Currently posted by dfast1lsx on Yellowbullet:

"I dedicated Forty-Five years to General Motors, working across sales, service, marketing, special projects, and engineering. Once my dream company, GM no longer holds a warm place in my heart, particularly in the wake of my forced retirement.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, I developed a passion for cars early on. My family owned several businesses, and I worked in many of them, but my dream was always GM. My love for cars was nurtured by working with my dad, uncles, and friends on repairs and drag racing. At just 15, I became a technical inspector and track announcer at a drag strip. This passion led me to Indiana State University, where I earned a degree in Automotive Technology.

In 1979, BUICK Motor Division hired me as a co-op student in service. After graduating, I joined full-time, embarking on a journey that saw me move 15 times and hold numerous roles, including Senior Manager.

I vividly recall a conversation in 2007 when a dealer friend predicted GM’s bankruptcy due to excessive cash burn. I dismissed the idea, believing GM was invincible—until June 1, 2009, when the unthinkable happened. Over the years, I’ve seen enough to fill a book, but a few key themes stand out:

“Never Meet Your Heroes”
Looking back, especially on the last 15 years, I’m disappointed. GM has let down customers, dealers, and employees, failing to address critical issues like quality, parts supply, and declining dealer satisfaction. Constant reorganizations brought confusion, anxiety, and layoffs without solving underlying problems. Workloads increased, morale dropped, and fear stifled honest communication.

Product and Process Failures
Rushing products to market before resolving quality issues became common, often due to a culture of telling leadership what they wanted to hear. Departmental conflicts exacerbated these issues. Ill-advised decisions—like prioritizing front-wheel drive vehicles when customers wanted rear-wheel drive or pushing electric vehicles without sufficient demand—led to costly sales incentives and lost profitability.

A Broken Culture
The root of many issues lies in the company’s culture. While GM moved from the “good old boys” network to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the underlying problem remained: a top-down management style where dissent is unwelcome. Employees tell leaders what they want to hear, and opportunities often go to the most compliant, not the most qualified.

Final Thoughts
Past behaviors predict future outcomes. GM continues to repeat the same mistakes, expecting different results. Despite everything, I’ll always cherish the passion for cars that led me to this career. But it’s hard to reconcile the dream I had with the reality I experienced."

I think "in the wake of my forced retirement" speaks volumes.

Douglas Brinkley's "Wheels For The World" - a comprehensive biography of Henry Ford and family, and Ford Motor Co - says much the same about that company at a few times during its existence.
The waters become dangerous when office politics, prioritized shareholder profit, and insufficient R&D - and maybe vision - congeal.
GM's history reads like a soap opera, from its founding through today.
Bureaucracies feed themselves, and the prioritizing of self-interest over quality and/or service will eventually hobble any organization.

Just another old grouchy guy who seems to overlook hes going to get a nice check each month for those 45 years. Many old folks cant deal with change and the ebb and flow of corporate change.

Many forget there place in a company other then just being an employee number. Just a spoke on a wheel.

Look at the whole Harley Davidson cluster muster. The only good part of that story is most dont know it but just like the brand.

The poster should be glad he made it 45 years with one company. I'm sure he has a reasonable pension and possibly other benefits as well.

That was an anomaly in the Silicon Valley and has become so here as well
I worked for several Large companies Intel, Canon, Applied Materials, Heraeus and a few others. My initial goal was to find a good company, give them more than a 40 hour week, and stay until retirement. The last job was the same.
When they started with the we're sorry speech I interrupted them and said;
I've been down this road more than once. If you've spent a lot of time rehearsing this Bull💩 to convince yourself that what your doing is OK when you know its wrong, go find a mirror and maybe you can convince yourself it is. With that said I tossed my "entry tag" on his desk and left
That was the last job I had as I decided on the way home I was done with corporate America.
I took my part time business full time and was up to 4 employees at one point. I could have easily grown the business larger but did not have the confidence to do so.
My only other mistake was treating my employees like friends and family. i wanted to provide a comfortable environment in which they would want to come to work (as much as one can), Those were costly errors.
So, I'll say he should stop whining and be thankful for what he has

My plans were to retire from Motorola in 2018 after 30 years at 59-1/2. I got downsized in 2006 after 18 years and it's been rough ever since. He should be damn glad he made it 45 years, he should quit his bithcin'!!!

The thought did occur to me that with 45 years there, he was likely very safely isolated...and if he saw problems, may have taken the safe route himself by not mentioning them.
In such a case, he'd be part of the "shut up and ride" culture he's complaining about...

Even in the '70s, if someone worked at a company 40 years or so, that was considered pretty remarkable: My maternal grandfather put in 42 at IH - being the guy who laid out production lines, he was pretty indispensable, and the loyalty fortunately ran both ways.

Me too, feel very fortunate to have worked for Motorola during the glory years of cellular.
They were literally printing money, and treated us extremely well.
I got the ax in 2004 after the Icahn takeover that eventually led to the downfall of that iconic brand.
Very sad how that all played out.

