Ford Audio-Video Systems reviews

I’m not really sure where to start. The pay is ridiculously low for industry standards, or any industry for that matter. It was explained to me that if you “proved yourself” that it’s possible to get raises, and move up in the company. From what I saw, “proving yourself” had little to do with your work ethic and ability, but with how much you could handle management’s “expectations”, which is basically working as hard as you can while your boss walks around and points out what everyone else is doing wrong. In my time at Ford, it seemed like the only enjoyment the employees got out of their jobs, was to belittle and berate the mistakes of others. Granted, these people made as many mistakes as the next person, but for some reason they felt like it was their duty to correct that person by any means at their disposal. I constantly saw coworkers research an issue for upwards to an hour so they could find every detail wrong with a situation and map out a game plan for how they were going to drop it in the offending person’s lap. While I saw management do this to their subordinates, I also saw them do this to each other. I can honestly say that this is the most toxic culture I have ever been around. While it does have a mom and pop feel to the organization, management is like the attention-seeking children always trying to get on the parent’s good side (The Fords). There is no semblance of mentoring or coaching at Ford. There are a long list of processes that must be followed to a T, even if it doesn’t make sense. Some reviews have talked about “pet policies” from the home office, and how they tried to enforce on other branches. This was the case for my branch. I couldn’t count the times that I was told “if you don’t do this or that, that you’ll get on the Ford’s bad side”, only to not comply and nothing was ever said. There are a lot of useless meetings, that are recorded, and for the most part could be answered in a short email rather than a 30 minute to 2 hour meeting. There isn’t anything that happens at Ford without the Fords knowing about it. They do enlist employees to spy on other employees and report back the findings. There are no performance reviews, unless you ask for them. I was told when I put in my resignation that I was being considered for a promotion, but that was the first I had heard of anything like that. I can’t stress how much everything is micro-managed. More on the toxic culture—I watched bosses demean and berate their subordinates in front of other employees. One manager told his employee that he didn’t know what he did all day, and that he could do the subordinate’s 40 hr/wk job, in 8 hr/wk. Other coworkers went on vacations, only to come back buried with the work that their boss was too “busy” to help with. If you plan on staying in the AV field, this is good experience to take to another company. If not, this is similar to a construction company, and your experience will be counted as that. If you’re fresh out of high school or college and have no experience whatsoever, this is a good job to get some experience and move on. To boil it done, your pay will be low but you won’t expect high pay starting out. Your boss will probably know a lot about the process that the company uses, but not much else outside of that. You’ll meet some nice people, and a couple won’t talk about you behind your back. Any interactions with the Fords after the first couple of initial ones will be stress-inducing and terrible. Keep your chin up—in a couple of years, you’ll be able to move on to greener pastures, where you can look back and be thankful that you’ll never have to go back to this place.

To qualify myself to the unknown reader, I was with this company for many years and advanced multiple times during my tenure. Yes, this is a negative. Do not stay with Ford. Get whatever experience or money that you need and leave ASAP. There seems to be many positive reviews that were "encouraged" after an employee received a positive performance review. Some were simply written by upper management after being directed to do so. This is an attempt to counter the negative reviews. Ignore these. They are not genuine. On the other hand, it's a hilarious accusation that they claim all these negative reviews are being done by their competitors. Why aren't these competitors receiving similarly specific negative reviews? Why are there so many consistent negative reviews and accounts confirming they are true? I want to preface these next sections, that this is mostly focused on my experience with the Fords. 99% of people here were great. The previous CEO should be avoided at all costs. Her wild mood swings are something of legend. You never know which version you will get. When the head of HR quits after having nasty things said about her family, you know she's toxic. The Dallas Division Manager is not to be trusted and is unprofessional. Micro-management would be an improvement. Nano-management would be more apt. Why? It's baked into the cake! Everything your manager is required to report on to their bosses all circles back to that general distrust of everyone. The more experienced people can work around these and build a rapport of trust within their department. Pay is below industry competition for many roles. Do not buy into the false promises of profit sharing covering any shortages from your salary. Those are vastly lower than what you will be told. Performance reviews are not scheduled. If you're working a role in a cost center (not profit) then you'll get repeatedly bumped for other people's reviews. Get used to waiting 6-12 months for your review after you request