Just wanted to let anyone know who was in the same boat as I was and "not laid off" but given the PIL/ PIP when I had my FIRST EVER performance review in July of 2020, I took the PIL and hence received my last paycheck on 10/31. if anyone out there is in F&L, you should have received your lump-sum unused 2020 vacation payout this past Friday, November 20th. And now it's official, I am financially out of ExxonMobil's hair, but I feel so much better knowing that my sacrifice of my job, my family's livelihood, etc. is going to be the thing that will help to save this wonderful company, full of integrity and the best of the best [honest, up-front] talented people! /S
As many others have stated, the fact I was laid off wasn't the thing that really pi$$ed me off, but rather the utterly DISINGENIOUS manner in which they did so; hiding behind the annual performance review. I also know it was all total and utter BS because I was an external hire, brought in for both my skillsets, knowledge, and EXPERIENCE! They jumped at the chance to hire all I could bring to the table, yet then only a little over a year later I am supposedly NSI? HA, okay. And not ONCE in my monthly meetings with my supervisor had this soulless person ever told me I was performing poorly or needed to improve in ANY area. That is how I know this whole thing is subjective BS. I simply did not fit the normal ExxonMobil mold: a lemming hired right out of college who could be molded in their robotic ways and was a "yes" man, and the other thing which hurt me was due to being an experienced hire, I simply earned much more than my peers in my job title. So, I had to go so they could pay a college kid $60-75k less a year, but having no experience (15+ years here).
I was able to find another job within 3 weeks after 7/31, so I received double pay for 2 1/2 months, plus 5 weeks vacation payout, so I made out nicely! And it really was a blessing in disguise as I would not want to work for a company who cared so little about its employees as HUMAN BEINGS; with families, financial obligations, lives, etc. I feel like ExxonMobil treated me like I was less than human and their treatment was so cold, so blaise, that I couldn't imaging working another 15-20 years for them until retirement. I hope more and more people leave on their own accord and that the company implodes; the karma would be sweet for such a soulless company. And the main thing that to this day sticks with me: "We will not be laying off any full-time ExxonMobil employees, at any time, during this COVID-19 scare and amid this economic downturn"—Darren Woods, March 2020. What a piece of Sh-t!
13 replies (most recent on top)
There has been an interest for class-action outside of Texas. The sign-off PiL letter is worthless.
will take a while to collect names of those affected - an initial case/subpoena to draw that out.
But quite possible there will be letters sent to all PiP/PiL next year (including Tx).
Federal.
TL,DR
OP Here:
Thank you all for the kind, supportive comments! Given the [understandably] negative tone around here nowadays, I figured I'd get a couple of the "we're better off without you" or "you were put on a PIP because you WERE a poor performer" , etc. (which I've sadly seen on other posts). Again, I'm a grown azz man and could have taken it were the company to say "hey, we're losing money like S through a goose, and unfortunately we have to make job cuts and you A) haven't been here as long as others and B) make too much compared to your peers, so we have to let you go (although, the option to take a pay CUT rather than lose my job entirely would have been a nice option too). I understand that EM is in business to make a profit, that it IS a capitalist business, I get that. But be a MAN about it and don't make up such a laughably disingenuous excuse/reason for letting me go, and don't rub more salt into my already open wound by given me an IMPOSSIBLE PIP to accomplish. Again, before anyone says otherwise, as I said before I shared my PIP with my closest peers/co-workers and asked for their honest opinion and they all agreed that not only was it not only impossible, but even if we were having a BOOM year at EM, with oil at $140/bbl, I could never have produced the $$ value of cost savings/value-add [BS corporate buzz-word if I ever heard one] indicated I needed to FOR EACH OF THE THREE MONTHS ON MY PIP! Yes, the $figure on my PIP had to be shown for each of the three months, not even for the cumulative 3 months. Don't P-ss on my head and tell me it's raining; just be up front with me. Would I still have been upset/mad/in disbelief? Sure, of course, but it would have been a much easier pill to swallow, and I would have much more quickly accepted given the way 2020 has trended.
I have to say, I feel AWFUL for people like the person who commented on my thread here who have been with the company DECADES, only to be put in the same situation, I really am sorry and can empathasize for you. But it just goes to reinforce to all of us that in corporate America, we are merely cogs in a machine and the company does not care at all about our lives', our families, our financial situations, whether we are perhaps caring for an elderly or infirmed parent/family member, etc. To them, that is our problem and they can easily turn a blind eye and shut off all human emotions. I have everybody else who was in that first summer round of PIPs in my thoughts and pray everyone of you finds a job as soon as possible so that you can take care of yourselves and families. And while it may not be much consolation, remember that you ARE better off than staying working for such a lying, cowardly, heartless corporation....EM really showed their true colors with the way in which they went about the summer layoffs—err, I mean, "performance reviews". If today were opposite day, I might be inclined to say that I DON'T hope that DW accidentally gets hit by a bus, or perhaps, that a member of his family doesn't come down with a cancer diagnosis with all it's exorbitantly high medical bills (I know, I know, with him making $27mm/yr or whatever, he would be fine).
Take care all and I again will miss my EM coworkers dearly, but NOT the lowly supervisors and the culture of that toxic company!
I hope there is a class action lawsuit by those that were NSI’ed last summer. I can only imagine what documents would be discovered detailing management’s real intentions. I further hope that when the poor senior managers like Darren and Tracey are finally let go, that their executive compensation for the past few years will be clawed back. They don’t deserve to leave with millions of dollars. They should only get the same 3 months severance as those NSI’ed, because their performance surely Needs Significant Improvement!
