“GM. What are you doing?” they titled the thread. While lengthy, the post recounts their more than five years with the carmaker. And it seems when it comes to “culture,” some managers and their teams have been wondering where the heck it went.

First, let’s note that this is a Reddit post without clear indication of the OP’s real name or employment verification. We use “reportedly” and “they said” wholeheartedly, here.

The post lays out a stark picture of cultural and operational shifts inside GM over the past several years

Particularly within the IT organization. The former leader says GM “Performance Managed” him out of his role about four months ago.

They detail what they call “harsh shifts” in performance management, leadership, and company priorities that left many veteran employees feeling marginalized or pushed out.

The issues began in late 2022, the former IT leader recalls, following the hiring of a new chief HR officer

They say remote work policies were rolled back abruptly, despite pandemic-era success with a fully distributed workforce. “This was a complete shift from the high praise we received about how much we had accomplished in the prior two years.”

Performance management also hardened. Employees rated “minus” under the TeamGM system were no longer coached or reassigned. They were dismissed.

The post details the ripple effects: voluntary separation packages (VSPs) saw over 700 IT professionals leave, including many top leaders. “The sign of things to come was clear. Out with the old, in with the new.”

New IT leadership further soured GM culture

After Mike Abbott came on as executive vice president of software and services, the OP says “everyone saw the arrogance and attitude,” and that “he wasted no time in closing the AZ IT center. No warning, no reasons, not relocation of critical assets. Gone.”

And the worst part was, OP says, “he treated it like it was no big deal. Heartless, cold and calculated.” A California office opened shortly after.

OP claims these moves were more about optics than operational necessity

Then came a wave of outside hires, primarily from Apple, replacing seasoned GM employees with younger, less experienced staff unfamiliar with automotive systems.

Reddit commenters echoed the concerns

Many praised the former leader’s clarity and said they saw similar changes across GM.

Some noted the cultural regression post-pandemic, calling leadership shifts “aggressively dysfunctional and toxic” and highlighting how stack ranking and forced ratings demoralized staff. 

Former employees lamented that loyal, highly skilled talent was leaving, while new hires with limited experience were elevated.

Several predicted the IT organization and other divisions risked long-term decline if the trend continued.

GM’s layoffs

Over the past few years, GM implemented layoffs and VSPs across multiple departments.

In late 2023 and 2024, roughly 1940 IT staff were affected, including its Arizona building closure.

Since 2023, GM has had several rounds of layoffs. In 2023 and early 2024, the Lake Orion Subsystem facility in Michigan began indefinite layoffs as part of structural changes. The Chevy Bolt ceased production.

In August 2024, GM laid off more than 1,000 salaried employees, including roughly 600 in the U.S., primarily in the Software and Services division to streamline operations.

A few months later, on November 15, 2024, the company executed another round of cuts, eliminating about 1,000 positions globally, with most of the impact at the Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

Through these times, the company reportedly restructured engineering, manufacturing, and administrative functions, while reportedly investing heavily in EV programs and F1 sponsorships.

These strategies, some self-identified employees feel, prioritize optics and stock performance over operational stability.

This year alone, several rounds of layoffs hit more than 3,000 U.S. employees in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Kansas.

Across each recent layoff, GM cited cooling EV interest and “retooling for future production.”

The Reddit post closes with a warning that GM is at a crossroads, with internal talent hemorrhaging faster than the company can adapt

“You can’t run your company without IT,” the OP writes. “Driving out all the exceptional technical talent will leave you with a dying organization.” The post got hundreds of updates and more than 100 comments.

Building cars for domestic drivers in 2025 is incredibly challenging

Most Americans aren’t opposed to electrification, but between pricing and infrastructure, they’re not quite ready to fully convert. Add that to the overhead of designing, building, and selling trucks, SUVs, and EVs at the whims of tariffs and global supply chain issues, plus the high costs of employing bright minds and talented managers, and any operation would feel highly pressurized toward leanness today.

If recent layoffs are tied mostly to EV operations that aren’t moving forward at this time, it is what is. For GM, though, it seems their tone in making these “sudden shifts” isn’t quite jiving with the humans who help land new cars in driveways.