Losing people has been real tough. More work gets piled on, getting pulled in all sort of directions trying to support anybody and everybody, yet mgmt gives zero f**ks about anything. I really wish I could leave GM but it's not as easy to get a job. I know people who've been laid off are still struggling to find work too. some will say I should be thankful for being employed but I don't need this taking a toll on my mental health and overall well-being.
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How easy it is for laid off workers to find a job and whether or not people are getting a higher/lower salary offers is dependent on their position and salary at GM, but it is also, more typically, dependent on their age. Recent layoffs were carefully orchestrated age discrimination, and older workers I know who were laid off are having a harder time finding jobs and similar salaries. I took a pay cut, but in my new position I have a better work-life balance, am more valued, and work in a better culture. The best time to find a new job is when you have a job. If you are miserable, start looking.
Finding another job is difficult, not because of your talent or there lack of, but because of the filtering systems in place, as well as gross corporate paranoia to find that 10 out of 10 candidate. I am highly diverse in my skill set and background, and yes I did receive multiple offers at once, but I will say I have never in my career had to run the gambit like as of in recent years. It IS real work, to find employment. The days of being hired on the spot are gone, which I've also experienced multiple times.
So I classify skillset as not just basic or advanced, but are you knowledgeable, or are you knowledgeable enough to train the trainer. Well, in my case this was the case, having trained and mentored hundreds. When I was kicked out of GM, the stakes were upped significantly. The do more attitude and hit the ground running scenarios exist on the outside. I was shared stories about the dozen or so individual failures, prior to my current company finding me. For one that says I'm doing well which is great, but two, also emphasises a performance or elimination policy.
The GM world is a wonderful cozy place. Its a great to learn and grow, and if you are lucky you will excel and grow into a specialization that develops real talent. It's really the training wheels academy for the corporate real world. What I can tell you from bouncing in and out of the GM world, is on the outside it is different. If you think it's difficult inside GM, you may not be ready for the outside of GM - which may pay significantly well. Ironically, I work in a role similar to one that I worked inside of GM. It's significantly more demanding, and I realized what I did at GM for that particular role was only a fraction of what we do today. It's laughably different in complexity.
So, if you feel like your drowning, it could be worse. It could be very much more demanding. You don't know what you don't know.
I worked at GM for 6 years and I can say that finding another job was very difficult. It was my first job and then I got laid off. Even while I was working for GM, I was looking for another job because I also felt that I was drowning as well. I finally came to a realization that GM standards don't match with what other companies are looking for. I did interviewed with a lot of companies and always coming just short because in my position we were working with out dated technology stack. I finally got a job outside of Texas and I even took a pay cut but I can honestly say I have never been happier. It's a start up company and it's very fast paced but they work with the latest technology stack that the companies I had previously interviewed with were asking for. I can honestly say that I will have more confidence, if I leave this company that I can find a job a lot faster. Good luck to everyone else who are still looking.
For the person who said they got off one day for a funeral — lucky you. One previous leader purposely made me late for a family funeral. Another gave me a hard time for requesting to flex my hours to visit my dying father in the hospital his final week. Both of these times I was classified a high potential employee that exceeds expectations. I’ve left GM since then and have a new leader at a new company who tells me to go home when I’m seen putting in extra time. The grass IS greener on the other side. Don’t be afraid to leave. Plenty of jobs and great non- vehicles to explore.
ZLSDW1F
All I can say is this, and this was just my personal experience all my years at GM.
I loved it! I was apart of a great team and we did a great job. GM thinks it's a good thing to stir the pot and disruptive tactics will make the company better and more productive!? This way of running a business only benefits upper management and their pay and the companies financial health. Every single recruiter I have talked to said that they cut to deep this time and they know it. The goal is to lay blame on the customer for the company short comings in this case the CEO and CFO, the share holders and board obviously agree that they have done a great job or they would have been kindly told to step down or encouraged to leave with a big fat golden parachute, well that hasn't happened now has it? Apparently every ten years this is what we can look forward to. GM has lost a tremendous amount of current and future customers based off absolute greedy desions and continue to get away with it, why!? Because they can.
It's unfortunate that so many have to continue to pay for the sins of GM.
China has a largest auto market, and it is automotive future. I don’t see any issues depend on China. For saving GM, GM top leaders need to resign and replace 40-50% mid-management to change notorious GM culture basically and entirely. Otherwise, GM ship will sink in a few years. Good luck GM!
