Thread regarding Marathon Petroleum layoffs

"Next up, I see HQ leaving Findlay now that Heminger is gone. They are just waiting for the right time."

I keep seeing the Houston reference like it's a secret. Hennigan stated moving certain operations to Houston an earnings call. It does not get more transparent. The question is how many supporting functions will stay in Findlay, etc. To be frank, there is not much market value in the buildings and the Hancock outside of MPC tenancy.

I agree that the culture has changed drastically. Management pays lip service to a lot of nice things, but the reality is much different. I’m tired of being lied to by all levels of management. I hope layoffs are over after today (Thursday). Stress levels are off the charts right now. Next up, I see HQ leaving Findlay now that Heminger is gone. They are just waiting for the right time.

To the person who commented about management caring about personnel, at times even over the bottom line, you're right, they did, and no doubt many still do. That's how you get Gary telling the VP's in 2016 when profitability cratered, that they needed to cut costs, but no solutions with loss of personnel.

I also agree that some hard decisions needed to be made. Someone else already commented on most of the reasons - forgot the assets in CA that the state made worthless by signing a ban on combustion engine sales last week. Gary should not have bought Andeavor, and the company should have been more open to new ways of doing things over the years.

The difference between then and now is that the culture of the company has changed drastically over the last 5 years. From one of compassion to one of shareholder dividends over everything else. (don't get me wrong - profits always mattered, and they should)

If you look at the board of director's and the company officer's and their histories you will see what I mean. Many of them have been imported from companies (such as GE) noted for being ruthless with maintaining the bottom line by firing employees.

MPC has never been “envied on Wall Street” the stock price has always underperformed Valero, Phillips 66, and formerly Tesoro before the acquisition.

Comments here don’t seem bitter, just the harsh truth that most MPC employees and especially leadership continue to ignore = MPC is not the best refining company in this industry by any metric.

Definitely not by profitability and no longer the largest refiner after they shut down a few sites. Somebody else mentioned the high cost operations of MPL or MPLX.

Elliott Management controls the board room now. Combine that with Hennigan's history (He sold Sunoco for parts.) and this process will likely happen every 2-3 years from now on. Aside from timing, most of the people that got cut are the lucky ones, out early, before the company really starts declining over the next 10 years.

I see a lot of bitter comments on this forum right now (understandably so). I retired from MPC several years ago. It was well-run with management that cared about employees as well as the bottom line. The stock was envied on Wall Street and brought investors a great rate of return. MPC flourished after the split from MOC. I worked in both Findlay and Houston. Findlay is a great place to live. More than anything else, I see that MPC grew very quickly just before a major economic set back. I hope that sometime in the future you will understand these tough decisions that had to be made. These cycles have happened to the industry before. I lived through several of them starting in the early/mid 1980's. I truly wish everyone well, whether at MPC or in their next career opportunity..

Agreed. MPC as a culture pays lip service at best to things like continuous improvement and cost reduction. After all, we were the "best", so why did they need to improve? Things were only changed when required, or they got a rude awakening - Like the Solomon report in 2016 (might have been 2017), that showed Terminals and MPL's costs were ~40% higher than the next highest competitor.
I was hired into MPC in 2015, and have seen the list of most of the people laid off by Terminals and Pipeline. From what I know of talent and production from most of them, it is obvious that the decisions were made with an eye to protecting the "Leaderships" ego. Most political company I have ever worked for. Also, one of the worst companies for allowing manager to abuse their power, by holding back employees, and outright controlling them.
I have specific knowledge of one instance where an employee (not me) was "promoted", but never given a pay bump or increase in pay grade. Explanation at the time was that it would come at the next review period (shady, but can deal with it). That promotion never came - it's been 2 years. This was reported to the company, and nothing happened. Manager was not disciplined, and the employee was not promoted after the investigation.

Andeavor/Tesoro was full of people who led through the last downcycle and then the great recession. Rather that selecting the right talent for roles during the merger, MPC leadership favored Findlay locals and legacy MPC employees, most of which had little experience as an independent refiner in unfavorable conditions. Some truly talented and experienced leaders were allowed to walk out of the doors after the acquisition. This will be a future business case around a total leadership failure. Unfortunate that so many have had their livelihoods impacted

The truth is MPC has been mismanaged since the spinoff from Marathon Oil. The organization was bloated and had unsustainable internal business practices. Prior leadership was either dishonest or inept (or some combination of both) in continuing to perpetuate the false belief that MPC was a high-performing company. This is a company built around sustaining the egos of the leadership team, and a small town in Ohio. This created a culture that lacked awareness, highly arrogant, and resistant to change. As such, what is happening this week was overdue and inevitable.

Hard to not point out that the acquisitions were done under Heminger, and his inability to make hard decisions and/or move the company from Findlay were a huge contributor. He built his empire and protected himself. Now we are left without the talent that should have been kept from the acquisitions due to Heminger being so Findlay-Centric. Hennigan did not come into an enviable position with an activist investor breathing down his neck due to years of mismanagement and refusal to integrate and promote best practices/remove redundancies. Throw in COVID and the company is where it is today. Hopefully this helps turn a new page and MPC can become competitive again.

Marathon has a talent problem because of the Findlay location. Add on top the incompetence and terrible culture and there’s your reason nobody wants to work there.

Company needs to move to Houston or it will be doomed.

I agree. I was someone who came to MPC via acquisition but it always bugged me that we kept pushing off integration, standardization, finding synergies until forced to by the economy. We would have been in better shape if we were proactive about redundancies and getting more efficient than waiting for a pandemic and recession to force us to do so.

Having been acquired by and working for MPC, all I can say is you made your own beds. Worst political
Company I have ever had the displeasure of working for my whole career. I pity anyone who rises on that environment and anyone forced to remain.