It seems to be mainly just contractors being let go which doesn't really count as company layoffs. As usual lower performing employees are at risk, like bottom 10 percent, but you have to be pretty bad to be in that category anyway. Also, some older employees close to retirement are going ahead with retirement. The latter is how a lot of them are leaving. Can't feel too bad for someone who "gets" to retire, as that is a luxury not everyone has.
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A friend, about 45, 3 kids, work in downstream, was retired by Exxon recently.
Hi there,
I do hope Exxon employees keep their jobs. However I was visiting friends in Houston last week and we were invited to a party where we met a few Exxon expatriates. Nice people but only bragging about their expat package, unlimited housing allowance , up to 4 kids in private schools and according to them job security! b/c they were relocated from overseas 8 years ago. At Exxon obviously the expats are oblivious to the recent developments in O&G. Modesty is a virtue people!
To me and most people at the party this was deeply concerning as I know personally quite a few people who have lost their jobs in Houston due to the O&G downturn. Wouldn't it make sense that these absurd allowances these expats are receiving are cut first before an American or any employee with a local contract and the same education and qualities gets the sack? How does Exxon deal with this? Even if they don't have layoffs they must be doing some cost saving?
Exxon never (to my knowledge) over-hired. Ramping up and working projects was done by staffing up with consultants. Over the years Exxon has cut from the bottom 10% (unless you did something really stupid like fail a drug test or cheat on your expense account). This has resulted in a very strong pool of company talent. There may have been some that got politically crossed with a manager and were let go because of it but I personally never saw it (and there are Exxon processes in place to prevent this perversion from happening). Yes, Exxon has made mistakes but over-hiring was not one of them, at least not in my department (EMDC, Drilling,). I found that it was a really great company to work for, great people and world class projects. Because of that, and my own abilities as an engineer, I retired financially independent. I could not have asked for more from a corporation.
But at other companies you don't even get a chance to make the bottom 10 percent before they cut you loose. Again, not really comparable to other companies no matter how much we complain sometimes.
They look for excuses to let you go. They have an audit group that are a bunch of low life liars. They will lie to get you fired. They make sure that you can't record the idiots.
Cutting the bottom 10-percent two years in a row gets you to the same layoff numbers jn other companies withiut the splash in the presss and of course without the expense of paying the employee severance, bonus and unvested stock.
Yes, but not comparable to mass layoffs seen at other companies in same industry.
They are letting employees go, hundreds, just doing it in small batches so it does not make the press
Yet