Ford CEO Jim Farley slams 'absenteeism' and warns he HAS to make cuts

Ford CEO Jim Farley has hit out at 'absenteeism' after his company returned shocking annual earnings - as he warned the iconic automaker will be forced to make urgent cuts to turn itself around. 

The motor company fell well short of the mark as its fourth-quarter returns rolled in on Thursday, where it missed its target earnings for the year by up to $2 billion. 

Following the dismal returns, Farley listed off a number of factors that have led to the decline, where he lay the blame at a lack of efficiency and a rise in 'absenteeism'. 

'We have to change our cost profile,' he told CNBC, in an interview which came after a call with analysts where he rifled through the company's failing bottom line. 

'We know what we have to go after. I'd love to give you all the metrics and all the specific gaps we see. 

'But you know, whether it's absenteeism, the number of sequencing centers, the number of wiring harnesses we have, we know what it is.' 

Ford CEO Jim Farley has hit out at 'absenteeism' when explaining why the company posted shocking fourth quarter returns

The business leader's call to action comes as a rise in work-from-home employment has rocked numerous industries following the pandemic. 

Ford reported 2022 adjusted earnings of $10.4 billion, despite telling analysts it expected to make between $11.5 billion and $12.5 billion just three months earlier. 

The company also produced 100,000 vehicles less than it expected over the time frame, while supply-chain issues and a shortage of semiconductor chips increased costs by $1 billion more than planned. 

Faced with the mounting problems, which has also included several recalls and troubled launches of new vehicles that sent its warranty costs through the roof, Farley was forced with the question: 'What went wrong?'

'We have a lot of complexity relative to the customer and also inside our company,' he said. 

'And we can cut the customer-facing complexity like we have, but it takes time to work that down to parts on the line, to the manufacturing line.

'It just takes time to work through that and that's what we'll do.'

Despite massive layoffs sweeping several industries including the tech field, Farley said he didn't believe that mass firings would be the answer.  

'There are things we could do in the short term, but I don't want to just make the output the cuts without redesigning the work,' he said. 

'This has to be sustainable and that's how we're thinking about it nowadays.'

Farley's condemnation of office 'absenteeism' comes amid several business leaders taking aim at plummeting workplace standards and woke entitlement from young employees that have hurt their businesses. 

A poll conducted in New York last November found that young workers had record-high salary expectations. 

The New York Federal Reserve Bank found the lowest average annual pay workers were willing to accept from a new employer was $73,667.

When the bank began running the poll in 2014 that expectation was less than $55,000, which would be around $68,000 today taking inflation into account.

At last month's Davos meeting of industry titans, Jane Fraser, the boss of Wall Street banking giant Citigroup warned that slackers working from home will now be hauled back to the office to be coached back into shape.   

'If they're not being productive we bring them back to the office or back to the site and we give them the coaching they need until they get their productivity back up again,' said Fraser. 

Several Wall Street bosses expressed frustration at the summit at staff continuing to stay away from the workplace since the pandemic.

Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, hit out at the practice when he spoke at the Bloomberg event. 

He said: 'Remote working has not worked.'

And on Thursday, Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus slammed the current generation for prioritizing 'woke' issues over profits. 

The 93-year-old billionaire said he was dismayed to see the world's business leaders meeting in Davos this year supporting investment in issues that 'don't hit the bottom line'.

Bernie Marcus, 93, appearing on Fox Business Network, said that modern business leaders prioritize the 'woke' agenda over their shareholders and employees

A poll conducted in New York last November found that young workers had record-high salary expectations of $73,667. When the bank began running the poll in 2014 that expectation was less than $55,000, which would be around $68,000 today taking inflation into account

'I don't really understand the new leadership,' he said on Fox Business Network. 

'We need new leaders who are thinking about the shareholders and their employees. I think today it's all about woke, diversity - things that don't hit the bottom line.

'They want to work three days a week,' he said, as he took aim at lazy modern office workers being entitled while expecting to work short hours.  

Just as Farley has pointed the finger at poor work practices for hurting the company's productivity, Marcus previously said that his hugely successful retail company would have suffered under modern business culture. 

Hitting out at falling standards, he assigned blame to human resources executives, government bureaucrats, regulators, socialists, Harvard graduates, MBAs, Harvard MBAs, lawyers, accountants, Joe Biden, the media and 'the woke people'.