Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Here’s the plain truth: the fear of change is always bigger than the change itself. Ain’t no denying we’ve got a real mess on our hands. ImagineIT? A flat-out disaster, no question about it. You’ve got folks working their tails off, busting their butts, and still getting passed over for promotions, while the ones who know how to su-k up get to climb the ladder. Meanwhile, we’re stuck depending on MSPs to deliver, and let me tell you, this whole system is about as effective as a screen door on a submarine.

Now don’t even get me started on the money we throw away on these white elephant projects like DC. There’s zero accountability, and phrases like “What’s good for the business doesn’t have to be good for the enterprise” get thrown around whenever someone challenges these investments that rarely live up to the hype and end up hurting the BUs. It’s an absolute joke. How many of those folks on the IT ELT have a good understanding of the business and technology to make a solid decisions? Those of us who’ve been around long enough could write a whole book on the nonsense and waste we’ve witnessed.

I’m all for shaking up that self-serving, low-achieving, inbred ELT. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not holding my breath that they’ll actually choose leaders based on competence and the ability to deliver, but one can dream, right? Maybe—just maybe—we’ll get the right folks in place and start moving toward a real meritocracy. Let’s get rid of all that red tape and the checkboxes that are just there to cover someone’s backside and add unnecessary positions to build empires. It’s about time the people who got into IT to create, help others, and make a real difference get the chance to do meaningful work and show their true potential.

Guess those extra tickets at the holiday party had a little more punch than I thought.

We talk all day long about benchmarking with our competitors and other industries, that we value outside perspective, etc... Rarely have I seen an external candidate in a leadership position flourish here, they are 99% of the sidelined and told that they "don't understand the business". I can name several of them who basically are gone or were gone.

IT was salvageable. We needed to keep the best technical people and pay more to attract better talent. Instead leadership took a quantity over quality approach which drove cost way up but didn’t improve performance

Two high quality PSG 24 SEs will get more done than 7 mediocre PSG 21/22 SEs, and do it for less

LC is so incompetent he’s not going to be able to fix anything.

Honestly, IT at Chevron is probably beyond fixable.

I’ve seen nothing at all from LC to suggest he has the faintest idea how to fix the IT function.

All they’re going to do is ship more to low cost offices. The quality will still be terrible (likely even worse than it is today), but at least it will be cheaper.

The root cause, as always, is the push to cut costs simply to cut costs.