Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

OP is absolutely correct. The decline of Chevron started with the EB-run mass layoffs in 2015/16. The next few years were spent convincing Boomers that they weren't needed and being constantly asked by low-level managers "what's your runway look like?", as well as being given convolute rationale for why they were never getting a raise again in their career. Not being d-mb, these same Boomers fell over each other taking the EOI in 2020, taking with them a significant chunk of Chevron's experience and expertise. MW was fooled by millennials that "they could do so much better", but they didn't, and hence the 2020-2025 nose-dive of the company. ENGINE is the nail in the coffin, Chevron will never be able to regain its lost glory. So sad.

@OP Too many ELT acolytes in the Cult of Jack Welch.

What made this round of layoff so different is that the bulk of engineering work is being offshored! Positions weren't eliminated, they were simply moved to low cost countries. American jobs! Repeat after me, American jobs! Corporate greed all over!

There is NO fiduciary or legal mandate that executives give all to the shareholders. Look at the way corporate America was before Ronald Reagan and you'll see employees, customers and shareholders all mattered. Today CEOs are incentivized for short term gains, cash in and leave no matter how big a disaster they leave the company in. MW is the poster child for this!

Last post is correct, I hired on early 80's, oldest in my group. Took the package. No one in my "era" thought nor expected that they had a job for life and it's been constant layoffs, reorgs, mergers all along. Same for those hired 60s/70s before me that I knew. Only thing different now is the level of self appointed entitlement. It's the nature of Oil & gas. You didn't know that when you hired on?

@c0 you must be 100 years old or talking about some other company. How about downsizings every two years for the entirety of my career.

The watershed of people they planned to keep, now leaving in the wake of the utter sh*tstorm that was created says it all. Leadership put this company in an impossible position compounded by the last impossible position they created during the last transformation. Leaders have nothing but buzzwords to offer while they try to wield AI in wreckless ways that seed our competitive advantage into parts of the world that work for the highest bidder, which will be our competitors tomorrow.

MW and the BOD have failed. Failed to react to a changing world. Failed to develop a coherent and compelling future strategy. Failed to restructure the company in a way that allows the best use of dear and expensive company resources. Failed to keep a presence in countries where we have had a presence and earned an excellent reputation. Manifestation of that failure is the layoffs we are seeing, limited growth in only the Permian where our competitive scale cannot really be leveraged - not competing against the Indys, no idea what to do with legacy cash flow so we use it for share buybacks and dividends. Really sad - noone is really interested in buying stock in a company that has limited growth opportunities, not growth strategy and looks like big tobacco. Really sad and we could be so much more!

I started in an era that it was a job for life and it was. It is a different time, learn all you can and make yourself marketable for the future. don't lose yourself in a company.

as you can all understand.....it is not about the money for MW and all those above. it is about what they can say that they accomplished in their "world"

@am Capitalism wasn't always about maximizing profit by any legal means necessary. Company officers have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders, which isn't always about maximizing profits -- it may be about ensuring long term viabllity of the company through employee retention, or protecting the environment to ensure there are people still around to buy their products in 50 years time.

We seem to be in a phase where every company is seeking to maximize profits at the expense of everything else, and no one company seems willing to look at the broader picture of if every company lays everyone off, there's going to be no money circulating in the economy to buy the goods and services they sell. Seeking to maximize profit in the short term through local actions may be deterimental to profit at a global scale in the longer term.

@am "Capitalism has never been and is never about employee", while this is obviously true (and why the "job provider is good" mantra is also nonsense), the point is that companies once focused on long-term growth, but now incentives are in place only to optimize short-term gains. When EOY is considered long-term strategic planning, even as major capital investments typically take a decade to mature, you know we have lost our way. Yes, we need to focus on the inventor value, but actual value is not generated by stock buybacks and short-sighted layoffs of your most experienced technical staff. We need to return to the days when management actually had a vision for our future, rather than focusing on Larry the Liquidator's short-term strategies to maximize their next quarter's compensation package.

MW looks up and down the halls of the Chevron towers and says, “Wow. What would really fix this company is to third-worldize this workforce.”

@OP we all know that Mike Wirth only looks after his own Worth (pun intended). Sorry you got caught up in the “ageism trap” which Chevron and other high-pay and great-benefits corporations are forced to engage in. I got let go in 2015 for the same reason. Lucky for me I already had 32 years at Chevron and 2015 was my target year to retire. I was a valuable asset to my operating company, but I kept my retirement plans close to the vest and the company must have thought I was hoping to put in 10 more years. But, no sir. I was laid off just in time and I got a bonus severance check to boot.

@am
"with any legal means"
refresh my memory who writes and enforces these so-called slaws (sh---y laws)?
who donates to their campaigns
the game is rigged by the unskilled at the top
now stop your whining and pay back the 38 trillion you "borrowed" from the regular working folks

@OP Agree with you 100%!

You gotta wonder what MW is going to think about when he’s eventually ready to kick the bucket. What is his legacy? Destroying a once-great company and causing untold suffering for thousands of employees and contractors? That’s a pretty sh---y legacy. How can anybody, other than a sociopath, feel good about that sort of thing, even with all the wealth that he’s accumulated?

To the guys talking about capitalism, I get it, but I would argue that you can lay people off and do what is necessary for the almighty buck in a manner that treats your employees with respect, rather than like cattle off to the sla-ghterhouse. The lack of info or outright intentional misinformation of this event has been astounding. That is fundamentally where MW, the ELT, McKinsey, and whoever else has had a hand in this embarrassing mess of a reorg have failed. How hard was it to plan this layoff a little more thoughtfully and with the tiniest amount of dignity towards the workforce?

Also, where the he-l is MW? It’s been MONTHS. Where is he hiding? That in and of itself makes him look like a rudderless and spineless coward, hiding behind “the consultants told me to do this.” This lack of visibility and accountability don’t inspire confidence in his leadership. They make him look like he knows he fu---d up and has something to hide and can’t face employees. A true leader would pull up his big boy pants and have a frank conversation with employees. Could any of you old timers ever picture KD or DJO hiding from employees? KD in particular would bluntly tell you what we are doing, why we’re doing it, and why you gotta get with the program. He didn’t have to play a tough guy persona, because he embodied leadership that commanded respect from employees, even those of us who thought he was a tough leader.

Honestly, at the end of the day, none of this really matters to me anymore. I’m leaving, and I am glad. This place has become a toxic, demoralizing and exploitative circus. I do feel for my colleagues left to pick up the pieces, and I wish them well navigating what are definitely some rough waters ahead.

Patriotism and business sense are not the same.

and not working
the US has acrued 33 trillion in debt the last 25 years

Happeniŋg just about everywhere. Not special