#efficiency

I’ve seen around my city and district, Wells Fargo is adding in new or additional ATM’s at branches, new TCR’s which allow tellers to deposit or withdraw directly from the machine next to them without needing to buy money from the vault pushing forward efficiency. Yet we still have drive thrus??? Non-revenue building and a dying generation who refuses to move forward.

What’s the plan here WF?

I saw this recently.
27 people.
All day meeting ("workshop").
To discuss changing a well design on the sequence in 2027.

Sometimes I'm puzzled by the director of business development position. It feels like their main tasks,attending calls and presenting targets at QBRs,are things that any competent manager could easily handle. The most confusing part is their constant international travel to meet with BDRs. It seems like a lot of time and resources for meetings that could be more efficient in other ways. One of the directors is visiting Europe currently and why? To meet BDRs.

Funny thing about this place, the better you get at your job, the more skillfully a guy applies himself, the faster you’re working yourself out of one. Efficiency isn’t rewarded here it’s punished. Automate too much, improve too much, use AI tools to work less hours and they’ll thank you with a pink slip.
Any company that counts how many days you sit in the office or how long your mouse wiggles isn’t looking for smart people, it’s looking for obedient ones. If you’re content to coast like a DMV clerk, you’ll fit right in. But if you’ve got a brain in your head, get out and put it to work somewhere that actually makes the world better. This place treats intelligence as if were a crime against mediocrity.

Occidental Petroleum increased production by 14.8% year-over-year (YoY) to 1.395 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/day).
Cost Management: This production increase was achieved while keeping absolute operating costs unchanged, leading to a reduction in per-barrel operating expenses.

Total production in Q2 2025 reached 1,400 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboed), which was above the mid-point of guidance.

Cost Management

• Despite higher production, Oxy kept costs flat or reduced them:
  • Drilling costs dropped by 14% due to efficiency gains.
  • Lease operating expenses decreased, helping offset lower commodity prices.
  • Capital expenditure guidance was reduced by $200 million, and domestic operating costs by $150 million in Q1 2025.

Hundreds of EV workers laid off as administration pulls back on tax incentives: 'An ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency'

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/rivian-commercial-team-layoffs-ev-manufacturer/

• Rivian said that the job cuts were limited to its commercial team, which is responsible for sales and servicing operations.
  Industry Tag: Automotive

Electric vehicle maker Rivian has announced that it will cut about 1.5% of its workforce, affecting several hundred employees. The layoffs are concentrated within the company’s commercial team, which oversees sales and service operations. Rivian described the move as part of an ongoing effort to “improve operational efficiency” while preparing for the release of its new, more affordable SUV, the R2, scheduled to launch in 2026.

The new R2 model is expected to start at around $45,000, significantly less than Rivian’s current lineup, which includes the R1S SUV (starting at roughly $77,000) and the R1T pickup (around $71,000). Analysts see the R2 as crucial for Rivian to broaden its customer base and compete more effectively in the EV market.

These layoffs come against a backdrop of significant regulatory changes affecting the EV industry. The $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles is set to expire on September 30, 2025, years earlier than originally planned. That policy change has placed additional financial strain on EV-only automakers like Rivian, which lack gas-powered models to offset regulatory costs.

Another major setback was the removal of strict Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) penalties. In the past, traditional automakers that failed to meet fuel efficiency standards could buy credits from EV-focused companies like Tesla and Rivian. Tesla alone earned $2.8 billion globally through this system, and Rivian has warned that the loss of these credits could cost it about $100 million.

Rivian is not the only automaker affected. In August, General Motors temporarily laid off 360 workers at its Factory ZERO plant in Detroit, citing “market dynamics” and reduced EV demand. The rollback of incentives and regulatory requirements signals a broader challenge for the EV industry, which must now compete more directly with traditional gasoline-powered vehicles at a time when production costs remain high.

For consumers, the end of the federal EV tax credit means those considering a switch to electric vehicles may want to act quickly. However, Rivian hopes its lower-priced R2 SUV will keep buyers interested when it enters mass production in 2026.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/27/google-executive-says-company-has-cut-a-third-of-its-managers.html?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-20250828

What are people's thoughts on how ER will enable the firm to execute with more speed and efficiency? Honestly, I was optimistic when they first announced it because the firm had become so bloated and convoluted that it was difficult to get anything done. But the rollout seemed more focused on short term cost cutting and may seriously backfire on "increasing speed and efficiency" since we lost so much firm knowledge (aka the only people who know how to fix certain systems since they were part of creating them, people who know undocumented processes or work arounds for the many broken systems). I'm worried this will just make things so much worse and make jobs so much harder for those who remain. It's like leadership is operating on an entirely different plane of reality; one where we are a rocket ship instead of bogged down by decades of under investing in tech and poor process design. Over the past 2 years I have experienced them deprecating systems and teams in anticipation of solutions that never seem to materialize. The "running the business" work gets harder and harder with no end in sight.

Rumor is the board has engaged an efficient expert- what would you tell them to do/look at first?

I’ll start- you could easily cut 50% of the grade 15’s and above and 80% of executives with no real impact and use that money to fund real workers.

Schwawesome Leaders, Where is the efficiency gained by AI? Whose head should roll?

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/14/cisco-ceo-says-he-wants-to-use-ai-to-boost-efficiency-not-reduce-headcount.html

Dear Oxy,

Here’s an idea: Instead of planning to lay-off the individual contributors who actually get work done, please consider laying off the middle management who are great at attending meetings and not leading. They are more expensive and unnecessary. You can replace them by providing the individual contributors with chances for industry level training. That way your already slim staff doesn’t have to take on even more workload.

How? Administer a performance review on middle management given by individual contributors. It’ll stop the petty politics and hold middle management accountable for being leaders, not presentation goers. Let HR figure it out from there. #foodforthought #rewardgoodmanagers #efficiency #fireoverpaidspectators #finalfrontier