[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by snizzle

Man, you deported the guy!

Don’t tell our Secretary of State. He might force me to reveal my secret.

[detamble13]

Originally Posted by Capricio

...follow Dodge's example? ...okay, maybe not.

https://www.theautopian.com/the-curr...-cars-is-over/

This talks about the "changes" on the Corvette team, gets a bit nostalgic over days gone by, and holds out some optimism for the future. I don't really share that optimism. All I see is a future of full of Crossover BEVs that are indistinguistable from each other. A dark age for car enthusiasts.

Good read and an excellent question asked in "What will define the next era of performance vehicles". I lack optimism for the future of enthusiast vehicles as well and think if volume is the main consideration we may never see another SS 1LE. It's great the new ZR1 exists but it might as well be a Pagani Utopia as I can't afford either. The base C8 Vette starts at 90K here in Canada and new Corvettes have been a stretch the budget proposition my entire adult life. I miss the days of Camaros and Firebirds, Saturn Sky's and Pontiac Soltices. An opportunity to own something fun to drive without considering bologne sandwiches for lunch over the 6 year loan period. I would sell pics of my feet but no one would pay for that.

Crazy to think his dismissal was somewhat arbitrary but I guess if they had a number to achieve and not enough employees voluntarily left they had to choose. Thanks for the insight James.

[hesster]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

What I'm about to say doesn't make this situation any better, but it does simply put it in a clearer light.

Harlan was not let go because of any shift in product development direction or anything of the sort. In fact it was borderline arbitrary (see, I said it wasn't better...just different).

One day about 1,000 people got emails saying "you are no longer an employee of General Motors." Period. Done. End of story. I worked with and or was friends with a number of these people, including Harlan.

I assume there was some rationale as to why person A was let go and person B was retained. I sure as hell don't know what that was and neither do the people that were let go. The person who took on my position when I retired is a good friend. He was one of the ones let go. But all the people that reported to him are still in place, reporting to someone else. Like Harlan, this person was one of the absolute best at what he does and is on first name basis with many industry heavyweights, and yet...

My best understanding of this is that it is the follow-on to when several months ago gm offered buyouts to a sizable portion of the salaried workforce and said at the time that if they did not reach their target number of acceptances, there would be non-voluntary separations. Although I did not ask Harlan specifically, others that I spoke with who were let go all said they were offered the last round of buyouts and declined.

I understand all the issues around "right sizing" an organization, but so much of what happened on that day appeared to be very arbitrary. And to do it be email saying "don't report to your office today" is the ultimate in low class.

Well said. In my 30 years at GM, and much of it as a manager, we were always wacking heads and walking people out. Esp during Bankruptcy. In the end it is a business that must be profitable, and employees are a commodity and expendible - at any level, rank, seniority, or salary level. The big dogs making big bucks = big $$ savings.