There are already news articles that Chinese automotive slaes are beginning to plateau. It is to be expected anyway! Sooner or later, they'll be in inventory surplus again. And the whole thing repeats blaming customers for not buying the products.
What do you call a person who does same thing over and over but expects different results...? That word... just can't think of it!
Hundreds of thousands of dollars saved in revenue - for the bottom line. 8000 potentially displaced/fired workers - that may never buy GM again.
If your average vehicle costs $30,000, that's a loss of potential of 30 million per thousand individuals, extended friends and family damage excluded. Scorned employees don't buy GM. Alienated persons exlude GM from their lives accumulatively - for life. Additionally, friends don't let friends buy GM.
What's the worst that can happen? Especially once the market k--ls the Chinese golden goose market.
I remember the sighs of relief from the 2008 market. Is this a repeat? Layoff 1 was preemptive. Layoff two, will be reactive. I'll let those words sink in for a minute.
2001 was bad. 2008 was worse. 20XX will be 2000 multiplied. All the best friends.
Of course management doesn't care about workload. Theirs is fine, and they get a bonus that is a LOT bigger than yours. Happy times!!
It will level out. GM will start to hire more and more people as required. Those of us let go will find other work. Our circumstances today will not be our circumstances tomorrow. Have faith and no that this to shall pass.
Not exactly drowning, but definitely have more workload. Most irritating part is that the manager doesn't contribute anything more than he had before (which was not much) and pushes his work to others.
He tells us we need to be in the office during certain hours and put more than 40 a week. Speak for yourself!
You are expendable. Remember if you are gone the company still prospers. You are a pawn that gets moved. You still have your job because you are in a network of folks that like you. That will not last and you need to exit before they PUSH you out. It gets ugly when that happens.
I was laid off in February and I felt like I was drowning back then. Worked 28 days out of 31 in January (1 day was for a funeral and 2 days, Saturday/Sunday, I was sick). Also worked most of the Christmas break. I can't imagine how bad things are now. Even worse I hear about the new hires screwing things up or just being an inconvenience. In one hand I'm glad I'm not part of that sicking ship anymore.
Right now GM is advertising 307 job openings on its taleo site.
GM decided it was better to destroy people's lives and careers and then start hiring again like nothing happened.
It's been about 50/50 among my group of friends and employment. Some did better, some worse, and some are still looking.
In my case, I had received multiple offers luckily, because one interested employer was taking their time. Their lack of agility and decision making, allowed better paying competitors enough time to get their paperwork in order. It really was amazing with the timing. I've never experienced that before.
So, going with the best option I was offered, this company too was also feeling the heat with workload. Always too many things to do, and not enough manpower to do it all. The solution is to do what you can, and don't lose your head about what you can't control. A guy I work with gets stressed pretty easily. That's not for me, work stays at work, and control only what you can reasonably control.
You may want to keep a few things in mind from a leadership point of view as well. If your team is always stressed and burned out, but still makes numbers and all deliveries, thats not always a real success. Higher ups need to see reasonable failure, so they can justify additional resources where it makes sense. I've had a few bosses over a career tell me this. I know GMs situation is slightly different at the moment, but you can only cut so deep into the bone before it snaps - and the entire feature no longer functions at all.
You can tell this site is 90% trolls. I know plenty of people who got laid off and found new work in short order. If you have been unemployed for 6 months in this economy after getting laid off from GM you are doing something horribly wrong.
That being said, yes- the decline in workforce has not come with a decline in workload, and many feel as though they are drowning. Lots of good talent is leaving GM, finding better pay and better conditions.
@ZLSDW1F-1bxc - And yet, they still have their jobs.
And I'm sure they are whining all day long about their job while happily collecting their fat paychecks, benefits, flexible time (WFH all the time), loads of vacation time.
I feel SO sorry for them.
I find it funny that top GM execs and some GM lifers still think vendors and suppliers jump at the words “General Motors”.
The word is been out for years that GM is so dysfunctional, you have to jump through flaming hoops to get business, only to wait months and months to get paid- if you get paid. Vendors will never forget getting screwed with GM’ bankruptcy and have been wildly inflating quotes to compensate ever since. Trying to reach out to Accounts Payable for assistance for a vendor is a waste of time. Nothing but automated replies and zero help
Frustrated is an understatement. So many people at WTC that are completely helpless. Hourly and salaried people with little work ethic and no desire to think beyond their narrow tunnel vision.
