James Ford

This is a Dangerous Place for Women in STEM to Work PTO/Bereavement- PTO is extremely limited, especially in your first two years. As a salaried employee, PTO is not available for your first 6 months, however, my grandmother passed away in that time frame. Bereavement only covers your nuclear family, and when my grandmother passed away in the first six months of employment management fought me every step of the way to take time off to go to the funeral. I ultimately went anyway and was docked pay as a salaried employee. -Overtime Pay- Although I was docked pay for when I took time off without accrued PTO, the times I worked overtime did not result in overtime pay. As a salaried employee, I wasn't allowed to flex my time every day and needed to log 8 hours or take PTO, regardless of how many overtime hours I worked that week. -COVID Response- As COVID became more prevalent in the US, Ford took zero precautions and endangered everyone who had to go onsite. There were many times people got COVID onsite and as long as you weren't showing symptoms you were expected to come in, regardless of being around multiple people who had COVID. -Site Conditions- I was in a unique position because I was on a construction site for two years. This is not something that normally happens to Ford employees, as the work is normally completed in office spaces, however, the job site conditions were horrendous. We were not provided water from Ford the entire time I worked on this job site, despite the fact that I requested water multiple times from managers. I opted to bring a Gatorade container of water for the entire team because Ford refused to provide water and there were no water spouts on site. I was never compensated for this or even thanked. In addition to the water issues, even during COVID the PortaPotties we had to use were cleaned once or twice a week (with over 200 people using them daily) and never had hand sanitizer in them before or during COVID. This was more of a GC issue, but when I brought up my concerns about the PortaPotties and their cleanliness during COVID to Ford management I was laughed at or told it wasn't an issue. -Mistrust- In general employees are not trusted at this company. I was extremely micromanaged here. I once had to leave work in the middle of the day and go to the emergency room. I came back to work the next day and in the middle of the workday, HR called and told me I could not be at work until I had a doctor's note explaining the reason for my ER visit. When I called the ER, they told me it was illegal for a company to request a note regarding the treatment I received. Stuck in a hard place, I was forced to drive an hour and a half to the ER to get a generic doctor's note given to children for school and had to take PTO to do this. -Reviews- I did not get my first review until I had worked at Ford for two years. I was extremely disappointed by the way these are conducted. All concerns I brought up were not listened to. After expressing my frustrations with the stipulations of salaried pay and the restrictive nature of working 8 hours per day minimum without being able to flex hours, I was told to alert management if anyone tells me to stop working once I hit 8 hours a day. It was clear to me that any input I gave was not listened to and was instead brushed off as a silly idea from a young person. It is clear that employees do not have any say in how the company is run. -Sexism- Inappropriate comments were constantly made about my appearance by my coworkers. I was constantly talked over, and any concerns I brought up about not feeling safe on the job site or with my coworkers were brushed off, or I was told that I needed to be tougher to work in this industry. Talk of sexual assault was casual and when I brought this up as being inappropriate, I was told by coworkers that I was being too much of a social justice warrior or that I took everything too seriously. In this essentially all-male space, especially in the field, I never felt as if anyone was on my side or that anything I said was believed to be credible. I would highly caution young women from this company, especially if you will need to be in the field at all.