"[surviving] employees do what they are told but have lost all commitment to the company and are no longer motivated to do good work. Disengagement is one of the leading after-effects of layoffs and leads to a workforce of the walking dead..."
http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/09/layoff-survivor-stress-guilt-forbes-woman-well-being-employees.html
The present situation in the industry is bleak, however oil and gas demands will not go away and many producers will remain, if they tighten their belt and get rid of dead weight. Many are doing that right now and it will continue a bit longer. "Pipe Dream" projects and those associated with such should be concerned. At the present oil and gas prices, with no light at the end of the tunnel, producers cannot sustain such projects. It's Just the economics. A mistake many producers and oil and gas suppliers made, several years back (when oil was $85+/bo), was hiring inexperienced, just out of college people AND paying very high salaries. (Some were making 90+% as much as employees who had 25 years or more of experience. Where's the logic here?). It looked good then but knowing the business cycles, management knew that such salaries could not be sustained when business took a big downturn. In the end what looked good to those who were hired, is not fair to them now. If a job can be found, they will be fortunate to receive a salary of about 60% of their high paid oil and gas salary, at best. The current situation is a mess and compounded often by poor management decisions but not totally either. We are in unprecedented times and somewhat like those of the late '80's. Hang on. The ride could be rough, and long.
Surviving employees just want their golden handcuffs. Severance, unpaid PTO, possible bonus and LTI's. In the mean time, surviving employees need to update their resume. It's tough competition in OKC.