Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

Wholeheartedly agree with basically everything you have said. The only difference for me is I have experienced some toxic leadership with one of my roles at a refinery. Once I left there I have had nothing but positive coworkers.

Yeah, my job is mind-numbingly boring/easy but I get to hang out with the family often and my coworkers are fantastic. Like you said though, my only concern is I am completely irrelevant based on the lack of experience from my roles here.

Best of luck in your new role!

Don't be fooled by a good rank. The new system has no limits and can place you in NSI at any time. The new system has made everyone a contractor (12 months contract).

Everyone talking about just leaving never propose any feasible alternatives. Sick of this bit*. Go and do what exactly? Grass isn’t always greener. Work for a smaller just as toxic organization? Collect your pay check and stfu.

@ 2jwo+19r4HDve You had 40yrs at EM; I can’t honestly say I feel bad for you for being let go—you knew that was coming.

OP - I’m in a similar boat as you. Writing is on the wall that ALL disciplines will be moved to BTC & KLTC at some point. I don’t see 10 years here. If you survive the transition - what will your job be? Either soul draining planning “ppt slave” or managing subpar work done by someone else on the other side of the world. No thanks.

ExxonMobil is great at instilling Safety and Preparedness. Now safely prepare your exit. This Company doesn’t care about its employees. I was a high ranked employee for 40 years then my spouse suddenly passed away. Then I was told by my Manager that I lost focus and should keep my personal life out of the workplace. My ranking dropped significantly even though I worked 7 days a week to keep up. Yes, there were days when I couldn’t focus and rightfully so but, I did keep up with my work. Nonetheless, I was given the option to resign or retire. ExxonMobil will s— out every ounce of dignity from you. Run! Don’t look back!

Smart thoughts. If you have a long term career in front of you, just leave this place right away. Some juniors already have resigned in the last couple of months to choose other industries. Mid career folks can go for smaller or midsize operators as oil demand will continue maybe 10/ 15 yrs till maximum portion of fossil fuel replacement by so called clean energy! As long as you have good experience, you might be good for next couple of years in the oil industry. However, no way to stay Exxon as they are brutally sending work to cheap location without any vision and you will loose your job anytime. Folks close to retirement ( less than 3 yrs) can take the current Exxon pain and wait for retirement. However, it won’t good to ruin your health by staying here till retirement.

just dump the company and find a new one for younger folks. Don't waste time here. Listen to the real seniors who had been through the real fire... not the ppt boys.

: @1xmt+19r4HDve This

@1hdd Sorry to hear about your treatment. I'm also from the Far East and agree with your sentiment. I think as experienced professionals we are entitled to speak our minds for good of Company. If small minded management cannot accept, then better to be at peace than compromise our integrity.

@1vvf it's just all big Company business, nothing personal. However; methinks they'll need to change their act soon.

Good for you OP. Good luck to you and don't look back. The place is truly f—ed up. For those who want to say otherwise, having your highest level people take bonuses while laying off people while concurrently using "we are all in this together" word diarrhea at every opportunity is an open and shut case of being way f—ed up!

I kind of agree with @1qhf about “Company man”. In the Far East, it’s our culture to be “Yes-man” (I.e. toe-the-line). Very few dare to challenge for fear of side-lined or losing one job, especially the young employees, they seek job security as they need it to commit to home, car purchases and family support. Isn’t this the same in the west? (curiously). I believe that no bosses (or very few) like to be challenged even though they may say so.

I was like that when I first started. When I was towards the end of my working life with the Company and is financially independent, I started to speak out. On hind side, I think this got me into “trouble” and was among the first batch of NSI and forced to “quit”. I have always advised my younger colleagues not to do what I used to do then, ie speak out loudly. Just sharing my actual experience. Not targeting anyone negatively.

EM is geared toward developing and retaining "Company men". Staying should be based on a decision to give it your all to be an EM professional and future executive. If you are in it to define yourself and find career satisfaction out of being a discipline engineer, do yourself a favor and go work for a supplier or a smaller company which will allow you to spread your wings in a discipline. Do that for 20 years then come back and fill in the gaps the failed company men can't fill.

Sorry there is a typo in my posting....’machine ride’ should be ‘machineries’

I am from the Far East and would like to share my very....very long working experience and also working for single Company.
Firstly on learning, EM is a place where you can further and apply all your engineering knowledge and skill for a young graduate. It has all the different exciting processes, machine rides and process technology to learn and practice your skill and knowledge. However, you have to do it via some effort of your own and cannot rely solely on the Company. There are lots of friendly experts who are willing to teach, if you approach them. Over time, face-to-face tracings had been cut and this is the sad part.

