What are things looking like for the petro-technical professionals? (Engineers, geophysics, etc)
These are often the highest paid people but at the same time, they are actually making the money for the company. Does Devon take this into consideration?
HA! I was there for that conversation. The geologist was shocked someone would say such a thing.
"They are actually making the money for the company", Here is the phrase I as a older petro engineer hate hearing come out of the younger generations mouth constantly. We have catered to these "rock-stars" for years in an attempt to recruit them. Unfortunately this has been a real disservice in developing them into decent people who can exhibit humility and grace. I attended a leadership class recently where a young man from IT explained to a Geo that one of the hardest part of his job was having to break policies that are in place to protect the company to cater to our demands. After speaking with him I explained that he was absolutely correct about the entitled mentality of some of our employees. He even mentioned that famous line, We make the money. Needless to say I wonder how we would make the money without the services the rest of the company provides. Does the company consider who makes the money? Yes they do. They also consider how many of these people we need in the environment we are currently experiencing. Should the industry turn around, Devon will simply hire one of the thousands that have recently been laid off at a bargain basement salary. So before you get to high on "We make the money", here at Devon Energy, you may want to consider that your salary that is 2x-3x the salary of the average worker here at Devon will easily cover 2 of those IT workers that will help us make that money. So to answer your original question about if they consider who makes the money? I would count on it. Every department will be hit by these layoffs. It is a sad situation for every person here.
They have loaded all that stats into SAP and are letting Devon's Watson make the final decisions. They would have issued the first round but it only fired people with names sounding like Larry, Curly and Moe (Shemp was rescued).
They are going to let the computer run all night and see if it can find the Jews, Mormons and ex-fundamentalists by tomorrow. If it fails then everyone with dark hair and a large noise gets tattoos and is sent to the showers.
Isn't petro tech a $45,000 job. How can anyone afford anything at that pay scale?
Seriously? If you think you could do what all of these people do with one guy and a bunch of scabby starving artists turned oil employees, it only goes to show how clueless you are about what it takes to get oil out of the ground, and how complex the engineering really is. Derp.
I'd change that qualification to a well-funded PROTESTANT church. If you're Catholic or Orthodox, they probably wouldn't have any problem letting you go. In fact, they'd probably wonder how you got hired in the first place.
Here is what they consider: Are you a white male? Do you carry your bible with you and attend a well funded Edmond church?
Will you drink the kool aide when asked?
If all of these apply to you, then you should be fine.
I assure you, they are not the ones making the money for the company. The majority don't even know what they are doing.
Petro techers are the most overrated employees a company can employee. Give me a few good techs, good field hands and one petro techer and you have a team.
What about the Supply Chain group? There is a lot of highly paid people!! Managers managing no one or just one person.
Inquiring minds would like to know exactly what Devon is taking into consideration. Heaven forbid that information get shared with the little people.