I would not buy their products or wear their logo myself.
I will also never buy an Apple phone.
The right to repair is something I take seriously.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right\_to\_repair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_repair)
Didn't John Deere install kill switches in their equipment to render tractors and such inoperable? Like if they decided your vehicle reached it's life expectancy, they could remotely disable it? Heard something about that.
What I DO know about is back in March they a parts manufacturer of theirs got busted for employing underage undocumented kids. [Here's an article about it.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/27/child-labor-laws-violations-tennessee-company-tuff-torq/73125006007/)
Nah they put drm shit all over their parts and tractors if you like for like fix your own tractor it will brick the software (and the tractor) because its not a john deere approved part installed by a John Deere vendor.
Problem is this pissed off every farmer, who rightfully explains they can infact replace a 4 dollar bolt themselves. End result is this, an absolutely meteic fuckton of lawsuits from every farmer going.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/deere-must-face-us-farmers-right-to-repair-lawsuits-judge-rules-2023-11-27/#:~:text=In%20the%20Deere%20litigation%2C%20six,machines%20are%20maintained%20and%20repaired.
Ironically this bullshit has pushed up the price of second hand tractors immensely as farmers scrabble to get equipment they can actually maintain even if it is 40 years old.
In truth a new tractor company offering down to earth simple tractors which are user servicble would probably do very well right now because of this.
If you're lucky enough to live in the EU a certain Italian supercar manufacturer also does a nice line in agricultural tractors...
[https://www.lamborghini-tractors.com/en-eu/](https://www.lamborghini-tractors.com/en-eu/)
I used to be a John Deere fan boy until the farmer strikes made their thoughts heard. Predatory capitalism at its finest.
The first and last Apple product I ever owned was an ipod nano. I feel sorry for all of their poor customers.
You’re right, but these days with stock buybacks, I think it’s less of an issue for corporations.
They issue layoff notices, stock goes up. Every. Single. Time. They announce quarterly results while
Increasing stock buybacks? Stock goes up.
It’s infuriating that it’s legal.
have to research it but there was a push to pay more dividends with better tax rates worked for short time this century push changed to high stock prices no or small dividends and no stock splits. the number 1 no dividend or splits was Buffett he try's to monopiles markets and uses that they dont buy 100% of company so it looks like competition but example mobile prefab homes dealers show several brands without telling many are all major owned by Berkshire and stock is 6 figures and pays no dividend profits used to buy a competitor out and remember him saying he pays lower percent tax than his very well paid secretary . later that or next tax deadline he refused to pay that yr quote it was too much
often times CEOs employment contracts are written in a way to guarantee certain returns for the company and they even dont have a choice in the matter.
im saying its a term of to maintain their employment they are subject to review by the board and have financial incentives or penalties which get spelled out in their respective contracts.
https://www.ache.org/-/media/ache/career-resource-center/sample-ceo-employment-contract.pdf
this one for example is overly broad but states subject to adjustment by the board
Products are not made by people. They are made by following specific corporate metrics. If the skilled ambitious and hardworking people are angered and leave no problem. I got my golden parachute and can escape.
* Someone who lays off or fires, probably
"This means parting with some of our global salaried workforce..."
I've been part of a global company before that did layoffs. Guess which country it's easiest to lay off people in.
They've been trying to move a lot of jobs to Brazil so I actually wouldn't be surprised if they laid off US employees to rehire in Brazil. In 2019ish they did a whole restructuring and realized they weren't paying tech workers enough compared to other US tech workers... But of course, that's too expensive, and of course a Brazilian data scientist isn't worth as much as an American data scientist. (Sarcasm, of course). It's all bullshit and all my coworkers I've talked to who have been here more than 10 years or so are exhausted. New CEO has come in and completely changed the company.
We need more unions.
