Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

OP, sorry to hear this. I can empathize. I was blindsided by a layoff in (better I not state the year) and went through all the trauma and self-doubt you mention. I was lucky that after the smoke cleared, the industry realized they cut too hard and had to hire back. I re-entered through a service company, nominal pay cut but kept my skills current and established an incredible network that allowed me to hire back with another major a couple years later, on the same career trajectory I was on before the layoff. The best advice I can give is to be flexible, and realize that you have skills and experience that transcend the job you were doing for Chevron. Best of luck.

Fu-k Chevron is what I say.

Feels good.

Based on most of the comments below, it appears most of CVX is a bunch of libtards.

Millions of veterans, government workers, low income workers who depend medicare and medicaid have been already been sc--wed but CVX employees seems to cry the most.

It’s ok just know they only kept useless DEI clowns and a-s kissers. Everyone i know who’s technical and legit was let go or found a better job. You’re not missing out on much. We will find better even in this disgusting market. All the best

@gd Spoken like a true as----e

Wake up and smell the roses. This has been going on since the 80's. It's a fact of life in the oil industry. Move on and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

You all will be okay. I was looking back on my 40 plus year career in oil and gas, and if nothing else I learned that these things happen and you just have to keep going. I work in exploration supporting the geophysics and geology areas. There were tough times in the early 80's where I did just about anything to earn money, but I was single and only had to support myself. It has been a crazy ride but well worth it for me. Just remember in most cases you are just a number and caught up in the mess. It usually is not personal.

1982 - 1985 Service Company - Laid off in the early 80's as a mud engineer 3 different times.
1985 - 1989 Small independent went through layoffs and the company sold.
1989 - 1996 Stable employment working for an independent.
1996 - 2001 Stable employment working for another small independent but company sold.
2001 - 2013 EOI in 2013 from independent that later sold. Glad I got out early.
2013 - 2016 Layoffs but voluntarily put my name in the hat. Company sold a few years later.
2016 - Current Working for a large independent waitig on the next layoff or EOI type opportunity. I know it is coming because it always does in this business.

@OP I so appreciate everything you said. I feel you. Know that you’re not alone. I was in the same situation 5 years ago. Did not have anything lined up so right away, I was applying left and right like a mad person. It hurt to read the rejection emails as they arrive. The interviews that led nowhere gave me such false hope.

Keep your head up, this too shall pass. In my case, I was able to take the time to focus my energy somewhere else while I patiently wait for the good news: nature hikes, painted our cabinets, organized things around the house, attended networking events, etc. At some point, after almost 5-6 months after Chevron, 3 companies offered me a job at the same time. When it rains… I took the one with perhaps the lowest pay of the 3 but came with an excellent benefit package.

Almost 6 years in and I’ve never looked back. I am treated with dignity and respect and feel that my hard work is recognized and appreciated. I work with some of the best coworkers I’ve ever had a pleasure of working with. My supervisor is amazing.

I truly wish you and everyone here the best in your future. It gets better.

OP - I wish you did not have to deal with this, it su-ks. Take care of yourself as you move beyond Chevron. Don't let this event define who you are. You are defined by YOUR values, not your employer.

@db beautifully put. I may print this to reflect upon as I go through this hideous time.

I would say call EAP and take advantage of your resources, but rumor has it. They are being outsourced too. As far as I know, Chevron does still have benefits to get a therapist having someone to talk to my help. I’m sorry.

Wow, thank you all for the show of support. Your messages and reflections mean a lot to me, and there's some wonderful advice in this thread. It's reassuring to know that I am not alone, and others have had a similar experience.

@a3, I leave with my head held high knowing that I tried to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem. I may not have always gotten it right, but an attempt was made. I am looking forward to getting back into some hobbies, reconnecting with nature, and spending time with my kid. I wish you the very best for Wave 2, and hope that you get the outcome you are looking for.

