I am a bit overwhelmed by both the quality and number of comments on the post that I put up Thursday on The Auto Industry Bailout, which focused on why I believe that GM executives are clueless and suffer from a "no we can't" mindset. As of now, late Sunday afternoon, 37 people have written comments and about 5000 people have visited the post (about 2500 today, which is near an all-time high for Work Matters). These comments are diverse and all are thoughtful — even they guy who took me to task for owning too many cars (I plead guilty, although I am doing my part to help the industry). But there are a few that I would especially like to point to because they reveal the sick culture and work practices in the industry so clearly. I will put up another two or three this week, but I wanted to start with this one from a Stanford student who had a lifelong dream of designing cars, but it was crushed when he tried to work in the industry. I know this is obvious, but if the industry is so broken that it can't figure out how to use the talents of someone like "JLee," and instead treats people with his skills in ways that crushes his spirit and creativity, then the culture is in even deeper trouble than I thought. Note that my remarks centered on GM as I know them best, but this was one of several comments that reveal a similar sickness at Ford.
Here is the comment, unedited:
Ever since I was a kid, my
childhood dream was to design cars. I showed a natural proficiency for
mechanics, so I majored in mechanical engineering and received
undergraduate and graduate degrees at MIT and Stanford respectively.
While at Stanford, I signed up for a summer internship with Ford at one
of their plastics plants in Ohio. The recruiter told me I would get a
full hands-on experience in manufacturing. Instead, I spent 3 months
being the group’s typist because I could type documents on a computer
at 4x the rate of the other old boys there. That’s how they used an
eager engineering grad student. Still determined to chase my childhood
dream, I decided to extend my internship another 3 months when I found
a position to work at Ford’s HQ in Dearborn in their chassis
engineering group. There, I saw the reality of the culture. White
collar workers who are there purely for a paycheck, not to make
something great. The thought of working late was inconceivable, because
work can always wait, but their need to veg out at home could not.
There was no concept of actually having better quality than the
Japanese and no emotional response to always being ranked below a
competitor. To sum it up, everyone was completely satisfied and
comfortable with mediocrity.
Union workers felt that having relatively high pay, low skill jobs
(where pay was based purely on seniority and not on ability) was a
right, not a privilege or reward. When I was testing brake rotors, I
was told I may not touch any tools or perform any work myself, as this
would threaten job security of union workers, so I ended up doing a lot
of waiting for someone to turn a few bolts.
I also quickly realized that there was no path towards promotion for me
as an American born Asian. When I was introduced to someone, I could
see the stress in their face for fear that they would not understand
how to pronounce my name or understand my thick accent. Then relief to
find out my name is “Joe” and I have no accent.
I went back to Stanford to complete my master’s degree, and have been
working for high tech companies in Silicon Valley ever since I
graduated. My original childhood dream was crushed by the reality of
Detroit, but I have since found great satisfaction working at companies
that have created technologies that are in computer and consumer
electronics products that you are probably using every day to make your
life easier, more productive and more enjoyable.
To anticipate some who may say that all big organizations do this newbies, I politely disagree. I've seen what happens at P&G, McKinsey, Google, Facebook, HP (at least in the old days), and, yes, Wal-Mart. It odesn;t need to be like this in a healthy company.
Thoughts? Do you really believe that the current group of executives have the will or skill — let alone the power — to build a place where an engineer like Joe can flourish?
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