Worried I see colleagues let go at other companies today. Why are we different?
18 replies (most recent on top)
The BOD needs to let the hammer fall. Either lay-off some workers or you are gone earlier then we planned. Please take your money and go kayaking.
Seeing so many talk about bloat just tells me you don’t work at Oxy. It is the leanest employee based company I have ever worked at in my 30 years.
Sure you can avoid layoffs. Just make the workforce come into work on Mondays. No excerptions.
Enjoy the ride... You are something till your not...That day unfortunately is coming...
Agreed.
Employees are cheap compared to capital and operating costs required to produce oil. That is why a lay-off will not have a significant impact on the bottom line directly. But there is an indirect effect by thinning out the workforce and focusing work efforts to increase efficiency and therefore improve financial performance.
The most important thing is shareholder value. Employees are cheap and expendable. You will find this out one of these days.
So much for people being the most important asset.
Different because nobody worth anything will work for Oxy to begin with, so we have to hang on to the rejects from other companies when they are desperate.
There really is no shame in laying off when certain aspects of the business are closed out or are minimized. What you have to look for are people who are so specialized in these areas and cannot be retrained.
You can't always go after the remaining low hanging (old guys) fruit and call things good. Just like you will not keep finding "savings" thru drilling efficiencies forever. The rubber will eventually hit the road and poor/average performers will be shown the door.
You might look at your International exploration staff first... Deep water Colombia has been permanently shelved and you just farmed out Peru. Could save a couple of bucks there ;-)
They should offer the VSP and do layoffs in the fourth quarter so they can record the severance cost on the 2025 books and start 2026 fresh. En--a time!
Below Should have been “let those go who do not meet the criteria”. Maybe I should be let go for making too many clerical errors.
They need to raise the bar on what is acceptable performance. Then let those go who do meet the criteria for performance. Right now only the very worst employees on PIPs are fired. In addition to the lay-off a VSP could be considered after doing a cost/benefit analysis.
Do a VSP first and leave it to the younger ones. Then talk to the low performers and let it be known that more is expected or they will be next.
This company needs to get rid of dead weight. VSP is not enough. 10% cut would be a positive. More than that it gets depressing.
I would think a voluntary plan might come in 2025 and that should take out a lot of older employees ready to retire. Who knows what 2026 will bring as this industry changes daily based on oil prices. There does need to be a general layoff, or just plan old firing, if the employee is not performing. From what I have seen at Oxy and the industry in general is it is very hard to fire anyone without going through many processes. That might be the case after the 2026 reviews with the low performers being put on pips, etc. A layoff is so much easier to get the dead weight out.
You aren't....tick,tick,tick....