it. Hey! Just in time to request it again! But wait, now you have objectives you must complete in X amount of days to earn that juicy pay bump (if you even get one). Do not buy into any vague "carrot-on-a-stick" goals. They will find any arbitrary reason to not pay on those. There's zero consideration for cost of living raises so there's no minimum to expect. The uppermost management (The 2 Fords) have little regard for their people and lead by an example of distrust and hammer. Distrust and question everything your employees do. Hammer them into a pulp at every opportunity. The good leaders know to ignore this example and approach with a more even-keeled and understanding approach. The newer or more spineless leaders will follow their tactics without question. One of these retains good employees and shoulders the abuse from up top. The other does not retain their employees and takes a different kind of abuse. Cause believe me, at some point you will get in their sights if you stick around long enough and you will be in the wrong for something. Best thing to do when this happens is just admit you were wrong (even when you know you weren't) cause you cannot convince them otherwise. Be prepared for multi-hour phone calls or meetings when this happens and good luck keeping up with your work as a result. Just another negative for them to hammer you on. It's a common practice to miss the forest for the trees here. You'll be asked (more like forced) to investigate issues that are inconsequential to company time, practices, or cost, but the investigation and ultimate resolution cost will exceed whatever the initial goal was. Stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. Lack of consideration for personnel hours in modifying a procedure to account for a 0.1% error. Someone miss something once in 10 years? Better update the procedure and have everyone in that role check for it forever. Do that ad nauseum and soon you have over-inflated processes with minimal return to the company and far more stress to the employee. There are some processes that require they are touched by a minimum of 6 people (many in corporate roles). You'd think there would be some high dollar threshold for this. Nope! $50 minimum. Constantly flabbergasted at the ritualistic loss of money in operations. Training is great for entry-level positions, but that falls off precipitously as you advance. Don't expect them to increase your salary in correlation to your new responsibilities. It will be based on whatever you hired in at, not what the position is typically paid based on experience or the job market. Specific job or position expectations get very vague or are completely missing as you advance. Your tasks and expectations are decided on a whim and constantly change. Let's not forget to mention workloads. You will find many people get new tasks heaped upon them and are told this is temporary, but its usually permanent. Have expectations been managed for this with your current responsibilities? Was your pay adjusted? The answer to both will be a resounding NO. Just be a team player. They love to fire people and then not replace them. Just put the workload on the next "best" person and watch them slowly drown. Rinse and repeat. These practices really show the lack of appreciation and forethought they have for their workers. PTO is a joke. You accrue at a set rate daily 365 days a year which sounds pretty good, until you see its PTO for everything. This includes sick days. Also, inclement weather and bereavement policies are a joke. Make sure you bank that precious PTO or you won't get to see gran-gran at her funeral without taking a pay cut! Whatever PTO you do use, don't be surprised if you are contacted. There's little to no consideration of your attempts at having a work/life balance. Having surgery? Sick? You'll still get calls. Are you hourly? Salary? Guess what? You get treated the same regardless. You still have to fill out timesheets to account for every minute of your time, and depending on how much you do in a given day, this may require you to allot time just to fill out a timesheet otherwise you'll be grilled on where your time went the next day. Remember that distrust I mentioned? Covid-19 was an eye opener showing how many people didn't need to report to offices to work. Ford had to adjust to this to retain and gain employees in roles that did not require people in the field or at a cubicle. Understand they did this very begrudgingly. Again, distrust. You're probably not at your computer working. For a technology-based company its quite ironic how dated the systems are. They look like they're from 1973 and very well might be. They work in the limited capacity they are in, but there are tons of automation features being missed by refusing to move to current standards. Travel is very high for most positions. If you're in a position that does not require travel, don't be surprised if someday they find a reason for you to travel. Be ready to share a hotel room when you do travel. Privacy? What's that? Regardless of the positive contributions you make to the company, they won't truly be appreciated. They will always want more and if you can't deliver on that, your past achievements are null and void. You are replaceable. Everything is tracked down to whatever tools you use or items at your desk. That stapler? It's assigned to you cause you sit at that desk. That chair? You sit in it so it's assigned to you. Every little thing you touch is assigned and tracked cause you cannot be trusted. Stay on top of these fixed assets from day one so you don't get stuck paying for any mis-assigned assets when you leave.