Does anyone know when/if we are going to return to work? Honestly, I am worried they will make us go back with cases going down.
46 replies (most recent on top)
So if people are doing nothing to add value why do we still employ them?
Put the people to work or furlough them.
Oh and I don’t buy the home situation nonsense.
Comment immediately below showing zero empathy for fellow employees. Once again, must be a yes man middle manager who is still ticked by the wfh situation. People’s lives have been completely turned upside down by this pandemic. The managers with any sense of a moral compass will be understanding during reviews due to the sudden change in circumstances (no two people have the same situation at home). Besides, activity is down 95% and we are running one drilling rig. What exactly are you doing that is such a difference maker? Likely nothing. Good day.
Rankings and performance reviews will be interesting this year. With the work from home the BS artists will really stand out and hopefully will be put in the appropriate lowside bucket for the first time.
Some things never change. “We need to figure out how to bring the bulk of our employees back” VH said it in the town hall call. That’s all what I can say. Lower your expectations
Why would you say otherwise? Everything is fine. Didn't you get the memo? What did you think about it?
We have 1 rig running. Everything is fine. Hahahahahhahahahahaha
Listen, I took a class on this in college so I know what I'm talking about. The company needs to let each employee design their own job, hours worked, pay, and if they work from home or office. We should then get to vote on the EC, and should have last say on any M&A activity. It's a model that theoretically will work not only for oxy, but across the country. Oops - gotta go now,someone posted something new on tiktok.
No old white man or savior here...though it does seem you only get your information about what's going on at OXY from the top articles on whatever search engine you use. I'm not one to argue with the uninformed, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and continue to do my job and more. Maybe your wife's boyfriend will put the seat down next time so you're not in such a bad mood tomorrow night.
This thread is massively entertaining. Ha
@spanky LOL dude. With 95% less rig activity you aren’t doing sh*t. There is no activity right now so all you are doing is finding busy work to waste your time and justify OXYs money. I’ve worked at this company for 2 decades, I know how this works. Oh wait, you must know more than I do. LOL. Did you miss the fact that our stock is down 70% from last year? You must be the savior we have been waiting for, old white man! The messiah saving OXY from the impending 7 billion in debt obligations.
Silly goose, obviously you're not close to the field and actual work. We're making moves despite you and the change in the last month vs previously is monumental. I'm saying this as a 90% home / 10% field guy that oversees real people doing real work and making real decisions. Despite your ignorance and hopes OXY will fail, we will succeed. Tell your wife's boyfriend to grab you a snickers on his way over, you're hangry.
To the three comments below, calm down. We are running 1 rig and activity is down 95% because of the APC acquisition and poor executive choices. Don’t act like y’all are doing anything that actually adds shareholder value. Sure, y’all are making plenty of PowerPoints for upper management, and lining up future projects if prices improve. But let’s ask Icahn if that justifies your pay. Likely not. Let’s examine yalls salaries and see if the value you add really justifies it, in a downturn like this, chances are, it doesn’t.
It's not about covid for these guys it's about surviving because they know they will be laid off with cause because their jobs are not essential since the acquisition. They're hoping the COC will save them, it'll come down to the courts. Hopefully they have a plan for the 5 years it takes to run the course in the legal battle to get the cash if they happen to win which I doubt. I suspect there will be cause for termination when records are pulled during this work from home time. Tick tock the time is coming for those that are hoping for OXY to fail, squat and watch us succeed while you're left in the dust.
You said it so well. There are so many slackers whether they are in the office or out. Why do companies hire people without good work ethic.
In the case of this company they stopped putting people through rigorous interviews. Managers who just wanted positions filled would fill with people and not let other groups review them. Much of this responsibility resided in key management functional positions that sometimes contributed to this slack.
I’m sure there are plenty people afraid to return to work because then we would see that they have absolutely NOTHING to do. There are plenty of employees who have basically had a 6 month vacation while others are working 14 hour days and no Fridays off. Time to evaluate the situations and make job cuts/additions where necessary.
