Supervisors were told to pick who they dislike the most and that HR would endorse it as that employee not being valuable. This did not matter what previous ranking was. Did not matter on the employee's tenure. Did not matter on the employee's loyalty and dilligence. Absolutely did not matter if the employee needed medical accommodations. It was purely, pick you you dislike the most, let's get them out of here, and progress ahead. Survival of the fittest! Sink or swim!!
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Yes, very true... ranked in the middle the first year and the next dropped to bottom 10. Ops Manager came up with I was slow to learn the GWM and tardy one time, my second week at the company. Issued a new company phone (did not know how to use the alarms right) and was late 1 hr. Happened only once, not a trend, stated that I was not a leader due to that fact. That was enough to justify to drop my ranking to the bottom.
The OPS manager picks on the one that he/she believes that will not give much pushback personality wise. It is a headcount game in the end. Sad part is the manager moves up the chain and will get you in the end when your rankings goes to the Americas.
Feel your pain. I worked for Westinghouse Nuclear for 30 years. Things became rocky after the company overextended themselves by trying to market , sell, and build a new larger powerplant. Corporate was looking for any excuse to trim the workforce. My new younger supervisor, being indoctrinated in the corporate mentality, tried to get me fired for performance issues. When that didn't pan out, my position was eliminated. I was laid off at 58 years old. Needless to say, the company declared bankruptcy within six months of my "layoff" to the tune of 6 billion dollars.
Exxon needs to get rid of middle management who shuffle PPTs and utter LPSAs, JLAs, and Assess Analyze and ACT mantra. They have little insights into the process or controls, and how to make money in Chemical Plants/Refineries. They have expensive free lunches and golf games to stroke their ego. They talk gibberish and make silly statements with a stern look. These id–ts are leading Exxon! It is time to clean the house and fire them all. Not a penny will be lost in profitability of Exxon in fact it may increase it.
I have been a steady middle third my whole career and got dropped this last cycle. I’m not NSI, but I see the writing on the wall. I have started forwarding my emails and recording convos to make sure they can’t pull this “you should have know” sh*t on me.
Do not be afraid, voice it out to the press, use the other media (Facebook, You Tube, Tik Tok, etc.). Even if the people do not care, let it out , because there are people that care o like to know what happens in Oil and Gas Industry. One way that the big companies concern its their reputation. dedicate to he people that said that is it is unlikely to make an impact on the people, what did not you think that Darren Wood talked about the PIP system and not layoffs? First his reputation and second Company's reputation.
Elsewhere it's been noted that the Option 2 'Waiver' is a sieve (or membrane) that the thickest most sulfurous crude could flow freely through - like Darren himself wrote it.
Yes - litigation regarding this disguised layoff will happen. Class-action. 10 years.
As a subsurface technical professional with a doctorate from a highly reputable American university that left XOM over 5 years ago, I can unequivocally say that these claims reflect the illegal corporate culture in this company. It is against the law (Federal WARN) act to hide a mass lay-off as performance issues as to shield the company from paying severance, reemployment, services, and giving 60 days notice. Exxon’s forced ranking system is toxic and rotten from the core. It creates an insular company of successful employees who have risen not by “playing the game”, but out of luck and personality preference, and, sometimes nepotism. For one of the worlds richest companies to be screwing over their employees at their most vulnerable, is not just a new low, it’s actually their base business.
Talking to the press is very unlikely to make an impact. The vast majority of people don't care that highly paid people are laid off. They especially don't care that people are let go from an industry they want to see fail.
Does anybody have good press contacts that will make an impact? Wall Street Journal? New York Times? CNN? Any other national news?
If this is true and you can prove it/vouch that it is true (or even if you can’t), you have an ethical obligation to shine light on it. Go to the press. Preferably to a paper that will be widely read.
I agree completely. It is very sad to hear the desparation in the voices of co-workers I have known many years who are forced out of the company today. Very sad. Many of these are not the ones with high salaries. One co-worker with 25 years service (who is not yet retirement eligible) went through major surgery recently and still has ongoing medical treatments. She is being cut. I worry about her. She is single and has already been drained mentally and financially. Now she will lose medical coverage and will be forced to discontinue treatment because it is too expensive to pay for Cobra. It's unclear if she can draw unemployment. Even if so, it's not enough to survive, and she's in no position to be starting a new job search now. I really fear that she and others will become s–c-dal. I know this is supposed to be "just a job cut" and "nothing personal." But we are all human, and this could have been handled by the company in a more humane manner.
I was one of the unfortunate ones who was completely blindsided by the news that I was in the NSI bottom ranking category. I was not previously at-risk as I was in the middle 3rd and clearly doing my job. The new ranking system (they try not to use the work ranking, but we all know that’s it is by another name - it’s still essentially a zero sum game) is “designed for maximum movement with no safety net”. It’s now even more subjective than it was before. More of a popularity contest. And more about behaviors than actual work. (Since when are ENGINEERING managers QUALIFIED to judge or score employees on BEHAVIORS? )
I am in a demographic that is is very limited in our industry. I know others who from new hires to retirement age and many in the middle that were given the shocking and hurtful news. All were good worker-bees. Given that very few people do a lot of the work there, there’s not going to be many left that actually know what to do. Chopping off their nose to spite their face.
Heard a similar story. As supervisor told me he was told to fire one of his five new hires. There was no way he could really assess their performance since they were all less than 1 or 2 years in the company. So he just had to choose one or else he couldn't leave the room.
The difference here is that the supervisor didn't want to do this and liked everyone.
If this isn't considered a layoff I don't know what is.
It certainly seems like this was the case as we hear more and more stories. But, does anyone have proof this actually happened? If there is something someone has and discloses it (which I sure hope happens), EM is going to have a massive lawsuit on their hands. The way this company has handled this whole situation is disgusting. No regard for the employee (supposedly their highest value asset), and everything to make that dividend payment, which, isn’t even sustainable for much longer.
That’s some pretty strong accusations. I sure hope that isn’t the case. If so that’s a massive problem
It's complete b—s— when a tenured, loyal employee gets singled out, especially when disabled. I wish he or she the best. I know they will need positive vibes to move ahead! :)
Supervisors were unethically told to respond to any employee who asks "why," to say "you should have known" and to not provide examples of deficiencies. If the employee would stay silent and not contest, then it means clear success for the company to reach the 10% headcount reduction. Managers/supervisors are being stewarded on how well then can do this. If an employee demands an explanation, it's a reason to write them up as insuboridinate. Absurd that wanting a valid explanation equates to insubordination. Ludicrous!
Corporate culture has reached an all time low. Any employee who does not fit well into an equation becomes disposable. No regard for the human element.
The directive to cut 8-10% has made management very sleazy and unethical. If they cannot execute by cutting staff, they fear for their job. So, it's a big teaming up of supervisors/management conspiring to build cases out of nothing. As long as they can trap an employee into something that HR will approve of (which is pretty much anything now!), then that employee will be cut. Remember HR works for the company, not for the employees.
Exactly! That's what I've seen. Employees who voices concerns about coming back to the office in May during Covid. They were tagged as being difficult employees. If they spoke up in group meetings they were reprimanded for it. Apparently HR thought it was OK for management to classify this as a performance issue. I feel sorry for those older employees who are not yet retirement eligible. Loyal, dilligent, well respected people, who will now have no medical coverage, and likely be unemployed much longer because of their age.