Even if I survive, I’ve lost almost all motivation to work for the company. Anyone else feel the same way? Next 2-3 years will seemingly be hunger games 24-7. No 401k, no salary treatment. What’s the driver for working hard? Just to survive 2021 PIP?
25 replies (most recent on top)
Bye? How about give up your job to someone that actually wants it?
We are the new Big T-b-cco. Times 10. Wrap your head around that, and then see if you can find motivation. Get out while you still can.
Some plumbers make $200k. Especially if they have their Master licensure.
Lots of jobs pay over $200k besides medicine - management consulting, investment banking, private equity, law, various IT/software roles, product management, sales.
Whether you can get into those jobs and the difficulty is another question.
How may other jobs pay $200k a year besides medicine? That's the only thing keeping me around.
I wonder how many of the 1900 US-based employees who are slated to lose their jobs before 2/1/21, in addition to the nearly 5-8% who were NSId, had any direct responsibility for the poor corporate performance over the past decade? Seems to me like the managers who made those questionable decisions are still employed (or retired before the crash with huge payouts), while several thousand of their minions are paying the price for their mistakes. The fish is rotten from the head, and that’s where the dissection needs to start. We are not going to fix the multitude of problems in our corporation by using the same approaches that put us here in the first place.
All deserved to be fired at one point or the other. It is just a matter of time. Karma will arrive in one form or the other.
You will feel better about yourself and maintain your dignity and self-respect if you continue to produce good work product, regardless of what's going on around you.
I agree. Every day I am getting emails from people retiring or quitting. Some people in my group have basically stopped working. Those that are being forced into retirement are resentful and those that are close to retirement have been told they are safe (for now). They know they aren’t ever really safe and will be lucky to make it to retirement.
Everybody else is a nervous wreck walking around like depressed zombies. I don’t blame any of them. It’s a c-appy situation for us all. I don’t care how great your work ethic is, it is very difficult to work in an environment seeped in low morale.
The company is about to harvest what it sow. For years corporate sustained denial and undermined the case for action on climate change. Unfortunately, our managers believed their own lies and now we’re unprepared for a changed business landscape: no strategy on renewables, intransigent on disclosures and emission targets, no room to maneuver on potential stranded assets in the portfolio, no public trust - only green washing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if corporate is held to account and the company singled out as an example of the last dinosaur. Without new leadership, new direction, new ideas, and new technology, we are doomed.
I lost all faith when Darren basically invited us to go off the cliff at full speed. Doubling down on a failed strategy, firing anyone not fully committed to their narrow view, and betting on everyone else being wrong isn’t healthy growth strategy.
I’ve been retooling ever since and getting closer to land something outside. I know nobody who’s all in for Exxon anymore. All my colleagues and friends are working their exit strategies. You should be hearing what people say in colleges about joining the company. Only ideologues want to tie their future -however short- to this sinking ship.
Meanwhile, they keep on trying to tell us is all about energy poverty of those poor Africans. How does that square with the massive amount of plastic garbage you expect me to care to produce??
The industry will not turn around and regain some semblance of former glory. The ones that will emerge strongest will be the ones with visionary leadership that recognize societal and industrial trends and adapt their corporate strategies to meet them. I’m less than optimistic based upon the track record of senior management (didn’t call them leadership on purpose) and our culture of risk aversion. Until the people at the helm realize that the greatest risk is in maintaining the status quo, our attractiveness as a takeover target will only increase.
I had ancestors that lost their limbs working hard - haaaard - on those whaling boats.
From Cape Cod to the deep Pacific - lighting those street-lamps from Boston to Dallas.
Whale on - Whale on. They said.
It isn't just lower prices for longer or forever that makes me pessimistic that things will ever return to this being an industry with opportunity. We haven't been #winning for years. Every benefit across the board has been devalued. This is a multiyear, even more than a decade trend. Wake up. You see a lot of people rushing into the coal mining industry these days? We are next. Even if the world needs our product the politicians and public opinion hate us and will do everything they can to k–l our industry or at least make it as unprofitable as possible. The days of big profits and big opportunities are gone and never to return.
@wza+189UAjgR I'm not so sure the industry will turn around. Did you see the news article about the leaked documents on our planning basis for prices? Did you hear in the employee forum the comment about savings plan match not being reinstated for years (makes me wonder if ever). Lower for longer seems to have been replaced with lower forever.
@fpz+189UAjgR you are absolutely right. There are enough uninvited issues in this word to subject yourself to this voluntarily. I'm also looking for my next job. Many of us are. #ExitStrategy
Not a good sign when we start using quotes from Holocaust survivors to keep employees motivated.
I think rather than drawing inspiration from those who survived the worst deprivation and suffering one group of humans could inflict on another I’ll go look for employment elsewhere.
Until I find something better, I’m going to continue to act positively and do a good job to the best of my ability. This allows me the flexibility to be picky with external job options, or potentially being in a good place if things recover quickly.
I think a huge pay cut is essential for most management and higher than 24 CL employees.
Even after 50% cut, given zero to negative contributions, most will be overpaid.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
—Viktor Frankl
@OP, I feel the same way. Every day is a slog. I agree with @mko+189UAjgR, the way I get through this is by delivering work that I can be proud of, even if nobody else cares. I am documenting my learnings so that even if laid off it will be useful to those who come after me.
Why being rude is the default mode of many people posting here ? Do we have that many managers keeping an eye on these posts ?
There’s a huge difference between pretending to work and getting an undeserved paycheck and having lost motivation because of the mean and absurd actions taken by the management. 20+ years ago things certainly weren’t perfect, but we could be enthusiastic about work and proud of the company. EM had the best new hire training in the industry, copied by others; now we have total disdain for technical quality. EM is the only major who cut the matching funds, although everybody knows it’s a drop in the bucket for the problems the company is facing. In an already tough industry, EM has plumbed new depths by coining a new notion: the PIPoff. Does anybody believe that ranking, which has always been problematic, will ever go back to being something reasonable after being totally debased to target whoever the management decided to get rid off ? Does anybody trust the current upper management, after nearly running this company in the ground, with bringing it back ? Is there any reasonable way to be enthusiastic or proud about working for EM these days ? Can you blame anybody for just trying to find a reasonable way out ?
Take pride in your work and trade and craft regardless of the current economic and political climate. The true results wont be forgotten, at least by you If all you have to offer is @ss kissing and looking for the right wagon to hitch on to, i guess these are tough times for you.
Yes
Until the industry turns around (and it will) times will be hard, no doubt about that.
If you're not willing to work for the money you are being paid, perhaps you should do the honorable thing and find other employment. Not fair to those who work hard and lose their job just to have some pathetic case sitting their s—ing up a paycheck and not working for it.