The longer this goes on, the more really good employees I'm seeing being let go. Several people have already posted about how you will get through this (and you will), several have posted about how they have received even better jobs since (and I wish that for you as well). But also, know that your professionalism and contributions will be missed ... know that you will also be missed missed as colleagues and people.
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In my area, the employees that were let go were good, smart and capable. They were not what I would call personable and had a limited network. One was an experienced hire while the others were like one as they were going to be limited in their work assignments. Just a trend I saw.
Our team was gutted of almost all experienced hires. We hired that expertise for a reason! And then EM wonders why the generic, inexperienced personnel never measures up in when benchmarking with other companies. You get what you pay for.
Why lay off now, at Christmas? Bad planning plain and simple. Don’t tell me they just now decided to do this.
@1grs+18evz2KL Agree completely and would add that announcing we would hit huge volumes led to an immense destruction in value as bringing volumes on trumped all other considerations.
Your corner is small indeed.
Our CEO lacks empathy and seemingly any knowledge about Upstream. His first move as CEO was to re-organize an extremely productive and effective Upstream company into Downstream-focused Value Chains. Instead of facing the real crisis that we have not been able to pay Capex and Dividends from Free Cash FOR THE LAST 8 YEARS! So re-organization then the incredible belief that we could organically grow production to 5M bbls/day and double earnings. How? When we merged Exxon and Mobil, the company never hit 5M bbls/day - this was supposed to happen through efficiencies? As far as empathy, the Board just elected to give themselves this week massive bonuses in the form of Restricted Shares. CEO just gave himself 200,000 shares. That is $700k/yr in dividends from this one single award.
In my small corner of the exxon world, I am not surprised by one single person they chose to let go. Definitely no jaws dropping by any of us. More like a sarcastic, "wow, shocker, buh bye"
Being a 'Survivor' in EM still don't get you off the volcanic island.
Agree heartily with a post below-
maybe I'll now work for a company whose name I dare speak in casual conversation.
I'll be a 'Survivor' from a continual death-march of lemmings.
And stronger for it.
BRAP gutted some of its best today. Extremely short sighted move
All the area project teams lost some really great people today....
It is just plain sad to see good people go, and c-appy ones stay....
Baytown And Beaumont Area Projects (BTAP/BMAP) also got screwed today. A lot of hood and hardworking people. Let go mostly because of where they sat and some lower performers still sitting pretty in other parts of the organization. Unfair and messed up.
BRAP was indeed gutted today. Some of the finest and brightest folks I have ever worked with were laid off today. My heart weeps for them and their families. But what really pisses me off was the people that were left after the smoke cleared. Who in the hell made these decisions??? A dumb–s obviously. XOM will regret this One day.
@nst over 1000 geos, what world do you live? Guess you just like pulling numbers out of your a–.
Do agree with brain drain, good luck... getting rid of many experienced geos. Some who also have worked commercial, reserves or other key assignments and could give the business units a better business insight in UBD and support UOG. Decisions obviously made at VP level who have no idea who actually does what work.
Not let go, but starting to seriously look. This company f—ing s—s. Especially with so many let go whole senior executives walk away with RSU & the dividend continues. Feel bad for those taking up the workload, but this culture is really starting to weigh in.
The world already hates exxonmobil. Why do I want to be a apart of an organization that I have to shy away from conversations with when people ask what do I do?
The new AI will replace the list geoscience talent. Don’t forget government studies where a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at the map had a higher success rate and ROI than the PhD geoscientists.
We simply do not need over 1000 geoscientists. Far too many. The number at merger in 1999 was about 600.
In their infinite wisdom, upper management seems to have decided that since they already tried doing subsurface work with geoscientists, now they will try without - because, what they heck.
Why not!
They brain drain, the opportunity cost, and the impact on future hiring will be a heavy toll. Maybe algae will render finding and producing oil and gas pointless, but for a company which is dying on the petroleum hill, doing it without petroleum geoscientist seems id–tic.
Visionary leaders and their artificial intelligence and their make believe portfolio of prospects.
Just learned that BRAP (Baton Rouge Area Projects) was decimated today. Many highly skilled, experienced personnel among them. My heart goes out to these folks, particularly with Christmas right around the corner. Seems really short sighted to lose these experienced personnel.