I married into a family with 3 proud generations of General Motors execs.
Yep, GM was the "family business", and everyone was obsessed by cars. I didn't think I was, but still....
Was I first attracted to the man I would eventually marry because of all his wonderful qualities? Or the little red Corvette that he drove?
Oh, but it was a glam job. He got new cars every 3 months to drive. I got a new car every year. Whatever I wanted.
I once got "detained" in Mississippi for driving a bright yellow Camaro, missing an important college final as a result.
Could these guys give me a ticket for just being too damn flashy for that small town ? (ok, I might have been driving 5 miles over the limit, but why didn't they just write the ticket and let me go?)
GM threw lavish parties and awarded trips to Hawaii as perks. There were benefits to die for. Completely unheard of by today's standards. We used to call them Generous Motors.
But there was a dark side to life with GM. We were transferred to a different state every 18 months, which is nothing short of pure torture in my mind. Your life is always unfinished, your friends are always temporary.
That fact alone finally killed what had started as a very successful real estate career. I caved into my husband's ambition, but never to the corporate life.
GM reeked of corporate politics. Hard to wrap your head around if you come from a real estate background where what you earn is determined exactly by what you produce. How many times have you driven your boss' wife to the airport because you wanted to get some brownie points? UGH.
The worst thing? The thing that caused him to quit? Ironically, something the government forced GM to do: Their "racial quota" was completely askew (in the 80's). They were a company of all white guys, and very few women or minorities (although my husband's GRANDMOTHER was employed at GM).
GM could only hire and promote minorities to fix this, and it became obvious it would take years to satisfy the quota. If you were a young ambitious white guy? You were going nowhere fast.
That, and this: Eventually, you had to move to Detroit. My apologies to everyone from Michigan.....I just did not want to move to Detroit (where hubby was born).
With the help of my father, my husband bought his own car company in California. We sold our house without a Realtor (had to! No longer had GM paying the commission!), picked up our lives, our 3 babies and 2 cats, and headed back to California.
Everyone thought we had lost our minds to give up so much.
Gave up the house on the hill with 6 white columns for the stucco rancher with only 3 apricot trees as landscaping. Suddenly had to pay our own benefits and drive used cars. Gone was the salary, the trips, the perks, and the lavish lifestyle that accompanies being a corporate executive.
Sold all of our GM stock to finance the new company and fix the rancher (at over fifty bucks a share).
Was it worth it? At times, we wondered.
Still, there is something very sad about the demise of what once was.
And never will be again.
Written by Janet Guilbault, Mortgage Banker/Broker based out of the San Francisco Bay Area
Posted by 
;)
;)
I think corporate America is gone. No pensions appear safe, no health insurance for retirees appears safe. It is a scary America we are looking at. I only wish there was true transparency with what all is going on right now in poltics, corporations, stock market, etc.