http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14831365/
Ford’s plan: Cut operating costs by $5 billion
Automaker will shrink workforce by one-third, launch revamped lineup
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DETROIT – Ford is cutting more than 10,000 additional salaried jobs, offering buyouts to all of its 75,000 U.S. hourly workers and shutting down two more plants in a plan to end financial losses and remake itself into a smaller, more competitive car company.
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My CEO (me) was chatting with our CFO (me) about this strategy. Cutting your people to get to profitability. We agreed not too smart and hard on the people.
It’s not like they just discovered (with my obligatory allusion to Casablanca where Renard is shocked, SHOCKED!, shocked I say, to find that there is gambling going on here!) that they are in a hole.
I bought a 2002 Ford Exploder (sic) and I could have told them that “quality is job 1” was just an advertising slogan. I have 30k$ pos with 40k miles on it. The ac doesn’t work (and they want 1.5k$ to fix it), the abs light flickers (and they want 1k$ to fix it, the brakes of going in the next 10k miles(and they want 1.5k$ to fix them), and the seat belt hasn’t retracted right since we bought it (despite mentioning it every time we brought it in). It has also had the recall for a set of tires (that had cost 4k$ at their prices), it’s been in for numerous annoying problems that all seem to magically cost 1k$ each. Argh!
But, as I as CEO (me) asked my Head or HR (me), if you were one of the buy-out-ees, then (I’d ask why are you still there?) what would you do? How do you evaluate any offer versus the uncertainty. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.
Reinke Faces Life 