If any Oxy execs read this, PLEASE extend WFH through 2021 at least. In spite of what a few random people say, I think the vast majority of us are extremely productive from home. It allows us to have better physical and mental health and means SO MUCH right now.
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I love WFH
I do nothing useful and just take your money
@2qlb+16WCrTKE - The “preventive measures” in place are what maintain the low levels everywhere in the world and every time those nations open back up they endure another surge of infections and overrun hospitalizations. This is not rocket science, it’s difficult for someone like yourself because your primary objective has nothing to do with infection prevention, you’re just fixated on the fact you don’t want to sit at home like a pouting child stomping their feet in toys r us because they can’t get what they want. Just relax, you’ll be hanging out with your ignorant brethren soon enough simpleton.
Don't worry. Corporate Affairs reads all of these posts and they get shared with select management personnel. Maybe if they were more concerned about running a successful company than what's posted here this place wouldn't be the colossal sh!+ hole it is.
@2brb+16WCrTKE
Ok, then how is the WFH working for your new hires or very early career employees? The original question was directed at how the WFH is working with inexperienced employees who need a lot of guidance.
@2mud+16WCrTKE I am not sure who my “ignorant brethren” are. I am not anti-mask. I have never believed it was a hoax. I have never questioned the government data. Apparently you do question the Harris County data. You obviously didn’t actually go look at any of the data I cited. You didn’t address any of the points I made. Instead, you responded with personal attacks. That’s fine. That tells me how seriously I should take you. Since you want to talk about Europe, how do the deaths look in Sweden since March? How about Italy? How about Spain? Every country that was hit hard early in the spring is showing very low levels of deaths now. Herd resistance is not the same thing as herd immunity. Herd resistance means that the virus is slowing down. If anyone had herd immunity, the virus would be gone. I never used that term. The higher the percentage of the population with durable immunity, the fewer vectors the virus has. That is herd resistance. And it is happening. As for all the strict measures being taken in Houston, I’m not sure if you’ve left the house lately. Bars and restaurants are packed. Several school districts are open. If we have to wait for zero cases, we will be waiting forever. People are still getting the measles even though we have widespread vaccination!
To add on to the convo of interns / college hires... please note that the revoking year old offers for college hires once you acquire a company is also chicken pewp.
Yup that is right, Oxy didn't honor the college new hire offers of APC and less than 10 days before their start date in mid August, we had to inform them of the news. Most of them had been committed to APC for over a year and had internships with the company. Of course the blow back that occurred was huge... Oxy's college hiring reputation was scolded by just about every school for the way it was handled.
It is not as much about Covid as it is the lockdown of society. Covid is going down and people are practicing good behavior, so that is good. I think people have gotten use to working from home, and it is tough going back. I for one am more worried about having to commute and deal with that than the virus. The virus still scares me, but a lot of it is political, and I bet you will see things open up after the election. The Big 10 decided today to play football, and schools are back in with sports being played all over Houston and the country. It would not surprise me if we are phased in from Oct 1 through the end of the year and into early 2021. I vote for WFH myself.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/politics/2020/09/15/some-jpmorgan-traders-catch-covid-as-bank-reopens-offices/
As soon as Dora changes to level #2 Oxy will have an excuse to “bring the bulk of our workforce back to the office”. It is statistically a sure thing someone will test positive the second week after reopening.
Just like the schools are showing this trend.
Then we will go back WFH
Did anyone have an intern this summer to manage virtually? How did that work out? Did the intern and the company get the full value of the assignment?
If you think “COVID is all over a Houston” and you think those who disagree with you are “science deniers”, go to the Harris County Health Dept COVID Dashboard and look at the Epi Curve. New cases are now under 200 per day in a county of over 4 million people. The city and county has such a large backlog, they were counting cases in a August that got confirmed in June. Go look at the hospital and ICU census numbers from SETRAC. Lowest numbers of COVID patients since May and declining sharply. Positive test ratio is down to nearly 5%, despite the fact that the county is counting multiple positive tests for the same patient as individual positives (which means for every additional positive test on someone who previously tested positive, you need 20 negative tests just to keep the ratio from artificially rising). The reproductive rate is below 1, indicating the spread of the virus is decelerating.