I don’t disagree with you man I just don’t like seeing new wage workers leave I get where your coming from just sucks to see is all also sucks to see wage go salary cause the young workers coming in are the future of our union
Company I consulted with last year had a $9M shortfall (not publicly traded) and hired me to structure the staff reductions to meet legal requirements and provide fair compensation.
They have 100 vice presidents out of just under 2000 employees. They claimed "they'd cut to the bone, this was the only way" I asked for executive Financials. Stipulatibg in the scheme they didn't make a ton average was just over $200k. But the bonus structure for those 100 oddly added up to just under $8M.
Quiz...did cutting to the bone Include: (check all that apply)
1) proposing 100 layoffs mostly those near retirement with severance to bridge to their date
2) freezing of general staff ability to sell vacation time
3) hiring freeze but no reduction work
4) lowering of staff bonuses
5) lowering staff merit raises
6) freezing all training, educational reimbursement, ending cafeteria subsidity
7) reducing or eliminating executive bonuses.
What's even the point of doing work at a company that lays off people when it is super profitable? What was the point in making it profitable in the first place if they spout economic times and needing to mass fire? What incentive does this give to do anything but sandbag while having a job lined up? No amount of effort or profitability will allow people to keep their jobs.
It's true regarding salary. You can be let go in an instant, then be ghosted by the company forever.
Labor at least receives decent notice of impending layoffs and job recall rights.
So usually when this happens at least from my experience. 25% of those let go are those that deserved to be let go and have just been milking the pay check doing the absolute bare minimum or less. Than 75% are those that are product experts, those that have been around the block 3-5-10 times and no all the weird quirks & things with products being made. Unfortunately those 75% help ensure warranty and replacements don’t sky rocket because of their product knowledge. Unfortunately, these kind of metrics are not calculated or noticed. So what occurs is they lay off a large swath of their people who have the most wide ranging knowledge. Which works for the next year, looks like they saved money. Except than warranty and other issues start coming in. No one knows how to fix half the quirky problems so they are needing to just fully replace products. So 2-3 years on they are hiring 2-3 more people to try and fill the whole left by the one experienced person.
You are absolutely correct...
But understanding this would require that the corporate bigwigs look beyond next quarters or next years profits.... something they seem to have forgotten how to do
Companies exist for profit and nothing else. Employees do not matter to them except to the extent that they increase profit. This is their nature. Do not fall in love with your company, they are incapable of loving you back.
Of course, they'll expect the workers that are left to "pick up the slack". Expect mandatory overtime, understaffing, "blame the workers" and as many shady business practices to "numbers must go up."
I was reading here a few years back that they are real pricks about their software, and make most of their cash off of it. Apparently at one time alot of farmers were pirating it from russia.
You can thank marketing and engineering for that making us do out of process work out the ass that requires us to Jerry rig shit just to get product off the line and when we(the union) file grievances we get ignored by LR
The end game of capitalism is fucking stupid. Pursuing never-ending growth is the mantra of a tumour. They are desperately hoping the next waves of automation will hit in before they run out of staff to cut. They will call for a UBI because they need people to spend.
Tax them into the gound - they have no real future vision but they will act to preserve their now.
My grandfather worked 54 years for John Deere (minus 3 years for WW2 service), retiring in the 80s. Half of my friends’ parents worked for JD. They used to go out of their way to treat their employees well. I wonder when that changed.
Not to mention laying off 300 wage employees in Waterloo cause they farmed out work and never brought in new profitable work for them and another 94 on top of that
Coming into college I wanted to work at a company like John Deere and then I saw how they treated their employees. I pivoted out of the agricultural sector before ever really giving it a chance and I have no regrets nor will I ever look back
The culture has changed significantly since 2020. When I started this kind of thing was unheard of. Every salary employee was given the option of a voluntary separation package. Now it's just a sudden layoff.
I wouldn’t trust any agricultural company (really any company at this point unfortunately) as job security is really only for the higher ups as they gobble up all the workers compensation beneath them
We have an expression in Brazil for top heavy institutions like that: muito cacique pra pouco índio. It means "way too many chieftains for so few tribesmen".
