You think Dallas reads this ? L1’s? You think this helps company if they read?
15 replies (most recent on top)
I have heard in a few calls that HR and P&GA read this regularly and are worried about ExxonMobil’s reputation as a company. In my opinion, they’re worrying about the wrong things. Worry less about what people are saying and more about why people are saying it and what the company has done to make people feel this way. Don’t blame us for your bad reputation when you created the problem in the first place.
If your a lowly supervisor going back to individual contributor is career s–c-de at XOM because you are now competing against technical folks that have seasoned technical skills and tools which will on average blow you out of the water in terms of productivity. An average technical person takes years of training and knowledge to become even close to an average contributor at the working level.
MD track means you on average get ranked higher than your technical competition which gives you the edge in XOM politics but the free market values technical people more than managerial track. Kind of ironic the technical folks will get the last laugh when XOM sadly crashes.
I’m a supervisor and I read these
They don’t read Real Yammer.
They only crave their Yammer - with their sycophants, fake praise, and toxic positivity.
I am a lowly supervisor and I read it. Makes me want to go back to be individual contributor .. I learn from these comments. What’s your advise to me ?
They don't even read what's put in front of their eyes by their colleagues, underlings.
I think they will catch up on this once it makes it to business school lessons on why companies fail, why culture collapses when there is no trust left, and ow not to manage Exxon style.
Executives and aspiring executives believe deep down they are the best of the best, and that they are doing "right", which by exclusion means everyone else is wrong - haters, losers, baseless critics. I don't know when in their formation they pick up, that a core behavior of them is to persevere regardless of cues, warning signs, and feedback.
You see hints of that trait in the servile, loyalist trolls who get consistently downvoted.
There has never been upward feedback in the organization. There was never willingness to honestly receive the best ideas. Value was never attributed to listening to others in Exxon's culture. Pulse checks, surveys, and other mechanisms to pretend they care have been a weird add-on, and not something that provides input or guidance for their choices. Let them vent. Exxon executives and managers are in a cult of their own, insulated, divorced from reality.
I was in a meeting once the day after the first round in Brazil; we had captured blocks paying 10 times the amount offered by the next bidder. Naturally there were concerns about the parameters of the valuation among the technical exploration teams. The Executive VP was made aware. His input to senior managers on that room: "SHUT IT DOWN" (his words)
He said: "You tell them we paid what we wanted to pay, and shut it down. End of the conversation."
Typical Exxon leader. Same guy who says in public: " I have an open door policy. Call me or ask me for coffee if you want to chat" - BULL Sh–.
Maybe chat means hear him brag about himself. It definitely does not mean hear you out and your concerns.
The sick culture is so deep and ingrained, unless you flush all managers and restart, nothing will change. And next year oil prices will most likely go back to $60-ish and then watch, the managers including the top scum will high-5 saying how they brilliantly turned around the company. I have wondered what makes ExxonMobil SLSs and managers so cold, so political, so stifling and venemous. I have no answer. Before I worked at other multinational large companies and I could talk football to a VP on Monday morning as I used to work in the corporate office. Imagine that in ExxonMobil! I worked 35+ years in industry, with 4 other companies before and I have never seen such a ruthless, heartless, hurtful culture.
Not surprised if they read it. Many good feedbacks can be learnt from this.. but it’s too late to change now.. they are employees too.
There is almost no chance that most senior managers or execs read this website. Think how sh–ty they would feel after reading some of these posts - way better to just look the other way.
There is a small chance they text around a link when there is a leak.
Why would they read this? There is just a bunch of hateful people venting anonymously. Based on the posting about who wants exxonmobil to fail, how can anyone take your concerns seriously?
They are the epitome of malevolence and cowardice.
Even if they read it, no words are strong enough to penetrate their cold exterior. They lack compassion, and are unable to see anybody else’s point of view. They don’t feel bad or sorry, they look at it as people are objects to be manipulated, controlled, or eliminated.
You have to agree with everything they said, and follow their orders, or you are an obstacle in their path to get rid of. Some managers will say it is business and not personal, but that is not true and we all know it. They treat every one around them with disdain that has stood up to them. And they read these posts and meet with their other bully managers/supervisors and band together to protect one another and laugh out loud at all the comments. They don’t care. The lowest of low.
This would be an excellent case study for Sigmund Freud / Peter Drucker, somebody please call Wharton
I know at least two VPs who read this
I read it, and I am a manager of my life; so yes, managers like me are reading this.