So what's it like to work at GM right now?

[Laconian]

Answer: If you're a fan of ulcers, it's AWESOME.

Inside GM: ?Fear, Terror and Panic?
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/inside-gm-fear-terror-and-panic/

By Robert Farago
December 3, 2008 -

In all this talk about GM?s financial health, the most important element of any potential turnaround has been woefully neglected: the company?s corporate culture. GM?s is so utterly dysfunctional that it makes John Wayne Gacey?s home life seem like Peter Brady?s. There is no way? no way whatsoever? that GM can recover with its current management. Be that as it is, I?ve been contacting recently ?liberated? GM employees to get a glimpse of life inside the belly of the beast. And pretty it?s not. ?I remember walking my dogs and literally dropping to my knees and praying to God I would get out of GM,? one ex-exec told me. ?I?ve seen people throwing-up in the bathrooms because of the overwhelming atmosphere of fear, terror and panic? It?s the most warped and bizarre thing I?ve ever seen in my life.? This from an employee with over 20-years of industry experience in several large companies.

Our man tells us that GM?s incestuous culture is stuffed with spies? people employed by management (e.g. supplier supremo Bo Anderson) whose main function is to secretly uncover and report dissension in the ranks. Dissent? ?There is no dissent allowed,? he reports flatly. ?None. Only good news is reported upwards. You?d think it would be different now that GM?s admitted its problems to Congress. It isn?t. It?s worse.?

Our contact tells us that the culture stifles creativity on every level. And ?nothing less than a complete regime change can fix this. Nothing. They all have to go. Wagoner, Lutz, Henderson, all of them.?

I asked the longtime TTAC reader why he didn?t come forward sooner, and why he doesn?t use his real name given that he?s recently severed his employment with GM. ?These people are vindictive. I?ve seen them go after pensions and benefits of people they?ve fired. I?ve seen careers clubbed like baby seals.?

[If any other GM employees would like to come forward with their impressions-- good or bad or mixed-- please contact me at robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com]

[sportyaccordy]

That sucks, but again, look at where the companies, and then ask why anyone should be surprised.

[FoMoJo]

I know a few retired GM (Canada) workers quite well.  I'm sure that the culture is quite a bit different up here but they sure as hell are worried about their pensions.

[2o6]

Ignore TTAC and Robert Farago. He's a terrible writer, and all of his work has negative slant.........even a car he likes is written with a negative slant.

[Soup DeVille]

Ignore TTAC and Robert Farago. He's a terrible writer, and all of his work has negative slant.........even a car he likes is written with a negative slant.

However true that may be, I've worked in many GM plants in both the US and Canada, and this largely rings true.

[Soup DeVille]

For a good, if somewhat embellished idea of what life is like on the floor at a GM facility, read "Autopsy of an Engine" by Lolita hernandez or "Rivethead" by Ben Hamper.

They are both fictional works, but closer to the truth than anyone who hasn't seen it firsthand would likely believe.

[r0tor]

?I remember walking my dogs and literally dropping to my knees and praying to God I would get out of GM,? one ex-exec told me

somehow, it it was really that bad I would think this person would have found another place to work.... seems just all a bit too embellished for my taste 

[Soup DeVille]

“I remember walking my dogs and literally dropping to my knees and praying to God I would get out of GM,” one ex-exec told me

somehow, it it was really that bad I would think this person would have found another place to work.... seems just all a bit too embellished for my taste 

Having "GM executive" on your resume doesn't exactly send the recruiters rushing to your doors these days.

[2o6]

?I remember walking my dogs and literally dropping to my knees and praying to God I would get out of GM,? one ex-exec told me

somehow, it it was really that bad I would think this person would have found another place to work.... seems just all a bit too embellished for my taste 

It couldn't have been that bad. Renault had people commit sucide.

[Soup DeVille]

It couldn't have been that bad. Renault had people commit sucide.

Every large corporation has had a suicide or two.

But yes, the guy could have simply been a weenie.

[2o6]

Every large corporation has had a suicide or two.

But yes, the guy could have simply been a weenie.

Or three or four.........within a span of MONTHS.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/feb/22/france.internationalnews

[Raza]

Where do I send my resume?  I'm looking for a position in upper management.

[Colonel Cadillac]

I wonder how the unions tie into this.

[Soup DeVille]

I wonder how the unions tie into this.