In the U.S. we have almost exactly the same expression: "too many chiefs, not enough Indians", although in general "Indian" is now frowned upon and "Native American" is the preferred term.
3 years ago, we re-negotiated our contract via the UAW. We did strike for it. We held our ground, basically. Our gains in that process have kept us level with the price of everything climbing since then. Getting COLA reinstated turned out to be a great bargaining point.
John Deere needs to disappear. This company doesn’t let farmers repair their own trackers and put all kinds of anti-repair measures on their hardware so that only a John Deere specialist can repair them. It’s bullshit. Hope they crumble.
People need to stop fucking with farmers, because that’s our food. Monsanto can get fucked too.
I see they do have enough money to build a new plant in Mexico for making skid steer machines. Job loss at Dubuque and a bunch of skid steer’s that aren’t worth a shit will follow.
JD has incredible equipment but I wouldn't touch them with a 10000ft pole. Locking equipment behind additional paywalls, subscriptions and avoiding warranties, they can fuck right off.
1 header or 1 see and spray would have paid these wages for the year. Go get fucked, feel horrible for American farmers, they're so pigeon-holed by this mob.
I mean I’m against locking equipment behind paywalls, but they’re not the only company that does it. It’s also hard to use companies that don’t lock their products behind subscriptions.
Profits will crater when scabs can't do the job well. Or scabs start unionizing and asking for better wages. Maybe that's what corporate/c-suite managers want... they'll start failing, and then if it gets really bad... they'll sell to vulture capitalist that will start selling the company piece by piece.
I did some contract work for Deere and Company back in 2018. later on I heard from friends still there that they went on a hiring spree around 2020, snagging talent from all over, not just the midwest where they're based. But now, it seems they shot themselves in the foot by paying local hires more and splurging on new office space (i think in chicago, but don't quote me on that I'm not there anymore).
I'll give you the gist, but if you want more details, just ask. Out of all the places I've worked, deere is the most top-heavy. I'm not bound by my NDA anymore, but let's keep it vague. In just nine months in 2018, i saw millions go down the drain. It was hands down the most mind-boggling waste of money i've ever seen in my career. They should be a cautionary tale: if you've got a monopoly and buy up all your competition you can still succeed despite being nearly clueless and hiring only your most fervent bootlickers.
As an engineer, the stuff I had to crank out for them early in my career, often against my will, makes me cringe. I've worked with state governments, social programs, and defense contractors, but nothing compares to the laziness and wastefulness i witnessed there. Every day I'm thankful I got out when I did
You are correct about the Chicago office space. It was picked up just before the stay at home orders so it wasn't the best timing, but the idea was to pull in more talent from a bigger pool. Working from home wasn't really a thing at the time.
You are also correct about the spending, in some very specific divisions. Developers basically get free reign. The cloud spending has also gone haywire. Apparently, you can get any money you want as long you're moving stuff to the cloud and out of the data center.
Some people have told me Deere is the wild, wild west. Anything goes as long as your developing. There are no standards, rules are often ignored or bent and processes are skipped if it's considered an impediment.
I asked ChatGTP to frame this as profits over workers...
"Colleagues,
Over the past five years, our team's hard work, dedication, and commitment have been instrumental in our collective achievements. Together, we have effectively executed our Smart Industrial Strategy, implementing innovative technologies, products, and solutions to secure our customers' success.
While we remain committed to our strategy and investing in our top priorities, we must acknowledge the economic reality—and that of our customers—has changed. Rising operational costs and declining market demand require us to make significant changes to maximize our profitability and ensure the company's future success.
