Thread regarding Imperial Oil Limited layoffs

I have known hundreds of dedicated bright minds who worked smart and hard many long hours over their career, only to hit a brick wall in terms of their career progression. They said the right things that made business sense which could be implemented in a cost effective manner, but those proposals did not align with management's design at that time. Most retired, leaving a big gap in our bench strength in terms of knowledge, experience and skills. Don't be delusional in thinking that all high performers go on to become VPs and earn the big bucks. Many yes men do too.

Trust your instincts.
IOL was once the gold standard when it came to the oil & gas business and having IOL on your resume is still a great thing to have.
Jump that sinking ship. It's no longer the company it once used to be and its future is bleak indeed.

Also save your money (I recommend 2 years of expenses minimum) . Things in the Oil & Gas industry are going to get much worse, especially in Canada.
If you can survive and come out the other end, you'll be one of the few with experience and you will thrive as there will be a labour shortage of experience people.
History always repeats itself.

It was all smoke and mirrors. The whole time it was all a sham.

Didn't you hear how this "opens up all kinds of career opportunities" lol management thinks we are all id--ts.

You summarized it well. No future if you are ambitious and crave challenge. Go chase different pastures. The start may be tough but the runway will be long and trajectory steeper. Also hope for a true meritocracy, not some algorithm regulated one.

Sounds like you have some financial backing to sit on the sidelines a bit, spend time with family, and double down on yourself. Good luck!

There was always a limit, you just were high on the kool aid and believed their lies.

You hit the nail on the head. There was a very rewarding career path available to us at Imperial. That is gone now. I’m already located in Edmonton and out of scope for this but I’m seriously reconsidering my career plans with this company now.

That's a very nice sum up of what the future looks like for Imperial. This codependent relationship where your spouce abuses you but you have no money to live on your own, and he/she trys to remove your family and friends (in this case our engineering department our own SME's.....)

That’s my interpretation as well, and I feel the same way as you. There’s the short term having a job question, but this is also a major long-term shift in what ESSO is and our career paths. What does a future with this company even look like?

This is very accurate to what I would assume future looks like. Any executive position with the company will go to a US executive. There will be a ceiling and likely only roles that are in operations. There may be some potential for Canadian project roles or Buisness Development but I think the writing is on the wall. What they keep now will almost certainly be reduced in the future if there is any legal/,plausible way they can do it.