Ford tells 30,000 employees they can continue working from home

[rperez817]

Telework/work from home is something that benefits both employers and employees. Good job Ford for allowing employees in suitable positions to do so indefinitely. Ford tells 30,000 employees they can continue working from home | Autoblog

 

Quote

DETROIT — It’s a question occupying the minds of millions of employees who have worked from home the past year: Will they still be allowed to work remotely — at least some days — once the pandemic has faded?

On Wednesday, one of America's corporate titans, Ford, supplied its own answer: It told about 30,000 of its employees worldwide who have worked from home that they can continue to do so indefinitely, with flexible hours approved by their managers. Their schedules will become a work-office “hybrid”: They'll commute to work mainly for group meetings and projects best-suited for face-to-face interaction.

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by rperez817

[AGR]

On the other hand, the company I work for, one of the big evil banks, will start transitioning back to mostly in office. This will start once the metrics of the pandemic decline to an acceptable rate. This was in an company wide email sent from our CEO today. We're talking about nearly 200K employees. They are targeting late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter.

Edited March 19, 2021 by AGR

[snooter]

MFT....motor fuel tax....be interesting to see if this trend holds going forward....otherwise look for a greater push with a "mileage tax" placed on everybody

[blazerdude20]

10 minutes ago, snooter said:

MFT....motor fuel tax....be interesting to see if this trend holds going forward....otherwise look for a greater push with a "mileage tax" placed on everybody

Wouldn’t the mileage tax also drop in revenue with more people working from home? 

[snooter]

Spread out over everybody in the state (granny gets in on it too)....."driving privledge tax"....

[rperez817]

14 hours ago, blazerdude20 said:

Wouldn’t the mileage tax also drop in revenue with more people working from home? 

 

While there will be reduction in driving for commuting purposes, there is also an increase in driving for personal, family, or other non-work reasons.

[rperez817]

16 hours ago, AGR said:

On the other hand, the company I work for, one of the big evil banks, will start transitioning back to mostly in office. This will start once the metrics of the pandemic decline to an acceptable rate. This was in an company wide email sent from our CEO today. We're talking about nearly 200K employees. They are targeting late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter.

 

Very interesting AGR sir, thanks for sharing. Does your employer's executives want the company to be less competitive? That's what that decision is saying.

 

Back to Ford, their decision allowing eligible employees to work from home indefinitely shows that Ford's corporate culture is changing to an agile, high performing one.

Edited March 19, 2021 by rperez817

[AGR]

2 hours ago, rperez817 said:

 

Very interesting AGR sir, thanks for sharing. Does your employer's executives want the company to be less competitive? That's what that decision is saying.

 

Back to Ford, their decision allowing eligible employees to work from home indefinitely shows that Ford's corporate culture is changing to an agile, high performing one.

 

Nonsense. Our @home employees worked well at first, but lately their productivity has been going down. I stand by what I said months ago. Once this pandemic is over, a lot of things that we did to get by will be discarded by the vast majority of folks.

[rperez817]

7 minutes ago, AGR said:

Our @home employees worked well at first, but lately their productivity has been going down.

 

That suggests there are other organizational issues at your employer. Does your employer have up to date telework policy documentation for employees?

 

One of Ford's employee surveys indicated 95% of workers who transitioned from working at a Ford office to home office last year due to the pandemic would prefer either to continue working from home or a hybrid model combining in-person work at a Ford office and remote work/work from home after the pandemic. Looks like Ford is acting upon that employee feedback.

[AGR]

2 hours ago, rperez817 said:

 

That suggests there are other organizational issues at your employer. Does your employer have up to date telework policy documentation for employees?

 

One of Ford's employee surveys indicated 95% of workers who transitioned from working at a Ford office to home office last year due to the pandemic would prefer either to continue working from home or a hybrid model combining in-person work at a Ford office and remote work/work from home after the pandemic. Looks like Ford is acting upon that employee feedback.

 

We have plenty of resources, we're a big bank with approximately 250K employees.  You have your (green) agenda, and one of the moderators, who has been working from home for years, has his. Most people weren't meant to work and live in complete isolation(aside from electronic communications). It's not good for the psyche. Some people like working from home, most don't.

