Thread regarding Ford layoffs

One director team in Ottawa demanded RTO, there was no change in behaviour and he doesn’t know what to do now. The leader in our team says he is just watching them. He sees no path to getting software people to come on. We also have ridiculously low productivity - may be related, may just have too many lazy a people.

Those commenting that we need rto to have effective collaboration.

• What is your position on how to make rto effective with team members in Dearborn, Mexico, India, China, Palo alto? Do you feel rto in Dearborn with a small portion of the total team located in dearborrn present the effective collaboration solution? If so, why is collaboration effective if the other team members in lcc are not physically present?

Some leaders believe their direct reports can’t be trusted unless someone “watches” them. Could that be projection? They know they can’t be trusted so they don’t trust others.

@jwn+1pWYq6Il

Some of your points are valid.

1. This is nothing new - correct
2. If this is what your job requires - correct
3. Top Management needing to grow some ba--s and hold people accountable - absolutely - as for themselves - they will not.
4. Ford performance is miserable - couldn't have said it better
5. Pulling in the same direction - absolutely

Now if your people leader thinks none of this can happen without you being in a chair holding down the floor at Dearborn, there's likely some old thinking going on. There is seldom any floor space to accommodate this anyway. With all the agency people Ford is hiring right now (out of state and out of country btw) there is likely a very different motive here. The BS excuse of in person collaboration is just what they are telling you. It's likely a ploy to thin the herd further for those people that see Ford as their only opportunity. Basically, as of late, leaving Ford is going to be your best option.

It's best to leave them with this mess and possibly come back when there is new management and they have aligned properly with consumers. They obviously don't have that on their agenda and for evidence, look no further than dealer floor plans and the days supply of Mach-e, Lightning, ect.

Sure, RTO so my day can be interrupted by the lazy coworkers who want to chit chat about trivia/gossip/rumors with me while I try to get work done. At least while they're in the restroom or on their smoke breaks, I can get something done.

Are our execs so naive to think that time never gets wasted when in the office?

I heard Ford IT is investigating a webex enhancement to only allow webex functionality on a Ford laptop when it is on wifi at a Ford facility. Their goal is to increase RTO participation.

Question, I have webex meetings with Brazil today, should I go to Dearborn and signout one of those cone of silence rooms to do the meetings in? This is urgent.

This work from home situation has gone on for too long. With quality in the cr-pper and market share losses it's sad to see how many WFH "prima donnas" there are out there.

I was doing so well working from home since 2020. I was able to manage my side jobs and earn more money. Now I will have to do it during the afternoon and weekend.

What’s truly sad,about the forced work in office is the abject facetiousness on the part of upper management about us GSRs coming in, and your only team mates are Brazil, Mexico and India. maybe China.

What a joke. Throw in the towel.

I'm guessing we'll see something like this after the new campus is complete. Until then there aren't enough desks to require specific days like GM has done.

@pbm+1pWYq6Il I'll go to Dearborn as often as Doug does.

Never return to a Ford location. Instead move to a better company. This will be the true return to work. Do not waste your life.

I really hope we are next. The amount of people working from home doing absolutely nothing, or actively stalling progress, is embarrassing.

@PBM

So if collaboration in office is so great, is the palo alto and newly created Atlanta software offices going to be merged and required to move to SE michigan to fill up the train station to get max capacity and efficiency out of that facility? Or in PDC newly built facilities to maximize teamwork and facility optimization?

Just wondering.

Can't believe this is still happening 3 years after the pandemic started. Time to get back to work in the office if that is what your job requires. If you don't want to come back time to move on. Top mgmt. need to get some b_lls and start to hold people accountable. Fords performance is miserable. Thime to get everyone pulling in the same direction.

This is nothing new. Why are so many here outraged? Ford leadership including Doug Field have said to us in corporate forums that our best company performance is when we are collaborating in an office together. Many expert studies have already proved this. Go look it up for yourself.

It can’t be. Why, Farley and execs were so proud that the work from home-remote program let them “hire absolutely the best engineers anywhere around the US and world”.

Well, we will see how this statment holds up. Engineers are defin8ely hired from around the world. Brazil, Mexico, China and India.

You in metro Detroit have to haul you rear end into the office and lug your mobile engineering workstation into some generic office where you Have no seating arrangement and no desk possessions such as pictures of family or treasured archives of hard copied tech books and manuals. From this desk you work with…… the guy from global engineering services in India?
Good luck with retaining talent this way.

Yes, let further demoralize the troops. Make them even less efficient. If people are not performing WFH, than management should do their jobs and put in place PEP. I can see a mandate for RTO driving away the last remaining experts still left .