I’d love for someone in HR to do some data analytical to disprove or prove what everyone thinks. For example, does your ranking depend more on your job than your performance?does ranking start tanking when you get close to retirement? Is there a bias towards ranking of minorities?
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Once you get inside that age range You will get fkd w/o a kiss. All of a sudden you will have lost the skills, etc. That, if you foolishly believe what you hear at your bs ranking feedback session. The only thing you need to ask yourself is this: do you ever value your own mental health?
10-12 years ago the company was actually bumping up CLs on NRE and RE employees to entice them to stay on a little longer.
How things have changed!
Now once your around 50 you’ll see ranking drop off in an effort to get you out the door.
At 50 and above you’re fubarred at every company. Nobody likes old farts. They even pay you to leave. Nothing that EM is doing that every other company doesn’t. Pioneer packaged ALL of their old employees in 2020. Age discrimination exists and is blatant. Save your money when you are in your 20s and 30s. It’ll pay dividends when you are working at Hobby Lobby at 55.
You want to retire when the lump sum interest rate for the pension is at an all-time low, not when it is at an all-time high. Never leave money on the table between 55 and 60.
Why are y’all not retired by 55? Why are you still working a corporate job past 50?!
In my discussions with HR I have been told verbally:
VPs make changes after rank meetings to move the Chosen upwards and move any enemies downward
HR manipulates the rank list to move minorities up the list, sometimes significantly, above persons that outperformed them.
If you have a Chosen direct report that did not perform well and you move them downward, you will suffer in your own ranking for failing to lie about their performance and move them upward.
All instructions from executives about who to move up or down is done verbally. No written evidence about manipulating ranking.
After age 50, non chosen persons will decline to make more RG points available for young chosen persons.
All of the above was face to face conversations and nothing in writing except the evidence in the ranking results that proved each statement to be true.
After 55 it is a struggle to stay out of PIP zone.
I got hit in my late 50s. Coincidentally, after 1 year of training up the MSP team that replaced the NA team let go during Covid. The good news is the MSP is rubbish, I no longer teach them anything and just swoop in and quietly solve any issues that arise. I'll retire next year and leave the company with the rubbish they brought on to replace decent NA employees.
@2wxt+1ppYFybq This is the best description I’ve read regarding what this situation feels like. My education and years of experience were suddenly worthless to the company. Like that: Snap.
Spot-on.
When young and just starting a career, money is a big motivator. After a few years of being well-paid, pride in doing good work and contributing to project success become more important than money. It's even more satisfying when peers view you as someone who has gained expertise and they actively seek your advice. Then imagine getting slapped in the face with a NSI, a process that assigns no value to human dignity. This all leads back to money, not yours but the company's. The company has reached a point where it views the employees no differently than the inanimate desks they occupy. Their willingness to sacrifice you without remorse is no different than a decision to purchase cheaper office furniture. The level of disrespect and the robotic lack of compassion is far more hurtful than not getting a raise. It's as if your career and all your hard work never mattered.
To the posters: 2021 opened everyone’s eyes. If we were younger and got through those years unscathed, we still got the message.
- 1 year contract
- No loyalty from your employer, regardless of past sacrifices or performance
- Chase the pension at your own risk, and know the company will be actively trying to manage their pension exposure based on your retirement age and salary
- Keep your skills relevant
No, the company doesn’t look like it did 5-10 years ago. ….but neither do the employees. Our backup plans are in place and ready to trigger when needed.
@2fyj I’d say for most of the posters here “not” is the correct word.
BTW, nobody who isn’t white self-identifies as “minority”. I think some REs picked up this culture-jamming BS from their loser millennial adult children who still live with them.
People are writing dissertations on here. Must all be retired.
To the composition of the EM workforce….it’s mostly white, mostly male, and skews older. Same everywhere else in O&G. Pretty sure HR data analytics would confirm that.
FWIW I really don’t give AF what EM’s workforce looks like.
Minority or not, around 50-52 yiu will drop maybe sooner if your boss is evil!
At what cost would I have won? For me @ 50yo, I would have had to remain in what I realized was a toxic environment where I was undervalued and under-appreciated for another 5 years for 75% of my pension, or 9.5 years for 100% of my pension. YEARS from this one and only precious life I’ll never get back. That’s not winning, that’s losing.
