the tshirt.
AM was a glimmer of hope and the FnF crowd temporarily ceased overt bad behaviors (self preservation). But as soon as AM was out the door the FnF crowd’s bad behaviors resumed.
If you have opportunity to leave take it. You can always return to Ford later in your career if you want, and if Ford still exists.
If you’re not buddy buddy with someone on an LL4 and above level then either stick your head in the sand and don’t stand out or leave before you get managed out.
These next couple years will not be fun. There will be no innovation. Markets and industries outside of automotive and companies better positioned to capitalize will move at light speed. The skills to join those companies when you’re let go at ford will not happen while you are there within the organization. So you will either be a good little doggie and do whatever management says just to be at the mercy of a d-mb consultant off site strategy session or you can try to do something with your life.
@OP. People are right, things were not as bad as now. However, I really doubt the company will improve in time. We are, IMO, watching the last years of a giant, witnessing the slow death of Ford. That's why I would advise any young engineer to run away from FMC. Sure, you can stay 2-3 years to pad your resume, but staying longer may cause irreversible damage to your career.
Most of the people staying around are FnFs, and old farts waiting for retirement. Unless you have worked at the company for 20 years, it is better to look for another job, particularly while you still have one. Make sure to document all your ideas, contributions and relevant issues on your private email. You could lose access to the Ford network in an instant.
BTW, the only time a new CEO brought "rainbows" was AM. "The kn--e" Nasser had no idea of how the company should move forward. Lost billions acquiring all kind of sh!t in sh!tty deals, while gutted the NA workforce. Bill Ford was worse and still is an inept. He sc--wed the company so bad, the Ford logo was pawned. We lost a huge bunch of people thanks to that id--t. AM brought relieve, even with some mistakes, but people were happy. We had a clear goal ahead. Still, Bill Ford ended his contract one year earlier. Mark Fields tried to mimic AM, and was cautious with BEVs, prefering hybrids. Then Bill Ford again ended his contract earlier. The next two additions were "yes men", allowing Bill Ford to manage the company by proxy. We are exactly in the same mess we were in 2005, under B Ford. Debt, quality issues, and even opening additional lines of credit. So I am expecting very soon a big layoff, in the thousands.
The only thing that will change is that the burnout will intensify and you will likely become as jaded as the rest of us. The company will take everything you are willing to give and then demand more year-over-year.
No, this place is a lot worse than my 20 something years have ever seen.
Layoffs are a part of the culture. People gloss over your accomplishments because they are also busy trying to prove themselves. A corporate environment will take all you give it and demand more. If merit really mattered the way they say it does, they wouldn't have laid off some great talent in May. Pay 99 percent to what they do, not what they say. 2-3 years max youngster, then move on. Ford is a good place to harden you heart towards incompetent fools and take that experience with you moving on as wisdom along the way. Use them until you have no use for them anymore, they are certainly planning on that for you.