Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

This absolutely was about the money. My boss asked me to choose who to keep between two of my people (he had only been in the job for 2 months and didn’t know squat about my people). The answer was beyond obvious and I strongly recommended to keep person A over person B. Person B was close to being PIPd and was regressing rather than improving. So I’m sure you know where this is going. They chose to keep person B and layoff person A. Know why? Person A had double the salary of person B. That was my awaking to this was 100% financially driven with little paid to actual performance.

THEY. DON’T. CARE.

::gets a refill on the popcorn bucket:: this is getting good.

@hqt+18lvpYgP

"I would go down the list of all the things boomers have done to damage America"

Let's see. Freedom, greatest period of prosperity in human history, increasing standard of living in each successive year and generation, defeated all enemies and protected American interests, consistently maintained America as world's top power, created and advanced technologies that provide immeasurable benefits to mankind, discovered oil and gas across the globe that fuels growth and prosperity, built giant corporations that employ millions of skilled workers.

Need I go one? Everything has been going great.

Then guess who comes along and everything goes to pot? Other than being really good at video games, what has your generation contributed?

Yeah I though so.

@hqt+18lvpYgP

Let me help you create millennials.com. Go back through all of the posts and sort them as follows:

• posts that blast anyone past age 50 as worthless, underserving, non-contributors
• posts that blast retirees for having no legacy other than somehow creating today's problems
• posts that use nothing more than curse words to describe others
• posts that blame everyone else for all of the world's problem and take no personal responsibility
• posts that scream about dividends being somehow being owned by employees not shareholders
• posts that proclaim all supervisors, managers and execs are corrupt and worthless
• posts that contain never ending whining, self pity and blame for others
• posts that insist that EM and the world are just not fair
• posts that proclaim the end of the fossil fuel era, even though they choose to work in O&G
• posts like yours saying I will take my ball and go home if everyone can't just let me have my way

Then cut and paste and you will have a great starting point for your new millennials site and would capture all of their great contributions here! What's left behind here will much kinder, more accurate, and provide much greater insight and perspective than the garbage you will take away. Yeah for millennials! See, us mean old boomer execs can help you whipper snappers after all! Side benefit is that your new site would generate a great layoff list for upcoming rounds. A win-win! Can you scream admin admin yet?

OK Millennial.

@xmo+18lvpYgP:

I'm getting tired of all the millennial bashing on here. If this keeps happening I'll create my own Layoff website for millennials to filter through all the ignorant boomer bullying. I would go down the list of all the things boomers have done to damage America but that list would be very long and outside the scope of this website.

@nrt+18lvpYgP

That was when companies chose lower cost inexperienced workers overseas instead of more experienced and knowledgeable higher cost employees in the U.S.

This time is totally different. Companies no longer have a large number of viable and knowledgeable workers in the U.S. that possess the competencies and work ethic companies seek. Companies are now ready to make a permanent shift to overseas talent, and to dedicate whatever expat support is necessary to train and develop this new workforce. The new American workforce no longer provides any advantages, and if fact is much less desirable to train and retain. Why pay more in U.S. to get less? Millennials have cooked the golden goose of the American worker.

A lot of nonsense being posted about non US hires being somehow inferior. I had a lot of experience training and working with Kltc hires...all educted in the uk with good degrees. Most of them were as good and some significantly better than US new hires. The added benefit being they don't carry a lot of the entitled baggage that a lot of US new hires have. I found the Kltc hires intelligent, hungry to learn and hard working. They need training like everyone else, but don't make the mistake of thinking they are not up to the task. The fact that they earn 1/5 or 1/4 of a US new hire is quite a sobering prospect. Can't really fault EM for taking that route to be honest!

@nrt+18lvpYgP

With labor costs in India, they can hire 5 people to do the work of 1 US and still make money.

They will rehire and slowly give raises vs. the large spikes that old-timers got in the good ol days.

Eventually the new person will rank up to your CL and maybe make 75% of your current rate at best.

I was told this was the method of salary right sizing that’s about to ramp up across the company.

Costs overseas may be cheaper in the short term, but the sites have to train them every time they move somebody or hire somebody new.... also, payables is a disaster and it takes COE’s (state side) hours to undo what the overseas payables has told a vendor so they can be paid... it still had not saved any money..... in fact costs more to fix all the mess ups only because they are NOT trained adequately nor do they ask questions... they work within their own bubble and have NO idea how it all works...

Vision is clear, when we need people we will hire the best and the cheapest from Shell, Chevron, ENI and others. There are many on the market. They have top people just like us, plus many from small companies available. They will bring knowledge and new skills to us. For BTC, this failed already. Other majors tried this 15 years ago, we are behind and learning the hard lesson as always.

I hope those who say “xom recovered from the 1986 layoff” are not so simple minded to think 1986 vs 2020 are apples to apples. Not saying they won’t recover but past results does not guarantee future performance....right?

You make me laugh India employees 1/3 price x3 = 1 US experienced employee. Only a bean counter would even consider that math to be true.
GE was the first company to “ offshore” work to India, then China, then Vietnam, then Romania. Only to learn they were losing money. They quietly shifted back onshore. Meanwhile all the fast movers like ExxonMobile followed suite. And they haven’t figured it out yet the ROI will show.

These layoffs are all about dollars and cents. That is it. Experienced hires make more money than new hires. Really quite simple. I agree it stinks and could hurt from having the experience on the teams, but the concept is very simple.

The work is moved to South America and India where labour cost is 1/3 to 1/10 of US, Canada and Europe, so have 3 people doing the job of 1 is still cheap. XOM will be fine.

vob+18lvpYgP thanks for sharing the Times article. A lot if the discussion and sentiment is the same. I started in USA Production in 1987 and remember thinking what is wrong with these people? Everyone walking around with sour expressions and angry. Bounced right back after a few years.

1986 all over, but we recovered.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/26/business/exxon-move-for-slash-in-staff-called-startling.html

Experienced at what? The Company powers have spoken. Some experience (and fit) doesn't align with forward business plans.

This Corp has always had a short term vision.... my job was farmed out to 3 people....