Are you tired of managers and supervisors parroting XOM buzz words without understanding what it means? Here are some - winning behavior, commercial intensity, actively caring, integrity, empower, innovate.... the list goes on.
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Any reference to a "synergy"
Actively caring, my friend....
Folks across all sites been inflicted with emotional and psychological injuries.
"Nobody gets hurt"???
We are now just upgraded to doing QI on QI of NLI from last month in the SLS meeting. I am not kidding
Learn to play buzz word bingo. It's a hoot and there's a winner everytime! "Bucket" "Challenge" "Vision"
You will find all the words from XOM talks on this site www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html
This thread is a jewel. Some of these responses need to go in the next book about Exxonmobil... or a book on how sh–ty culture and behaviors destroy a company. we all have our XOM stories that are filled with id–tic examples of things that don’t make any sense,huge waste of money type activities when the times were good , lack of results type of behaviors , these ridiculous buzzwords that these so called leaders believe in or pretend to... is anybody thinking about writing a book where we can submit stories and examples ( anonymous or not)?
Create clarity
I like this one coming from my manager: "we will get through this together"
CSR materials sectionhead.
"Resilience" = Bounce back from 1st wave of Covid quickly to brace yourself for 1st round of layoffs...
@1smx+170AWxeG, great point, someone else said it somewhere that ExxoMobil is the last Soviet Republic, with the party officials preaching high values and hiding the truth while dividing all the spoils amongst themselves . We pretend that we like them and they pretend that they care
They should make us recite the winning behaviours everyday before and after work. This can be an opportunity to sniff out the next NSI candidate.
All honestly, it’s not working.. times like this.. as an employee, I wonder how many more quarters this can last..
Don’t get me started. Remember the cost in person hours, travel, facilities, events to communicate the bold commitments in EMRE (neither bold or commitments as we found out) under a leadership that retired less than a year later!
@1yga+170AWxeG - well said! Oh my God - all of that internal propaganda is the worst! It reminds me of images of Soviet Russia, or other tin-pot communist states, where freedom of thought is punished and the population is expected to be brainwashed by posters. I’m just surprised that there isn’t a 100 foot bronze statue of the CEO at every company location!
Don’t forget about all the money we spend on banners, posters, digital media, OIMS banners on front fences and throughout offices, draping banners over the parking garages at the campus and all of the paraphernalia that is REQUIRED by Management to reinforce the messages. This is good for your career to outwardly display managements catch phrases, otherwise you will be seen as not being on board.
“Commercial Intensity.” Who comes up with this drivel? Worse, who propagates it? I puked just reading that.
@1fnv+170AWxeG Very clever! So true. Look at the response in DOW. Largest opportunities in 20 years! For me, an analogy of it is like bankrupt man saying during bankruptcy was the time to invest in him, as it presents the highest rate of return! Wow! Then again, is it good public relation statement or they are still in denial.. as employees.. we know where this is heading..
"Back to First" - as if this is a track meet with red, green, and blue. This myopic view of competition and "winning" is fundamental to the relative loss of value over past 10 years. DW doesn't know what game is being played. Like the checkers vs. bike race analogy.
Or, let's not give benefit of doubt, DW knows the game, and the rules, and the the optimal way to line his pockets (middle class boom due to O&G low cost commodity supply)- and is ok with that. In fact, from personal standpoint, DW is winning (except when he complains about relative pay vs the Red, Green and Blue CEO's). It's only the rest of the "Stakeholders" who are losing.
"Integrity" = We "currently" have no plans for layoffs
"Actively Caring" = actively looking for the next easy target employee to terminate
"Innovate" = let the employee voice their opinions and disagreements. It will be a prime opportunity for management to write them up for insubordination
"Empower" = management is not firing you, they are letting you decide if you want an elevated experience via PIP or a 3 month salary gift
"Winning" = supervisors and managers keep their jobs. employees win 3 months pay or 3 months of wisdom via PIP. We all win! We are all in this together!!!