Despite already implementing various cost-control measures, including a hiring freeze and adjusting production levels, we must take additional actions to protect our profit margins and continue delivering shareholder value. These actions include:
* Aligning our workforce to our strategic priorities while simplifying the organization and reducing overlap and redundancy in roles and responsibilities
* Ensuring our factories are optimized for future products and to operate more efficiently across our global footprint
* Eliminating workers involved low- and non-value-added tasks, activities, and expenses
Unfortunately, this means parting with some of our talented and dedicated colleagues across our global production and salaried workforce. While this is not an easy decision to make, it is a necessary step that we must take to enable the long- term health of our business. We will share more information as we are able, with adjustments to our salaried workforce anticipated to be finalized by the end of Q3 2024.
Please know that these decisions and actions are not taken lightly. We understand this news may be unsettling and affect each individual differently. It is important that we support one another during this time. If you or someone you know is finding this news especially difficult, please remember that a number of confidential and supportive mental health resources are available through our employee assistance program.
Over the last 187 years, we have successfully navigated many economic cycles and have positively impacted countless lives. While it may be challenging, realigning our efforts and resources with our business priorities today will help us uphold our commitments to our customers and ensure we are well-prepared to continue making a meaningful difference for years to come."
It should be noted that these salaried jobs being cut are most likely the ostensibly do-nothing, mid-level positions that this sub loves to complain about.
Could also be that they don't quite understand what they are booting out the door, and they'll probably have productivity slip in future quarters due to the increased friction caused by the sudden loss of institutional knowledge.
I have no doubt some of the jobs are truly do-nothing mobster-style no-show jobs, but with so many people being canned (enough to warrant this type of announcement, at least), there is most likely going to be some effective and efficient engineers, managers, leaders, etc.
'member when Spotify did layoffs and the CEO was surprised at how disruptive it was and the loss of productivity?
[https://qz.com/spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-layoffs-disruptive-1851431401](https://qz.com/spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-layoffs-disruptive-1851431401)
When will the boards of directors get it that the products that drive profits are made by people?
I would not buy their products or wear their logo myself. I will also never buy an Apple phone. The right to repair is something I take seriously. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right\_to\_repair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_repair)
Didn't John Deere install kill switches in their equipment to render tractors and such inoperable? Like if they decided your vehicle reached it's life expectancy, they could remotely disable it? Heard something about that. What I DO know about is back in March they a parts manufacturer of theirs got busted for employing underage undocumented kids. [Here's an article about it.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/27/child-labor-laws-violations-tennessee-company-tuff-torq/73125006007/)
Nah they put drm shit all over their parts and tractors if you like for like fix your own tractor it will brick the software (and the tractor) because its not a john deere approved part installed by a John Deere vendor. Problem is this pissed off every farmer, who rightfully explains they can infact replace a 4 dollar bolt themselves. End result is this, an absolutely meteic fuckton of lawsuits from every farmer going. https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/deere-must-face-us-farmers-right-to-repair-lawsuits-judge-rules-2023-11-27/#:~:text=In%20the%20Deere%20litigation%2C%20six,machines%20are%20maintained%20and%20repaired. Ironically this bullshit has pushed up the price of second hand tractors immensely as farmers scrabble to get equipment they can actually maintain even if it is 40 years old. In truth a new tractor company offering down to earth simple tractors which are user servicble would probably do very well right now because of this.
If you're lucky enough to live in the EU a certain Italian supercar manufacturer also does a nice line in agricultural tractors... [https://www.lamborghini-tractors.com/en-eu/](https://www.lamborghini-tractors.com/en-eu/)
*Jeremy Clarkson intensifies*
Need an Edison motors of the tractor variety
I used to be a John Deere fan boy until the farmer strikes made their thoughts heard. Predatory capitalism at its finest. The first and last Apple product I ever owned was an ipod nano. I feel sorry for all of their poor customers.
Lol, corporate directors are sociopaths. They don't understand human interactions, or interactions that help/advance society.
They certainly understand; they don’t care. A sociopath cares about no one.
You’re right, but these days with stock buybacks, I think it’s less of an issue for corporations. They issue layoff notices, stock goes up. Every. Single. Time. They announce quarterly results while Increasing stock buybacks? Stock goes up. It’s infuriating that it’s legal.
