Thread regarding Phillips 66 layoffs

Anyone still here? It’s been 3 months, is everyone seeing the vision and the efficiency?

@159q that's theoretically true, but I'd personally feel a lot safer seeing the money in my account...

@1yy I thought one only had to stay til announcement day, not payout day?

@1z8 three people have given notice since the layoffs. Going from 160 to 118 in 60 days does not bode well for the organization. TP: “I don’t expect anyone to leave”

Sorry for your loss. Everyone is replaceable. Good luck and move on.

It's not a rumor. It is a mess.

@47s . Rumor has it analytical is already a mess. It’s shocking when Gluten Free only kept his pets who didn’t question his authoritarianism and lack of knowledge or understanding of what is actually going on. Maybe he can create another dashboard.

@35g they never did in the last 3 years for the engineers/scientists. Actually, they laid off the only one hired less than 2 years ago; to make sure the age discrimination isn’t too obvious.

They said they’ll be backfilling these roles but I’ll believe it when I see it.

@2d3 The 2nd one resigned today. That toxic work place deserves to loose more real talent… the sooner the better!

@2ek agreed. Making it so unbearable that people want to leave, never rehiring, which makes them fail when not given enough resources. Big layoff to hurt morale of people left and force people out who wouldn’t have left. Must have been the plan since BT 1.0

@2d3 mixed on this one. If you have options you should leave. My guess is this left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and it’ll be a slow exodus. But they want more people to leave, which is why I’m mixed. It will just accelerate the closure of ERI.

@1z8 At least one has given already notice. Fingers crossed that more will do the same and leave that terrible mess MW created behind.

@1yy Zero.

Anyone have any guesses on the number of people from the research center who will be resigning once the VCIP money hits bank accounts on Friday?

@19h rumor has it that he was deeply disliked during his r and d tenure

Ironic that Gogo owns patents. Who stole his lunch money when he was in r and d?

Clarification for those confused: when he says “go go,” it doesn’t mean push forward, it’s a cue to go home quietly so severance stays cheaper. Now you’ll know what he means next time.

@13y Expressing concern may have been appropriate three to five years ago, when there was still hope for the future and forward-looking research had not yet been dismantled. Today, undermining the remains of that research appears to be the strategy, used to justify an inability to deliver anything meaningful after having shut it down. Projects were systematically parked one after another, all in the name of saving pennies.

@14s it goes like this:

GoGo and his veeps have no credibility with the investor community because he can’t make eye contact and speaks in empty, word-salad jargon that sounds smart on the surface but conveys zero trust. In response, the investor community demands tangible, immediate action to improve margins.

GoGo asks his veeps, “What’s the single greatest immediate cost in the corporation?” While trying to look smart and deep, the veeps state the obvious: labor. GoGo then turns to Tractor Man and says, “Do something!”

Tractor Man does what he knows: institutes mandatory rank (and yank!) and mass layoffs. The impact remains to be seen. Does Elliott buy these actions as meaningful, sustainable changes? Will the rest of the investors be fooled by this grasping-at-straws approach? Will the board keep supporting GoGo despite his crass incompetence?

For me, one thing’s for sure: PSX is a strong, GTFO sell; and P66 a strong, GTFO find-another-job-quickly!

Any of the above wrong? Change my mind!

@13z The company is currently operating in a 'penny-wise, pound-foolish' manner. There is a profound disconnect between decision-makers and the technical frontline; leadership has become so removed from the actual work that they no longer seem to understand the long-term impact of these structural changes.
It is disheartening to see the organization devolve from a community-focused leader that inspired loyalty into a company that treats its internal expertise as disposable. By shrinking the R&D footprint and shifting away from the departments that drive innovation, the company is effectively sacrificing its future success to 'chase the wind' of the latest trend and cater to immediate investor demands.
Success is measured by more than the next six months of shareholder returns. True sustainability—and a better recipe for long-term growth—comes from valuing the high-performing teams who build the future, rather than prioritizing the short-term self-interest of those looking to maximize immediate margins at the expense of our competitive edge.

The bottom line is that short-term gain until they can extract as much as possible from the organization is all they care about. Filling their own pockets takes priority, with no regard for the future whatsoever. Their actions have made it clear that they are deeply self-centered, and simply claiming to care is no longer enough to deceive anyone. If you are looking for a workplace that values its people and is genuinely invested in the long term future of the organization, this is not the right place.

I express concern regarding the recent layoffs and the apparent criteria used in selecting affected employees. It appears that several individuals with significant technical expertise, institutional knowledge, and a demonstrated commitment to responsible decision-making were disproportionately impacted.
These individuals consistently raised thoughtful, respectful, well-founded questions regarding operational and technical decisions, particularly in situations involving relatively inexperienced leadership. Rather than being recognized as a necessary component of sound governance and risk management, this professional diligence appears to have been targeted unfavorably.
The loss of such experienced personnel raises serious concerns about the organization’s commitment to safety, quality, and long-term stability. It also suggests that constructive feedback and critical analysis may not have been adequately valued in recent management practices.
I think the company should review the decision-making process surrounding these layoffs and consider whether appropriate weight was given to experience, performance history, and the importance of open, professional discourse in technical environments.

@pn For people who want to stay in the area, what to do? Ponca city or Tulsa? Are there jobs for technicians or engineering phds?

Seems like their way to keep the site alive was to do something drastic like this. They said they evaluated all tasks and that they will still be able to do all the same tasks with 32 fewer people, those left just pick up the pieces and try to do as much as you can with fewer and fewer resources while trying to find a way out?

Does anyone think differently? It is not good right now but it was also bad in 2022 and good work happened since then. For the people left at the research center, why stay? For people who left work at PRC and do something else, stay in the area? Do you regret leaving or regret staying as long as you did?