Hard to say. Without a doubt, the union/management conflicts prduced a very adversarial relationship long ago, and the practice of management paying for informants within the union leadership dates back decades (according to union leaders), but IMO, its not quite as simple as it seems.

Most GM middle management comes from the same school, GMI (now Kettering U), which is taught by a lot of retired GM middle managers, and which clearly teaches a, shall we say: GM-centric view of the world. It is a very intellectually insular environment. The number one question that needs to be addressed when presenting a new idea is: what's wrong with the GM way? You would think that after watching the losses pile up and the market share dwindle for years, that that question would be easy to answer, but it isn't. These people really believe that the GM way is the right way, and they take to heart the oft mis-quoted "Engine" Charlie Watson's famous phrase "What's good for GM is good for America."

Plus the fact that most production employees seem to be beyond anything like traditional workplace discipline to the point that they call the shots more often than the managers.

I recall one incident at Lake Orion when I was woring for the ironworkers. I was helping guide a crane operator through the aisles. He was driving a 20 ton broderson carry-deck crane with a 20 ft long control panel hanging from the hook that was probably worth several hundred thousand dollars. I was walking in front, checking that he didn't hit anything, walking backwards when it was required, and moving back in forth in the aisleway to make sure nothing I could see was in the way.

"Hey, get back in the walkway!' somebody shouted at me. I ignored her, paying attention to tons of steel slowly swaying back and forth that was travelling down the aisle.

"Didn't you hear me?" I turned around and saw who was shouting
"Yeah, you, get back in the walkway!" It was a woman running a spot welder twenty feet away. (its hard to hear someone from farther away than that inside a working factory). I simply replied "I have to watch this panel" and went on doing what I was doing.

Fifteen minutes later, the area comitteeman and the safety stewart came over and shut down the entire crew- leaving the panel dangling dangerously over a mezzanine, to investigate the "alleged safety violation" that the woman had reported because I was not walking in the designated pedestrian walkway.

It was a two-hour "inquiry." They talked about the importance of the wlakway designation, of how many people get injured in their plants, about the need to wear a proper reflective orange and yellow safety vest and have a GM direct employee with you if you need to venture out of the walkways, and so on and so forth until you could scream. It was fucking ridiculous, but it was the way they'd always done it, so nobody would even think of questioning it.

[Soup DeVille]

Or three or four.........within a span of MONTHS.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/feb/22/france.internationalnews

Yeah, probably.

[Colonel Cadillac]

Hard to say. Without a doubt, the union/management conflicts prduced a very adversarial relationship long ago, and the practice of management paying for informants within the union leadership dates back decades (according to union leaders), but IMO, its not quite as simple as it seems.

Most GM middle management comes from the same school, GMI (now Kettering U), which is taught by a lot of retired GM middle managers, and which clearly teaches a, shall we say: GM-centric view of the world. It is a very intellectually insular environment. The number one question that needs to be addressed when presenting a new idea is: what's wrong with the GM way? You would think that after watching the losses pile up and the market share dwindle for years, that that question would be easy to answer, but it isn't. These people really believe that the GM way is the right way, and they take to heart the oft mis-quoted "Engine" Charlie Watson's famous phrase "What's good for GM is good for America."

Plus the fact that most production employees seem to be beyond anything like traditional workplace discipline to the point that they call the shots more often than the managers.

I had no idea that was going on. That is absolutely crazy, have none of them thought about the benefits of a diversely educated management team and work force? I had no idea and that makes me really upset because that is downright the wrong way of going about hiring and educating any management--it was probably incredibly easy to brainwash them into "The GM way." Things are starting to come together as to why GM and I suppose the other two are lagging behind the Japanese 3.

[Soup DeVille]

I had no idea that was going on. That is absolutely crazy, have none of them thought about the benefits of a diversely educated management team and work force? I had no idea and that makes me really upset because that is downright the wrong way of going about hiring and educating any management--it was probably incredibly easy to brainwash them into "The GM way." Things are starting to come together as to why GM and I suppose the other two are lagging behind the Japanese 3.

It may be different in other areas of the country, and in higher levels of management, but that's my experience.

[280Z Turbo]

about the need to wear a proper reflective orange and yellow safety vest

If Top Gear has taught me anything, it's the need for high visibility jackets in all situations.

