https://www.businessinsider.com/exxon-mishandled-layoffs-morale-oil-price-collapse-2021-2?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=powerline&utm_campaign=Post%20Blast%20energy:%20A%20fumbled%20layoff%20hurt%20morale%20at%20Exxon%2C%20and%20it%20could%20hinder%20the%20oil%20giant%27s%20recovery&utm_term=INSIDER%20ENERGY%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED%2C%20NEW
Beginning around June, managers told 8% to 10% of the company's employees — in the US, Singapore, and elsewhere — that they were ranked as poor performers, putting their jobs at risk. Prior to April, when the price of oil bottomed out, a minimum of just 3% of employees were put in that bottom category.
Leaked audio from an internal meeting and conversations with managers indicated that some of the employees who were ranked at the bottom didn't deserve to be there, as Insider previously reported. As of late July, Exxon told Insider that it had no plans for layoffs, and employees called the maneuver a layoff in disguise.
Employees weren't surprised that Exxon had to make cuts, as is typical for oil companies during a downturn. But calling them talent-based decisions frustrated workers, said a former employee in the company's refining division, who was laid off.
Using performance reviews to trim staff is typically ill-advised, Sucher said. Employees view it as deceptive and it undermines actual efforts to improve performance, she said.
"It takes something that is supposed to be developmental for employees and turns it into a tool for managing workforce change," said Sucher, coauthor of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It, which will be published in July. "No one is fooled by this, and employees, in fact, resent it more."
The result hurts morale she added: "No one is excited, no one is happy, and everyone's just waiting to leave."
In response to questions about Exxon's performance-based cuts, spokesperson Ashley Alemayehu pointed to previous statements Exxon provided to Insider.
"We do not have a target to reduce headcount through our talent management process," Alemayehu told Insider in July. "We have a rigorous talent management process which routinely assesses employee performance."