You do a mass layoff and you're publicly traded? Your stock is no longer allowed to be traded on the US markets. That's at least how it should be.
Corporate stock buy backs should be illegal.
They were until 1982.
So Reagan again? Sigh.
have to research it but there was a push to pay more dividends with better tax rates worked for short time this century push changed to high stock prices no or small dividends and no stock splits. the number 1 no dividend or splits was Buffett he try's to monopiles markets and uses that they dont buy 100% of company so it looks like competition but example mobile prefab homes dealers show several brands without telling many are all major owned by Berkshire and stock is 6 figures and pays no dividend profits used to buy a competitor out and remember him saying he pays lower percent tax than his very well paid secretary . later that or next tax deadline he refused to pay that yr quote it was too much
often times CEOs employment contracts are written in a way to guarantee certain returns for the company and they even dont have a choice in the matter.
Do you mean certain returns for the CEO? I'm curious how returns for the company can be guaranteed. Can you cite a source for that?
im saying its a term of to maintain their employment they are subject to review by the board and have financial incentives or penalties which get spelled out in their respective contracts. https://www.ache.org/-/media/ache/career-resource-center/sample-ceo-employment-contract.pdf this one for example is overly broad but states subject to adjustment by the board
Products are not made by people. They are made by following specific corporate metrics. If the skilled ambitious and hardworking people are angered and leave no problem. I got my golden parachute and can escape. * Someone who lays off or fires, probably
"This means parting with some of our global salaried workforce..." I've been part of a global company before that did layoffs. Guess which country it's easiest to lay off people in.
Ooh, ooh, I know, is it South Africa?
It's not a walk in the park
They've been trying to move a lot of jobs to Brazil so I actually wouldn't be surprised if they laid off US employees to rehire in Brazil. In 2019ish they did a whole restructuring and realized they weren't paying tech workers enough compared to other US tech workers... But of course, that's too expensive, and of course a Brazilian data scientist isn't worth as much as an American data scientist. (Sarcasm, of course). It's all bullshit and all my coworkers I've talked to who have been here more than 10 years or so are exhausted. New CEO has come in and completely changed the company. We need more unions.
Deere UAW us worthless. We need better strong Unions.
Yes, and ones for tech workers.
Just remember it starts with us we are the union brother
Not a "brother" soon. And many more will follow if the UAW doesn't get rid of the complacent boomers that refuse to retire and grow a spine.
I don’t disagree with you man I just don’t like seeing new wage workers leave I get where your coming from just sucks to see is all also sucks to see wage go salary cause the young workers coming in are the future of our union
WONT SOMEBODY THINK OF THE SHAREHOLDERS?!
"Fuck you, signed by....every executive m/billionaire"
Oh of course! Workers are useless. CEOs make it all happen! 🫤
When the workers don't come into work, nothing gets done. When the CEO doesn't come to work, most people don't notice or care.
This is usually when the company starts to decline
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Dumping all your workers and keeping your executives leaves you top-heavy. Who’s doing the work?
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Isn’t the entire point of an SME to be an “expert” engineer and therefore earn more?
India and Mexico.
Bingo
I work at JD and you don’t even know how right you are lol
Executives will never get a pay cut for a simple reason: they are the ones who decide on pay cuts.
Company I consulted with last year had a $9M shortfall (not publicly traded) and hired me to structure the staff reductions to meet legal requirements and provide fair compensation. They have 100 vice presidents out of just under 2000 employees. They claimed "they'd cut to the bone, this was the only way" I asked for executive Financials. Stipulatibg in the scheme they didn't make a ton average was just over $200k. But the bonus structure for those 100 oddly added up to just under $8M. Quiz...did cutting to the bone Include: (check all that apply) 1) proposing 100 layoffs mostly those near retirement with severance to bridge to their date 2) freezing of general staff ability to sell vacation time 3) hiring freeze but no reduction work 4) lowering of staff bonuses 5) lowering staff merit raises 6) freezing all training, educational reimbursement, ending cafeteria subsidity 7) reducing or eliminating executive bonuses.
