Profit doesn't matter if it doesn't make the line go up! It's a failing company because line didn't go up! Tractors aren't the product. Only line is product. All hail line. If we pray to line, perhaps line go up?
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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Yes, yes, now: about those executive paychecks. We feel $27M per year isn't competitive. We’re thinking more like 500M. To start.
They wouldn't use the word competitive though. They use that word for the lower employees, and its meaning is "we'd pay you lower if we could". Well actually I guess for a few hundred they did just that by going to zero. Nothing can be done though, line is all. The joke at my work is about the company stock price. All praise stock. We don't see anything from it, but it's glorious.
We ONLY made 10 BILLION in profit!?
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK JOHNSON!? We made 10 last year! This year is supposed to be 12 billion!
YOU'RE ALL FIRED!
The inner workings of a Totally Sane Business Economy™
Humanity is not important. Humanity must sacrifice itself for The Line.
The Line will continue to Go Up, whether or not humanity is around to see it. All hail the Line.
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10 to 15 yrs later: "Line no longer go up! We need bailout!, if no bailout, line go down and politicians fired!"
Yup sadly with how the Crockmarket works a company can fail because the line didn't go up. If it doesn't go up investors will pull out and kill a company but this thinking is bullshit because as soon as a company starts to dip some will sell but others will step in and then the new line is a bit lower but then it can go up without layoffs.
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If anyone hasn't watched the latest Wendover Productions video, I highly recommend it.
It covers John Deere's transition into a technology company and details why they're laying off a lot workers. Link
I think they're going "fabless", and focusing on the automation technology and leaving the manufacturing to third parties.
Wonder if you could leave the bs out and order directly from the suppliers.
These guys are planning on running a negative added value company.
They're selling the software that makes all the shit actually work. So you'd get a tractor with a bunch of processing power and have to program it yourself.
I’m willing to bet we could get open source software that works way better.
Likewise, if Microsoft stopped making Windows and everyone had to switch to something open source, the quality of personal computing would go through the roof.
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Please ask Boeing how that plan is working out for them?
I get why people are upset by the headline. It is written to provoke anger. Unfortunately, anger at the wrong issue.
I understand the argument that a large company can absorb the cost of workers they don't currently. Though it's unrealistic to expect them too.
I lived in the Quad Cities for a number of years. A large majority of people I know, both family and friends, worked for either Deere or Case IH - until they closed the plant in East Moline.
Layoffs are a yearly thing. Deere, Case, Caterpillar, they all hire a bunch of people in the beginning of the year and lay them off towards the end. It's typically around August or September, and they announce it in July. Everyone in the Quad Cities knows it. It is expected. Sometime early next year, they are going to hire these jobs back. The people who take these jobs go into it knowing this is going to happen.
It can suck being let go and some people might struggle with it. Those who are used to this cycle treat it as a well-paying seasonal job. Many already have something else lined up. This is only a single, anecdotal, data point, so take it with a grain of salt... one of my uncles works for Deere and is a bus driver for one of the school districts. He knows Deere is going to let him go by fall so he has the driving job for the rest of the year. In spring, he will go back to Deere.
Perspective is also important. Deere has somewhere between 80k and 85k employees. They are laying off < 1000 based on this story. That's the equivalent of a small, 80 person company hiring 1 person to get through the holiday season, then laying them off in January. Next year, they will do it again.
Headlines like this are nothing more than a distraction from real issues. For example, why does any company have multi-billions of dollars in profit to begin with? It just means they are charging more than they need to. The farmers who buy Deere equipment then have to charge more for their produce. Which means the stores have to charge more. Which means we pay more for our food. Deere's profits are leading to higher food prices for everyone. To me, that is more of an issue than 1/80th of their workforce being in a hire/layoff cycle.
Here's the deal: these people aren't being laid off because the company is losing money, they are being laid off because the company is not making as much money as it predicted it would last quarter.
Now, not making as much money as you thought while still being profitable is not a bad thing except for one person: the c-level executive.
The c-level has profit targets he needs to hit to unlock a huge bonus. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake for him, that one individual.
So these hundreds of people aren't losing their jobs so the company can thrive and be healthy. They're losing their jobs so one person can make hundreds of thousands of dollars more on top of their existing salary which was always guaranteed to them.
