Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

All said, I do miss the meritocracy. It was a glorious time to be young, ambitious, and hard working in a company that rewarded its people with career advancement and real projects for all who rose to the challenge. Rest in Peace Lee.

Actually, Raymond's biggest "culture change" was introduction of The Operations Integrity Management Framework (OIMF), after Valdez and after Piper Alpha and other industry disasters. This changed the way EVERYONE thought about Risk in the company. OIMS later became OIMS. In many cases it was overdone and became bureaucratic (and in need of critical review because the bureaucracy that built up over 20 years. But it clearly caused XOM to assess risk and consequence more systematically. We have not had a Macondo or Texas City or Bhopal. Hopefully cost reduction does not lead to one or these in the future.

"Under Raymond’s leadership, Exxon spent millions of dollars funding a shadowy network of think tanks and pseudo-scientific groups who published memos, briefings, and advertisements meant to cast doubt on climate change. As the journalist Steve Coll wrote in his book Private Empire,

Under Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil had persistently funded a public policy campaign in Washington and elsewhere that was transparently designed to raise public skepticism about the science that identified fossil fuels as a cause of global warming. ExxonMobil ran some aspects of its campaign clandestinely; that is, it did not initially disclose the full scope and purpose of contributions it made. […] What distinguished the corporation's activity during the late 1990s and the first Bush term was the way it crossed into disinformation."

@cm Raymond was 100% an open book- people knew where they stood- he respected ethics and service.

Darren only cares about TSR and his record from 2020 shows employees and service are not the priority.

I’d rather have Raymond as my ceo today. Stocks performed and service was rewarded and recognized.

Having worked at other high profile companies as well as XOM, my observation is that that many managers who I had worked for do not exemplify integrity or ethical behaviors. They say all the right things and throw a lot of word like “best practices”, following “work processes”, and the latest catch phrases of the year. They are nothing more than manipulators looking out for their self interest. I have had been coerced to under report in my time sheet, asked to attribute credit to those who did not do the work, and endorse unsound technologies/ ideas. Many of the current manager do not look out for the interest of their people or the company or greater good. It’s a cut throat environment that if you are not in the club then you are just a stepping stone to someone’s next career move or fodder when you outlive your usefulness.

It’s a company with opportunities to do interest work. Unfortunately, people have to tolerate and survive through an extremely toxic work culture.

@cm " some employees still have integrity". Yes, and they are at the bottom of the rank groups.

He'll be dead, what does he care.

Woods is very similar to Raymond. Focus is the business and not employees. I don’t think many are upset that Raymond is gone from this world and likely the same will be said about Woods. Does Woods want his legacy to be similar to Raymond’s? I guess he has the ability to change that now if he so chooses.

@cm
Very well said.

How about tegridy ? Is it also gone?

@aq Some employees still have integrity, especially with those older ones with whom that core value resonated. They are trying to hold on. The company does not have the same level of integrity it used to 20 years ago. Integrity (‘how’ we get results) used to be the corner stone of every interview, hard decision, and meeting mantra:
“Do the right thing”
“It’s not only about the results, it’s how we got the results.”
“Safety and ethics is our license to operate.”
These used to be buzz phrases. I hear them less and less. Now I hear “healthy tension”….which seems to be a free pass to be argumentative and stubborn….and I see the company aggressively cutting costs through all means, including those which aren’t upfront and transparent to employees.

Ironically, strong integrity may have only been present for the post-Valdez era with the OIMs onboarding. Prior to this, Exxon culture was known for having managers who would yell and occasionally throw things.

So history lesson complete. Companies change. But the focus on integrity has definitely changed too.

He died today

@aq Give me a break

XOM still has the highest ethical standards, so the commenter is unable to recognize integrity. There are no job guarantees, so layoff is not about integrity. Some people do lack integrity, but the vast majority has high integrity and XOM weeds out those who lack integrity/ethics. Sometimes it takes a while to id the executives who lack integrity but they eventually are identified and forced out.

"Culture of integrity". Lol. That is long gone. Rex and Darren destroyed that.

@OP So He was basically a walking TED Talk, just without the TED or the talk quality