Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

There is a rate the supervisor site that is supposedly anonymous. This could help folks know whether they want to transfer to a group based on the current boss. Just a suggestion.

@1qfz+17B5Cmkw

Keep hearing this sort of thing - that HR is not a fan of the new PA, but yet, when the study was being finalized, no one care to mention a thing? What’s going on? everyone kept quiet until the bus has crashed off the cliff...

You all may be surprised to learn that most of the HR Department hates the assessment process. It is interesting to watch how talented HR people become completely disengaged robots once they see how the sausage is made.

In addition the team ranking should count as a percentage of the managers ranking so if your renters team thinks you s— then you drop in rank. Perhaps this would be a step toward mitigating the abundance of bullying through this corporation.

Your welcome

In addition the team ranking should count as a percentage of the managers ranking so if your renters team thinks you s— then you drop in rank. Perhaps this would be a step toward mitigating the abundance of bullying through this corporation.

Your welcome

A system should be in place for employees to rank managers and have the ability to speak openly and honestly about who they work for. An outside group should be involved to oversee the process so employees do not have to fear retaliation. The advisor groups would be inappropriate because most of them have s—ed up to managers to keep a position and some were total bullies. It should be a group entirely detached. The problem is employees are so used to rigged ranking and everything being about “who you know” they feel like they have been to bullied to trust anyone.

Yammer and #weareexxommobil are the twin pillars that will lead us out of this gloom into #winning ways. Of course, we can rely on the genius of DW, who have developed industry leading portfolio.

@1ygj+17B5Cmkw You should consider gloating on corporate yammer. Leave folks in peace to vent.

I’m with HR and we relish seeing the so called “Best and Brightest” squirm on this site.

@1lhq+17B5Cmkw

Can’t say it’s all for nothing. The company saved lots of $ by letting 8% go without having to make any severance pay. Lots of savings. I’m pretty sure DW call this #winning!

this new system was part of a larger and very expensive effort to ‘improve the culture’ with denison surveys, exec coaching, multiple workshops, snazzy videos, the works...all for nothing.

The old ranking system let people coast way too easily. I won't defend against complains about supervisors picking winners and losers but the old system was much worse

Remember when everyone was glad that the company was listening to us and getting rid of forced ranking? HR built up hype and we were all eager to see how the new process would improve morale at the company.

Then the day comes, and we see that it was really a change in name only. Five buckets, eerily similar to quintiles, just with happy names like "Good" instead of "mediocre." Hidden within this new system was a removal of the maximum drop in ranking someone could incur year over year, which was weaponized to layoff under the guise of performance issues.

"Be careful of what you wish for," they say. I'm pretty sure the only thing that was revitalized here were the sadists in HR.

Just in case anyone of the new hires think they joined a reputable outfit I never miss a chance to tell them what lies in wait for them. May as well pee in the well on the way out........

What a fiasco. They hyped a purported new and better system to address long time employee concerns and then totally botched it in the first year by changing it at the last minute to expand the NSI group by a factor of 3. The workforce reduction intent was obvious. It was a layoff in disguise to avoid paying severance to about 1600 U.S. employees and to manipulate public perception. Employees that stay will not forget this callousness and dishonesty and know the company will not hesitate to do it to them one day. People do make a difference and crises reveal character. There is something sleazy about the current regime.

Replying to @dah+17B5Cmkw
You are absolutely correct. Our HR rep has only been with the Company maybe 1 1/2 yr and acts like he knows more about the Company than us veterans. Just reminds me that HR is to protect the company and not the employees. People forget that too often.

Millennial here. It’s not the ranking system. It’s the people manipulating it.

Much complaining about the old system where it was very difficult to move “out of the basement” once put there. Younger folks in my area particularly wanted something more “egalitarian”. When the new improved system came out, it took me all of 10 seconds to realize that now EVERYBODY was subject to the whims of a bad year (health problems? Kid problems? Death of a parent?...tough s**t my friend!!). Enjoy what you asked for millennials!!

Woods made a huge mistake in letting HR think they are more than they are. HR cannot run a corporation. The reality we only need about a handful of HR people and not the massive amount of people we have. Whoever decides a “behavior” based ranking system is what a corporation needs should be fired. Who gets the job done?

Yo assist in the rigged ranking some managers all but write the persons eads they want to rank high. The process has been rigged in all aspects. It’s manipulated to achieve the outcome they have already decided and it’s not about performance for most.