As someone who is on the AV program right now, I can say that Cruise is light years behind Waymo, and GM isn't adding any value there. Expect a spinoff within the next 18 months. Hence the deceleration of hiring in AV.
GM just seems to break everything it touches
GM laying people off so they afford to pour billions into Cruise automation. I foresee the company moving to a less aggressive autonomous program after realizing they cannot accomplish what they are trying. IF GM does succeed then bye bye taxi and delivery jobs.
Seems like a lot of companies are hiring based on skills. Mechanical engineering is simply on the decline as less are needed today as companies push towards machine learning and automation of jobs. As a big company GM has many jobs that are sorta unique to GM and skills do not "appear" to directly transfer over. People may have to go into different industries or just simply move to Texas. You can move to Texas without a job and just find one in a week. Seems like much more opportunity in IT then for mechanical engineering and few free or cheap online courses combined with existing work experience could take you far.
ZLSDW1F-1bzx
Yesssssssssss! Pay is getting lower.
Keep lowering the wage and people won't buy your products, fine!
Companies are being picky so they can claim there are no qualified Americans to hire, and then they can bring in a bunch of cheap H1B people.
There's no shortage of STEM workers!
There's just a shortage of STEM workers who'll work for $12 an hour.
Even though Ford is laying off, they are also hiring like crazy. Did anyone interview with them?
It is unfortunate that many companies won't hire us because we came from GM. Like a few of you said, it seems that these companies have the upper hand and get to be picky who they are willing to hire. It is really stupid for them to think this way since I've seen the same darn job postings for several weeks, even months. There are several talented people laid off from GM and I don't understand what makes them so tainted just because they worked for a sh--ty company that treat their employees like nothing.
McDonald's is hiring.
Not sure of anyone's age, but screw those other companies, take matters into your own hands! Don't sit and wait for them to hire you, hire yourself and start a small business. Anything, consulting, cleaning, painting, yard work, real estate. When I'm laid off one day, I'll be damned if I'm going to wait in line with 50 other people while they cherry pick. I'm the best! If you don't hire me it's your loss, I'll go make my millions some place else. I don't need your handout. Period!
Just do the bare minimum..
Hopefully you get walked out with a nice severance package, take some time off and find another job
I'm back working for a different automotive company as a contract person. I'm receiving a lot less pay and the job is very tedious. Its difficult because they went through layoffs right after we did. I'm also replacing someone who was well respected in the field. I'm feel like I'm caught in the middle of some political war. My fellow team members know that I'm from GM, therefore I receive little help and respect. Stay where you are, it will get better and know that you are not alone.
Funny, when this was all happening, I remember our leadership telling us that there were many, many companies that were very anxious to hire the laid off GM employees. Never did see the list though......
I've been unemployed since December and have not been able to find a job. It is a hard call as at least you won't be losing your house and everything that you've worked so hard for over the years, but I do understand the mental toll working for GM has one people. It almost broke me, too.
I have had recruiters tell me pointedly that companies specifically say they will NOT consider GM employees. A shame as the bad reputation of GM and its workforce is crushing those of us who busted our tails daily and never had a bad review.
When I was interviewing, companies didn't think highly of working at GM. It was like a stain on my resume.
I had to do a lot of explaining.
Not a good reputation.
ZLSDW1F
PS
I feel as after working for GM I've been blacklisted. Getting a job these days seems like the company is doing you a favor and if you get the job they come across as they own you, that is the attitude and vibe I am picking up on. They know people are in serious need of work and man are they toying with people big time, and why? Because they know that they can get away with it. Companies you interview with don't know you, you're character or work ethics, what Happened to working for 90 days trial period? That hasn't been mentioned once from any employer I have interviewed with.
ZLSDW1F
Hang in there... You will be ok.
I have been laid off since December 1st, there are allot of us that are having a devil of a time finding a new job, I have gone on so many interviews and I'm finding that these companies are nit picking me to death, they are not willing to give people a chance and it seems they aren't reading my resume carefully, I hear allot of excuses and feel like they have wasted my time. Hang in there because being unemployed for the first time in my career is brutal. At this point if GM offers me a job I'd have to take it, But! I'd still be looking in the meantime. I am beyond frustrated. I know many GM folks in the same position as me,