Announced today, and another geo lead laid off
14 replies (most recent on top)
MO is certainly no oil finder, didn't develop younger geoscientist, and isn't trustworthy. This company is already going into the sh----r but hopefully it will be better for everyone else employed here.
I know the lack of hiring new grads will create a gap in level of experience. Over 50% geos and engineers were laid off during project A, but the workload didn’t decrease. It is better to hire people with experience that can help and mentor others, as most of the mentors/experienced were laid off too. MO was awful, only helping and overpromoting his favorites and treating the rest like cr-p, with the worst fake niceness.
Great post below. Among the great points you make, what has really been to the detriment of this company is the elevation of financial analysts and the planning team to unquestioned prominence, and at the same time, the sidelining and suppression of the technical teams.
Both working together as equals would certainly make us stronger, but it seems that those in charge have treated it as zero sum, and that one has to be elevated at the expense of the other, making us weaker as an organization.
Being a geo at Apache has sucked since about the time the San Antonio office was created and given permission to poach projects from within the company to find shale plays. Not only did they fail, it set off a chain of events of firings, experts leaving, and the development program (for young professionals out of school) to fall apart.
That program used to be run by an exceptionally qualified geoscientist who was one of the outspoken critics of the nonsense occurring in San Antonio. He was eventually shown the door for it. With that, and also the loss of the equally exceptional engineer in charge of the engineering development program, the program has fallen into disarray. Does the company even hire young folks out of school any more?
The newer geo director who was laid off was basically great at doing nothing to motivate or retain the geos under his wing, and also great at keeping his toes in line to not ruffle feathers above him. It’s all really just a sad story. This once great company that is kept afloat only by its numerous legacy assets, cultivated during a time long ago when they valued their subsurface staff and didn’t kowtow to investors and their d-mb ideas.
No, I never told
Casually put to blame
Whose been betrayed now
He never stood up for any of the geos that were laid off during Covid.
Lawyer being involved means this wasn’t just routine. Shady.
Good riddance MO, toxic poor leader
Idk what happened but lawyer gave a talk to geos saying that bad behavior and treating people badly won’t be tolerated.
"left to pursue other opportunities" is like saying "died after a short illness" - it's all shorthand for something else. So was MO canned? He always liked the sound of his own voice.
Which lead?
I heard he left to pursue other opportunities
Anyone know why, or what happened?
The decision makers there are clueless