[slemke]

7 minutes ago, AGR said:

 

We have plenty of resources, we're a big bank with approximately 250K employees.  You have your (green) agenda, and one of the moderators, who has been working from home for years, has his. Most people weren't meant to work and live in complete isolation(aside from electronic communications). It's not good for the psyche. Some people like working from home, most don't.

That’s why Ford is doing a Hybrid model....several days a week in the office, work from home the rest.  There will be some people out of necessity or they want to will work entirely at an office or at home.

 

Some of those folks working from home are actually working from their vacation homes.  Lots of benefits to that, but it takes self control to get your work done.

[akirby]

28 minutes ago, AGR said:

 

We have plenty of resources, we're a big bank with approximately 250K employees.  You have your (green) agenda, and one of the moderators, who has been working from home for years, has his. Most people weren't meant to work and live in complete isolation(aside from electronic communications). It's not good for the psyche. Some people like working from home, most don't.

If you’re referring to me, I have no agenda, only real world experience.  How successful you are depends on the environment and whether you have a dedicated office, kids, home schooling, etc. and the type of work you do.  If most of your job involves email, instant messaging and zoom/webex/teams calls anyway then there isn’t much difference.  If you regularly interact with other team members face to face then you may work better in the office at least 2-3 days a week.

 

Im no more in isolation at home than when I was in the office because 99.9% of the people I work with are remote anyway.   The vast majority of our organization can decide for themselves (along with their supervisor) how often they want to go in - as it should be.  It doesn’t work for everybody but you shouldn’t punish the ones that can do it and it helps the company tremendously in infrastructure costs.

[blazerdude20]

On 3/18/2021 at 9:45 PM, snooter said:

Spread out over everybody in the state (granny gets in on it too)....."driving privledge tax"....

Have you been spending time in Oregon lately?  We now have a “privilege tax” of 1% on new vehicle purchases. It literally has to say “privilege tax” on the signing documents. ?

[rperez817]

5 hours ago, AGR said:

Some people like working from home, most don't.

 

Actually it's the opposite. Most people like having the option of telework/work from home, assuming their job is suitable for it. And not just at Ford either. The federal government agency I work for as a contractor did several studies over the years regarding telework including right after the pandemic hit. The data showed that work from home 2 or more days per week was associated with higher levels of worker engagement and lower rates of turnover intent. This was true for both federal employees and contractors. One interesting detail from the studies was that nearly all incidents of dissatisfaction with telework/work from home on the part of employees had some managerial, cultural, or communication issue as the underlying cause, it was almost never telework in and of itself.

 

For older businesses like Ford, and for government agencies, telework can serve as a recruiting tool. These organizations have a lot of competition from newer companies like Google and Amazon (both of which are allowing eligible employees to telework indefinitely) for the most talented candidates.

[pictor]

I recently started a new position as head of a Tech Services Dept. for pharmaceutical consulting firm. I was drawn to the position with the knowledge that I could work from where ever I had access to a strong ISP.  This includes my home in Boston, my summer house  in Maine or a short term rental in the location of my choice. Flexibility in my work location was a key motivator in my decision to accept the position.

[rperez817]

3 hours ago, pictor said:

I recently started a new position as head of a Tech Services Dept. for pharmaceutical consulting firm. I was drawn to the position with the knowledge that I could work from where ever I had access to a strong ISP.  This includes my home in Boston, my summer house  in Maine or a short term rental in the location of my choice. Flexibility in my work location was a key motivator in my decision to accept the position.

 

Congratulations on your new job pictor sir! 

[FordBuyer]

On 3/19/2021 at 3:01 PM, rperez817 said:

 

Very interesting AGR sir, thanks for sharing. Does your employer's executives want the company to be less competitive? That's what that decision is saying.

 

Back to Ford, their decision allowing eligible employees to work from home indefinitely shows that Ford's corporate culture is changing to an agile, high performing one.

 

Also talk that Ford will be closing some buildings down. Not good for Dearborn and the economy there. Ditto for Rensissance (GM) and downtown Detroit. Not sure what it means for Corktown and Ford development. IMO, a real tragedy.

[tbone]

On 3/20/2021 at 12:29 AM, rperez817 said:

 

Actually it's the opposite. Most people like having the option of telework/work from home, assuming their job is suitable for it. And not just at Ford either. The federal government agency I work for as a contractor did several studies over the years regarding telework including right after the pandemic hit. The data showed that work from home 2 or more days per week was associated with higher levels of worker engagement and lower rates of turnover intent. This was true for both federal employees and contractors. One interesting detail from the studies was that nearly all incidents of dissatisfaction with telework/work from home on the part of employees had some managerial, cultural, or communication issue as the underlying cause, it was almost never telework in and of itself.