And it’s not just Houston or Texas as a whole. This is happening in every southern state. The northeast states have been at low levels since mid-summer, despite the fact that the virus was raging in the south throughout the summer. Go look at the case data for individual parishes in Louisiana. Orleans, Jefferson and Lafourche peaked with the northern states in the spring due to the influx of northerners during Mardi Gras. They had very few cases during the summer. The parishes that didn’t see the spring peak, such as Calcasieu, followed the same pattern as the rest of the south. Strangely enough, New Orleans didn’t have a summer surge, despite every single surrounding county and state seeing a late-summer peak. The data is there, and freely available to you. If you value science, then perhaps you should consider looking at data for yourself instead of repeating what someone told you. There is ample evidence that this epidemic is nearing an end quickly. Most areas of the country are likely reaching levels of herd resistance. This isn’t politics. It’s a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the data.
"The electronic whiteboards do not transmit the same level of energy and enthusiasm. Again, it is all about the communication directly between people.
You are probably one of those who don’t believe in the importance of nonverbal communication in people to people communication."
Ok. I am starting to think you just don't know how to use technology (which is fine but just say that)... Because you do know that live video streaming is a thing, right? Combine that with your electonic whiteboard. Then you can see your teammates eyes rolling back into their skull every time you try to address them.
Face time, skype video, zoom, etc... all of these things address your points.
Still haven't heard one valid reason why we need to come back into the office beyond overbearing control needs by dinosaurs like yourself.
Tell me what you produce (work wise) with these in person convos that can't be done over the phone or online?
Creative solutions? I could argue that being in a room together could stiffle the creative process just as easily. Or for that matter, it could also be that it only caters to those that speak up where as an anonymous submission of ideas and discussion online might result in the most creative as it isn't shot down by the loudest in the room who sometimes dominate those sessions.
Or could it be that your role is to moderate said meeting and now your subordinates don't know what value you bring as they all surpassed you intellectually and technically years ago.
I'm sure the execs reading this will be happy to take your anecdotal opinion into account.
The electronic whiteboards do not transmit the same level of energy and enthusiasm. Again, it is all about the communication directly between people.
You are probably one of those who don’t believe in the importance of nonverbal communication in people to people communication.
You say you are unable to get ahold of people because they are doing things like eating or working out and yet you say you miss the perks of the office like a cafeteria and gym?
Doesn't that make you just as unaccessible in the office?
And tell me how your finger or stylus can't draw the same crummy diagram in MSPaint ( or any other electronic whiteboard) while on a Skype or Teams meeting. By the way, some of the most creative people in the world do this daily to convey points to clients or colleagues.
Again your arguments are illogical.
WFH! Keep us safe OXY!
To all you science deniers, work from home needs to be an option until people can access a vaccine.
Oh, and give me a white board, a marker with ink, and two or three people who actually know what they are doing and we can accomplish a lot more than a screen full of bystanders who just waste the time of the group.
I would argue the WFH set up is far worse for getting a hold of people. People aren't logged in all day during normal work hours like you would be at the office, outside of lunch. They are taking breaks to walk the dogs, feed the kids (or themselves), handle personal matters, hit the gym. It allows an amount of flexibility that makes spontaneous discussion almost impossible to achieve. Luckily, you can just plan meetings, but still. For technical employees like geos and engineers (you know, those slightly important folks whose work makes it possible to extract and sell our product) it's a big deal to be able to walk down the hall and have a brief discussion with a colleague. Now I have to wait for insert name here to get out of the shower and we play phone tag for a while because I end up doing something else when he/she tries to call back. That's not an extreme example. I've had it happen multiple times a week since March, and it has an impact.
But I will concede that attitude is a big factor, too. If you love your job, you probably love WFH, and if you hate your job you might go either way. I personally hate my job AND hate WFH because I can't even take advantage of company perks I used to rely on, like the gym and cafeteria. Little silver linings that are gone now.
- and involving lots of people is overrated.
Obviously you do not have a job that requires creativity.
"For projects and jobs that require spontaneous discussion and group creativity the WFH will not work long term."
Are you saying you can't have spontaneous discussions online? Its likely the best way to involve the most people. Technology allows for more creativity regardless of small or large groups. Your arguments are illogical.
Perhaps most people at Oxy have jobs that a monkey could do.
