Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

@3oyr - from my experience (CSR and LT), we’ve also recruited the wrong experienced hires. It seemed like we’ve been hiring other companies’ “poor performers”, based on the alumni network. The ones that I have worked with have been the biggest bunch of bullsh!tters that I’ve ever encountered!

We have been mediocre for years. In my opinion, it's from the company's insistence on growing a workforce of generalists instead of hiring experienced people for key roles. Having a people committee assign folks to roles - much like being in the military - instead of allowing employees the opportunity to post for open jobs is a huge part of the problem as well. When you are working in a role you were assigned to instead of being in one you are actually interested in does not inspire passion. It's just a job.

@1ysi+17segt0a
Chevron was very lucky, not smart. They had agreed $48 bilion for anadarko, then they got lucky because the Kamikazees at Oxy offered $55 billion. That is a folly bigger than XTO acquisition.
Today Oxy is sinking bad, Chevron would have been that company.
Chevron's noble acquisition is 30% of what they AGREED to pay for Anadarko.
The $1Billion is pocket change in these multi billion dollar acquisitions.

Hey @1wkk+17segt0a Who is Woodson? Looks like you have not been keeping up. Let me help you. The CEO is Darren Woods. Hope you are not giving him a pass. Agree he inherited a less than optimal portfolio. But he has accelerated the decline with bad decisions and even worse he created a toxic work culture.

The company appeared bulletproof when Raymond retired in 2006. Within 2 years of Tillerson becoming CEO we should all have been worried. The meltdown handwriting was clearly on the wall when the board didn’t fire T-Rex within 2 years after that, once it became clear that he was grossly incompetent. The guy didn’t have a clue and the board and the sycophants on the MC went along with it all. The XTO purchase created a $40 billion+ cash hole that’s still $40 billion deep a decade+ later. Maybe the worst corporate acquisition in history. Add to that buying more Canadian oil sands properties that need a $75 oil prices to breakeven and wasting years and billions on Russia initiatives that amounted to zip. Literally noting to help refining or marketing was done. And, because the genius Rex realized he couldn’t think of anything else, he used many, many billions of dollars to buy back company shares at $75-80 to jack up the value of his own shares. Now they’re worth $33. We were all warned.

Was anyone surprised that he was the worst Secretary of State in history? Woodson inherited a bad hand and this is what we get. Public Affairs and Investor Relations will put lipstick on the pig, but.....

"Se La Vie": It's "C'est La Vie"

Chevron walked away with $1 BILLION for stirring up a stupid bid for Anadarko by Oxy. They were neither mediocre nor lucky. They were excellent and smart. We haven’t seen that at XOM for decades...

It’s ok, there are a lot of super giants that some markets list a mediocre on employee retention, retirement, sustainability, etc. The majority of businesses use the same model as XOM, the favored, privileged, and a portion of higher, mid level workers rise to the top then cull the herd to eliminate the bottom 10-15%, rinse and repeat”.

Is it right? Morally your call, ethically not illegal, so at the end of the day it’s just business. If XOM chooses to run itself that way “Se La Vie”. The Exxon model that people know outside of Exxon is they invest in their employees so their employees invest in Exxon. Yes the Exxon investment is changing now but they will still continue to get good people by their name alone. Don’t let it bother you too much.

At this point venting about XOM is on par with beating your head against solid concrete. Just utilize the time you have to find new employment, if you are truly unhappy, or spend your energy into figuring out how to work in the systems they have established.

@1pio+17segt0a But I’m still an employee, rated excellent and I agree with the comments here..

I disagree. We profile and hire candidates who are highly competitive and driven. I think people will return to self sacrificing work ethic as soon as raises and promotions are reinstated.

We have been already a ‘good’ company for few years. Now we are a ‘Need Improvement’ company. I am using the internal ranking wording. Good means below average. The companies including in my ranking group are not only O&G ones.

@1los+17segt0a

Good comment. Though you are on a layoff forum. Most people just want to bash the company that let them go. They are not interested in the logic that got the company in the current situation.

Stop inventing this narrative about mediocrity or competence.
EM has made some investment decisions that destroyed its financial position. And that is because there are lot of economic unknowns that are difficult to predict even in the best of times.
What made EM successful before was the record high oil prices and profit margins, not its extraordinary intellectual prowess.
A series of continuous financial shocks starting with the shale gas drilling leading to record drop in gas prices and very low profit margins, real estate financial crisis which destroyed the demand for oil for a while, the development of shale exploration which produced so much oil that oil profit margins disappeared in 2014, massive investment in the past few years to try and double the earnings by 2025, investment into shale oil which has generally been a negative cash flow for most other companies driving them into bankruptcy, high dividend that was using up a lot of earnings leaving little room for adverse financial situations, $200B share buybacks at the peak of the market instead of the bottom will have severe impact on the financial position of any company.
If poor financial decisions are made or the economic circumstances are difficult, it will destroy any company, Apple, Amazon, MS or EM.
EM's 70-80 hour / week hard working high achievers can work 120 hrs/ week if they want and PIP as many as they want, with the scale of financial folly prevalent at EM at the higher echelons which consist of so called high performers, the only place they will end up in is bankruptcy.

Chevron just got lucky with the Anadarko deal, it would have been their XTO, shale oil exploration has been one of the biggest money losers for most companies during the last 10 years.

Mediocrity got us here. What is it with everyone acting like this just came out of nowhere.

The company will reward those who are not mediocre (working 70 to 80 hours a week, with high work quality). You will eventually work for them, and they will EXPECT a similar work ethic, or they will PIP you. Adios, my friend

Perhaps being top playing and assuming as much is what got the toxic culture to begin with. Perhaps the company needs to be brought down a notch to figure out itself.

Never say never. Chevron was just lucky that they did not get the Anadarko deal at the time. Had they did, they would be floundering around like the rest of companies right now.

Mediocrity is what got chevron to where it is today.