[the Teuton]

My roommate's dad is a Honda-driving analyst for GM.  He's searching for a new job in NY as we speak.

[Soup DeVille]

My roommate's dad is a Honda-driving analyst for GM.  He's searching for a new job in NY as we speak.

A guy who analyzes Hondas, or an analyst that happens to drive a Honda?

[Minpin]

A guy who analyzes Hondas, or an analyst that happens to drive a Honda?

Seems like number 2 to me.

[TBR]

My roommate's dad is a Honda-driving analyst for GM.  He's searching for a new job in NY as we speak.

A little surprised they let him get away with that, in a lot of industries there would be hell to pay for buying a competitor's product.

[the Teuton]

A guy who analyzes Hondas, or an analyst that happens to drive a Honda?

The latter.

A little surprised they let him get away with that, in a lot of industries there would be hell to pay for buying a competitor's product.

He's Indian.  Indians break out in hives if they aren't driving foreign cars.  Trep just took allergy shots.

Seriously, what could they do to him?

[Soup DeVille]

A little surprised they let him get away with that, in a lot of industries there would be hell to pay for buying a competitor's product.

They park in separate lots.

[Vinsanity]

They park in separate lots.

Those lots make me

Like the separate water fountains during the segregation era, but for cars.

Can you park something like a Mexico-built Ford or a Aussie-built Pontiac there?

[S204STi]

From the perspective of a GM dealer, there are a couple of things going on here.  First off, our area is doing alright; we are down, but not out yet.  In fact this november was very strong for us on the year despite the numbers in the news.  The issue we face now is which of us in the area is going to die off.  We have two GM dealers in Fort Collins, two or three in the Loveland/Greeley area, and several more between there and Denver.  That's a huge number, honestly, and a lot of us just sell clones of each others' vehicles, as I have mentioned before, so there is plenty of competition.

The key right now for us is that our repair facility has a roughlt 83% rate of customer retention, which is outstanding for the industry, particularly when GM dealers on average retain around 30% of their service customers.

Also, we have a Honda franchise in the same building.  Between these two our business is strong, particularly service since it is supporting the entire building more or less; particularly Honda with its Quick Service program.  We have 8 techs who do only oil changes all day and manage to average around 10 hours or more depending on season and business.  This also means that upsold repairs go right into our shop instead of going to someone down the road.  The basic idea is to get people in for quick and inexpensive regular oil changes, and if we find a problem they are already here to repair it.  Combine that with competitive repair rates, and we do pretty well.

For the GM side the issue is that we are going to see fewer and fewer new customers from new car sales.  So we depend on upsell -- finding other things wrong with the car and offering to repair them -- and used cars.  We have one of the best used car businesses in the region, with a turnover of about 35 days on average.  We will sell cars at no profit or even a slight loss just to get their used cars, repair them, and sell them for a profit.  That's probably our main profit as a business.  That also means that we GM techs have additional work in the slow times which we would not otherwise have.

Overall we have a strong business model that is not entirely dependent on GM's success.  If they do in fact tank that might be a different matter... but somehow we keep on selling cars, so till then we'll keep trucking along.

That said, our Saturn store is failing bigtime.  They don't have much customer retention compared to ours, they are not selling new cars so they aren't getting new customers, and they have a dismal used car business.  They will most likely close and become our used car complex, I predict.

But basically right now it is survival of the fittest dealerships.  A lot of them will go away, but the result will be improved business again for the ones that are left.  This should have been occuring a while ago...

[Soup DeVille]

Those lots make me

Like the separate water fountains during the segregation era, but for cars.

Can you park something like a Mexico-built Ford or a Aussie-built Pontiac there?

Yes, usually. Sometimes, the UAW people put two and two together though, and differentiate further between Domestic branded foreign products and Domestic branded US ones, but I've only heard of that, never seen it.

[TBR]

They park in separate lots.

As they should. It shows a lack of faith in your product. If my parents built a house using another company's lumber it could have very far reaching implications.

[Soup DeVille]

As they should. It shows a lack of faith in your product. If my parents built a house using another company's lumber it could have very far reaching implications.

Expecting visitors, contractors, and prospective business partners to walk from across the street because they don't own a GM product is simply rude.

[TBR]

Expecting visitors, contractors, and prospective business partners to walk from across the street because they don't own a GM product is simply rude.

I thought it was just employees? If it isn't, then you're definitely right.