I'm curious how many of you that don't want to go back to work would be open to taking a vaccine that is just like the flu shot? Will you be willing to?
I like interacting with people. My family. My neighbors. That’s who humans are “supposed to interact with”. I don’t think God or Evolution ever intended us to spend 9 hours a day in offices and conference rooms.
Job share? If you have a job you can share with another individual and take turns with, then you are expendable. Does anyone actually think that’s an option? Maybe for IT. Technical people are specialized and can’t be replaced with another warm body. And their compensation is reflective of the fact that the success of an oil company resides firmly on the backs of engineers and scientists. Do you want to pay the geologist who knows how to find oil or the geologist who’s good at meeting presentations and getting to the office on time? Do you want to pay the engineer who knows how to design a safe and functional facility? Or the engineer who makes great PPTs and is willing to stay at the office late? Anybody who downvotes this is in IT, HR, or accounting, not the heart of the company, and I encourage you to go make your own board.
The reason to go back to the office is to interact as human being are supposed to do.
There is so much lost in communication and meaning without physical presence. Did you skip that class in college or did you not grow up as a normal person. Seeing that you are probably technical you most likely did not get a course in basic communication and also don’t really give a flip about interacting with people anyway.
Like someone said before if you want the WFH option after the virus is gone than you may have to accept less pay or possibly job share with someone who you would alternate days in the office with. So, full pay in the office or reduced pay with the work from home or job share options. Take your choice.
Also, from what I’m seeing, the people who aren’t putting in good effort while WFH are still just as productive as they were when they were lazy in the office.
COVID isn’t the reason i’m afraid to return to work. It’s because I’ve had 6 months now of a lifestyle that I never dreamed could exist as long as I worked in the old-fashioned oilfield. It has been a game changer for both my work productivity and effectiveness and my physical and mental health. my blood pressure is down. My family is happier. My work projects are more organized. I don’t have the backlog of work that was always there because I couldn’t focus enough to tackle it.
I’m praying that there will be a lot of flexibility when we go back and acknowledgement and acceptance of continued WFH unless there is a really legitimate reason to require in-person.
To say most large companies haven't returned, you've been hiding under your rock too long! Heck some industries increased staffing during. I suppose if you think that an increase of oil demand and in turn an increase of oil prices would not benefit OXY then you're probably too dense to access the internet and leave mo–nic comments. My question is how did you train your wife's boyfriend kitty cat to type your dictation?
Oxy Senior Management and BOD are the worst in the history of the oil patch
Cannot think of a group of people who destroyed so much value in so little time
It too Lawler almost 4 years to destroy CHK but he was already sunk before he took over thanks to AC
The comment down below of why do OXY employees bad mouth OXY leadership is the biggest LOL of 2020. VH destroyed our company, reduced our salaries for 3 months by 30%, did not give earned raises and promotions due to the salary freeze and likely won’t give 2020 bonuses either. All the while, VH and her inside circle have done back door deals to keep their jobs after the shakeup with the BOD. No executive accountability at all, when it is expected of the average employee.
Almost no big companies have returned to work. Currently all large companies are at 50% capacity or less per Greg Abbots most recent order. And the argument that return to work will increase oil demand and save OXY is a moot point. VH bet the company and OXY will declare bankrupcy. If they don’t, it’s still a horrible investment for shareholders which is clearly a known given our stock price.
If you're too worried about covid to go back to work in a controlled environment that will obviously have every practical precaution in place then how do you expect any return to normalcy that will in turn increase oil demand en masse and move our company to a more stable position? Many are banking on a vaccine to ease their personal worry but i suspect that there will be narratives even after a vaccine is widely accessible that will keep those that somehow expect 100% certainty in an uncertain world still apprehensive about getting back to business. Other large corporations have returned without major repercussions and I have not heard of an outbreak attributed to grocery/home improvement stores that stayed open even in the beginning. Ultimately, the tide has turned and the covid goal posts have been moved enough, it is time to get back to work for the good of our families, country and company.
