According to an internal email and statements from a company spokesperson, Ford Motors has adopted a new strategy for dealing with white collar workers with a history of underperformance. The company will now offer workers demonstrating low performance metrics the option to enroll in its new performance enhancement program to help them improve their productivity, or the option for severance pay. While this new system is intended to help managers address the issue of low performance, it will only be offered to workers with more than eight years of experience. Ford's new policy reflects the measures that auto companies have begun to take to lower costs in anticipation of an impending economic downturn.
See "Ford Motors introduces new performance enhancement program to address declining job performance amongst white collar workers", Nora Eckert, Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2022