All of this WFH really depends on what job and what type of team you work in. For projects and jobs that require spontaneous discussion and group creativity the WFH will not work long term. For jobs that involve just doing assigned tasks that a monkey could do then sure work from home. But don’t be surprised if you are replaced or displaced some day.
Door to door salesmen were once considered a need by most companies until media changed that... several times (print, radio, tv and internet). Now too times are changing. If a team in Houston can help run a rig in GoM or Oman or Midland, then I am pretty sure they can run it from their house using the same technology. Will meetings be any different? Maybe yes or maybe no depending on how you treat them. But, let me ask you this; how many times did you attend a virtual meeting via skype when you could have just traveled down the elevator or go to the next building?
The reality is that we have been testing the boundaries of a virtual office for a long time. With technology and connectivity at an all time high; at this point most of us arent seeing a change in responsibilities. However, a low rig count usually means low work loads anyway. Also most of our leadership can effectively do their job with just their phone. A laptop just makes it easier. For others, a laptop is necessary. The reality is depending on your job and skill set a virtual office could help oxy reduce debt by cutting office space. In other areas of the business it might be necessary to be in the office for a limited amount of time. Others they will need to be in the field. Just realize everyone is arguing over an all or nothing situation. The reality is that we do different things and some can do it just as good if not better remotely. I know I hated when "Barb" came by and interrupted my thought process just as much as my kids do.
Leadership has a choice.. once that choice is communicated ( likley to be last minute with tkns of questions remaining) then we can start moaning about if its right or not.
How simple minded an individual must be to believe work quality is predicated upon location. If you had work to perform at the office, you have work to perform at home. If you’re workload decreased upon embarking on WFH it simply signifies that your “work” was not indeed work at all, but instead (in vulgar terms) falls under the definition of a b—s— job. That has nothing to do with work ethic or work location, but simply bad management.
“Old white men”...Spanky the racist!
If we are effective from home, why go back and risk getting sick?
VH and OXY know the liability of bringing back too many workers. It will be a rotating schedule at best since the liability is too great to bring everyone back to the office at once.
Spanky has a fetish. Notice that he talks about boyfriends a lot.
Tech companies pay better because their stock options are actually valuable. Lol boomer.
I know lunchtime breaks are hard to understand for those that don't wake up till noon but I take solice in the fact that my comments are resonating enough that you recognize the name. Perhaps you could change out of your superhero pajamas and have your wife's boyfriend take you bowtie shopping for when you go back to work in October?
Tech companies don’t pay what oil companies pay. If you want that pay then stay at home.
WFH! How can oil companies expect to compete with other industries if they don’t offer this flexibility? Tech companies which are way more legit to work for and aren’t on the verge of bankruptcy like oxy offer wfh to all of their employees (since micromanaging at the office clearly doesn’t determine if a company is successful or not).
@spanky you seem to post a lot on here for a guy that claims he is doing so much work right now. I’ve seen your same name on multiple threads. Clearly you are adding value to the company right now.
I see alot of talk of old white men on here, of whom I would rather work along aside than entitled WFH cry babies. Don't worry your wife's boyfriend will be over as soon as he gets off of his essential job to change your dirty diaper so stop crying and start making plans to get back to work like the rest of us.
You don’t have to be an expert to identify id–ts. Only thing at Oxy that is different. They are rotten apples. LOL
Oh yea and you know better than the experts I see. Lol. OXY has way more employees than most other oil companies in Houston you dumb*ss so it’s not apples to apples.
There is no huge liability to Oxy in getting people back to work. Oil and gas has been deemed essential during this pandemic. The whining about returning to the office has zero merit. It’s from the snowflakes who want a salary for sitting at home and doing nothing. There as tons of companies across Houston that have returned to work. You would think a company like Oxy that is struggling to survive the current market as well as recover from its horrible acciquision and even worse integration would get their employees back to business! People that don’t want to return unless they have a very serious medical condition - should be fired.
Saying work from homers have bad people skills is BS. Maybe some of us have enjoyed not having to deal with worthless engineers in person all day. I understand you have to make it look like you are important.
What do you people not get about the fact that the virus is a huge liability for oxy if they bring people back in the office right now. There is no vaccine, the virus is everywhere in Houston (even Greg Abbott who is a science denier himself had to back track and shut down after the virus got out of control in Texas). It’s called adjusting with the times, something a lot of you clearly have a problem with.