Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Sports Analogy

In the sports world most of the blame for a losing season is on the Head Coach. Players might be traded or benched but the head coach usually get fired and takes the overall blame. Like in football the our Head Coach should take the blame instead of more cuts and headaches for the "players". Also maybe some better pep talks than you guys are terrible and are the problem.

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| 2101 views | | 13 replies (last January 19, 2024) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1qAhtyJL

13 replies (most recent on top)

"For any company, thatis partially true but the metrics are mostly based on cost and majority of the cost comes from employee benefits, "

Wrong. SG&A expenses are typically just under 20% of all operational expenses at Chevron.

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Post ID: @4yyc+1qAhtyJL

The head coach speaks for the team, is a favorite of the owners, and is expected to thin the herd and improve the team by getting rid of deadwood. The coach knows the landscape and how it all works. The players are just a bunch of d-mb jocks, mostly in the dark. The players perform in their position or they get a vitriolic rebuke and are threatened with their jobs.

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Post ID: @4mzi+1qAhtyJL

aglee. the coach and leaders should take the main reaponsibilities when the team is not doing well because their decisions make major impact on the performence. same for a company like chevron since its self-called a ‘one team’ company.

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Post ID: @2tft+1qAhtyJL

@lku: So managers have limited choices during project development? That's good to know. In that case, they do not deserve much compensation. We can just have admin assistants map everyone progress on a standard project gantt chart and save money on this inflated management salaries!

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Post ID: @1rfa+1qAhtyJL

@lku, if your utopian view were true, and management had as little control of things as you opine, and employees were viewed as essential to the company's success, there wouldn't be the massive difference between employee and management compensation. It would also be true that management would work much closer with employees to fine-tune their 'limited choices'. I'm intrigued how you worked in 'employee benefits' as an option-limiter. Are you suggesting that benefits be cut so management can have more money to spend?

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Post ID: @1knd+1qAhtyJL

Bottom line if you are in charge of TCO for the past 5 years you should have been all over FGP cost and schedule. That obviously did not happen. Instead we had a revolving door of hipots who are not being held accountable.

The coach analogy is a reasonable one. Coach Saban did not luck into 6 championships, he was on top of things every year.

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Post ID: @1bmy+1qAhtyJL

@lku I've been reading company nonsense for many years. Your "explanation" wins the grand prize. I'm going to use some of this during my next review. The expression on my boss' face when I tell him that he needs to accept I did my best with good intentions unless otherwise is proven. For good measure, I'll toss in that the impact of unknown events such as covid, war, geopolitical issues had on my project. I can see all EEs next cycle.

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Post ID: @1uxe+1qAhtyJL

@lku: "management also has very few decision options": Nonsense. You might have a point if you are referring to the results of one project (compare to one play on the field). The play is called and executed (at the time the coach only has a few plays to select from that apply at that point in the game), some times it works and sometimes it is a bust. No one judges a coach on one play. Long term, however, after a few losing seasons it becomes clear the choices being made on player section, planning, training, team building and all the other small incremental decisions that go into building a successful franchise are not being executed well...then the coach and many of his support staff are replaced. When a team is not doing well, no successful franchise fires all it's players or reassigns them all to new positions: They sack the leader, the coach, because that is generally at the center of the problem!

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Post ID: @zbk+1qAhtyJL

The majority of Chevron's management are narcissists.

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Post ID: @bfc+1qAhtyJL

Not the right analogy. I agree accountability is not within our culture. The reality is that with sports the talent pool is very limited, they have already demonstrated their capability through college and selection, building a good team and performing well is the coach job so if the team fails the blame is mostly directly towards the coach. For any company, thatis partially true but the metrics are mostly based on cost and majority of the cost comes from employee benefits, management also ha e very few decision options, so they have limited choices, even with capital projects, it is the risk they have to take and with the realm of uncertainty anything is possible. We should not purely judge decisions based on outcome, that is one criteria, but it has to be taken into consideration of all available data and options at the time of decision making, risk tolerance, and impact of unknown events such as covid, war, geopolitical issues, etc. At the end , it is not very easy to blame management nor the employees, we just need to accept people did their best with good intentions unless otherwise is proven.

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Post ID: @lku+1qAhtyJL

@gff: "Accountability isn’t chevrons strength." Truth in just 4 words. No one in management takes the blame for cost overruns, delays, or poor development and production, JG (the retired) being the billion $$$ poster child. No one in Exploration management takes the blame for our poor performance the last decade (such as knowingly passing on Guyana). High-pots are taught (literally and by example) how to dodge responsibility, by changing jobs before poor results come in.

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Post ID: @vvu+1qAhtyJL

When have you ever experienced a narcissist taking the blame?

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Post ID: @lxg+1qAhtyJL

Accountability isn’t chevrons strength.

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Post ID: @gff+1qAhtyJL

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