11 Step Process: Ford Salaried Employee Layoffs
I have been Ford salaried employee over 30 years. The pattern repeated for all the salaried layoffs:
Step 1 - nudge the highly paid or near retirement out the door
Step 2 - hire many young people and have old conduct knowledge transfer and training
Step 3 - decide which of young are keepers, flag others for lay-off
Step 4 - hire many more people including H1B and have old conduct knowledge transfer and training
Step 5 - decide which newly hired are keepers; decide which existing old employees are now redundant
Step 6 - make initial lay-off list, while continually assuring employees they have nothing to worry about.
Step 7 - good ole boys club scurries around protecting their people. you will see promotions, lateral movements, reorganization, ranking of favored d---beats as top achievers, and of course more hiring
Step 8 - make announcement about restructuring and level of the cuts before Christmas break.
Step 9 - voluntary packages distributed first quarter.
Step 10 - involuntary packages distributed mid year.
Step 11 - go on another hiring spree. Invariably the good ole boys club protects the incompetent and lazy ; the highly productive and competent exit voluntarily. The remaining employees seeing what behavior is rewarded model their behavior accordingly. Yes, it is a vicious cycle.
We are at step 8. Expect a webcast to be broadcast before holiday break. Schedule TBD your senior leadership. They have already been recorded and reviewed by senior leadership.
I feel for Hackett. He is genuinely trying to do the right thing. He is in the unfortunate position of having to trust his leadership team to do the right thing. This is the very leadership team that built and perpetuates the unfortunate and unproductive aspects of the Ford Culture.
If you are a Ford salaried employee then you know that there are employees throughout the pay scale ranges who are true subject matter experts who are highly productive and work tirelessly doing the right thing for Ford. (This is independent of age, gender, race and length of service.). These employees rarely are appreciated by the leadership team.
You also know that there is a large contingent of employees who contribute nothing or are negative contributors. These invariably rise up the leadership stack as they have ample time to bootlick.
Then there is the middle band of employees that are neither rockstars or d---beats, but have the potential to develop either way.
Of course Hackett wants all the rockstars to stay, all the d---beats to go, and the middle band to trend towards rockstars. It is a big company and Hackett has no way to know who the rockstars and d---beats are. He must trust his leadership teams to be truthful, and there lies the rub. Good people will be separated and d---beats will be retained, despite Hackett’s good intentions.
Good luck to everyone. For those that survive the lay-off, please do not follow the d---beats examples. I bleed blue and want to see Ford survive and thrive.
a day ago by Anonymous
| 1617 views | 16 reactions (+15/-1) | 8 replies (last 3 minutes ago)
Post ID: @Y2givpK
8 replies (most recent on top)
0
I don't agree on Hackett. Guy is a sound bite and platitude a minute. His football analogies are tired and stupid. He walks around talking fitness and weighs 350. He replaced Mark Fields who got run because of the stock price, but it has plummeted under Hackett. Guy has brought nothing to the table except disruption and exacerbated problems.
The best thing furniture boy could do is retire. Oh, and speaking of furniture, Ford buildings are filled to the brim with overrated Steelcase furnishings. Who do you think still holds a ton of Steelcase stock? Uh huh.
3 minutes ago by TheUglyTruth
| no reactions
Post ID: @Y2givpK-2vqh
+2
"I bleed blue and want to see Ford survive and thrive."
"Thrive" - Not going to happen with the Ford family in charge.
about 5 hours ago by Anonymous
| 2 reactions (+2/-0)
Post ID: @Y2givpK-1ueq
+4
Well stated. This goes on all over corporate America. It's almost like the college cheating scandal going on now. Can you imagine if a company could get the full potential and knowledge that an employee offers. It would put the PROFIT and productivity off the charts.
about 16 hours ago by Anonymous
| 4 reactions (+4/-0)
Post ID: @Y2givpK-1xzc
+1
Great post OP
about 23 hours ago by Anonymous
| 1 reaction (+1/-0)
Post ID: @Y2givpK-1jub
+14
@1qwz I have a feeling I am about to get hit. 27.3 years always top achiever or in highest achiever - then this year ranked as bottom achiever with nothing to indicate why on PR, but verbally in PR a bunch of nonsense was stated, puzzled I asked for clarification. Boss was clearly uncomfortable, checked his watch, too busy right now schedule a follow up meeting. I did which was declined twice with no explanation. I have been preparing to be unemployed. I feel like a chump looking back at all the uncompensated Overtime I worked, while coworkers loafed.
a day ago by Anonymous
| 14 reactions (+14/-0)
Post ID: @Y2givpK-1jfx
+6
Spot on i saw this probably 50 times in my 27.8 career as an salaried employee. Started in the fire security dept and worked up to IT manager after a career shift.
Always had excellent plus or outstanding ratings.
Then just before christmas started seeing the signs.
Made up a negative incident, but did not put it in my pr.
Walked out the door in feb 2008.
God i wish we had a union for salaried employees.
a day ago by Screwed out of my retirement
| 6 reactions (+6/-0)
Post ID: @Y2givpK-1wfz
+4
Hackett cares about Hackett. No tears he will shed.
a day ago by Anonymous
| 4 reactions (+4/-0)
Post ID: @Y2givpK-1int
+4
Do NOT feel any sympathy for Hackett. Based on personal experience, he is far more worried about getting someone to clean up the soup he dripped on his collar in the 10am meeting than his the well being of any employee.
a day ago by Anonymous
| 6 reactions (+5/-1)
Post ID: @Y2givpK-cxh
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