I’m getting really fed up. My team was heavily impacted by the April 2022 lay offs and I have been working 50-60 hour weeks since then to just barely keep my head above water - with no compensation. I thought it would get better finally getting more people on our team but it hasn’t. So many more assignments constantly coming our way with less headcount.
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Post ID: @czq+1nzyhYfa
This is a true response. I'm not Ford, but we service all OEM.
Get direction on who to let fall to the wayside. I had to do this recently due to my workload, and my manager, heard from his chief engineer who told him..... save this program. Everything else takes a back seat.
Even though they want you to service everything, there is still an order of precedence and importance.
Ask your manager which 3 of your 10 tasks are a priority. Communicate that you will be focusing on those 3 and the other 7 will languish. It’s their job to get the resources in place to complete the work and you shouldn’t lose sleep (or personal time) over it.
That is poor leadership to simply assume workers will su-k up whatever assignments get thrown at them. True leaders will push back to upper management to resist such practices.
Even if orgs do end up doing more work than their headcount justifies, the risk is poor quality, which is already a huge issue in Ford.
Agency here. I learned long ago to ask for an hourly rate as a contractor. I started my working life as an employee, and there was always "a small favor or extra sacrifice" on my side, but almost never on the company's side.
I had to show, by my dedication to the job, that I wanted to be in that company, but no company ever did anything to show it cared about me. And every time there was a leadership change, or a leadership sc--w up, I'd end back in the streets. I have been laid off, walked to the elevators, and forced to quit by attrition.
As an employee, companies played games with me, to avoid paying OT. I was promised things by my managers, just to squeeze me dry at work, and after I delivered, managers swore I misinterpret them, or there were new managers, who washed their hands off, so I ended not getting the "promised reward". I was asked to work Sundays, seemingly as OT, and then forced to take regular time off during the week. I was asked to volunteer in my own time (while the company got the free PR). I was "robbed" from an statutory holiday once. One time, the hiring contract that I signed was worded to allow unlimited unpaid OT (according to my then manager).
I realized that there is not much difference in the job longevity between an employee and a contractor. The employee receives less salary because of the "perks" and a supposedly loyalty from the company, but many employees are as expendable (and sometimes more) than a contractor. As an Agency, I get the added bonus of avoiding office politics.
Hourly rate not only keeps things simple enough, but it discourages companies to ask more hours of your time. Only one company has asked me to work long periods of OT as contractor, when I worked over 3k hours in one year. Not different than what @OP did or I did as an employee, except I got paid better.
Here at Ford, I still have a job, while many good hardworking employees were laid off because of age, pension, high salaries, or whatever was in the damned BCG algorithm. I don't have a pension, but neither all employees hired after 2004. I still have a work life balance, while managers keep asking employees to do more with less (OT). I don't even have to worry for performance, since I always work 40 hours a week. Employees, on the other hand, if they start cutting unpaid OT and reducing their hours to 40, will have a lower performance, putting them at risk of PIP or lay offs, and maybe no bonuses.
I had conversations with some Ford employees, that were ex Agency, about their reasons to convert (usually related to benefits). Some of them were let go last year and others last week. I wonder if they would still be here have they not converted to Ford employees. We'll never know!
It seems more cuts are forecast for this year, plus the always impending thunderstorm of outsourcing. To all my fellows Agency contractors and to all Ford employees, I wish them good luck.
Can u name who actually care about what you do?
Work too hard and they’ll push unlimited work on you. Work hard enough not to get fired, and than a little more.
Keeps output manageable. When you fall short on the release, kindly remind them they need more bodies. Or, just work your azz off for no recognition and moderate compensation, with no work life balance. To each their own.
See, you do have a choice. And all those that worked hard before they were let go, thought they were special too…
Companies don’t give a damn about personnel. That’s a life lesson.
Don't sweat the small stuff (It's all small stuff)
Quiet hiring better than getting laid off.
Time to take a summer vacation to somewhere that does not have internet.
See ya in 2 weeks...
If you job is like most, stuff will just pile up and it will be a headache when you return...
The sad thing is that Ford could have created a flexible workforce with the retired ranks to help out in this transition. The new workforce is yet to defined. Mexico and India are going to be a part of it for sure.
You haven’t received compensation since April 2022!? Sounds like you got laid off, Milton…