I agree with Boomer here. Same thing for me. Even though I am just a couple of miles away I work very effectively from home. And with no worries of COVID-19 and elevators. Here we observe all precautions. I actually work more effectively from home, not so many meetings in person and can easily snap back and forth Skype meetings, etc.
On the elevators if employees wrap themselves with plastic wrap before entering the problem is solved. Alternatively the elevators could be fitted with vertical partitions to get at least 5 people in there.
The company also wastes so much money on office space at $40 oil when we can effectively do our jobs from home.
I am not so sure how we will get around from floor to floor in the morning. I was on an elevator today and it was about the size of the ones we have at Oxy. If you do the 6 foot social distancing only two people can get on at a time in opposite corners with the most distance apart. Taking the stairs a few floors is one thing, but doing 20 plus floors might be tough on some of us going up. At lunch I doubt many people will be going out if the whole lunch break is waiting on an elevator. So you better grab your lunch, coffee, and drinks on your way up. But then how do you keep the six foot rule when moving around the stairwell. It is going to be crazy.
This company wastes so much money on pay. But then again wages are small compared to 40 billion dollars of debt.
I was working 17, and with the extra 3 I am able to work 20 hours a day. Still get some weekend time as well. Pay is nice and the last bonus was around 55% of base pay, so the extra few hours a day were not bad. Pretty nice deal.
Have people at Oxy forgotten what a mass layoff( like in The 1990’s) feels like when you are on the receiving end. You are so spoiled now. I agree with the previous post, grow up.
Why do people bad mouth Oxy and its leadership. Look at all the time they've given you to work from home. Suddenly, you want more and more and more out of them but when they make decisions they believe is for the good of the company, you all cry about it when something doesn't align right. I have never seen a more spoiled bratty disgruntled workforce. I mean, people with years of experience and master level degrees that do not work in this industry just can't believe the money you make as employees and the hefty bonuses you get. You are spoiled brats! Grow up!
You only work 3 hours extra from home per day. That is what most of us did last year plus the commute time, not to mention work on weekends. You are definitely overpaid and should put more time in to earn that bonus.
Boomer here. I love working from home and can keep doing my job fine. There is no one I need to see at the office I that I can't talk to or video with through Teams, so hopefully we will get to stay home. I do think some early career people gain valuable experience from working with more experienced folks side by side. So for their sake I do think there is some face to face needed in an office environment. This old boomer will be just as happy doing the WFH thing, but I have a great boss, and I really work about three hours longer a day from home, so in reality the company is getting a lot more work out of me by working from home. It comes down to 3 hours in a car commuting, or 3 hours more working from home.
The virus isn’t going to be under control until there is a vaccine. You probably think angels are real and climate change is a hoax.
Once the virus is mostly under control this work from home nonsense reminds me of kids saying to their mommies “I don’t feel like going to school today”. Not because they are sick but because they are too lazy to go to school. Grow up people.
Take the vaccine. It is coming
Why would OXY want good people to quit who simply do not want to come back in the office? If they can do their job effectively, why does it matter if they are physically in the office or working remote? Shouldn't it be about the quality of their work and not some political bs of being in a physical office space? You are clearly a Boomer, who is just one example of the wrong thinking in big oil. Set in your ways and unwilling to change with the times. I am a 32 year old that has worked at OXY since 2010. I like the company, but I see so many of my peers leaving the industry for greener pastures. That doesn't just mean for other well paying industries like tech, but also for other more flexible industries like tech. Google and Microsoft have both said they are allowing their employees to WFH until summer 2021 to help keep their employees safe from CVD19. The old school way of thinking needs to evolve, even if it means giving employees the option to work from home a day or two a week. Otherwise, future employees are going to look elsewhere, since flexibility is a huge perk that so many other industries offer.