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You know it didn't use to be this way? There was a time when you could be 'A GE man'. You could work at a company for your whole life. You would not get laid off and rehired whenever it was convenient for the company, rather they'd show you some loyalty and you'd show them the same, this would be backed by employee profit sharing schemes, incentivising higher performance.
The heart of this deal between workers and management was ripped out when management chased higher share valuations, with stock bonuses for themselves instead of workers. It became cheaper to fire 1/80th of the workforce because you could break up unions that way, management could write off all those salaries to bump up the quarterly earnings, increasing the stock price and earning themselves bonuses at the expense of workers who as you said, just learn to get by.
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You're looking at it from the perspective of the customer, but another aspect to get angry about is what is completely insane to someone who doesn't live in the US. How the fuck can a company hire people who they're going to let go in less than a year, and do that year and year? Where I live that's illegal. The government will grab the company by the balls if they do that.
If you're a company and you want to fire someone you first have to give a good reason why their position is being removed, then you need a good reason why you can't give them a different position within the company and finally, when you've actually fired the person, you need to give them a government regulated severance package, which is usually multiple months pay in advance. And you can't fire on the spot, you need to give at minimum a 2 week notice. In case you didn't notice, those are rules of you just want to fire a single person, layoffs have even more rules. In short, where I live companies use layoffs as a last resort because it's guaranteed to lose them money.
The entire hire/layoff cycle you take as something normal is something not normal to me. So this is a reminder to Americans that it is not normal and you can demand for more.
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Nothing about the situation you described is normal or acceptable.
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The need for year-over-year growth is ultimately strangling the system. At the moment it is easy to lay a bunch of people off and claim that growth. Eventually (at some point in the future), it won't be mathematically possible unless the C-suite starts taking pay cuts, or they at least start eschewing their crazy bonuses. Expect them to milk that for good press ("These forward-thinking CEOs are dumping the bonuses for... insert any random bullshit here!") or other such marketing nonsense.
Eventually, it will stop, when the system no longer functions at all. Infinite year-over-year growth across the board is an impossibility.
Not good enough for Republicans. John Deere has to abandon any and all programs to have a diverse workforce.
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We’re living through the shittiest part of late-stage capitalism. It’ll never be good for typical people again.
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I'm one of those guys that's getting laid off 😭
Sorry to hear this nobody deserves to be laid off. I hope you have a lot of money stashed away.
Laying off employees should be illegal. Fuck greedy dirty executives and CEOs.
It's actually not that bad because I'm in the UAW. So contractually, Deere still pays me "subpay" for almost a year (way less, but it's something) and I keep my health insurance for 6 months. I also get callback rights for 3 years and I'm one of the first like 50 guys to get called back. I heard from a guy that would get fired for saying so that we'll be back about the first of the year, so I'm just pretending it's a long vacation.
I feel really bad for some of my salaried friends, they have no protections. They don't get subpay, they don't keep their insurance, and they definitely don't get callback rights. Those poor bastards don't even know who's getting canned yet.
Meanwhile Deere spent billions buying back stock and sending our jobs to fuckin Mexico. When we went on strike I said we should open negotiations by rolling the CEO's severed head across the table. Everyone said "God damn Bizzle, you ever consider chilling?" but now look, they think they can do whatever they want. No accountability. Welcome to the "Land of the Free", as long as you're fabulously wealthy.
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I think we found out who ate all the pies.
I'm MUCH Happier with my Tax Dollars going to these Job Creators laying off Workers then to Feed Starving American Children!
-Fiscally Responsible Jesus Humping Republicans!
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John Deer stock buybacks
- April 30, 2024: $1.1 billion
- January 31, 2024: $1.3 billion
- October 31, 2023: $2.6 billion
- July 31, 2023: $2.1 billion
- April 30, 2023: $1.3 billion
- January 31, 2023: $1.3 billion
- October 31, 2022: $1.2 billion
- July 31, 2022: $1.3 billion
Total: $12.2 billion in 2 years.
7-8 billion actually. But I suppose they rounded up.
https://thehill.com/business/4750201-john-deere-laying-off-hundreds-of-midwest-workers/
What’s a few billion between the bourgeoisie.
No joke, in certain instances of my profession a few billion is a rounding error. Real money numbers today are fucking enormous.
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Blind greed is a deadly affliction for all but the afflicted
Well of course, they’re not an employment company, they’re a money making company. The workers can go eat sand, and they’ll sell it to you, with no fear of the government doing anything.
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