Thread regarding ConocoPhillips layoffs

We may be the world largest independent but we need to do what all the other independents do and that is gather information and copy. Copy our best in class peers, have information sources always alert and always looking so we can by acreage early copy plays as they develop. Why pay for R&D when you can copy, why spend million or even billions on seismic when you can learn and copy. Nobody keeps a secret long in the oil patch if you are constantly in touch with the right people and listening!

I know you all have it all figured out but last quarter we improved to a two cents per share loss and that was not counting asset sales. This means that as all the costs to get out of the long term high capital projects is winding down, capital spending constraints, overhead reduction, steady production we are about to see profits in the next quarter. None of you like it when a company has to reduce capital, overhead, restructure, centralize, and remake itself to survive but it does happen and it is a huge undertaking with lots of push back. Now we need to continue to stay focused and continue to get our overhead down, restructure which will entail painful changes finding synergies that eliminate overlapping groups, functions, and tasks. and centralize which will entail closing the Bartlesville campus and performing many functions and tasks currently done in outlying business units in Houston.

OP, that a good summary.....Here are some the next steps for employees

What needs to be done? 1. Each employee should do the best job they can and what they are paid to do. 2. Dust off and fine turn their CV/Resume on their free time. 3. Make sure they have personal contacts saved outside the cop systems- names, personal phone no., personal email address and possible addresses. 3. Save as much money as they can save. 4. Don't go out and spend on expensive items, cars, boats, houses etc. 5. Copy any documents that you think that are important - pay advice, your total compensation package, technical info.....etc. 6. Start looking for a new opportunity because COP might not be around in a year or the employee has a 50/50 chance of not being employed by COP in a year. Next cuts could be as much as 50% if COP really is going to try be an independent they will need to get to a level of 5000 or less employees.

Very well said 1kdi; I completely agree.

-hla...the future here IS looking doubtful and you are right about we're just trying to survive for tomorrow. Drastic times call for drastic measures and the only people we have to blame is ourselves. By ourselves, I mean our esteemed ELT. It's taken them five years to realize COP isn't competitive with the real independents and now we have to take drastic measures just to stay alive for one more day. Where will we be at in the next 5-10-20 years? By then we'll probably be faced with the ugly reality that the unconventional have failed to deliver as promised and we have no where else to turn. Whoever keeps saying none of those plays have had positive cumulative cash flow is probably more right than the line of BS the lower level management keeps feeding our ELT. It's both sickening and disheartening to see this company change for the worst over the past 5 years. You can thank DH L48 President, you can thank the L48 VPs who live and breathe the lies, and lastly you can thank the ELT for being stupid enough to blindly believe what they're being told. There's a reason DH has been in that role for as long as he has, that's because no one else wants him. It is time for some much needed house cleaning, even if that means I'm on the receiving end...

Agree with OP and hla; and work regularly reminds me of Office Space. As a shareholder I am all for significant reductions, even if I'm one of the ones let go. We cannot continue to exist without huge changes, which we have thus far been incapable of making. We also need to have a plan for the future; the latest ELT slides indicated we have accomplished our first goals ($5-8B in sales, buy back shares, etc.) and it is time to work on the "growth" goal but there wasn't any substance behind it or indication of how we'd do this. Our share price clearly reflects the level of confidence that we can change and compete in the independent realm.

I think that Office Space clip sums it up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBfTrjPSShs&feature=share

This may be a well grounded discussion of what needs to be done now but the discussion does not address the essential concern. What are we restructuring for? What is the future of COP?

I have been with this company about 5 years. Have experienced 3 rounds of layoffs with another on the horizon, an exit from offshore Gulf of Mexico, a pull out from exploration, asset sales both domestic and international. What else? I am trouble getting a read on what this company will do in the next 5 years, 10 years, 20 years. Seems we are not planning for the future but just trying to survive for tomorrow.

May be time to look elsewhere. The future here is looking doubtful.

This is what the COST effort was supposed to have done.

Op, so true.

Please take your meds now.