There's No Joy In Dearborn: Mighty Mulally Steps Up To The Plate, Whiffs On Tact

We've received a slow trickle of e-mails from employees receiving buyout offers from managers at FoMoCo facilities ranging from engineers at design shops to glass house bean counters. FoMoCo's distributed thousands of offers to white collar employees with offers running up and down the seniority scale. One FoMoCo employee received an offer of

"a lump sum severance package of 13 months salary...with a 10% forfeiture because I am under 55 years old..."

Another soon-to-be leaving the building white-collar received an offer of

"3 months salary for [under] 10 yrs experience...paid in lump sum. We have 45 days to decide and then 5 days to change our minds after that..."

And here's the best part — all of the employees we've heard from have received, in one way or another, a version of the six lines the Detroit News reported FoMoCo managers were "suggested" to use. Those lines were:

# "You are part of a group that was selected for reductions based on business reasons."

# "Your position may be eliminated or downgraded."

# "Your skills are not in line with future business plans."

# "You are unlikely to have your career ambitions met."

# "You are presently on a protected grade and there is not a strong likelihood of being able to return to your prior level."

# "You meet the service requirements and we have a salaried cost target to meet."

Yup, nothing provides a soon unemployed worker the warm and fuzzies quite like being told "you are unlikely to have your career ambitions met." Ahh, FoMoCo — that's my type of company — I totally want to work there.

Ford has script for salaried buyouts [Detroit News]

Related:
Have You Received A Buyout Offer From Ford Lately? [internal]