I assume we will get the opportunity to ask questions of the Exxonmobil representatives who come up next week. I think we should brainstorm some good questions to ask them so we don’t ask d-mb questions like “will we still have a Christmas party?”
I’ll kick it off here. These are not in any particular order. Anyone feel free to use these at the meeting (or not). Obviously, some of these may not be applicable, depending on what they present to us.
- Exxonmobil infamously stopped paying into employees 401ks for a couple years to maintain dividend payments to their shareholders. 401k contributions are generally viewed as sacrosanct by almost all companies. How should we interpret this as potential future Exxonmobil employees?
- Exxonmobil‘s ranking system is notorious in the industry. How soon will Denbury employees be subject to this system and how soon will we be ranked against current XOM employees?
3 What is the current annual target for attrition (employees forced out through rankings) in Exxonmobil’s Low Carbon solutions Company?
4 Dan Ammann (president of XOM’s Low carbon Solutions) recently said in an interview that none of the CO2 from Exxonmobil‘s newly announced CO2 offtake agreements would be sent to EOR fields. However, the EOR fields are being spun in this acquisition as the short term solution for CO2 storage. What CO2 is Exxonmobil planning to put in our fields beyond what we are already injecting?
5 In your ranking system, If Albert Einstein, Galileo, and sir Isaac Newton worked on your team, who would you rank in the top third and who would you put on a performance improvement plan?
6 Exxonmobil is famous in the industry for having excellent internal training for employees. How soon can Denbury employees begin to use this resource?
7 It is common knowledge in the industry that Mobil employees and XTO employees did not fare well in the transition to Exxon. Many felt targeted by the ranking and eventually left the company. Those former employees are now scattered across the industry, as are their stories. Why will Denbury employees fare better?
What else?