Secondly, on career opportunities, there are plenty around - Technical or Management ladder. There are also all sorts of career to choose from. If one is not suitable, you can move on to the next, e.g. Marketing, Planning, Technical Engineering (e.g. Contact Engineer, Process Control, Environmental, Safety and Health, etc...), Project execution and management.... the list is never ending. The difficult part is that you must demonstrate your attributes and skill very early in the game to be ‘branded’ as a potential High Flyer in the Company. Once you are in the ‘fast train’, you career is very well defined and charted and you will be very well taken care of. You will be posted to key positions and sent to oversea locations for exposure. It’s true, like many of you experienced, this all happen within the first few years (around first 3 years?) of one joining the Company.

Another favourable factor is your ‘location’. If you are in a location that is growing, the advancement is very, very ...very fast and I must say that I have never seen this fast in my early days with the Company. We are short of very experienced people and they will be put on the ‘fast track’ to train (what we call on-the-job training) and then hold high positions of high responsibilities as well.

As for the rest of the non-high flyers, there is always complaints that the Company has not done enough. They have try to improve the Technical Ladder career path to be Specialist. You will be sent for overseas postings to learn, if you are spotted as one with potential.

Having said all this, I must admit, that there are many factors that affect the outcome of your career and it’s solely depend on yourself with some help (not enough for most, from my perspective unless you are an identified high flyer).

I used to recommend young, aspiring graduating engineering students to join for all the reasons above. I have also advised my colleagues to leave, after a few years with the Company if they find that they see no future or the advancement is too slow for them (luck and timing also count for career advancement too, I strongly believe.) and if they are impatient with the progress (and I must say that they are potentially good guys but they cannot wait. There also not so good ones too that I have advised to leave.

So in conclusion, it’s not all that bad. Working in other Companies can be good or bad as well. One has to find the niche and move on, if it doesn’t fit and hopefully one day he will find one. Just remember the saying - ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss’.

I hope my sharing is useful. A little bit of myself. I have been “retired” lately and was very upset about it initially but I have learned to move on. There is no such thing as “iron-rice” bowl, which I once subscribed too. I was not on the ‘high flyer’ track. I stayed on the Technical ladder all this wild and enjoyed my work, until this unpleasant labelling as a “NSI”. Now I do not hold any grudge (which I did initially) with the Company as it had provided me reasonably well financially, not fantastic but well above average. Take care in making your decisions and I wish you all the best in your endeavour.

If you are ranking well, it would be foolish to leave. All other reasons to leave (career path, stagnant skills, people are mean) applies to every corporation. My opinion - the easiest path is not the best path. S— it up unless you can find a job with higher or similar pay.

I left too and feel more lighter an happier!

Yes, likewise - do not feel there is a true future here anymore, neither it is stable enough. Instead, taking tons of classes on Coursera/Linkedin to refresh/expand my skillset and switch industry to IT whenever I feel I'm ready.

Don't give up, keeping pushing

@pxf+19r4HDve

It's sad when the person that is giving this advise has only worked for exxonmobil...

Young whipper-snapper going to see what people mean from the saying, "The grass ain't always greener on the other side of the fence."

It's called Corporate America. You're mistaken if you think the executive leadership at the next company really gives two sh– what you think.

I joined ExxonMobil Chemical with 20 years of experience with other chemical companies. For years I have said I would have hated it if XOM was my first job out of school for many of the reasons cited by the OP. It worked out well though for me as the last job before retirement.

Very much agree. From my experience, it seems like the 4-10 year mark is the best time to jump ship. Anything less than that and you're still seen as an inexperienced/new hire and won't find anything that pays nearly as much. Anything more and your skills/experience become outdated or overly specialized (unless you are jumping to another O&G company), which means a very difficult time finding a job at all, let alone one that pays anywhere close to current salary.

I was recently able to jump to a different (though similar) industry at the 6 year mark - had multiple offers within 3 months and only took a few percentage point shave on total compensation (though also in a much better location).

Completely agree, left after 3.5 years for the company. Sad, but think it's the right move for my career.

OP This is a great post, thanks for sharing your honest and non confrontational feedback. On top of that imagine that the GBCs are mostly made of young / very young workforce and you see where this is all heading...sad but predictable