Life is too short and I have too much self respect to remain in that kind of environment. Don’t subscribe to that “money-money at sake of all else” philosophy. There’s more to life.
Grateful I had the technical skills to jump ship. LS from pension was rolled in to my 401K and has continued to grow at 10% per year. Salary isn’t as high, but mental health and overall well being is through the roof!
I talk to people who are still there and they wish they could do what I did. They can, it just takes courage and being OK with making less money. EM treats people terrible because they KNOW they can, there won’t be a revolt if they keep salaries high and dangle the pension carrot. Duck-duck- GOOSE!
That’s the very definition of golden handcuffs. Don’t be a prisoner! Break free!!! The stress of being there are likely taking years off your life.
I’ve never seen a hearse with a roof rack….. you’re not taking it with you! 🪦
Is there anyone in XOM at all capable of looking at data?
@1yeg+1ppYFybq the entire ranking system has to be abolished! It is there for a massive group of HR employees to justify their existence and also as an instrument to pulverize the self esteem of their employees! Beat them down for compliance! Incent them to backstab! You make an extremely valid point here, they are being abusive to your family and children too! Don't forget what they continually throw in your face, "send your work to INDIA! Train them so you can replace yourself! Wipe out your ability to provide! These are vile tactics! I am doing my best to uncover how they can move our American jobs to low cost, underskilled sh!thole countries! There has to be a way to stop them! Employed by them or not, they are abusive, disrespectful, greed mongers!
Even if you are not retirement eligible, you can make a 1 time election and take the part of the pension you earned as a lump sum. ( Just role it into another IRA.) EM changed the rule a few years ago to encourage people to leave.
Every situation is different, but if that paycheck is important, then stick it out.
If you have the means and things are not getting better, leave while you still can. For me, I have 1 shot at making a career that I can look back on with pride. It’s not just about a paycheck. I don’t want to end a career at a place where I’m disrespected and just a cog in the wheel. So I left. Life is so much better now.
You only receive 75% of your pension at age 55 with 15 years of service. You must retire after 59 1/2 years to receive 100% of your pension.
You do not win until you are 59 1/2 years old.
Exactly how I was treated. I left because I don’t need XOM. It was not good for mental health or for my career by staying. Thank you for sharing.
Never stop looking for next job = excellent advice.
Steer clear of a “career” with big oil is the next advice I’d offer, especially these days.
Regardless of where you end up, save - save - save. Avoid taking on more debt than you can afford, so you don’t ever find yourself in a “trapped” position, living way above your means and NEEDING the big paycheck at all costs.
This is NOT the same company as it was a few years ago. It is unrecognizable as to how EM treats employees compared to 10 or 20 years ago. Things really took a turn and went downhill in 2016/2017 (coinciding with the costly move to the stupid a$$ campus).
Throw a global pandemic in the mix with a glut to O&G, and things have been accelerating downhill ever since. From what I can tell, the majority of technical expertise has exited the building. What remains are sniveling bean pushers, CYAs (cover yo a-s!), and folks that create lots and lots of powerpoint decks to show how the consultants they’ve hired, are keeping the company upright. It’s very concerning as a stockholder!
Here is another data point. It was hired as an upstream engineer working projects. I was a 49 yo experienced hire in 2000. 15 yrs later, I retired from EN at 64 yo. Over the years, my EM ranking dropped but my super told me not to worry. In the end, EM asked me to stay another year but I was financially independent so I took retirement.
Based on a total of 36 years working for oil companies (6) my recommendation is to maintain your competitive skills and NEVER stop looking for the next job. Ever.
Good luck to all.
Except, I was good, at least by EM standards. Earned the company millions, in return earned an entire wall full of plaques reflecting my “value” and “skill” to the company. I wasn’t a manager - but an individual contributor.
Hit 50 and earned an NSI. Didn’t even comprehend what that was until it happened to me. Had there been any warning, that would have been one thing, but it came on the heels of some HUGE accomplishments. When they told me, I was so stunned, I asked if they knew who they were talking with, had they called the wrong number? In prior years, I would have done a fraction as much and been in the top 1/3.
