... you are simply flying a bit closer to the ground than you are used to, or, in some cases, have never seen before. And, don't worry too much about the many layoff percentages being thrown around, as long as you have the wherewithal to weather the storm over the coming months. If you are really worth having (and deep down inside, you know), you will be highly sought after by Chevron as a contractor, probably sometime within the next 12-24 months (depending on how much you really are worth having), at far more than you were earning as a Chevron employee. Yes, folks will always say "You can't beat Chevron's benefits...", but that is simply no longer true. It was probably true 20 or 30 years ago, but not today. Those 35 year folks taking an early retirement package with a couple million in their pension fund pale in comparison to the typical 25 year contractors, who are retiring today on their own terms with 5+ million in investments that they control. Most contractors, particularly international expats, earn literally 2+ (no pun intended) times what their staff colleagues do, with little of the Chevron HR admin to deal with. Simple math and basic investment strategy will well outperform whatever Chevron can offer, particularly now that the company is in the next phase of reducing employee benefits even further than before. Through these sweeping layoffs, Chevron is not so much reducing longterm staff, although that will certainly happen to some extent (and more in certain areas than others), but the company is moving back to a contractor-centric employment strategy. This is for the same three simple reasons that allowed the company to successfully operate in this manner in decades past: 1) contractors cost the company far less than staff employees (always attractive), 2) the contract employee earns far more (which attracts the tough, gritty, and experienced mercenaries who actually know how to get things done, as opposed to the... uh… well..., what the company has to work with today), and when it comes time to reduce staff in one particular area, for whatever reason, it is far easier - it only takes an email to the contract company to delete one or one hundred from a manager’s headcount. It doesn’t take a game of musical chairs, endless new personnel announcements about the hundreds moving to DWEP or some other temporary holding post, nor does it take a long, excruciating two year exercise in "Projects", "ROMs", "RAEs", and such. It also doesn't cost the company a dime for BCG or any similar "consultant" to do the dirty work that the typical Chevron manager of today no longer has the skills or the pair to take care of themselves. No, I’m afraid that the great employee staffing experiment of the past two decades has failed. The company discovered that by extending it's typical administrative overhead into the area of personnel management, rather than outsourcing most of it (as they did in the past), it cost three times as much per head, and the employees actually ended up benefitting far less. Believe me, that blue badge costs you far more than you think it does, and in more ways than one. So, to wrap this one up, it may take a little while, but better times are ahead (but, just in case, remember to back up all your data!). Until then, though, keep plowing onward through the fog. And, with that, boys and girls, so long until next time…
10 replies (most recent on top)
Yes you are 100% correct, I am a contractor and $5MM or so nestegg is no big deal for most in our shoes, from everyone I've talked to. I can't believe how these people blow money and wonder where everything went! There's another thread on here where a guy got wind of a $7000 or so monthly annuity that someone claimed he was getting and he went ballistic and cried BS for the whole thread. I though he was going to have a heart attack! LOL! I didn't want to tell the guy what I receive monthly and embarrass him, he would probably go off the deep end - LMAO!
@FKBtchB-cue, Yes, but that business may force you to have continuing education and you would have to learn to read and write coherently. That may be a plus or a minus, but for someone milking every cent that can get from the government teat like you, it would be a step up the ladder from the bottom rung that you're on.
Good post
So, using your numbers, @2rmn, that works out to $13,000 per productive day per CVX expat? Hmmm... Sounds like good work if you can get it! Sign me up!
This is true. I've been an expat contractor for Chevron internationally for almost 25 years. I always took home twice the salary that my Chevron supervisor did, and I never had to do anybody's PMP, even though many company staff had a dotted line reporting to me. I worked through a body shop contractor, who always provided me with great health insurance and managed my taxes, and I used the significant cash inflow to manage my own retirement investments. Better security going staff? I don't think so. I'm still working today while many of my CVX expat colleagues are being "left standing" with nowhere to go. So why am I still here? Because I'm just a line item on somebody's budget, not their headcount, at a simple 15% markup over my salary. Meanwhile, one western CVX expat costs the company about 1.3 million USD/year, all in, depending on their PSG, how the host country treats their taxes, and how many kids they have that need private schooling. For those Catholic rabbits with five or six kids, that shit gets pretty expensive, pretty quick. And with all their vacations, R&Rs, maternal and paternal leave, bereavements, and other paid "leaves", they only actually "work" about 150 days in a year, if that much, vs. my 240. Even when they are at work, company admin overhead eats up about one third of their time. So, yeah, I figure they can get about 3 or 4 of me for every one of those company PowerPoint cowboys. Spot on OP!
What? ACA insurance is extremely expensive and sucks, unless you are making very little money and get high subsidies and reduced deductibles.
You are correct. I left industry to consult several years ago. The big change is health care. My health insurance under the affordable care act is 1/3 the cost of yours and better coverage across the board. It dropped my jaw to tell you the truth. And I also agree on hiring when market changes. It will be a lot/mostly contract positions. The only reason I would ever considered working for a buisness directly is stability. But we now see that is an illusion.
I call BULLSH*T!
Time to take off your rose-colored glasses there Pollyanna