Indeed. People blame Chris Galvin but what he was implementing was working, and the Board of Directors, under Icahn found they could part the company out and make fortunes, I will always be pisssed off about that...

Yeah, the newspaper business ain't what it used to be either.

Might not be getting that check. GM (look up the Saginaw Steering Gear/Nexteer fiasco) screwed thousands of guys out of 100% of their pensions. Its been in courts for years.

When I moved back to Omaha in 94 it was not uncommon for people to have worked for one company all their adult lives. It was quite different than the valley but also what I had grown up around and expecting. In the 30 years I've been here most but not all of that has changed. As companies merge, move and management changes so have the days of loyalty. I was taught it was my job to take care of the employers needs and their job was to take care of mine.

The other comment I'll mention is cost cutting. We can get two young engineers for the price that old fart is costing us. BUT what they don't realize is the old fart has 4 times the knowledge and experience.

lets use brake shoe/pad compounds as an example. Newly hired young buck trying to impress suggests dropping compound 1x-1 as it's only used on older applications and we don't sell a lot. he suggests substituting compound 2x-3 as it's only 10% less effective and will save X amount. Great idea he gets a gold star.
The complaints are ignored as they are few and the company is focusing on their big sellers.
Repeat the above 4 or 5 times and suddenly the compound being used is 50% less effective as are the brakes for the "older" applications. the old fart knows what the problem is but the current management doesn't care as their main sales are elsewhere.
Brake compounds are just one example that I used. There are thousands of others.
70 year old electric hedge trimmers still work fine. A wire caged fan that's over 100 years old still works and is whisper quiet. Try finding their equivalents today ;(

Out with quality, loyalty, ethics and in with bonEuses perks etc. for the big guys. let's not forget the golden parachutes handed out after running a company into the RED .We have accepted and allowed it At this point of my life I am glad we were not able to have children as I do not have to worry about their future.

Wellll...........I can relate to this GM rant from the OP. From 1994-1997 I worked for a tier 1 company in the Detroit area. We had big programs with Buick, Cadillac, & Chrysler. My first management involvement was in the Buick program. We prepped cars for high level reviews - magazine & TV road tests, plus we painted & gapped & built vehicles for events like the big auto shows - shows where new vehicles were introduced to the world. I rubbed elbows with some big shakers for Buick. Their attitude was always: "that car is being redesigned & will be all new next year - let the dealers fix the problems." So they would have vehicles out there that had known SIGNIFICANT problems for 4-5 years, & they had no intention of actually FIXING a problem - because the whole engine/trans/vehicle was being redesigned. How does a POS vehicle develop a reputation? Well - see right here. And then the next design vehicle is introduced, & IT has problems of it's own that will get their can kicked down the road in the same manner. I read hundreds of TSB's for GM vehicles - let the dealer mechanics try & fix these issues - hell if GM is going to change & improve something!

Chrysler was NOT nearly like this - they actually would fix problems & evolve designs as problems were discovered. NOT GM! So a new GM vehicle would come out, have problems, & you'd think that "well - I'll wait for the second or third model year & those issues will get fixed" - wrong. And I'll say this, in HUGE companies like Ford, GM, Chrysler, etc. - there are plenty of conscientious engineers, designers, line workers, etc. - that WANT to do the right thing, & they want to fix issues. Well, there's senior management & just sheer numbers of others that don't want to fix the issues because of the problems that would arise buy doing just that - FIXING things! I could never work for a large company like that - it would drive me crazy. In conclusion, I'd say this guy that put 45 years in should just be happy to (hopefully) receive his pension & just leave GM in his wake. Sounds like he was one of the good guys. Some big companies you just can't help, because they really don't want to be better.

John Delorean already wrote this book. It should be required reading for all college kids, and high schoolers for that matter.

If you want to know how bad things can really be- try looking at a big hospital system. GM looks like a model company by comparison and they aren’t even doing people health. Once you see behind the curtain at a hospital, you’ll not want to need one.

I believe in that article GMs rush to get product out before its ready and that dissent was not welcome. But this man is retiring with the same or more income and healthcare benefits as when he worked. This is so not the case for many Americans.

For MOST Americans! Just about the only people who get pensions anymore (thing of the past) are teachers, cops, firemen, & state & federal workers. Hence, why government keeps growing = lots of "gravy" jobs. (except police & firemen that is...thank goodness for them)

The other comment I'll mention is cost cutting. We can get two young engineers for the price that old fart is costing us. BUT what they don't realize is the old fart has 4 times the knowledge and experience.

I was first let go from Motorola in 1995 because they had an intern that was about to graduate and needed a slot for her to land. She came in 3 months before I was gone so I could train her on Autocad because she did not get any cad training in college! As soon as she was 20% perficient I was shown the door. This was for a mechanical design position and the guys in the model shop were pissed when I was let go because nothing she designed and drew was good enough to understand how to build it! I was brought back 6 months later...LOL..