Good to hear OP got a better job in spite of EM's fake PIP. It's pretty obvious to most people in the company that the NSI ranking and PIP was made up. Is it recognized more widely outside the company that their ranking is meaningless? Or do other companies in other industries view those laid off as "poor" performers, making it harder for them to be hired?
@OP - you are 100% correct that it was all BS. I’d been with the company 30+ years (EMRE), always delivered on my projects and as I became more experienced, started mentoring others and taking on some of the more difficult parts of their jobs too. Never got higher than middle third in the rankings, probably because I talked straight to my managers and didn’t toe the line.
For 2019, I delivered on all of my projects, took on and completed extra work (to help others), gave an extremely well-received forecast presentation to senior management (including those outside of EMRE), had 100% positive feedback from 12 KO’s and my supervisor told me “great job” (in my April interview).
Then NSI’d in July (completely blind-sided) and when I selected the PIL-Retire option, I was given 24 hours to organise my electronic files before I was booted off of the network. I barely had time to put together a note to say goodbye to friends and colleagues, to pass on my private contact info.
I wanted to work for EM until I was forced to retire at 65, but seeing the way the company is going and how the “leaders” are lying through their teeth, I can’t say that I’m sorry to have left that cess pit.
“They noted I wasn't setting the world on fire, which I totally was OK with because I never felt I was in the high flyer club“
- Don’t short sell yourself. I never figured out what the accomplishments of those “Top ranked people” were. Are they so brilliant that they come up with ideas every so often that generate millions? Do they invent stuff that produces billions in revenues? What the heck do they do to deserve their ranking? And if they all did their job so excellently well, why is the company in such a state?
I was PIPed. It was my first performance review as well. I managed to pass my PIP. Now curious if I'll be laid off in phase 2. Will know it soon....
OP - it is no secret that experienced hires are not treated well. You wouldn’t have been given vacation credits for all of your prior 15-years when you came in but only 10. Rest of the world will credit you for all of your 15-years of prior experience. If you ask, they would say, well it used to be zero years of prior years and so be happy. That’s how bad it is.
Secondly, I know a case where the person saved a bunch of money but was given a different reason for the PIP. So, don’t take it personally - it’s all made up nonsense.
As long as your KOs and people your worked with are shocked at your PIP, it means that they got the wrong person! I am glad you found another job and all that extra $!
Pretty much all of USA is an at state.
OP here...
In response to what reason was I given for being put on the PIP or PIL.... I had my review, was told I was great at my job, got great KO feedback from my peers and contacts, and overall was very positive and good. But right at the end of my review, I was asked "BUT......where is your value add to EM? Where is your cost savings?" I had NEVER been told/asked/expected to be doing those things, much less did I ever think I would need to in order to save my job! It was their only BS way of trying to find a reason to put me on a PIP. They said "well, in this economic downturn, with the O&G industry and EM losing money, we really would have liked to see you either saving the company money, or figuring out ways to increase revenue"....granted, this was SUPPOSED to be my review for 2019, so the COVID/economy hadn't technically happened yet.
Regardless, TX is an at-will employment state and they could have told me they didn't like my shirt color and let me go and I would have no legal recourse. After my review, I sought honest opinions from those I worked closest with and they were honest and said I did a really good job at what I did. They noted I wasn't setting the world on fire, which I totally was OK with because I never felt I was in the high flyer club, but not a ONE of them said I was doing poorly enough that they understood me losing my job. Most in fact were caught completely off guard and all of them said they could probably list some people who they might see being let go, but I was NEVER one to cross their minds. So......it is what it is. And when management puts you on a PIP, at that point it's all legal Cover your A$$ stuff "oh, we gave "Joe" the opportunity to save his job, but he elected to take the severance". I took the severance as my PIP had goals that were IMPOSSIBLE to meet for each of the three months, and that is not my opinion but the opinion of the 4-5 of my closest co-workers whom I sought advice from. Their exact words to me? "this was never designed for you to pass, man" It's completely NOT fair, but it is what it is and they are all but telling you they want you off the payroll. Other experienced hires in my group were also targeted if that gives you any indication of perhaps why (I.E. we earned more than our peers and had less time with EM). Chicken$hit way they did me, but as originally stated in my first post, I'm in a better place now, and if not now, I would have been targeted in the 2nd, 3rd, etc. round and the later and later you get let go, you are competing against more and more laid off O&G workers for fewer and fewer jobs. THANK GOD I found a job so fast, just hoping others can do the same who I worked with as I genuinely enjoyed working with my coworkers at EM and wish them well. Management can Kiss my A for all I care, with their cowardly behaviors and made-up reasons. THEY are who EM needs to let go as all I have ever seen them do is power points and meetings, they produce NO REAL WORK/OUTPUT! And I know I can get an amen to that.
What reasons/examples did they give you for being NSI'd?
They lied. They rigged up the new rating system at the last minute to fire 1600 employees without a severance. To save a few bucks, they proceeded to blame those employees that were being let go as part of a workforce reduction. Treated them like garbage. Shameless.
Now, they are “officially” laying off another 1900 employees in phase 2 of the workforce reduction.
Don’t kid yourself, this was a calculated workforce reduction of 3500 employees in the U.S. which amounts to about 20% of the above field employee population. Some groups hit harder than others.
Other companies (Chevron etc.) act with more honesty and class. Just another reminder why we are no longer in the Dow and our market cap is only one third of what it was 10 years ago. Who would have thought ExxonMobil would just be the 65th largest in the world? We were number 1 a decade ago.
How the mighty have fallen.