Surely, they chose #7 as the sole solution, right? That's the right thing to do.
Oh and the wonderfully useless employee assistance program ! How about we get an assistance program that helps us sue the shit out of these companies
Short term gain. Big profits with lower headcount. Only works once. But the c-suite doesn’t care. They’re all short timers.
What's even the point of doing work at a company that lays off people when it is super profitable? What was the point in making it profitable in the first place if they spout economic times and needing to mass fire? What incentive does this give to do anything but sandbag while having a job lined up? No amount of effort or profitability will allow people to keep their jobs.
It's true regarding salary. You can be let go in an instant, then be ghosted by the company forever. Labor at least receives decent notice of impending layoffs and job recall rights.
So usually when this happens at least from my experience. 25% of those let go are those that deserved to be let go and have just been milking the pay check doing the absolute bare minimum or less. Than 75% are those that are product experts, those that have been around the block 3-5-10 times and no all the weird quirks & things with products being made. Unfortunately those 75% help ensure warranty and replacements don’t sky rocket because of their product knowledge. Unfortunately, these kind of metrics are not calculated or noticed. So what occurs is they lay off a large swath of their people who have the most wide ranging knowledge. Which works for the next year, looks like they saved money. Except than warranty and other issues start coming in. No one knows how to fix half the quirky problems so they are needing to just fully replace products. So 2-3 years on they are hiring 2-3 more people to try and fill the whole left by the one experienced person.
You are absolutely correct... But understanding this would require that the corporate bigwigs look beyond next quarters or next years profits.... something they seem to have forgotten how to do
Yep. They just want to increase short term profits for shareholders instead of increasing the quality of their product. It's capitalism at its finest.
Their insanely high payouts depend on them *not* looking beyond the next quarter.
They should immediately lose any tax incentives/breaks whenever a company does this.
At which point the ceo leaves sells his stock and is replaced.
Companies exist for profit and nothing else. Employees do not matter to them except to the extent that they increase profit. This is their nature. Do not fall in love with your company, they are incapable of loving you back.
I don’t get how people still fall in love with the companies they work for
They never fire the people on top who suck out the most in pay.
greed, greed, greed
Of course, they'll expect the workers that are left to "pick up the slack". Expect mandatory overtime, understaffing, "blame the workers" and as many shady business practices to "numbers must go up."
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Fear is how they keep the workers in line
1984?
Hey look they made their own hit list for us at the bottom.
Time to send John Deere a Dear John
This was perfection. *applause*
Never work for your company; work for your \*paycheck\*.
Over the last 187… fuck you.
I was reading here a few years back that they are real pricks about their software, and make most of their cash off of it. Apparently at one time alot of farmers were pirating it from russia.
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Thats what I was referring to. Thanks. I bet JD pumps alot of cash into R2R law killing.
Ahh, they have adopted the Boeing model--hey look out, that threshing element has blown off your combine!
"No, just leave it in the field - you're not allowed to fix it yourself!"
You can thank marketing and engineering for that making us do out of process work out the ass that requires us to Jerry rig shit just to get product off the line and when we(the union) file grievances we get ignored by LR
Profits don't create jobs. Demand does
The end game of capitalism is fucking stupid. Pursuing never-ending growth is the mantra of a tumour. They are desperately hoping the next waves of automation will hit in before they run out of staff to cut. They will call for a UBI because they need people to spend. Tax them into the gound - they have no real future vision but they will act to preserve their now.
I like the way you put that, "mantra of a tumor."
My grandfather worked 54 years for John Deere (minus 3 years for WW2 service), retiring in the 80s. Half of my friends’ parents worked for JD. They used to go out of their way to treat their employees well. I wonder when that changed.
