It is clear that many employees are not exactly pleased about the return-to-office (RTO) concept. Remote work was a demonstration of trust on both sides, and for the most part, employees delivered, keeping businesses running through a pandemic and beyond. But at legacy automaker Ford (F), the natives are getting downright restless, as illustrated by a recent hack complete with obscene messaging about RTO. Investors proved oddly pleased by this development, though, and sent shares up around 3% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
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The discontent had been in place for some time, apparently, but it came to a head just recently when meeting room screens at Ford had been hacked. On said screens, the image of CEO Jim Farley’s head came up with a big red crossed-through circle around it, the symbol for “no.” Text that accompanied the picture featured a two-word phrase. One word was “RTO.” The other was an obscenity.
Reports further noted that the screens were displaying this message all over Ford. Not only did Blue Oval employees spot the message, but screens at Ford Racing and Roush also saw the message. An employee with Ford noted, “Upset level varies. Some people bought homes farther away. Some people had a child, some people got a dog. We were promised that remote work is here to stay and people built their lives around that. An about face has real negative consequences for real people.”
South African Shuffle
While workers stage quiet protests over RTO in the United States, Ford workers in Africa are having a tougher time. Specifically, South Africa, where workers are looking at a retrenchment of 474 workers. For those not familiar, “retrenchment” is basically just another word for “layoff,” and Ford notified the union accordingly.
Workers at the Silverton plant in Pretoria, and the Struandale engine plant in Gqeberha were impacted by the change, which Ford blamed on reduced orders for the Ranger pickup in Europe. Changes in tax law in the United Kingdom, which saw Rangers converted from commercial vans to passenger cars for tax purposes, did not help matters.
Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on three Buys, eight Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 15.61% rally in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $10.99 per share implies 12.74% downside risk.
