Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Share buybacks are mostly used to counter all the dilution caused by stock option bonuses.

Serve is not a word used with intent to insult. To be of service to a person, a community, a company or organization is a fundamental element of what it means to be human. In the case of employment, we serve a company with our skills, talents and abilities. In return for that service we are compensated. If for instance, Chevron's internal engineers are too heavily tasked for a particular project, the company may go to the marketplace to hire an engineering firm to provide engineering services to meet it's needs. While individuals may prefer the politically correct term "valued contributor" or any other soft toned term, the relationship is the same. Employees provide a service. Even leaders such as our CEO or the BOD are providing a service to the corporation. Serve is not a dirty word. Serve does not equal slave; you are compensated for your time, your input, your work and your contribution. Persons should be open to styles of communication which are directly aligned with one's own preferences. Business owners hire employees to serve their needs; its not a wild concept. Perhaps your skin is a little too thin and your perspective a bit immature when the phrase "employees serve the owners" gets your ire up. I own about 2,700 shares of CVX and those shares provide about $15,000 per year of income. I am an also employee and my service to the company continues to provide me with generous compensation. All employees, a any rank and pay grade ultimately serve the shareholders. Now please accept these facts and do your best at your job, so the company can flourish and I can continue to collect my dividends as part owner of the company.

In the words of Bob Dylan,
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

I’d rather see more dividend payouts, even a variable piece in strong times, and stop the share buybacks, have faith and let the stock price float. The share buybacks amount to buying a lot of shares at the stock price highs, and buying nothing at the lows.

@3yly, you need to look in the mirror. You are the recipient of a much higher salary than the majority of the American population, because your company produces a much-needed commodity. You ARE a beneficiary of 'trickle-down' (from the high and mighty in SR), and you have moved up in society as a result. No Chevron employees are likely to be living a Guatemala lifestyle any time soon, unless you mean the idle rich.

Trickle down capitalism has worked really great thats for sure. We are definitely the best developed country. What are we #1 in other than the wealth of the few? Definitely not health, infrastructure and well being of the masses. Shrinking middle class and ever growing few upper class. Hello being Guatemala in the future with only poor and rich if we keep this up.

I thought "serving their owners" was settled by Abraham Lincoln? The attitudes are alive and well still. We should be grateful for whatever scraps are thrown our way by the owners who have a thirst that will never be quenched.

@2vvf, Employees serving the owners, and employees owning company stock (therefore being partial owners themselves) is actually a relatively new development, nothing 1800's about it. Shares were sold(given) to us at bargain basement prices over the years. Try to catch up, dear, and everything that your boomer parents say is not wrong, perhaps you need to grow up a little bit in order to realize that, lol.

The ‘vast majority of humanity on earth’?. Is there humanity somewhere else?

Anyone at Chevron who truly feels they are being treated unfairly based their compensation is out of touch with reality. The vast majority of humanity on Earth could only dream of being so well paid. Using terms like "boomer" is simply your naivete' being exposed. If your slice of the pie is too small for your liking, then either rise in the ranks until your hunger is satisfied or seek your meals elsewhere. People crying about the greedy CEO not giving enough back to the employees are merely verbalizing their own greed and somehow still manage to feel self-righteous about it. The big dogs eat first and while all employees share the meal, the shareholders own the restaurant.

Wow @2cmv+1f0dwlaW "employees serve the owners". Once again attitudes that are pre 1860s. How about the owner needs employees if they want to have a business but I guess MW and co do it all on their own and we should just be grateful for their benevolence. We should be proud to be treated like trash that can be thrown out when MW gets the layoff shakes. Boomers really handed the future generations a big tu-d thats for sure.

@2cmv+1f0dwlaW wow, that might be the most boomer post I've seen on this site

As a rank and file employee you have the opportunity, just as others in the public, to purchase company stock. Its an option. If you choose to purchase shares of Chevron, you benefit from our leadership's strong commitment to sustaining and growing the dividend. If you choose not to then obviously you don't benefit. I suggest acquiring a fair amount of CVX stock to supplement your income via the dividend. As a mid-level manager and above you further benefit from the stock shares included as part of your compensation package. Our CEO's (past and present), the BOD and many other leaders understand this strategy and/or perspective. Their incredibly consistent approach to the dividend, now 34 years in a row, is unlikely to change. We see these posts every quarter from persons who work for the company but yet don't have enough faith in our organization's leadership and the financial strength of the corporation to take advantage of a long-term dividend income strategy as part of your portfolio. Your dissatisfaction will not affect change because paying employee's competitive salaries based on industry norms, while certainly important, is not the highest and best use of the company's profits. It would be wise for you to make peace with of the nature of corporations; they are constructed to maximize shareholder value. Read that last sentence again. Shareholders own the company, we as employees, serve the owners. Employees are by and large very well paid here at Chevron. In many ways, Chevron is generous with pay, CIP and benefits. Best to employ a personal investment strategy to benefit from the dividend rather then simply complaining about it and expecting a different outcome.

It’s baffling how so many don’t seem to understand how dividends are decided. One thing to remember is we need to encourage investment (job creation, wealth creation, opportunities etc). What we don’t want is to discourage investors. We want to encourage free enterprise and capitalism because it works well for us. Paying shareholders crumbs is a self-destructive option. If your college didn’t explain the founding principles here then you should ask for your money back.

