The original post appears to be an ex-employee let go. I can only speculate but maybe for poor performance or a bad attitude. As an employee and shareholder, OXY is better positioned to weather the storm (yes I believe that what has happened over the past 13 months is only the outer bands of a big hurricane hitting the oil and gas industry and we have more to come) than many others - whether larger or smaller.
As to overall morale - I don't know what it is like for other companies directly, but I would expect that at $50/bbl for WTI, everyone in the industry is concerned about their job and career future. However, what I have observed so far at OXY is that we have cut capex and reducing opex while trying to keep our employees - so, while there have been some layoffs, based on what I've heard (do not know as fact) that our layoffs have been much more limited than similarly situated competitors -- certainly less than the oilfield services companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton, Weatherford, Baker Hughes and the like.