Let’s be real, laying off 15% of the current staff is still not enough especially with impending asset sales. Productivity levels are going to continue to stay low as rumors of layoffs hang around. If executives really wanted to set the company up for success they would get down to the right numbers as soon as possible. Give everyone a package that’s out and give the chosen few employees some peace of mind. The culture in this company went out the window when executives quit being open and transparent (one of our core values) about the state of the company and went around saying how good everything was only to have layoffs the next day. Nothing is ever going to be back to “normal” when you’re constantly wondering if something you did, or are doing could rub someone the wrong way and then you’re on the list. At this point you can only hope for 1 of 2 things - getting let go while there is still enough money to pay severance or hanging around long enough to see new leadership take over with the new boards control.
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WTF? Leave the thieves in place !?! Ludicrous. SMDH.
Alas, CHK’s fate was set in May 2013 when the Board fired Aubrey and then the rest of senior management a few months later. Rather than let them do their jobs and make some meaningful divestitures at then favorable prices, the Board irrationally fired everyone and replaced them with novices. These new executives were competent, but they lacked the knowledge and experience with the assets to move quickly to right the ship. Focusing on noncore assets sales was a bad move. CHK should have sold a major field (e.g. the Haynesville or Utica, not the stinky Barnett) between 5/13 and 12/14 and taken those proceeds to pay down the bond debt incurred to buy those assets. When gas prices tanked in January 2015, the die was cast. Despite the best efforts of this management team, CHK has been a zombie company for 6 years with no realistic hope of paying off the debt. The lesson learned is not to fire your management team until they have completed a strategic turn around. Incentivize them to do it quickly. Once it’s done, then you can fire them and replace them with fresh faces if you want.
“CHK likely wouldn’t exist in any form today but for the efforts of current management.”
Come on, anyone with a working brain could have made the drastic changes DL and his regime made early on in 2014. I’m tired of hearing about the accomplishments of the past. Execs have been preaching that for the past 4 years and absolutely nothing productive has been done to reduce debt or set the company up for the future in recent years. Anyone hanging around is just hoping to get a severance package before moving on.
Folks need to get real. CHK likely wouldn’t exist in any form today but for the efforts of current management. Yes, mistakes have been made. Most will never know how high the mountain was in 2013. Be grateful for the time you had and wish the best for those who had to make hard decisions and do hard work along the way. God bless!
Why would anyone stay with a company like CHK? DL is an absolute id–t and couldn’t run a McDonalds more less an entire corporation. There is absolutely no way this gets better for anyone. The company is no longer the proud, strong, reliable company it was with AM. Sorry to hear the news but everyone and I mean everyone around the city has known this is coming.
Lol the guy laid off in 2018 still checks this website, wow I hope that’s not me in 2 years after I get canned
They are laying off without even having sold assets yet? I thought some sales would precede lay offs. I still think they will lay off more after sales happen. This first round is just the start. It’ll take months.
People could always quit. You don’t have to stick around to deal with this everyday. I was laid off in 2018. That was the best thing that happened to me. No more stress every month and I was relieved.
Yes, this. Why wasn’t it done years ago? When DL broke the BK news he talked about having to make some hard decisions (in regards to FTE). Why wasn’t that done 5 years ago? Another bad decision that may have avoided all this? Or was BK always the end game since he arrived and Covid finally provided the needed excuse?