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Your supervisor might not tell you the truth. Depending on their position in the company, they just might not be in the know. He/she might be on the list themselves. If they are high enough up to know what's going on, they will be limited in what they can tell you. If you're going to sacrifice a lamb, don't let him see the knife. Bottom line: trust yourself, not your boss, and do what's best for you. To thine own self be true.
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The WARN act doesn't do much for you. COP is required to provide 60 days notice when layoffs in a specific location are expected to be above 500 employees or above a certain percentage threshold. Because Houston includes all Houston sites, corporate and L48 included, all Houston employees are likely going to get a WARN notice very soon. This just lets you worry even more that you might lose your job for the next 60 days. COP could choose like some companies do to start notifications immediately, but they don't have the cash to pay hundreds of people not to come to work for 2 months (even though they've actually been doing just that for several months now), so they will just time the WARN notice to come out so that the 3 weeks of paid notice they do give will finish out the 60 days required. You can do the math on when layoffs will begin once you actually get your WARN notice and then at least you won't need to speculate.
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You're still in control of your career. Start looking for a new, better opportunity now. They will do another EOI this time so maybe you can time your exit so that you can get severance right before you you walk into your next job or at least minimize your unemployment period. Get your resume together right now at the very least.
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Don't be afraid to EOI. Even if you say yes please and aren't selected, managers don't get full access to the EOI lists. If you are ready to go, check the box and hope for the best.
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HR Connections and the Benefits people will be a run around nightmare to deal with if you are laid off. Insist on getting direct contact information for your HR rep before you leave. They won't necessarily like you calling them, but they are the ones who can step in and get things done.
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When you are laid off, you'll learn who your true friends at work were. Many will just completely disappear (some out of fear and some because they are just d-bags), but the ones who don't are the ones who are worth staying connected with. Take your contact info with you when you go and stay in touch with the right people.
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Yes, that correct - your boss will know if you EOI'd, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. You can pair pressing the EOI button along with an upfront conversation with your boss that goes like this: "I went ahead and said yes to EOI so that you would be assured I would be ok if that was the decision. Of course I'm happy to stay and continue my career here, but I know there are so many difficult decisions that have to be made. If you select me for lay off, I will be ok and no hard feelings. I'm a team player." Sure some of it might be BS, but why not take some control back? If you really are in a position to stay or go, why not try to engineer things to your favor? Then if the do keep you, you have also not left any questions in their mind...they'll probably just love you even more. Again...the bottom line here is to play the game for yourself. They have no true loyalty for you so save your loyalty for yourself. Not selfish, just smart.
Don't kid yourself - your boss will know if you EOI'ed.
Great post. We all get stuck in Rita and this is a great opportunity to rebalance that.
I've been through it once, but I've saved up so the ride isn't as bumpy this time.
Good luck to all of you.
Expect a 6-12 month job search, or longer. Expect a challenging job search for individuals over the age of 40. Expect to look beyond states heavy in oil and gas employment.
I was laid off last October. If you're hoping to get a job in oil and gas you're in for a long, rough ride. And changing fields is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. You have to reinvent yourself, shore up your confidence and give 'em hell.
They have been laying off good competent people and keeping the not so very expensive one's usually the one's with very little experience. So they are keeping the not so competent individuals that need their hand held and need supervision so that supervisors and managers have jobs. They are also keeping much older folks to mentor the incompetent younger minions.
The management team will congratulate themselves with a SPIRIT award and a wee bonus.
An epic post, you are my idol Sir
I love this post. Thank you for the excellent advice.
6 is so true. It's puzzling.
WOW - this is a magnificent 'laid-off' manifesto. good work bro
I really hope that cop doesn’t announce any further lay off at least until the end of this year; there are a lot of good and hard working employees in COP, and unfortunately when layoff is announced, incompetent managers and VPs will always protect themselves and lay off the people doing the actual work. May be things will pick up again by Q4.