@ar, your message cuts to the heart of the issue: a total void of leadership and strategy. Our team was driven purely by the equivalent of tickets - work comes in, is prioritised, executed and delivered. At no point was any consideration given to strategy, or how the work would deliver value for the enterprise, and the wrong work was often prioritised. The only thing of consequence was finishing a task within the allotted time, and never was it clear how our work was genuinely contributing to the strategic success of the company. Challenging this, or taking on additional work using our own initiative, was admonished as a risk to the KPIs. We spent more time shuffling work around between teams to make sure the "right" team owned it, than actually delivering value. In fact, some of the reporting on KPIs was borderline fraudulent to overinflate the apparent success of the team.

@az, allowing Chevron to form a core part of my identity is exactly what has happened, and something I should have been more cautious of in retrospect. I absolutely feel like a piece of me has been ripped away. I also agree about the fake culture of care and concern - similar to you, I can count the number of people who have reached out to show support on one hand. This fakeness negatively impacts everything Chevron does though - genuine, meaningful conversations give way to superficial, nice (and safe) ones, which makes it hard to move the needle. All in all, it means I am not just losing a job, and not just losing friends I worked with - but coming to grips with the fact that many people I considered friends in fact weren't.

@b1, there certainly was a prestige to working for Chevron, and the pay and benefits were a significant part of that. However, during my time there, I could never reconcile the high pay with the low expectations. I have never worked anywhere that payed so well and expected so little, and the cognitive dissonance became increasingly unbearable - especially when leadership would proactively stifle innovation, strategic thinking, and delivering more. As I reflect though, I would like my career to amount to more than "I worked at Chevron". I want to be able to look my kids in the eye and tell them I did something meaningful with my life. Still, it's hard.

To everyone else, thank you for your thoughts and support - it means a tremendous amount. I will work through the great advice given and find something that works for me. We will get through this together, and I know better times lay ahead.

Laid off PTSD is a real thing.

One thing I found helpful when I left with severance as a result of 2020 transformation was taking full advantage of outplacement services. There were incredible resources available to help me understand all the value I have outside of Chevron. The people were caring and it kept me action oriented and forward focused. I wish you all the best and you will be ok. What Chevron does says nothing about our individual worth….that’s the god’s honest truth.

The whole concept of going to college and getting a well paying job with a large corporation that will provide a lifetime career is becoming more difficult to achieve in a globalized competitive marketplace. If you are a individual contributor in any organization, you need to have a financial Plan B. Going forward you won't be able to depend on the government or anyone else to take care of you.

I feel the same way, and many of us are in the same boat right now. To give years (and often decades) of your life for this organization, only to be unceremoniously cast aside with only the faintest, unfeeling semblance of a goodbye can be a blow to your self-worth, to say the least. It's hard to say goodbye to the colleagues and friends who you spent a career with, and harder still not to second guess your own contributions and worth.

I don't have much advice beyond what has already been offered. Keep your head up, take whatever positive you can find in the situation, and charge into the next chapter as the best possible version of yourself.

Sorry to hear that. I am also not feeling well and still there waiting to EOI. I agree with everything you said. I feel chewed up and sp-t out by poor leadership. While downsizing and reorganizations are inevitable this 2025 one felt personal. You will get better over time and come out stronger. You need to get your mindset right first. Ultimately they are going to cut too much (again)and outsource too much. Those left may not stay and then they will be really sc--wed. I suspect they will bring back some seasoned talent, if they can find anyone willing to come back to the improperly staffed toxic environment. Good luck to you.

I’m right with you, OP.

I took the AEOI in March after getting another job lined up. Seemed like an easy transition at the time, but I still miss certain parts of Chevron. I’ve heavily second guessed my decision but I am finding that, although the pay and for the most part, the people were unmatched, Chevron took WAY too much of my identity. You and the other commenters are exactly right about that identity piece. You don’t see it you’re gone, and I now see that same deep identity tie in the people on my team who remained. That identity tie over a long period of time I’m finding is deadly.