"Actively Caring" = really laying you off
“business imperative” would have to be up there in the Top 10
And the whole “actively caring” - it just feels redundant or almost like we don’t care but if you put “actively” in front of it it makes it better for pretending. You could just care but since we don’t we’ll just go with “actively caring” - we all know when somebody cares, they don’t have to show it all the time or even talk about it, you just know... Exxon is just not there when it comes to knowing what to say or do for .... you know... all those positive feeling that make us human. It’s almost feels like leaders think ... “ you get paid decently and trust us - we are the best; if you don’t like it leave and be happier somewhere else” we are all complaining here but this thread is fun since these buzzwords are so pointless. Have a great Friday y’all!! :)
Loved the "we are all in this together" line at the end of the "there's about to be a sh–load of people losing their jobs" letter. WTF LMAO, Really!?!?? So if I can't pay my mortgage you are going to live in the street with me? Unbelievably stupid thing to say.
"Our strength is in our diversity." GFY, no it's not. Our strength is intelligent employees with work ethic. Gasp! can't say that!!
That winning is on hold doesn’t mean we won’t win.
Winners win. Eventually.
So this is what you need to do:
- Align with the plan, whatever that is or has changed to be
- Gain line of sight, if you ever decipher who’s the target of the sighting, what is what we are supposed to sight, or where that person is
- Strategic imperatives selection
- Courage of conviction to flawlessly execute regardless of whether it makes sense or not to execute
- Keep the conversation going to actively listen what the leaders are saying about nothing. Under no circumstances do provide feedback or raise flags, the conversation isn’t a two way street.
- Trust your career to the process and be open to opportunities. You may never do what you are good at, or may never get the opportunities you’d like, but trust the process works for someone somewhere - hey, the leaders are living proof.
- Get rewarded in this meritocracy for your commitment to excellence, for demonstrated the right behaviors, and for never ever do anything that makes remotely sense or generates money for the corporation.
My supervisor's favorite one near the end was "evergreen." "We need to make this an evergreen conversation." "The business units need evergreen solutions." "Our commitments to the community will be evergreen." I was fairly certain that if it gone any longer, I'd wake up one day in the evergreen forests at the Canadian border.
There was another piece of management-speak going around EMRE when I left: "Bold Commitments". That was a laugh! One such "bold commitment" (actually, maybe the only one so far)? 360°-feedback to managers. Which was promised 12-months ago .... and still hasn't happened. This is what happens when a young "leader" on their way up attends a training course and is so weak-minded that they are won over by all of the buzzwords, then they take it back to the rest of the "leadership" team and - like sheep - they all follow along (exhibiting no critical thinking skills and no true leadership traits) and we are all subjected to the latest management fad. The only people laughing are the companies who run these so-called leadership training courses.
Strategic learning! As evidenced from the top! Corporate plan clearly starts with brutal truths. Which is management will accept no trade offs ever and we can just do everything! No debt, no dividend cut, maintain long term growth strategy (without capex )! Clearly well grounded in brutal truth!
They're just parroting those words because that's what got them promoted to manager/supervisor. It's like a dog that expects treats every time it's a good little pup.
This thread is good lol even the Exxon core values are a complete joke... like integrity ( like when we say no layoffs but then lay off thousands of people), and safety ( as in when everybody got sent to campus during Covid and told to not complain because exxon focuses on in person collaboration). The company would really be much better off if they completely got rid of “ we are Exxonmobil “ and anything related to culture or values, or the code of business conduct, or any HR related guidelines like “ no retaliation” and “ zero tolerance”- it would save the company tons of wasted money. Saying “ WE JUST DON’T CARE” would be much better “ winning behavior” for the company- at least we’d all be on the same page and honest.
OMG.....I was told I was "empowered" to choose between PIP and PIL. I said, "you mean you are firing me or laying me off?" They got p!$$ed off and said "no..we actively care, so we are empowering you with a choice." Really??? 25 years with the company and you are actively caring now and empowering me with a critical decision???? F*(k you!!!
The most ironic one is:
Drum roll
"Brutal truths"
Anything but...
We are ExxonMobil!
Quick to market!
No lay-offs! (we call them reorganisations)
People are our greatest assets!
We want to (continue to) be the best in the industry, a premier company!
Core values! ... yes, the list goes on
Like WINNING.. our strategy is the more we say it.. the odds of it happening increases. Without sweating for it! Winning!