Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Innovators don't follow the herd.

@xj for now…

@cm we still get pension

@jy people forget we bought West Australian Petroleum (WAPET) to get Gorgon, which was discovered in 1980. Yes we then discovered Jansz and Wheatstone but still riding on the coattails of what was already there.

@f3 - used to be that growth was important too. Not anymore apparently. Working for a low margin business is much less satisfying than a high margin growth oriented company. Chevron management needs to find the growth ops again and stop being sheep following every other O&G company. Being sheep is not what got us in to Australia, Tengiz, or Exxon into Guiana.

@g4

that’s what every majors ceo is saying and it literally isn’t possible for all of them to do it at once

something or someone has to give

“bolt on” “proven” blah blah blah

@f4 apparently the philosophy is buying into known major plays like the Stabroek Block - a massive known field with a competent operator (XOM), or expanding known plays like Tengiz (also not a Chevron discovery).

@f3

what’s the philosophy behind never investing in new plays ever again?

if it spending money so terrifying that all do the majors would rather coast doing as little as possible outside of the dividend and buybacks? are the investors aware that this means you don’t have a company anymore after assets deplete?

CVX is in a commodity business and has a global market share of oil production of under five percent. It isn’t a company that will fundamentally rethink the oil business. The owners - which are primarily mutual funds and investment houses - are not asking MW to take a whole new approach. They demand a strong dividend and return on investment. In commodity businesses, strong cost control and maintaining margins are necessary and that is what is driving the direction of the company.

@cm

something to keep in mind is that there is a huge class of workers in large corporations who deteriorate into only knowing how to work the system. they have no real skills that are useful outside of the company. maybe they never had any skills and got in on the buddy system.

these people inevitably get cut and then they spread the myth that everybody else pays way less. but really, the job market has correctly re-evaluated their skill level and paid accordingly.

if you can say what you got done each week and it is at least two things you’re probably in the top 10% of workers and you won’t have a problem beating or matching the pay externally. as always keep six months savings because it will take time.

@c8 that may be your individual experience. Chevron used to pay better than market, with a pension, great benefits, but now it's all fallen back with the pack. The only ones making more at Chevron than they could elsewhere are useless office PSG 26+ types who only know how to bullsh-t their way to the top without doing any real work.

@c8 Pay here is average at best compared to competition. The real upside is the workload, which is lighter than other companies.

I think things are better than you say. I'm happy here and we get paid mucho grande

You don't install a man like MW, born in 1960, to generate new ideas or innovate. You install him to cut costs and have an irrational canine attachment to old ways of doing things. As a result, Chevron has largely shelved its investments in renewable energy and hydrogen, expanded drilling and exploration in spite of "low carbon" lip service, needlessly ordered people back in the office, and has no future vision other than making the next dividend. He's the living fossil his supporters want him to be.

MW doesn't have "ideas". He has one lever he pulls......cut!

We have a corporate world where leaders work remote, hold multiple roles at once, and constantly and openly discuss and negotiate pay and raises all of the time.

These things are only bad when employees do them. It’s good when they do them. They can do no wrong. They set how they get their bonus. They hire fall guys for plans that don’t work out. They do literally nothing but copy what their industry peers are doing and throw all of the risk on their successors, employees, and third parties.

What we have a cultural systemic failure of the ability to hold leaders to any standards of success and accountability. It’s a much bigger problem than any one company.

"decent alternative employment opportunity" 🙄 Good luck with that.

even the consultants are getting consulted.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mckinsey-plans-to-cut-10-percent-of-its-workforce/500869#:~:text=The%20planned%20cuts%20come%20after,Read%20more

MW and his friends are doing just fine. Don't you worry about them—the current administration is heavily favoring their wreckless ways. But I want to ask you, the average Joe: Are you better off now than you were two years ago, 1 year go? Sometimes, the problem isn't the company.

I'm MN and I approve this message.

I’m MW and I approve this message.