I’m not really sure where it stems from; maybe the prestige of the Chevron name, perhaps being able to walk through the HOU high rises and feel confident about life, or maybe it’s just the “battered wife syndrome” we get every 4-5 years during a ROM that feeds us like a high. In any event, I’m still untangling myself from the hold Chevron had on me, my life, and my confidence. I’m finding that I saw Chevron as way more than a job, and that’s not a good thing.

If you can get through that piece, you’re going to be golden. The job market is undoubtedly difficult, and while I was extremely lucky to land a job as the EOI took place, there are jobs & decent resources out there that can help you. Spending time with family & friends, daily walks, and getting small tasks done around the house have helped me keep some of my bearings together in the short term. Know that you are not alone right now.

Take it day by day, no more. Wish you all the best

I'm sorry to hear about your current frame of mind. I completely understand it. I went through the same experience back in 2016 with Chevron during their last and largest round of layoffs after the oil crash of 2014. I had been with them for 16 years.

I huge part of my identity had become wrapped up in the fact that I was a Chevroid. Of course, all of this was completely unconscious. The job market was a disaster. I had convinced myself that I have a narrowly defined skill set when the opposite was the truth. I could not see my future because my present was too much to process.

The advice I would give you is to seek out a really good therapist (they are hard to find). When we let our identity be governed by something like a job or a relationship, there is something about our unconscious psyche and thought patterns that leave us ripe to fall right back into said pattern. Rarely can we dig out of these unconscious patterns on our own. I waited 3 years, after I was back to work, before spending some time with a therapist. It was the best money I've ever spent on my own personal development. It helped my career, my relationships and my overall well being.

Just a quick note on Chevron and its culture: All of my 16 years there, the company sold itself as a great culture workplace that takes care of its own. With some time an perspective, I see the culture as being very much like a stepford wives culture. Phony. Not genuine. Literally NO ONE that I worked intimately with for 10+ years reached out to me to check in on me after my layoff. There is a shallowness to the relationships there. People are afraid of being truly vulnerable with one another. Right now, I work for a company that on its surface is not nearly as "caring" as Chevron; however, I've never had so many caring, trusting and close relationships with my colleagues. I'm sure some of this is my own emotional maturation, but I do think Chevron has a sterile and shallow culture that makes it difficult to form authentic, deep relationships.

@OP, when management says in town halls that "you all did everything we asked of you and you did a great job while delivering. But it's not enough" tells you all you need to know. The only way you could have made a real difference would be to outperform management's ability to lead. They set the bar, we met and exceeded it. The result? Outsourcing and a reorg, again.
When was the last time ANY leader at Chevron explained to you how your role supports the strategy and how that strategy fits in the larger organization? Empowerment means more than "letting you figure it out", it's making absolutely sure you understand what the strategy is, having a discussion on how you think you can make an impact, and documenting the agreement with your supervisor on the major points. Then you execute against that plan for the year, checking in periodically to assess progress, identify needs for help, and support.
This model falls apart at strategy in Chevron. Shareholder value is the ONLY "strategy". This lack of strategy puts the entire organization in reaction mode and Chevron becomes an ATM for consulting companies.
@OP, yes, this situation su-ks. However, if you look at the progress you made in a leadership vacuum I'd say you have a lot to offer. You made something out of nothing, aligned people to your vision, and got stuff done.
If you can find a company that actually knows who they are, what they want, and their leadership develops a strategy to obtain it, you'll forget about Chevron in no time.

@OP Please know that because you gave your best you are valuable; not because of WHAT you did in your roles Chevron, but because you acted with true integrity.

You will succeed in this next chapter and rise above everything you left behind. Be relieved you’re gone. I know it’s difficult, I’ll be in your shoes with this next wave and I’m terrified. But at least I won’t be in this negative space anymore.

Start a new hobby, get outside and walk, adopt a dog or cat, volunteer. Do things as little as they may seem that help you to feel accomplished.

Praying for you to have peace ;-)