Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

@1tbp+1dcLsEit I don’t see questions in those questions. Make your decisions to stay or leave. You have all the data you need right in front of you.

Future related questions are OK - about Where we are going! How resilient our plan is etc

Not about attrition is high what are you doing ?

Seems like responsibility and accountability apply only to those outside of the CEO suite…

Nobody should be above addressing questions of current concern (attrition, salary, benefits), etc. THESE are the things that employees want to know, as they think about their future. Supervisors and Managers simply do NOT answer these questions, they talk around them.

Somebody needs to stand up, be honest and forthright. The best way to get commitment and honesty is to give it and emulate it!

A system was groping towards a solution, but the solution required someone in it to be brave, and the system didn’t reward bravery. It was stuck in an infinite loop of first realizing that it was in need of courage and then remembering that courage didn’t pay.

@OP If this was intended as satire, you’ve missed the mark.

If this wasn’t intended as satire, then I would suggest that you re-examine your understanding of the concept of leadership.

A corporate officer is not a head of state, foreign dignitary, or a cabinet official, and is therefore not entitled to any special exemption from answering for their decisions to their subordinates on the basis of “decorum”.

When you’re willing to take on the world’s toughest energy challenges but not uncomfortable employee questions…

To the OP, who is going to operate this company when all the staff have left because they have been lied to and have lost all trust. Without employees DW won’t have any company left.

@sod+1dcLsEit What’s the point of having an employee forum then?

There’s an inscription at the base of the energy center that says, “At the end of the day, it’s all about our people”-Rex Tillerson. If what you’re saying is true, we should change it to “if you don’t like it here, you’re free to leave at anytime”.

With regards to the JFK quote, Mr Woods telling us to “ask what we can do for EM”, is synonymous to JFK saying those lines in front of crowd of veterans. He (Mr. Woods) asked, and we delivered. Mr Woods did not drill the exploration wells in Guyana himself, he did not pulls shifts on an offshore installation, neither did he carry out any research studies. He simply asked, and we delivered.

@sod+1dcLsEit Your age is showing. Seriously. Young people don’t think like you. If you continue to think the world works like your post you can count on not keeping any young employees.

Agree 100% that not all questions are suitable nor need to be answered by the CEO in his forum but all questions submitted should be acknowledged/ answered. To just delete or hide questions sends the wrong message. Put a disclaimer at the top of Slido that states "Not all questions submitted will be addressed in this forum however they will be answered via X medium" and eliminate anonymity to ensure people are willing to stand by their legitimate questions. Then route to appropriate stakeholders and actually provide answers.

@sod+1dcLsEit
I’m an employee and a stockholder, as most employees. You are either sarcastic or a phenomenal boot li---r.

I agree with OP that employees should respect the position. I don’t think a CEO should have to answer any questions from employees, follow the chain of command - ask your supervisor. If they don’t know the answer, they will ask their supervisor and on up, that’s how it works.

Remember, employees work for the CEO, the CEO works for the shareholders. The CEO answers to the shareholders not the employees. If you are not proud to work for Mr. Woods, then go somewhere else. If you are a shareholder, then yes, you are an owner. The place for owners to ask questions is at the shareholders meeting. In an employee forum, you are an employee and you answer to Mr. Woods, he does not answer to you. If you are a shareholder and don’t like Mr. Woods, then sell your shares or try to vote Mr. Woods out. As an employee, do your job. Don’t ask, “What can ExxonMobil do for me”, instead ask, “What can I do for ExxonMobil and Mr. Woods”.

As an employee you don’t get to ask questions, you remain silent until you are asked a question. Simple!

So what does Darren's boot taste like?

With so many levels of management. Is "HR" really HR. Probably 16 different levels. It hard to say who is technically in charge

For instance I report to my first line supervisor.. Only for the decison to get pass up to. FLS to Section to department head to head manager to vp, etc. Might as well go to top of the food chain and ask the ceo

Type of redundent mangement showcases the amazing disconnect

So the OP, some manager tasked to “control the situation” by insulting the intelligence of the employees, is suggesting that our Dear Leader is entitled to be asked softball questions only.
This kind of deep thinking is too much for managers posing as leaders, but if this company would be in anything else than free fall, employees would feel no need to mock the CEO. If the employees would get even the slightest sense that they’re dealing with a leader who works for the company, as opposed to a narcissistic parasite who works for himself, he would get all the respect he needs.

Any CEO who wants to "stay above the fray" shouldn't be allowed to enjoy a CEO's pay.

OP must be an outsider to EM if he thinks local management has any decision rights or hasn't tried to answer the questions to no one's satisfaction. We all know it's Dallas and if not DW fronting Dallas then who? Don't give us decorum sh-t... I don't have an ounce of respect for a failed leader. And you respect positions? Instead of people you respect positions?

@OP - your assumption is valid, when the employees have some level of respect for the Chairman and CEO. In the current situation, it seems that that the EM CEO has lost the respect of almost the entire employee population. That’s down to hi, his attitude and his actions. So it’s his fault if questions at the forum don’t have the usual gravitas that you might expect. He’s going to see employees directly questioning his decisions, and deservedly so.

