Exxon is no longer the largest oil company in the U.S. as a result of so many wrong decisions, small and huge, made by this ELT. The decisions that striped this company of everything that it once was. They've turned Exxon into a place hated by its employees, laughed at by its competitors, and ignored by investors. I have never in my life seen such a complete failure of leadership as this.
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And your opinion is wrong.
@2jcp+17pxlwFf I hope you don’t mind if I use your post to start a new thread. We share the exact same opinion.
EM will survive, and when external factors (not EM management decisions) dictate, demand and prices will increase, pushing up the stock price. We will be pulled along by external forces to improved profitability, though we may greatly lag our competitors in term of how quickly things improve.
But make no mistake. EM has suffered a tremendous blow, not fatal but clearly devastating. One that employees, investors and shareholders will not forget. We will be a second tier player, never again at the top, somewhere in the mediocre middle. Culture takes years to evolve, and this poison we see about us today will linger long.
Workforce will awaken and view themselves strictly as a commodity, just like they are viewed by management. Few will do more than 8 hours a day, no more sacrificing everything to get ahead because that empty promise has been revealed for what it is - an illusion.
Mediocrity will become the new norm. No emotional attachments, no allegiance, no unrealistic expectations, just pay me for my days work and I'll come back tomorrow for more, maybe or maybe not, depending on what else is out there for me.
And while the company will lose whatever competitive advantage it once enjoyed, maybe this is a more healthy attitude and culture for all. Eyes wide open, everyone knows rules of game. We are all simply contractors with benefits and company badges, or maybe no benefits, who knows. Depressing in some ways, but at least not toxic.
I would say boeing is less successful than EM. Down 62% since 1Q19.
The current situation reminds me of the Big Short where Mark Baum asks Bruce Miller if he would carry on buying Bear Stearns stock on the way down. “Of course I would buy more” . Not sure I would be doubling dow
The least successful organization of the decade!
“ In all this my biggest disappointment is my own disappointment in my company. Loss of belief and loyalty has left me feeling unfulfilled at work. “
And this. I feel like I’m mourning the death of the company I thought I joined.
“ Really don’t like when Linda IM’s all of us and says we are in this together. WE are not. She knows she will be in the WE that survives. Leadership has destroyed trust. “
YES! THIS 100%
@wro+17pxlwFf I disagree that demand will come back. Covid has changed society, how people work, socialize, entertain. You will see less people driving their vehicles to work, less people on the freeway, and more people shopping online. To assume that all countries in the world will modernize and live the American standard of living is foolish too. Market sees this that's why last 5 years even prior to Covid was a slide.
Looking at the positive side, at least I now have an answer to the job interview question: "In what ways did you disagree with your last company?"
Exxon has sat on its laurels and believed they could sit on the gravy train for too long. Other companies have diversified their business profile and aren’t doubling down on failed projects. Gone are the days where an arrogant oiler could walk in to a room and bully their way through a business deal. The management will do whatever it takes to fulfil the dividend payment but the stock market isn’t going to be impressed with the idea of borrowing money to achieve this each year. The bad Management decisions over the past decade are shown in the Embarrassing and costly fall from grace.
Hydrocarbon demand will rebound. Energy poverty is real. Renewables won’t and can’t close the gap soon. Watch Scott Tinker’s 2 great movies and see his speech notes here at EM. Remember this is all RATE based. That is what rate can the industry produce hydrocarbons and what is the demand. Despite wishful thinking the hydrocarbon demand will rapidly return to within a couple percent below norm in 2021. The industry will struggle to meet this surge and prices will rise. Most companies will hesitate to spend and while unconventionals can spin up fast they are not instant. All in all prices will surge in fits and starts then stabilize.
EM’s bet on a hydrocarbon future is not dumb. There will be need. The magnitude of that need is of course hard to predict. BP, Shell, Equinor and others are window dressing with diversifying into renewables. It is optically good but not materially profitable. At least EM is not pretending to be in this space as much as other majors.
EM has made some colossally bad strategic choices. Buying XTO and the amount they lost and the devaluation of our stock is huge but Kerl, the Russian Arctic, Permian production at too much cost, incessant reorganizations, lack of fundamentals in exploration, high operating costs, risk aversion, engineers with a “can’t do” attitude, losing Brazil early on then buying in late at huge cost (repeated in many other places), owning then dropping block “R” where Zohr was discovered (again repeat many times), fundamental lack of leadership and a system that generates somewhat ruthless managers (xom has managers and not leaders), a management and safety system and culture that fringes on cult-like behavior, a proven failed forced ranking system that gathers all power to supervisors, a Deloitte confirmed “Sunflower” culture that exceeds any other company they have worked with, essentially driven by fear, a complete inability to innovate directly correlated to an extreme example of hierarchical multi tiered inefficient management, process for the sake of process, an extreme distrust of anything not EM grown, needless development of software that is not maintained and the list goes on .... and the dumbest one? Borrowing money to pay the dividend. Probably followed closely by EM arrogance.
Will we make it? Not sure. Really don’t like when Linda IM’s all of us and says we are in this together. WE are not. She knows she will be in the WE that survives. Leadership has destroyed trust.
EM has gotten away with this somewhat for a while. Our fundamentals were weak pre covid not just from bad choices by Dallas but also bad culture as indicated above.
Despite all this I want us to survive. Burying heads saying it will all improve, the company will treat everyone better and life will be good fringes on drinking company Kool Aid and the near cultish management culture. Pouring hate on the company, while it is deserved in many cases, starts to get old and doesn’t help. I actually don’t believe we will make the right changes and want to leave.
In all this my biggest disappointment is my own disappointment in my company. Loss of belief and loyalty has left me feeling unfulfilled at work.
Good luck to all as the company tears into itself to try to stop hemorrhaging money. I know no managers will read this far because I used too many words, no bullets, Nd did not summarize in a one-pager because management is too bizzy with a gnats-a– attention span to read this far. Another one of our big internal flaws.
Take a look at ExxonMobil stock price, earnings, debt, and credit rating. Your business is failing.
By this time next year, ExxonMobil will be roaring and a great place to work. Once they pull out of the slump, get through the layoffs, they will focus on employees. The employees still there in a year will fill productive and happy. This is not the first hard time ExxonMobil has gone through. Employees need to keep up their skills and resumes to be more self sufficient. ExxonMobil gives the employees what they are owed in their paycheck.
Beautiful speech
@rwj+17pxlwFf - yeah, I think that one is exaggerated by the liberal media. The vast majority of the western world don't hold oil companies responsible for pollution and man-made climate change; they know that it is a result of their own choices regarding lifestyle, standard of living and convenience. Just because the climate change alarmists are the ones who protest, shout the loudest and get all the press, it doesn't make them right.
We don’t need to be the largest. We just have to be the most profitable. All the whiners, are just childish.. remember Darren Woods forums stating clearly to us that he is balancing business and “employee satisfaction”..
It’s just business.. and I am certain we will double the earnings and we will be proud of being EM employees like the past!
Take care of the business first!
What green credentials?
You missed the point that it is also a company that is hated around the world for its future green credentials.