That’s how they get their hooks in you: You’re great - great - great - sh-t. Like a perverted game of duck-duck-goose where people’s careers and livelihoods are on the line. More twisted, yet, they do it when you’re older and more likely to take a huge pay cut with a new employer if / when you leave, feeling completely demoralized. You might think you have a solid plan for retirement based on current earnings, but then you roll the dice and hit an ExxonMobil chute instead of what you fully anticipated would be a ladder. BO-M, down, down, down you go.
Perhaps if I wasn’t an individual contributor in a small group I would have been insulated? Perhaps if it hadn’t been 2021 when EM was actively trying to shed people? Perhaps if different managers weren’t rotating through so lightening fast, people actually KNEW me and the VALUE that I brought?
Management told me (during a subsequent meeting wherein they encouraged me to stay) that as the primary breadwinner in my family with several children, they really thought I was a low flight risk and would understand it was just a numbers game.
Not to me it wasn’t! It’s was a reflection of how CR-PPY the system is and despite how terrifying it was to leave, it was better than staying in the cesspool where I did not matter, my family did not matter - and I was required to place all my faith in the hands of a few “chosen” (incompetent!) people who didn’t know me from Eve, and had NO idea what I’d achieved over the past few decades, and quite honestly, they didn’t care.
Once I realized just how little they valued me, I also realized that I would continue to be a target Every.Single.Year. I had to get OUT from that toxic environment or my mental health would deteriorate because I will forevermore “need significant improvement.”
The light came on, I saw behind the curtain for the very first time, and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Management lies, HR useless 08801
Once you are retirement eligible, you have won. I’m not saying it is fair to drop your ranking….but you’ve still won. You’ve got to pensionable age. Don’t let it detract from a highly successful career….and know that your peers and protégés see the truth.
Analytics from 5-10 years ago showed there was a positive bias towards while men, I believe. I’d you were a women or minority working 10 years ago, you can probably correlate that with your own data points.
I love how all these people are claiming to be women and minorities and yet somehow regurgitating the grievances of the typical white guy in 50s 🤔
It’s almost like people aren’t who they claim to be on the internet…..
@OP Occam’s Razor:
People get complacent as they near retirement and their performance drops off as a result. In some cases, they were never all that good to begin with.
I believe all of these examples. It’s a mix right. Age, are you friends with someone , are you a truth person, no one likes the truth. Over in uncon if your legacy Xom your untouchable. If your ranking person is in a battle with the other ranking managers it can get out of hand. I maybe missing some other things that are not related to your actual performance. The bottom line this place is what you think it is. It’s just a job unless you can get in with people and get those Exs for several years. Then you are making some serious cash and that’s what’s it’s all about , right?
I dropped like a ROCK the year I hit 50. Female with more than 22 years with the company, I went from top / middle rank, to NSI in one cycle with no fair warning. Such a gut punch, I immediately quit and will never get over it.
Minority female whose ranking dropped at 55: better than being a white male with ranking drop coming at 50. At least you didn’t lose the inflation protection on pension and your restricted stock. Su-ks for all of us but mostly for the non preferenced people.
Oh yes! I'm in the " GREAT REPLACEMENT TARGETED GROUP" you know the ones that are hanging by a thread because the are trying to put a low cost, low skill, non-American POS in my position. Being in this group is such a joy! You hear all of the managers comments about replacing you/your position with a wonderful BTC sl--e so that manager can meet the Top Down demanded goals of elimination! What an amazing goal! This dirtbag replacement agenda will eventually fail and fail miserably. It may take some time but the company will fail and anyone that is smart will take note of the hostile environment it creates. This is not acceptable!
@ttv+1ppYFybq It's a familiar story, and unfortunately sad. Usually it happens at 50 but the trend is always the same for the very vast majority of the population.
It probably always has been like this, but folks are more confident now to be more vocal about sharing identical treatment around the big 5-0.
Here is a datapoint. Minority female.
My ranking dropped from top third to NI when I turned 55. That is the same year I got multiple accolades for my work. I also told my manager that same year hard truths that did not align with his ambitions but was in the interest of the company. The following year, I was moved and the only feedback I got was something about behaviors. But the only specific item given was the lack of collaboration during the COVID lock-down. It was never mentioned again. Unfortunately, those who can vouch for me either retired or were PIP’d. From then on, any of my projects that gained traction were always reassigned to someone else.