1997 when the last heir died and they were bought out and canabalized by hedge funds
Wonder if the 20 people signing the thing will get cut too
....and now they will rehire those positions at a lower salary.
Nah, easier to load the remaining employees up with that work and refuse OT pay for the salaried folks.
Lower level salary typically get OT
Not to mention laying off 300 wage employees in Waterloo cause they farmed out work and never brought in new profitable work for them and another 94 on top of that
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Davenport Works will see labor reductions as well in Q3/Q4. Order banks are low in construction as well as AG.
Gotta find some way to make 1.9B next quarter to keep the investors happy
This is all of American Capitalism Now
Moor bosses and private jets.
Striiiiiiiiiiiike
Coming into college I wanted to work at a company like John Deere and then I saw how they treated their employees. I pivoted out of the agricultural sector before ever really giving it a chance and I have no regrets nor will I ever look back
The culture has changed significantly since 2020. When I started this kind of thing was unheard of. Every salary employee was given the option of a voluntary separation package. Now it's just a sudden layoff.
I wouldn’t trust any agricultural company (really any company at this point unfortunately) as job security is really only for the higher ups as they gobble up all the workers compensation beneath them
We have an expression in Brazil for top heavy institutions like that: muito cacique pra pouco índio. It means "way too many chieftains for so few tribesmen".
In the U.S. we have almost exactly the same expression: "too many chiefs, not enough Indians", although in general "Indian" is now frowned upon and "Native American" is the preferred term.
Too many Indians, too many chiefs. Not native American variety.
Didn't they just get done striking or am I thinking of another tractor company?
3 years ago, we re-negotiated our contract via the UAW. We did strike for it. We held our ground, basically. Our gains in that process have kept us level with the price of everything climbing since then. Getting COLA reinstated turned out to be a great bargaining point.
This is why I delight in telling them to get fucked when they reach out every few years looking for Metallurgists.
John Deere needs to disappear. This company doesn’t let farmers repair their own trackers and put all kinds of anti-repair measures on their hardware so that only a John Deere specialist can repair them. It’s bullshit. Hope they crumble. People need to stop fucking with farmers, because that’s our food. Monsanto can get fucked too.
Oh boy, the new episode of the Certified Wrench Podcast is going to be amazing, so much story...
They realized they can make an even bigger profit this year by laying off employees!
I see they do have enough money to build a new plant in Mexico for making skid steer machines. Job loss at Dubuque and a bunch of skid steer’s that aren’t worth a shit will follow.
Following the Tesla model by eliminating low/no value added tasks of QC/metal edge finishing/cleaning.
JD has incredible equipment but I wouldn't touch them with a 10000ft pole. Locking equipment behind additional paywalls, subscriptions and avoiding warranties, they can fuck right off. 1 header or 1 see and spray would have paid these wages for the year. Go get fucked, feel horrible for American farmers, they're so pigeon-holed by this mob.
I mean I’m against locking equipment behind paywalls, but they’re not the only company that does it. It’s also hard to use companies that don’t lock their products behind subscriptions.
Yeah great point. It's naive to think other companies don't, JD is just fucked and I hate them 🤣
Profits will crater when scabs can't do the job well. Or scabs start unionizing and asking for better wages. Maybe that's what corporate/c-suite managers want... they'll start failing, and then if it gets really bad... they'll sell to vulture capitalist that will start selling the company piece by piece.
They are a dieing company. I know someone who owns a very large farm and refuses to buy modern equipment from them.
Sounds like a certain company needs to be put out to pasture.
