Ford targeted older salaried employees during 2019 layoffs | Hacker News Reader

Ford targeted older salaried employees during 2019 layoffs

wsws.org

68 pointsDocFeind15 comments

“They do a time study on older people, and ride them hard. I’ve seen them make fun of an older guy because he couldn’t keep up. They changed his job so he was doing two people’s work. He was walking like 15 miles a day, while he was on dialysis two times a week after work. He never complained, always did his job and kept up. They’re ruthless.”

This is why we need a corporate death penalty.

Fascinating to hear that an outside firm analyzed all the employees, using age and tenure, to figure out which terminations could reduce payroll the most. Have we confirmed AI takes ALL things into account when making these decisions? If a an older contributor makes more than his younger colleague, can we be sure that his contributions are less than the younger colleague? Color me skeptical that an outside firm would figure this out correctly.

I don't think contribution was taken into account at all.

Which is why it's hard to believe they needed to hire a firm to tell them to sort by salary (or tenure), and then lay off (some of) their more highly-paid employees. They're not just evil, they're evil and stupid, apparently.

I imagine it isn't stupidity. It allows the CEO to say "Not my idea to lay off all these grey hairs!" And then do a company wide meeting where they "lament the loss of so many of our wonderful colleagues." It was probably the CEO's idea or at least approved directly by then, but that one level of separation helps a lot.

In their defense, that would likely be a terrible idea. You're presuming the highly paid people are evenly distributed among the company, which is likely not true. Just one example, you would expect that given their tenure, they would be higher up the command chain. Doing that is going to gut your management. You could end up firing some people's entire report chain.

At the very least, it would be sane to make sure that you don't accidentally fire entire teams (assuming you still need whatever function the team provided).

Just like EVERY Silicon Valley firm has for decades!

And the young folks are fine with it, because it will never happen to them.

Young folks aren't in a position to do much about it. They're deeply indebted and need the job. Many old folks can't do much about it either. They're also deeply indebted and need the job.

Its almost as if this is the intended situation.

Thank God for Bitcoin. Escape the grind.

I think you'll find the young folks aren't the ones making these decisions. It's primarily equally old rich folks and their institutional shareholders, which are often large pension funds.

Personally (early 30s) this stresses me out almost every day. Just the anxiety of knowing in 10 years time I will be on the chopping block daily, regardless of how good I am. And frankly my generation has ridiculous education and housing debt so we're going to have it a lot worse than you - sorry to use the obligatory term - boomers.

"In 10 years time I will be on the chopping block daily"

That's a pretty maximal-fear approach to take. In my 30s I was afraid of lack of steady income, but the idea that you'll be washed up without an income as a software developer is a lie your fear is telling you. But there will be gaps in employment for various reasons, so expect that. It's not a problem, just make sure you have six months or so of cash like they say, although the longest I've gone without a job is four months, and that was in the .com bust. Also, know your worth. What does a developer with 10, 20, 30 years of experience bring to the table? Find places that need that. I've found contract work to be really helpful in getting perspective. As a contract worker, I am essentially selling the ability to solve your problem (doesn't matter what environment or language, although I'll be faster in ones I know), and as a contractor, I am selling disposability. You don't want me for whatever reason, no problem, it's been a pleasure, let me know if you need anything in the future. (Of course, my rates are priced accordingly.) Full-time employees are selling something a little different, like reliable future availability. Companies aren't out looking every day for who they can fire (if you're at one that is, quit), they are desperately trying to get things implemented because their imagination exceeds their development capacity. If your company doesn't value you or what you bring, find one that does. There are lots of companies out there needing an incredibly diverse set of problems solved. One of my early clients needed to analyze some PostScript code; I got the job because I'd dabbled in writing PostScript back around the time it came out so I could claim some experience. That's pretty obscure! There are lots of jobs out there, and I guarantee that if you are competent, there are multiple companies out there that find your experience is just perfect for what they need.

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