I left Ford many years ago. I can’t believe these RTO stories. Not enough desks, working in cafeteria, people stealing chairs?? Absolute insanity. Which buildings are like this?
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I am in an old crusty building but to be fair the mfg buildings the office areas and bathroom conditions are really bad if it hasn't been remodeled since the 70s ( pretty common for plants)...
The Csuite ignores the MFG Plants as far as offices or bathrooms so not surprising we get the same treatment.
They only time they realize the conditions are bad is when they step out of their 12th floor of whq and go street level with the great unwashed and see our office areas. Just like when they realized how bad the plant bathrooms were totally clueless until they step into one loke the rest of us.
This is how we design, engineer, collaborate on new ideas... cafeteria tables, floors and lobby areas. This is not world class, this is the race to the bottom.
@e9 That wasn't a joke, there was a dog food bowl on floor this morning.
@a2 thanks for the laugh
Fyi pdc has ceiling leaks when it rains too
Its real the later you come in the worst you will find yourself.
For instance I work at the PDC. Of I come in at 7:30 am i will for sure not be sitting by anyone from my team and depending on the day I probably will have to get a desk in a different area pretty far from them.. the parking is going to be a hike for sure. Someone had a dental appointment and came in sometime before lunch time but still kn the AM so late morning and had to park in a distant lot and take shuttle.
When I walk outside around noon I see alot of illegal parking and sometimes when I leave I still see illegally parked vehicles.
So yes its bad. Just get ther between 6 am hour for the best option on seats and parking. At 7:30 it's a longer walk to the building and a walk around reaching for desk at 8 am or later its probably good luck to i sir mam.
@e5 I'm guessing you're a snowflake.
@e5 Hey look, I'm just proudly nasty, this is good entertainment.
@e4 Psychopaths or snowflakes... so which are you? Who are you taking your aggression on and how does that equate to venting? Venting is one thing, unwarranted aggression is what i'm curious about. Can you elaborate?
@e3 That wasn't me, but I do find an odd enjoyment taking out my aggression on here. At Ford most people are psychopaths or snowflakes, this gives me a place to vent.
@cx So you're currently an employee then. Why does what you described make you feel good?
@dw I have a blood sugar issue.
Yes, it's true. The building I am at is short of workstations by 40%. People are sitting on tables, neck and back hunched over, having to use their laptop screen. No monitor.
They are also prioritizing workstations for engineers where non-engineers have to give up their work station if the engineer needs it. So an engineer can come in later and force the non-engineer to give up their seat. I don't think it's even legal, but not shocking with Ford.
@ah There's an LL6 by me who comes to work, then eats for 50 minutes and it sounds exactly like my dog eating with the chain clanking on the dish.
Amazing how most of these LL6's have nothing to do all day long, at least the majority of them. Hacket did have it correct that we need to get rid of supervisors who have one or two folks working under them.
@bp I suspect FL had everything to do with selling hoteling. This d-mb idea was fostered by Steelcase and other furniture manufactures years ago.
I have to wonder the 1 person who is disliking all these posts.. JF, DF, KG, WF?? it's gotta be someone who is making these d-mb decisions and see all the dissatisfaction they are handing out to the worker bees. Morale = -120%
OMG, you left Ford years ago but still spend time on this site? I thought I was just here to troll current employees and trigger them, but turns out I live in your head too.
@by If management had to buy and service their own vehicles, many things would automatically improve. If they get a management lease for a new Bronco with misfiring cylinders and infotainment that intermittently shuts off, they are never going to care since they will just get a new one in a year.
They should have to buy the car and go to the dealer multiple times while they take apart the engine and throw the parts cannon at it. Then they should have to beg the dealer for a loaner or be forced to pay for a rental car so they can get their 4 badge scans per week while the car they purchased has its engine disassembled.
Maybe then quality will improve and we won't just hear "quality is green" from the id--ts in the town halls that have never been to a dealership and never had their cars serviced.
These stories are 100% true! I don't know where the people disagreeing sit, but they must be special!
Our department has been back in the office 3x a week since May 2024. We were originally at Regent Court so we didn't have an office to return to! Just a sandbox...
We were first at Rotunda Center where finding desks was not a problem until January when more people started to RTO and FL then rented half the third floor to another company! We were told to go to WHQ, no desks there...our department of ~100 people were working on all different floors and yes, some at tables in hallways and lobbies with no plugs and no monitors or in the cafeteria...and that was late winter of this year before the full company 4 day mandate! Thankfully our upper management got us into a building that was not a collaboration space and, though run-down, at least we have 80% of the desks we need, assigned to our department so my team sits together every day. IF suburbia's hasn't taken your chair! Mine disappeared when I was on vacation.
