Thread regarding Devon Energy Corp. layoffs

Honestly, chesapeake said the same thing in 2013 when they canned me. I made 4x more last year than I ever made while working there.

If you're feeling insecure, you'll just have to push past it. Good luck.

I thought it was an opportunity to get rid of some of the dead weight and malcontents. None of this happened. I just saw a lot of good people released. It seems to me managers were acting out of fear and got rid of people that are a threats or weren't their favorites. Devon you missed the objective by leaps and bounds. Now I fear my future here. What's coming in the next years is very scary and I don't think you have the leaders you need to get us through it.

Horrible decisions in keeping middle management.

@jhf get off your high horse cocksucker. You act like everyone who was laid off did something to deserve it. What do you contribute that's so great?

What hapen to Spring/Woodlands office on Feb 22, 2016?

Having been laid off last year and still unable to find a job I can tell you most people looking to hire don't seem to know the difference between laid off and fired. I get a lot of interest in interviews until they ask why I left Devon and then I say I was laid off as part of a large IT layoff and the mood instantly changes. I have yet to even get an interview from anyplace that asks why you left on the application. I had more than 10 years of experience there and it is like it means nothing.

Mr. Hager was a manager with Oryx Energy which was a spin-off of the old Sun E&P in Dallas. Oryx did nothing but sell of Sun's assets until there was very little left to sustain the Company. They were fortunate when Kerr McGee bought them because if they had not been taken over they would have simply vanished, along with Hager.

I do not work for Devon but have been in the O&G business for over 35 years. I must disagree with "osd's" statement about hiring 3 younger people for cost of 2 seniors. I could agree with that statement if I was hiring for maybe a marketing firm. But in the O&G business, a senior person can work in one position for 20 plus years and become a subject matter expert. A lot of what is done in the O&G business is not learn in a text book and often has much technical expertise required. Of course some seniors can get complacent but most I know are very willing to pass on their knowledge based on experience. Not all but most. Is that experience based knowledge valuable? For sure. But with this downturn, it's going away in many operations. So the cycle starts over.

I was laid off, but given a termination date of 8/31. Talk about the ultimate kick in the groin. It is awkward for me, and those that got to keep their jobs. And to think, I have six months left of this crap. Why couldn't they have just cut the cord rather than create an atmosphere that nobody wants to be a part of. Oh well, I will just collect paychecks for the next 6 months and not stress much of anything else!! Kudos Devon!!

First off, I do not work at Devon so I cannot speak to the actual relationships in the company. But I can answer the question as to why seniority was not valued. Working in the same position for 10-20 years does not make you valuable, it makes you expensive. I could hire 3 new graduates for the price of 2 "senior" members. Although those graduates will not have the same experience they will have a fresh perspective on what changes the company needs to make and they will not be as unwilling to change as many senior members can be. Newer employees are also less likely to become complacent, they are usually hungrier to advance their career.

All that being said, I'm sorry for the hardship you are having to go through. Please know that you are not alone and that the community is collectively hoping you land on your feet soon.

Folks it ain't what you know, it's who you blow.

Additionally, let's remember when E&P as an industry woke up to the fact that essentially their entire workforce was due to retire within the next 10-15 years, a situation caused by a similar cyclical downturn as we are experiencing now. We all saw mass hiring of new grads (along with wild hiring packages and loads of benefits that the legacy employees had invested entire careers to accumulating...how frustrating was that?) Didn't most of us get that cold,creepy feeling down our spines at least a few times before being swamped by the daily tasks required to move our normal work forward AND begin the knowledge transfer to ensure business continuity, blah, blah, blah, more company rhetoric adnosium? Consider your pink slip your thank you for a job well done.

It's all politics and who you know. At Sandridge, the VP of IT let go of people which by all accounts did outstanding job and had great reviews, while keeping his posse. He went as far as replacing them with people from his favorite team, simply as place holders, now they owe him. One of the guys mentioned he knows nothing about his new role and was told to "take his time and learn it". How low can it go? Depends on who you know...

For those of you that were laid off, I'm sorry you are having to go through this. But, please recognize that most good lessons in life are learned from bad experiences, and learn from this one. I would encourage each of you to consider the question "was there anything I could have done differently during my employment to have been provided the opportunity to stay?". If the answer is yes, then you have learned a valuable life lesson which you can apply to advance your career at future jobs and hopefully avoid a recurrence of being laid off. There are two possible reasons for a no answer. The first is that political and business decisions are sometimes beyond one's control. The lesson one learns here is that, in the future, if one finds himself or herself at a job where politics are more important to your supervisor/management than performance, immediately look for a new job where those who excel in performance will be rewarded. The second possible reason for a no answer is that one refuses to see that his/her performance during employment was not as valued as the performance of the employees that were allowed to stay. Sadly, that person may lack sufficient comprehension, maturity, and/or objectivity to ever be a highly valued employee and will struggle throughout his/her life.

Right now and in the foreseeable future nobody will be hiring anyone. The only hope for re-employment in the oil business is if oil prices rebound to 80+ dollars. This is a cyclical business and history suggests that the boom times are short lived ( 7-8 years ) and the busts are 15-20 years long. Plan accordingly.

You know, I don't know what to think. The people making the decisions have little actual knowledge about the people they keep versus the people they let go. Peer to Peer evaluations are useful but no one wants to use them because they can create hard feelings between co-workers. I do know this; there are many good, experienced people that were let go and no one is alone in their despair and confusion. It is all about the Benjamins. Mistakes on who to keep are going to be made because not enough time and information is given to those who are making these very important decisions. In my opinion, take a bit more time, keep the best (even if at lesser pay for a while) as a nucleus to add on to when times get better. Your money (Devon) will be well spent and your shareholders will be well rewarded.