@vxy+17B5Cmkw That would be great if it were based in performance. The reality - I know of people ranked at the top that barely know their base responsibilities but stayed ranked at the top for gross misconduct and more unethical reasons. It is sad but not uncommon for Exxonmobil.

@qlp+17B5Cmkw

People in charge benefited from rigged ranking. They’re not going to see it as a problem.

@etp+17B5Cmkw

The question shouldn’t be which managers should be replaced. The question should be which managerial roles are even required. Replacing expensive people with cheaper ones doesn’t solve the issue.

To the surgeon post: 10 surgeons graduate from Medical School. You need an operation. Do you pick the guy/gal at the bottom of their class? They are still a surgeon, after all.

I don’t put all the blame on Woods. He couldn’t possibly know the terrible job across the board that we have done with rigged ranking and promoting people that had no business being promoted. I certainly hope this fiasco shined some light on that. The question is what the hell are you going to do about it now that you’ve screwed so many of us.

It’s still forced ranking. They decided to remove the halos so unless you have a strong sponsor, you have to perform every year instead of coasting, and hope you don’t have a manager who dislikes you.

@vxy+17B5Cmkw Most of them know little to nothing. We forced a lot of managers into retirement and promoted quite a few people that have no business in those positions. It has not been more clear than it has over the last two to five years.

This post sounds super whiny. You all asked them to get rid of forced ranking, and they listened. Now you have a performance assessment system which is similar to most majors. I’m sorry if some of you don’t like the changes THAT YOU ASKED FOR. Geesh.

Imagine you gathered the top 10 surgeons in the entire world and put them in a room. The absolute best and brightest that exist. All unbelievably talented, and each continuing to advance new treatments in their field. If they weren't at the top of their field, they would never have gotten into this group of 10.

Along comes EM with the ranking process. EM would designate 3 as NI or NSI and PiP them. Another 5 would be deemed middle of the road and receive no salary increases, plus warned that they better improve or be at risk next year. One would be declared the winner and would receive enormous amounts of incentive compensation. Didn't hurt that he had a family member working for the company.

Wait, what happened to the other 1? Poor guy was near retirement age and was booted to the curb without even needing to be ranked, despite being a Nobel prize winner a few years earlier.

And how much do you think the EM managers determining the rankings even know about medicine, or what these doctors accomplished over the past year?

That's the EM ranking system.

Whoever wrote the note is either tone deaf or disillusioned! I don’t see anyone or any departments revitalized by the PA process- DW didn’t even provide examples of this revitalization in his speech.

Fear not lads, meritocracy is what makes us #WeAreExxonMobil. We only hire the #BestAndBrightest so they can duke it out and see who is the #BestOfTheBestAndBrightest

Cheers!

Removing the stipulation that you could only move 20% up or down, and seeing formerly highly ranked employees leave suddenly, has halted my spouse and I's timing in having a baby due to potential loss of health insurance. We've stopped trying due to impending layoffs, and any possibility of a PIP/PIL starting July of next year. Removing the 20% cap was paraded around by HR as a positive change, but it's shown to be anything but.

And as mentioned, removing the max drop cap of 19 RGP, so a bad boss could cut the cables on your elevator and watch you plummet. And all changes made AFTER the assessment year had ended. Classy.

@twf+17B5Cmkw

By the way, it’s not HR who designed it. AF was the one who did it as part of her special project and she later become the executive assistance to the Chairman. I wonder what companies are used for the benchmarking.

Any idea which company adopt this process of having a fixed number of employees fired per year and is doing extremely well? I only know of GE and we know what happens after Jack Welch left the company. Fear that the company is already down that path and DW obviously has no semblance of leadership at all.

I am amazed that no one has mentioned the new system no longer has a cap of “20%” up or down. You can go from a top performer to a layoff candidate immediately in the new system. At first glance, it’s awesome but under the current circumstances it explains the change.

HR at Exxonmobil is terrible.

Kudos to HR for designing the new process that will forever be even less popular with employees than the previous ranking system. That’s quite an accomplishment! Actually, the new process is not really that much different than what they had before. The difference that employees will always remember is the way the company changed it at the last minute to load up the bottom category (by a factor of 3) to conduct a large scale U.S. layoff in disguise. A penny-wise but pound foolish decision in the long term.