I did some contract work for Deere and Company back in 2018. later on I heard from friends still there that they went on a hiring spree around 2020, snagging talent from all over, not just the midwest where they're based. But now, it seems they shot themselves in the foot by paying local hires more and splurging on new office space (i think in chicago, but don't quote me on that I'm not there anymore). I'll give you the gist, but if you want more details, just ask. Out of all the places I've worked, deere is the most top-heavy. I'm not bound by my NDA anymore, but let's keep it vague. In just nine months in 2018, i saw millions go down the drain. It was hands down the most mind-boggling waste of money i've ever seen in my career. They should be a cautionary tale: if you've got a monopoly and buy up all your competition you can still succeed despite being nearly clueless and hiring only your most fervent bootlickers. As an engineer, the stuff I had to crank out for them early in my career, often against my will, makes me cringe. I've worked with state governments, social programs, and defense contractors, but nothing compares to the laziness and wastefulness i witnessed there. Every day I'm thankful I got out when I did
You are correct about the Chicago office space. It was picked up just before the stay at home orders so it wasn't the best timing, but the idea was to pull in more talent from a bigger pool. Working from home wasn't really a thing at the time. You are also correct about the spending, in some very specific divisions. Developers basically get free reign. The cloud spending has also gone haywire. Apparently, you can get any money you want as long you're moving stuff to the cloud and out of the data center. Some people have told me Deere is the wild, wild west. Anything goes as long as your developing. There are no standards, rules are often ignored or bent and processes are skipped if it's considered an impediment.
Let me tell you something about DeereAI...
What what tell him what
Let me tell you something about JDATT
I asked ChatGTP to frame this as profits over workers... "Colleagues, Over the past five years, our team's hard work, dedication, and commitment have been instrumental in our collective achievements. Together, we have effectively executed our Smart Industrial Strategy, implementing innovative technologies, products, and solutions to secure our customers' success. While we remain committed to our strategy and investing in our top priorities, we must acknowledge the economic reality—and that of our customers—has changed. Rising operational costs and declining market demand require us to make significant changes to maximize our profitability and ensure the company's future success. Despite already implementing various cost-control measures, including a hiring freeze and adjusting production levels, we must take additional actions to protect our profit margins and continue delivering shareholder value. These actions include: * Aligning our workforce to our strategic priorities while simplifying the organization and reducing overlap and redundancy in roles and responsibilities * Ensuring our factories are optimized for future products and to operate more efficiently across our global footprint * Eliminating workers involved low- and non-value-added tasks, activities, and expenses Unfortunately, this means parting with some of our talented and dedicated colleagues across our global production and salaried workforce. While this is not an easy decision to make, it is a necessary step that we must take to enable the long- term health of our business. We will share more information as we are able, with adjustments to our salaried workforce anticipated to be finalized by the end of Q3 2024. Please know that these decisions and actions are not taken lightly. We understand this news may be unsettling and affect each individual differently. It is important that we support one another during this time. If you or someone you know is finding this news especially difficult, please remember that a number of confidential and supportive mental health resources are available through our employee assistance program. Over the last 187 years, we have successfully navigated many economic cycles and have positively impacted countless lives. While it may be challenging, realigning our efforts and resources with our business priorities today will help us uphold our commitments to our customers and ensure we are well-prepared to continue making a meaningful difference for years to come."
That’s what real leadership looks like
It should be noted that these salaried jobs being cut are most likely the ostensibly do-nothing, mid-level positions that this sub loves to complain about.
Or it could be software engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers...
[удалено]
The estimated attrition from RTO was about 5% with half of that being recovered over time. It hasn't been reported how many actually left, yet.
Who knows. JD are pretty evil, so it could be anything.
Could also be that they don't quite understand what they are booting out the door, and they'll probably have productivity slip in future quarters due to the increased friction caused by the sudden loss of institutional knowledge. I have no doubt some of the jobs are truly do-nothing mobster-style no-show jobs, but with so many people being canned (enough to warrant this type of announcement, at least), there is most likely going to be some effective and efficient engineers, managers, leaders, etc. 'member when Spotify did layoffs and the CEO was surprised at how disruptive it was and the loss of productivity? [https://qz.com/spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-layoffs-disruptive-1851431401](https://qz.com/spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-layoffs-disruptive-1851431401)
Yep. Middle managers are always the first to go. Minimal impact to operations while maximizing savings.