I’ve started to get emails from more ex-GM employees. Here’s one, with details omitted to protect the correspondent’s identity… “I’ve worked for GM nearly 9 years. No barfing in the toilets that I saw (at least when they weren’t closed for cleaning during the day–you know, after they did away with nightly maintenance to cut costs). But I did break down in tears in the parking deck. This was after fighting for 3 years to get a lateral move that was necessary for career development, getting resisted by management who told me I had to find own my replacement, only to have my director (a long-timer, my-way-or-the-highway type) move me to a completely different group during the 2006 layoff/reorg without bothering to ask me first. Fortunately I did pick up skills to qualify me for my current job. But too little, too late — that’s essentially been GM’s problem for the last 30 years, in fact.
During my whole time there I remember a constant pressure to reduce costs–benefits cuts, services cuts, fired contract help. I remember the FUD really getting strong in early 2006, when layoff rumors were running rampant. After the bloodletting and reorg, it died down some, although everyone was working 2-3 times as hard and all the managers were working OT and 7-day weeks.
The people who were most pleasant to work with (and most productive) were the 3D contract designers–one of them ran the coffee station and raised money for Iraqi troops and organized potlucks and stuff. But my area never did anything fun like that because we had only 1 admin and she was overwhelmed taking care of several executive directors–no Christmas potluck or anything.
I was in XXXX during my last year, which had a healthier culture than XXXX. Not as much FUD there, although there definitely was some present. When I left earlier this year, my director announced that I would not be replaced. They wanted to distribute my work amongst the other engineers, but they protested enough for my manager to declare that the efforts for my programs would be put on hold. I’m guessing that the FUD ramped up from that point on.
GM screwed up by being the grasshopper instead of the ants in the summer, and now it’s winter. I don’t want my new company to make that mistake, so I’m going to push for cost-cutting innovations.
I am rooting for the bailout loans to fail at this point, at least for GM. It needs to go C11 and reinvent itself. It will suck, but it’s going to suck anyway, and with C11 at least GM has a chance or surviving as GM.
I love this quote:
But my area never did anything fun like that because we had only 1 admin and she was overwhelmed taking care of several executive directors–no Christmas potluck or anything.
Nice to see that in the bubble at GM, even the people who think there is a problem still think it is normal for an “admin” to organize events for the teams. He/she is in for a rude awakening when they get to the real world, where if people want fun events for their teams they do it themselves.
Engineers aren’t spontaneous and generally don’t think of things like that. Hate to say it, but a nice fun event is usually thought up by a woman.
Okay sports fans for those of you that don’t already know this, over the last few weeks, thousands of white-collar OEM, Supplier and R&D type of folks are either on temporary layoff until ‘sometime next year’ or have been permanently laid-off. Even Nissan has laid-off white-collar employees and now even Toyota and Honda are supposedly considering the same.
This should come as no surprise to anyone-yet it does. The ripple effect has already started.
This quote says it all about GM.
“It needs to go C11 and reinvent itself”
Amen, all my former GM colleagues agree
GM has devolved into a company more focused on meeting “Metrics” and cost cutting. There are more processes developed to ensure accountability, but this actually results in avoiding accountability.
A good example of this:
At GM it take more than 15-20 people to approve a design change. This includes a 15min review with the senior managers.
At Toyota it takes 4-5 people.
I am the author of this post. I was lurking here for a month and just registered.
@KeithF: I didn’t mean to say that admins (=PC term for “secretary”) are always supposed to organize what GM liked to call “employee engagement” activities in their group. Of course they are a team effort, but the secretaries often take a prominent role in such efforts because the nature of their role in the organization makes them more effective than others generally might be.
The admin I was referring to here used to take a lead role in stuff like this before conditions deteriorated. Nobody took up the slack and group morale was therefore that much worse. (The group was headed up by the Roger Smith-type that messed with my career move, and morale was affected accordingly.) I mentioned the contract designers because they were physically right next to us and despite their status as contract workers they made life better for the people in my group. The last group I was in had healthier morale, despite no admins in the area–the team did in fact work to put together many fun events for us.
I don’t want to focus too much on this — there’s just too many things wrong with the whole situation. But I’ll just say that the biggest reason I want C11 is that I want GM to quit being a second-rate automaker, like it’s been since before I was born. I’d rather have GM go C7 than to muddle through ’09 and ’10 with a public lifeline just to go back to being half-ill and wheezing again. What’s the point of that?
GM has been in decline for years; we would expect its employees to be suffering intense stress. In the executive ranks the atmosphere must be absolutely toxic, survivable only by becoming numb or ruthless.
One person I’d like to hear from is Michael Karesh. He spent a long time researching decision-making in GM. Although the outlook wasn’t so bleak then, he may well have observed how the corporate culture affects those who live within it.
I totally believe the vomit stories. It doesn’t help that many people don’t have an easy out. Few other opportunities in the area right now, and mortgage and family obligations for most. I sold my place for a loss after drastically dropping the asking price–and I consider that be the best financial decision I have ever made. Add all those factors up and you’re bound to get results at least this fantastic.
There was denial in the organization, but not everywhere. Not for Jim Queen, anyway. I remember about 5 years ago Jim Queen spoke of the need to eliminate “low performers” (=people with poor attitudes who didn’t show enthusiasm for the organization). IHMO I think he was too vague about the definition for it to be as effective as it could have been. In any case I didn’t hear anything about that in the last couple of years or so (or anything from Queen, for that matter).
He also warned about a “step-function change” in the future if we didn’t implement steady gradual change in the present. I did like that instance of management appropriating engineering terms for business usage. And there was definitely gradual change that bought time for GM. Ed Koerner wasn’t in denial, either, and I think there was less fear with him.
On the other hand, during the “Good to Great” infatuation, my director (who got to go to Disney World for the big management conference with the author of that book) labeled Rick Wagoner a “Level 5” executive.
mR min…
Sure, at Toyota, it may take less people, but I’ll tell ya, it takes just as long or longer. I’ve worked with both, and Toyota is just as friggin slow as GM in everything they do. Even more meetings, honestly. I’ve never been to so many meetings in my life as I did at TTC. Good lord, I think there was a 20-person meeting once to decide when to have the next meeting.
IOtheworldaliving:
Good to see you here. It’s really shocking to me how little the automotive press tries to get an insider’s perspective on these organizations. They prefer to get all of their information from senior execs and PR, and neither really knows what’s going on among the people who do the real work. Thank you for providing some insight–I hope you’ll continue to write.
After the research 50merc mentions, I provided GM with a report. Executive summary here:
http://www.truedelta.com/execsum.php
Do the points I made still ring true, ten years later? The report called for a radical cultural change. Though at least two people made sure that Lutz saw this summary, and even pieces of the report, I didn’t expect GM to make such a large change.
On the mood inside the organization ten years ago: my report stated that the dominant mood within the organization then was frustration. There’s nothing any of us thinks that at least 100 people inside GM aren’t already thinking. But it was very hard then for anyone, even a senior exec, to get anything done. And it’s probably the same name.
I have been planning a couple of editorials. I have some long plane flights in the next few weeks–maybe then.
@Michael Karesh: I just downloaded the summary. About to board a plane and will read while airborne.