I see a lot of other Saudi companies and companies in the middle east are making significant layoffs. Any sign of this in Saudi Aramco?
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Layoffs at Saudi Aramco are still happening. Random, unannounced, pack/leave within 30 days.
Fair warning not to uproot your family and commit to this company or you could get burned very badly.
COBRA is around $3000 a month. Add that to your exit budget. Job search from overseas is feasible but not practical so you would likely not even get called back before you arrive back home.
Best bet today is bachelor status, bring what you can carry in a suitcase, and enjoy your two annual trips home.
Good luck!
The decision to leave Aramco behind was the best decision I ever made. It's like a fading bad dream.
At Aramco the problem isn't the number of hours worked, it's the "work" accomplished. Unproductive, useless tasks can fill your days and the years just melt away. Then one day you realize you've spent a decade doing very little actual work.
“The amount worked [among Saudi state employees] doesn’t even exceed an hour [per day] – and that’s based on studies,” said Civil Service Minister Khaled Alaraj........
At the end of the day, your happiness and sanity is what matters. No job is worth the pain of leading a miserable life.
Any recent layoffs
There is no amount of money on the planet that would entice me to rub shoulders every day with thieves, cheats, extremists, and pathological liars.
Go ahead, come to sunny Kingdom and be a "s-xual slave" here. You see, carrots are huge here ($$$$$$$$$$$$$), but sticks are even bigger. Don't worry you will be treated without Vaseline. Believe me, very enjoyable and unforgettable experience with local subhumans.
What I gained from this thread: SA relays on others.
Got a call to work in Khobar the other day. That’s exactly what I said. F—- off. Do your own work.
To all the "special" snowflakes who think SA relay on them
The fact you were laid off or think you will should tell you something about yourself
It's simple
get results or f-off
Potential candidates need to know that Saudi Aramco is a huge risk right now and uprooting themselves and their families puts them in a situation where they could either be sent home within 180 days for any reason or be laid off with kids tossed out of school and family in limbo waiting for Aramco's weeks long exit processing and permission to leave the kingdom. It's definitely not worth it for any amount of money.
Aramco recruiters say ANYTHING to get you there and trap you there. Be very careful.
Departments hit so far this week: CSD, P&CSD, FPD
Looks like it's starting again. I am so glad to be out of there
I never thought that their desire to enjoy and own and use the benefits that other cultures brought to them were going to mix well with a complete disregard for the cultures that brought them. Forcing themselves and their beliefs into the smallest details of day to day life was bound to have consequences.
If you are unhappy at Aramco, just leave, there is no hope. Anytime a company drives the economy of a country, the results are not good. Just google PEMEX and PDVSA. I truly feel bad for those who came to Aramco with good intentions.
I travelled the World and wherever I have been I found a lot in common with people in Africa, Europe, China. We love same things, enjoy in same events, and there is only more or less just a language barrier between us. I can not say the same about the natives in Aramco. Can you imagine a bird that is hiding its females in a deep hole, or covering them with bunch of leaves whenever they let them out, hitting the ground with their heads five times a day, singing loudly 4 o’clock in the morning and sleeping all day long, eating nothing during summer time, refusing to eat and drink what other birds eat and drink, doing other very strange things...? Other birds would certainly assume that something is kosher there and that they are dealing with completely new specimen. Now It is easy to understand that since the first day I came here I had a strange feeling I am surrounded with aliens. What to expect from that, tell me? In my case the layoff ment the escape.
Was expecting it in July. What can really happen during Ramadan? Government is closed and locals are never in the office.
Another batch of terminations just hit. Feelers out to see which departments.
A candidate would be crazy to uproot a family and relocate to this company and this country right now.
Leaving it rudderless allows the current generation of management to point their fingers at the old generation of non-saudi management and say "they set it up see it doesnt work". That strategy has worked for years.
Of course they never try to figure out why it works everywhere but saudi arabia where they manage it. The leap of logic between the two is an unachievable intellectual chasm.
Downstream is a rudderless mess. Maybe 10% of non-saudis make it to 10 years. It has never been a real business, just a supply organization to meet local demand at a deeply discounted loss.
Downstream needs more staff not less. They can barely keep up with tracking and issuing weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual unread reports on their thousands of KPI's for the ginormous staff of auditors and analysts to shuffle, sort, staple, and store. It's a huge machine for creating perfect jobs with no real responsibility for those hard working highly talented new employees who need things to do that do not require physical or mental effort,
Confirmed rumor that downstream is being finalized and it looks pretty bad.
Power systems confirmed. Finance rumored, not confirmed.
Which business line?
Several hit today
Has it started? Heard about several casualitues this week!
Shame we won't be around to see what happens when the midra "central engineering services" are expected to bill for their "services". It's going to be hilarious watching them trying to convince the operating businesses that their "reviews" of work by other engineering firms are billable and value-added.
Engineering? Forget it. They haven't engineered anything in years that actually worked and the rest of us have spent careers cleaning up after their mistakes.
Rumor has it that restructuring is set up to start this summer. It will make 2016 layoffs seem like a joke.
If you were hired in the last 5 years and have not brought measurable value to this company, you are marked. Start packing and get your resume up to date. You're set to be gone by July.
As always, may the odds be in your favor. Good luck all.
2018: The year of the mass exodus
Unusual amount of first quarter repat planning. I wonder how many will return
When we go, and we are out within 90 days layoff or not, I will have a lot more to say about this so called "company". A place where every single word is monitored on or off the job is not a place where bald honest truth originates.
2017: The year of Rest and Vest
Hunger Games beginning again: Hundreds of layoffs starting next week. May the odds be ever in your favor!
Next round is starting last week of this month, US/Canadian payroll. Rumor is around 30, tech services/R&DC/engineering
PMT is currently getting hammered by the dozens. It looks like the company is closing down all expenditures and investments after hitting the brick wall of reality in regards to the rapidly shrinking possibility of a successful IPO.
50% reduction in currency reserves, debt from zero to 20+% of GDP in two years, and a domestic consumption of now 30%+ of all energy production seems to imply that the Saudis are in irreversable financial free-fall. They know it, and are in panic mode about it. Before this is over expats will be parking at the airport and leaving everything behind just to avoid the stampede.
The ME is a place where things can go south on a dime. The dime is in place.
All they need to do to clean up the payrolls is ask for volunteers.
Comming soon after the new year.
Any updates on 2017 and 2018 layoffs?
Add "getting paid in currency saudis do not print" to that earlier post and life of expats in saudi is summarized. Unlike saudis, our countries actually PAY for what Aramco produces allowing the saudi people to s--- from and profit from both our pockets and our home countries.