 

For older businesses like Ford, and for government agencies, telework can serve as a recruiting tool. These organizations have a lot of competition from newer companies like Google and Amazon (both of which are allowing eligible employees to telework indefinitely) for the most talented candidates.

My wife has the option to work where she wants.  She prefers to work at the office, and interact with people.  There are many reasons why some people prefer one over the other, and I think it is beneficial to have options available, but working from home is a continuation of the diminishment of human interaction.  

[rperez817]

Ford's decision to allow work from home indefinitely for suitable positions turned out to be very smart. Some other companies with employees that previously worked from home during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and are now being required to work at a corporate site are losing some of those employees to competitors that embrace telework. Covid Pandemic Employees Are Quitting Instead of Giving Up Working From Home (ndtv.com)

Edited June 18, 2021 by rperez817

[mnm]

Wow good for them. Meanwhile, on the factory floor, Ford management makes it nearly impossible to get a day off. And  then wants the hourly grunts to pre schedule their sick days. ( I’m not kidding).  And we get to be the last lucky souls that are still mandated to wear a mask all day 10+ hours in the factory summer heat while most of the country breathes freely again. I guess a college degree now entitles people to work in their pajamas all day now.  Good for them I suppose. 

[akirby]

On 3/21/2021 at 7:09 PM, tbone said:

My wife has the option to work where she wants.  She prefers to work at the office, and interact with people.  There are many reasons why some people prefer one over the other, and I think it is beneficial to have options available, but working from home is a continuation of the diminishment of human interaction.  

Depends on the job.  The last 20 years (15 in the office) even when I was in the office I was on the phone and web conferences with people in other cities and countries.   If I was I the office I’d be sitting in front of my laptop on the phone.  Interactions are personal and not work related.

 

The important thing is to give people options because each situation is different.  But not allowing people to work from home when possible definitely makes the company non competitive in today’s world.

[rperez817]

45 minutes ago, akirby said:

The important thing is to give people options because each situation is different.  But not allowing people to work from home when possible definitely makes the company non competitive in today’s world.

 

This is what Ford is doing right. Giving its employees in suitable positions options regarding work location, including the option to work from home indefinitely.

 

It's great that Ford is following Google, Twitter, and startups that have embraced telework. As mentioned earlier in this thread, it will help Ford attract the best talent, save money on facility costs, get more productivity from their employees, and reduce the company's environmental impact.

[Azul]

While my company is embracing "flex scheduling" we will still be required to come in for a set number of days during the week... Defeats the purpose of flex scheduling imo. Ford is doing right by their employees.

[silvrsvt]

2 hours ago, Bluezilla said:

While my company is embracing "flex scheduling" we will still be required to come in for a set number of days during the week... Defeats the purpose of flex scheduling imo. Ford is doing right by their employees.

 

Depending on the number of days, couldn't you come in a on Monday and Tuesday,. then the next week Tuesday and Wednesday? 

Latest rumor I heard was we are going to start coming back one day a week in October and going to two days a week for a minimum after that. If you come in for three days a week, you'll get a permanent cube. I have a lab area I work at (and have been going to while COVID was going on once in a while) so I'd rather work from home, come in and use a hot seat or hang out in the lab when needed. 

[Azul]

13 minutes ago, silvrsvt said:

 

Depending on the number of days, couldn't you come in a on Monday and Tuesday,. then the next week Tuesday and Wednesday? 

Latest rumor I heard was we are going to start coming back one day a week in October and going to two days a week for a minimum after that. If you come in for three days a week, you'll get a permanent cube. I have a lab area I work at (and have been going to while COVID was going on once in a while) so I'd rather work from home, come in and use a hot seat or hang out in the lab when needed. 

They mentioned in our business unit wanting our entire group there at the same time for "collaboration" so it's hard to say. Best guess is that we all come in on the same days so it won't be as flexible as it sounds. Sounds like you guys are doing a similar thing as us then... They started with WFH until the foreseeable future and now it'll be mandatory 2-3 days in office. I guess my preference is 2 if it's mandatory, I'm way more productive at home anyway and could do without office politics and bs.