Then he should act like a CEO...instead of a weasel!

The culture decay and all of it's related knock-on effects are fair questions. As long as these are done in a professional and respectful way, I can't see why asking questions like "what is your view on our corporate culture?" is an unfair question for these types of forums. DW is the CEO and establishing a culture is arguably one of his biggest responsibilities.

I think Warren is trolling the site… 👀

It's generally not okay to bother the Chairman with these sorts of questions, but it's totally fine to take them to the CEO charged with running the corporation. And since Darren is both, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't have to address the top concerns on the workforce's mind.

Employees care more about the culture decay than the energy transition challenge right at this point - so that's what he needs to tackle.

At the UNCONV forum, the Mgmt said they are not decision makers - not able to address HR / attrition related concerns - these are Dallas level decisions.

So now we try to ask the chairman, and are told it’s a waste of his time!

#winning

Chairman level question: why isn’t the CEO PIPed? What metric could possibly warrant the raise he got despite abysmal results?

How do you guys know that DW makes all the decisions? I always knew it was Dallas, but I didnt know DW specifically was calling all the shots. How is this "known" by yall?

Wouldn’t it be great if this really was a surprise resignation announcement by Darren

Stupid post. I left Exxon 1 month ago for a better offer in Tennessee. It’s a Fortune 100 company and our CEO has a standing check-in with the whole company for 15 minutes EVERY WEEK. He takes the top questions every time.

You know what? People don’t ask him about morale and attrition because they aren’t problems. We know he cares and he’s trying. He originally had a return to the office date for October 1st, but through this mechanism realized how unpopular it was. He apologized in this forum and said they’ll revisit it and we will be 3/2 remote-office hybrid going forward.

A good CEO listens to his employees and addresses their concerns. A bad CEO does everything that Darren does. And to be clear, it’s not just Darren. The EM culture CREATES those leaders. You can get rid of him and I’ll bet you $100 the next one is just as bad.

EM has good leaders, but by the time they do their Dallas tour they lose sight of what made them great and become just another guy “leading” from the Dallas bubble.

@viz+1dcLsEit It is a global thing. DW is not respected even in Asia.

If the CEO isn’t concerned about the very high attrition levels directly caused by his and the MCs decisions then we have an even bigger issue than I thought.
I’m amazed that the OP thinks that HR made the decisions that are spurring all the slido questions in a vacuum w/o DWs full support.
Employee Forums held with the various Presidents have made it clear they have no authority in the decisions that currently matter to the employees. So we have no other option but to ask the CEO. If he thinks these questions are a waste of his time then things are going to get much worse from this point.

OP - the point here is very few employees have any respect left at all for Darren.

Sorry OP, I’m not sure where you are from but Americans don’t think like this. We honor actions not titles.

If he didn’t make these his decisions I would agree. If he let people do their jobs we could ask him questions about the job he SHOULD be doing. But he is the ultimate command and control even when it comes to HR. So alas answer to the decisions YOU personally have made. But the reality is it’s intentional or he is an id--t….and I don’t see him admitting either of those.

If all I want to hear is business strategy I can watch his CNBC interviews. This is an employee forum. We want to discuss employee matters. Info in business results and net zero plans is readily available. Waste of time for him to talk about that when I can just read about what he has already said publicly. He wouldn’t tell us anything extra beyond public info already released anyway.

If it has gotten to the point that these types of questions are so important to the workforce to be asked during a meeting with the ceo it should speak volumes regarding the HR department's faults...

Clearly the workforce has not received sufficient information from the appropriate leaders. So they are advancing to the next level.

Darren should be beating down the door of the hr dept looking for answers as to why they are not handling their business and keeping him out of the weeds during a global forum. At least this is what I would do as a leader...

A certain level of decorum? This is a corporation not a 1600s aristocracy. Like others mentioned, employees did ask local leadership and it was clear they absolutely had no idea about the decisions that were being made. Corporate leadership has to answer for the garbage that's been happening for the past year and a half. And DW is at the head of this group.

Have heard from reliable sources that the HR person in charge of the ranking system revamp made convincing presentations to Dallas about the negative aspects of forced ranking distributions etc, with data to justify, and the response lead by DW was “thanks. Forced distribution is staying.”

So those questions are valid in my mind. I would agree with OP if as stated earlier we haven’t had literally every decision of consequence be forced DOAG +1 or more. I am not sure what mgmt at the division/VP level are able to decide because they most defer to the VP, who then says Dallas ha to weigh in.

I’ll show him just as much respect as he has shown me. He is my equal not my superior. I won’t bow before him.

#idontkissthering

WRONG. When local leadership is asked these questions they say they aren’t the ones who can change things and are trying to influence those who can. You can’t have it both ways. He should answer what people want to ask not what he wants to tell.

Your point would be valid if the chairman had not seemingly become the ultimate decision maker for every policy and benefit over the past two years. Like management and HR have been neutered and all decisions must go to Dallas. Yet we can’t ask Dallas tough questions? Miss me with that BS.

He needs to address attrition and how we turn it around or the rest of the questions on net zero, strategy, etc. are moot.

Change my mind.

It’s very frustrating, but OP is correct… even though it sucks.