Did GM or IBM ever have anything formal like tenure or was it just the informal culture to keep people on “for life?” As far as I know, while executives often got golden parachutes, everyone below them could get fired for basically any reason (except, more recently, for being in a protected class).
Eh, I grew up the child of two teachers and this argument that nobody was guaranteed a life time job (so why should teachers?) isn’t a product of the 21st century.