@1czc+1f0dwlaW Good for you but I for one would accept a little less to make sure there aren't more destructive layoffs and problems for the employees.

A Chevron retiree here and own a load of Chevron stocks. Love the increased dividend.

A lot of companies do this. It’s called capitalism.

It's shocking to me that the dividend was increased so much. This will be so much harder to sustain when oil prices inevitably drop again. Clearly MW is doing this just to juice the stock price, which of course is great if you own a bunch of stock options. There must be a bunch of stock options expiring this year and next (remember how good 2012/2013 was?), so there's (literally) a vested interest in boosting stock price.

Its time then to change some laws to stop the cycle of complete greed going on in this country that is destroying us. Employee frustration is at an all time high all over the country. If big shareholders and executives don't want a huge push ti change the system then they need to wake up and start treating employees and the community better. This country wasn't like this before Reagan. Employees and the general community where priorities as well but since him its been this terrible way. We can go back to before Reagan destroyed the system.

@1szg+1f0dwlaW lol clearly you don’t work in a front office job where we work 24/7 including 9/80s. Many in Supply and Trading are 21+ and have every right to complain about work life balance when people were left off and already busy people had to take on those roles with not much extra pay. Sure, if you’re a 21 and do back office work and get to truly disconnect at 5 pm, 9/80s, and weekends you can’t complain but there are plenty who don’t have that.

Any Chevron employee who has reached PSG 21 or above has very little reason to complain about his/her salary, CIP, benefit package and their work/life balance. Even at this moderate pay scale one can life a comfortable lifestyle and save well for retirement. If you can't you either have a large family, an uncommonly high level of expense, are a poor money manager / financially foolish or simply live too lavishly for your income. Live below your means, save consistently and invest across several asset classes. People are by nature are often self-serving, jealous and greedy. Buy company stock in your ESOP; can't beat'em, join'em. If the grass is so much greener elsewhere, get to steppin.

Before complaining about dividend payments it’s far better to understand how companies are formed and run, what a Settlement Trust is and it’s relationship to a Trust Instrument and how these relate to the Board of Trustees. Understand the functions of the board in terms of their obligations, breach of duty and fiduciary duty. Then move on to the relationship between the board and the shareholders and understand the power of shareholders and how voting rights are applied to shaping policy. Once you understand all this then go back and see if your arguments about dividends stand up to the rigour of Trust law and company law doctrines.

Chevron's dividend increases are like the hamster in the turning wheel. The more they increase the dividend (and refuse to lower/stop it in bad times), the more strain the dividend puts on company financial performance. Of course, MW and his cronies, all within ten years of retirement, don't care. They just hope the day of financial reckoning comes AFTER they retire!

For me its time we have a more sustainable shareholder system. One were they pressure the CEO to actually treat employees right. Forgo an extra 10 cents of dividend to make sure the employees are treated decently and that the community is not abused. Not everything has to be for the shareholders and if the shareholders don't want the political environment to continue to get more difficult for them as people fight this kind of stuff then they better stop trying to take absolutely everything and start caring about others. People like Bernie are becoming more mainstream because of stuff like what MW is doing.

You have to remember if Wall Street is in love with a CEO and the things he does it almost always is bad for main street. CEOs like MW don't care about his indentured servants and will lie to them at all times. Unless you own thousands of shares a little dividend increase isn't going to matter much.

Maybe be CVX needs to experience a good old fashioned workin man strike!

Nice comment admin. What happened to the less generic others?

@thq the short term solution is ensuring employees have equity in the company. Just look at the Chevron annual report. The execs have base salaries of 1mil, and get multimillion dollar bonuses based on stock performance. Unfortunately it seems like the whole appeal of working at chevron long term is that you can retire in place without worrying about the performance of the company

And there in lies the fundamental issue. If you choose to work for a huge company but know you will never be an executive then you must accept that fate. If you choose to work for a huge company and it goes wrong for you and you won’t become an exec then you have a choice to prioritize safety over net worth. If you think you are amazing then don’t join a huge company.

You gotta remember in life unless you are an executive all you are worth in life is what you can provide to the company. You are a not human being that should be valued, you are just a money making machine for shareholders. If you don't think like people from the early 19th century then you need to get out of here. I for one work non stop for the company and I know they wouldn't throw me to the curb as soon as they could. They really care about me!

Those kinds of attitudes are why our country is going down the toilet with so much violence and anger. The attitude of everything must be for the CEO and shareholders and employees must accept the scraps is why there is so much frustration and anger. Time to change the system if this kind of garbage continues.

Cool for the 401k but this definitely came out of raises and CIP. Should have given more to employees. And for the person asking about affecting the bottom like. Yes, I saved about 30x my salary in projects

MW is rewarded when stock does well. Dividend is good for stock price. Employee costs are bad and hurt earnings. You are the problem is you don’t create value several times your salary. Can you show your boss how you impact the bottom line?

MW’s is based on stock price, not employee satisfaction. Get use to it!

Can’t raise structure but 3% but can raise the dividend almost 6%…

Less money for raises and CIP, the chevron way

If its up to MW he'll find a way to punish the employees for it.

If you hold stock it is good.