robertlane Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Two weeks after Ford Motor Co.'s information technology division lost a third of its staff, senior managers did something unexpected -- they told remaining workers to stop and catch their breath. IT chief Nick Smither declared the week of March 12 "Spring Break Week." Employees donned jeans and Hawaiian shirts. Instead of rushing to meet deadlines, programmers and technicians were asked to think how to move forward with fewer people. | MORE | Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trimdingman Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 (edited) Two weeks after Ford Motor Co.'s information technology division lost a third of its staff, senior managers did something unexpected -- they told remaining workers to stop and catch their breath. IT chief Nick Smither declared the week of March 12 "Spring Break Week." Employees donned jeans and Hawaiian shirts. Instead of rushing to meet deadlines, programmers and technicians were asked to think how to move forward with fewer people. | MORE | In a company the size of Ford, there is naturally a certain amount of fat. One doesn't have to look too far to find potential savings. However, capitalizing on these potential savings usually means taking money out of someone's pocket, maybe your own. Perhaps the person who is receiving this "gravy" is a big asset to the company, and this cut could give him a change of attitude. Maybe he would start putting more energy into protecting his own turf and watching his back instead of concentrating on his job. It is better to prevent inefficiencies from happening than to deal with them after they occur. Cutting in the wrong place could cause blood loss. Edited March 27, 2007 by Trimdingman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinn Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 Has the information technology department stabilized? I am trying to contact a few people there and they seem to of left the company. Does anyone know how I can find employees within the company? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultra6 Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 In a company the size of Ford, there is naturally a certain amount of fat. One doesn't have to look too far to find potential savings. However, capitalizing on these potential savings usually means taking money out of someone's pocket, maybe your own. Perhaps the person who is receiving this "gravy" is a big asset to the company, and this cut could give him a change of attitude. Maybe he would start putting more energy into protecting his own turf and watching his back instead of concentrating on his job. It is better to prevent inefficiencies from happening than to deal with them after they occur. Cutting in the wrong place could cause blood loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultra6 Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 In a company the size of Ford, there is naturally a certain amount of fat. One doesn't have to look too far to find potential savings. However, capitalizing on these potential savings usually means taking money out of someone's pocket, maybe your own. Perhaps the person who is receiving this "gravy" is a big asset to the company, and this cut could give him a change of attitude. Maybe he would start putting more energy into protecting his own turf and watching his back instead of concentrating on his job. It is better to prevent inefficiencies from happening than to deal with them after they occur. Cutting in the wrong place could cause blood loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreggM Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 Has the information technology department stabilized? I am trying to contact a few people there and they seem to of left the company. Does anyone know how I can find employees within the company? Stabilized is relative. Who're you looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrballsonya Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 My dad was one of the many IT's that took a buyout package, with 25 years of service, he really didn't want to "retire", but he felt he HAD to. To this day, he's still looking for another Job. It seems Job hunting has become a very tough road to travel, here in Michigan. He claims that there are plenty of good job opportunities, just not in Michigan. Not wanting to relocate, it appears he's headed for a very rocky semi retirement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theoldwizard Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 Has the information technology department stabilized? Having had to work very closely with IT for last 7-10 years of my career, I can tell you that there is one part of the organization that still needs a major house cleaning ! If Mullaly knew what really is going on there, he would be jumping off the 12th floor with his golden parachute. Their "one size fits all" policies are ridiculous. They honestly are more wrapped up in following the "IT Policy Manual" than getting the job done. They actually told my director, after a 14 month preliminary study, that they needed $2.1M and 3 years to come up with a plan, just a plan, to bring his operation in to full compliance. Case in point The cost of a laptop computer versus a desktop (based on ITs own pricing) was less than $1000 over a 3 year lease period, yet it took 5 levels of management approval. A VP of engineering has much better things to do other than approve laptops for person whose job responsibilities have changed. While the rest of the corporate IT world has decided that outsourcing IT to India might not be the best idea (numerous examples of insource back from India, including Dell, HP and Apple) , Ford is about to outsource their entire email support staff to a subsidiary of Tata (yep, saying guys who will probably wind up buying JLR). Well at least 25% of the engineers will be able to speak to them in their native language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreggM Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 My dad was one of the many IT's that took a buyout package, with 25 years of service, he really didn't want to "retire", but he felt he HAD to. To this day, he's still looking for another Job. It seems Job hunting has become a very tough road to travel, here in Michigan. He claims that there are plenty of good job opportunities, just not in Michigan. Not wanting to relocate, it appears he's headed for a very rocky semi retirement. I was in the same boat but took the other route and stayed. Pretty sure that everyone who stayed has regretted that decision at some point. Asked to do more with less. Hopefully it'll work out for the best for all of us. Happy Christmas to you and you're family. I'd probably at least recognize his name if he was a Dearborn area IT guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimist in Atlanta Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 I was in the same boat but took the other route and stayed. Pretty sure that everyone who stayed has regretted that decision at some point. Asked to do more with less. Hopefully it'll work out for the best for all of us. Happy Christmas to you and you're family. I'd probably at least recognize his name if he was a Dearborn area IT guy. I'm surprised that the IT group didn't learn from the previous round of Salaried buy-outs. If anyone believed that the work load was going to magically disappear with the people was in a dream of their own! The folks(Salaried) I know that took a transfer to another plant after AAP closed are not real happy with the new working arrangements. Their personal workload has grown by at least 50% without benefit of monetary reward...oh, I forgot...they will be eligible for part of the 2.7% in the pot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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