My spouse is at PDC where there are not enough desks and the first floor on the West Lobby side has so much mildew that it's making people sick.
I have been with Ford for over 20 years and this is NOT the same company it was before the pandemic. All Jim seems to care about is Ford Performance (racing). I still have my "One Ford" badge and I'd like to know what happened to "People First." Not to mention that so much has been moved to Mexico and India...it's hard to get anything done correctly that can't be done following a script!
leaders eat last
Can confirm that two colleagues of mine were working from the cafeteria yesterday because there were no available desks.
Hey Jim! Hope you like your assigned desk and garage parking while the rest of us stress over parking, shuttles and finding a desk near teammates to collaborate!
@br
Collaborate from another floor, other side of the building, or another building all together?
Maybe GLT / ELT should experience their set up. No more assigned desks/chairs, no more parking garages.
Been saying for years they should eliminate the Vehicle Programs (VSC) and let the executives go to dealership to get their leases. Fuel and wash their owns cars etc.
The upper management here are so pampered. And the workers (GSRs LL6s UAW workers) continue to provide them a paycheck while they make all these d-mb decisions (EVs, COE).
@bq Many parking spots will be lost to huge piles of snow.
"The challenges of RTO are real, and the solutions are limited."
One super obvious solution comes to mind, but some super rich people might end up slightly less so. Can't have that.
Not to mention they give the nicest buildings/facilities to the green stripe mafia. Fu--ing 7/11's need to be in the sh-t buildings to feel at home.
Here is the truth, Ford Land did due diligence with the RTO4 plan and it is the perfect solution for company success. The complainers here are not telling it like it is.
Collaboration matters.
This is all so wonderful to hear! Don’t forget, winter is coming. Do you think they will plow the lots on time? Where will you put your coat?
I know there are extremes from both camps on this site. There are the WFH forever people on one side, and the people advocating full time in-office on the other side.
Most people I encounter feel like RTO is pretty pointless in terms of improving anything, but they begrudgingly go along with it, at least to fulfill the bare minimum (badge-in 4 days per week but maybe not work the entire day on site).
The one common issue that absolutely enrages people is the hoteling arrangement. Not having a place to store your stuff overnight is a huge dissatisfier. If you're there almost every day, why can't you just be assigned a desk?
I think the obvious answer is that there aren't enough desks. People hate on Ford Land, but remember that 5 years ago, Ford announced a permanent hybrid work arrangement, where people were instructed to come into the office only for collaborative purposes. People leaders were even given training where they were told that requiring "seats in chairs" was old-school thinking.
As a result, FL spent the next five years planning buildings that would only have a certain % capacity on any day. (I've heard various numbers for the percentage but I don't know what is accurate.)
Now suddenly FL is told these buildings will be at 100% capacity every day, and the result is inevitable. Just like a road that was built for 10,000 cars/day but now has 20,000 cars/day, there will be traffic jams.
The current arrangement is not sustainable, so what are the options? They can back away from mandatory RTO4 either by not enforcing it or maybe mandating RTO3 instead. They may have plans to thin the herd, which would also take away pressure on space. They could also remodel and reopen some buildings that were closed such as Building 3 and 5 to add more seating space.
The challenges of RTO are real, and the solutions are limited.
Remember, many of the buildings we used to have are now gone (e.g. Regent Court). And now, with Rotunda Center no longer a collaboration center, where are all of us are supposed to go?
No, but people can say anything on an anonymous forum. If you want to know the truth, ask your friends that work here. It doesn’t all smell like roses, but most stuff on here is BS
Add to the list: bathrooms without toilet paper or paper towels, desks without power to charge our laptops and desks without monitors. Several employees have decided to do personal grooming in office, leaving behind nail clippings in their shared desk space. Cleaning crew instructed to throw out anything left on desk overnight. Its a third world employer.
Seen all of this and more at PDC. Yesterday Farley, his entourage and several blue vests were seen walking through the workplace.
Not true. Liars gonna lie.
Can confirm many are true. Chairs missing or being swiped when you leave for a meeting or lunch, no parking, no ev chargers, coffee machines out of coffee, limited bathrooms, standing desks raised as high as they go and won’t lower without knowing a trick , I was told this is a new tactic to save desk space. Also will add, H1B’s microwaving fish and clanking spoons against dish eating, what is the deal with that?? Many eating really stinky food a foot away due to bad seating arrangements.
Yep. Ford is a mess of a company now run by people who worship the tech industry and are now running it like a gulag.
They all are true to varying degrees. It's become a dog eat dog world, one coworker stole my desk and moved my laptop to a place on the floor beside the desk, gave me a very devious look, like "I just made you my pet".