Sometimes the way once strong organizations are driven toward annihilation makes it feel as if the people at the top were deliberately selected to undermine them. It’s hard to understand how leadership can so completely ignore what could differentiate the organization in the future, all to save a few short-term dollars under the banner of “cost savings.” Cost cutting for the sake of cost cutting is like refusing to water plants to save water, eventually, everything dies.

What’s even more disturbing is that over the past few years, not a single truly important project was entrusted to people with the right skills, credibility, and motivation. Employees were treated as if leadership was doing them a favor by allowing them to work there. Those who stayed did so mostly because they were tied to the area by family, close to retirement, has been in business-support roles, or unable to find comparable pay elsewhere due to niche specialties.

It is astonishing how projects were handled with the influence of the devil’s assistants, BT and AG, such that nearly every good initiative was either parked, failed outright, or severely mismanaged. ERI systematically dismantled through incompetence, arrogance, and short-sighted leadership.

@j6 AG and BT will eventually get what they deserve and get canned due to complete lack of competence, accomplishment, and selling complete BS by a lot of talking at people with no real substance. Higher ups are just not smart enough to figure that out yet. Their reputations and toxic behaviors have been noticed elsewhere by potential employers. Good luck to them when they finally bless the PRC with their departure.

Everyone at Bartlesville should be looking for a job. Hate to lose the talent, but the writing is on the wall. We're going to start trusting vendors for catalyst selection, we're going use outside metallurgical labs for failure analysis, we're going to send samples to third party labs for the special analysis our refineries can't do. No role there is safe, get out on your own terms.

Folks in Bartlesville need to start looking for an exit strategy, anyone with an opportunity to go elsewhere probably should now give that decision some added weight.

When many of the Ponca Refinery IT roles were moved out, they at least still had the Refinery, this seems to be using the same playbook, a little at a time until the axe falls.

Bartlesville has been downsizing for awhile with the PB reduced to only a few selected lower floors, no Service Desk, no Data Center and ERI now all but hollowed out. And having just learned about Pipeline moving to Tulsa.

Not looking good.

Spotless car got these posts dropped faster than an HR investigation. Big belt buckle should start looking inward. It's probably not a coincidence the same handful of people keep appearing on this thread. Spotless car and the sneaky toxic two don't reflect well on OEIA, and the situation hasn't been addressed.

Contradict.
deny the truth of (a statement) by asserting the opposite.

“Bartlesville has always played a critical role in our history and legacy. That is not changing,” the company said in a statement."

"According to a company spokesperson, the Bartlesville Control Center will be moved to Tulsa".

"In a separate decision, Phillips 66 confirmed that some positions within its Energy Research & Innovation and Information Technology departments have been eliminated."

https://bartlesvilleradio.com/pages/news/482522026/phillips-66-confirms-slight-workforce-reductionrelocation-of-bartlesville-pipeline-control-center

Such b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bullsh-t. They are so full of it!

@kk, I saw that on LinkedIn. Its all about public perception and their narrative. Who cares about the real picture. Sad times when philanthropy is prioritized over your own employees.

Those greedy executive mobs installed TP and big-buckle-belt MW to run the show, with no intention of improving anything. The real pain points and structural bottlenecks were never addressed. BT and AG, as always, poisoned the system with their toxic tactics.

A group of low quality or at best unfit middle managers was placed over technical teams. Some came from IT backgrounds, some with no prior experience leading top technical talent, and some without the credentials, skills, judgment, and open mindness required for such roles. Favoritism and alliance building remained firmly in place.

Forward looking research was effectively ki-led by this layer of weak middle management and their inability to run, support, or retain high quality talent teams.

TP and MW, bought themselves lifetime shame.

COP is way better. Salaries and benefits are better, and when they have layoffs, they offer EOIs so people can better plan ahead. Also, management aren’t soy boys, DEI queens, and h0Rny foreigners.

In other news, the geniuses on our social media team just announced we donated $5 million to Junior Achievement. Let’s offshore jobs and lay our own people off, but also write multi-million dollar checks for charity. Insane clown world.

@ej COP is no better. You all have layoffs too or did we quickly forget.

They did a better job at keeping this one secret compared to the last one. Imagine how smoothly the next one will be!

These greedy executive mobs and their puppets have lowered the bar so far that tater-tot casserole and a spotless car are now considered leadership credentials. BT and AG have, remarkably, managed to keep up the disguise for years—successfully misleading both people and the system at the same time. No one will remember them for competence or character, but as polished examples of everything that stands opposite to decency and professionalism.

BT and AG brought people together over mutual hatred towards them. Their atrocities will be remembered by many of us long after the Research Center’s inevitable shutdown.

Meanwhile sites are paying wild salaries for “efficiency exellence” bs positions

All those long, cold turnaround nights. The stress, the pressure, squeezing out extra barrels and cutting costs—and it still means nothing. They’ll get rid of you without blinking.

So I’ll keep my head down and take everything I can from this company until I can’t anymore. There’s no loyalty here. It’s just business.

The reduction included 13 technicians, 15 PhDs (including two directors), and several administrative and frontline supervisory roles. This is significant given the research center now has only ~110 employees, down from approximately 550 ten years ago.

Entire labs often on have 1 technician and in some cases they were eliminated despite providing data that historically saved refineries millions of dollars. While the organization is still called a “research center,” the mission has largely shifted to business-unit support rather than independent or forward-looking research.

That said, Analytical retains critical capabilities, including fouling investigations, metallurgical and elemental analysis, and combustion analysis—functions that remain essential for diagnosing operational issues.

I hope Houston understands the long term impact this will have on safe operations at the refineries.