The PBS Frontline episode "Easy Money" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpMLAQbSYAw) provides some solid insights into why Chevron finds itself in its current position (this is not a political post, as neither the Democrat nor Republican administrations over the past couple of decades come off looking all that great). "The Fed had hoped that companies would put all that [very low interest] money to good use and invest in their workforce and infrastructure, but in reality, it played out differently"...."stock buybacks". It is hard to find new reserves, to build and train your workforce, and construct a solid foundation for tomorrow's successes, but it is easy to cut today's costs by reducing your workforce and buoying your stock price with buybacks using the cheapest money available in a very long time. What is the "real value" added from stock buybacks: It is nothing! When the sugar high of easy money starts to subside, what is left: It is less than before ... except in the bank account of the departing Sr. management who cashed out through high bonuses. It is not really the average investors, unless they are smart enough to see the short-term shell game afoot. It is not us, Chevron's workforce, that should have done better". It is Sr. management that has failed us.
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The fact remains that Chevron makes it's shareholders rich, and as employees most of us have worked hard and likely have become millionaires. If you were at a smaller company, we'd be complaining about it's leaders while getting paid sh__. The fact remains that we do difficult, and that includes dealing with leadership ego's and politics.
"Executive management isn't concerned" ... well that is obvious! Unfortunately because of this they can expect continued employee disengagement and apathy. One steps up to the plate and give extra effort when there is a feeling of being part of a larger mission, but sits back and does the minimum when under appreciated and acknowledged.
Executive management isn't concerned with your problems, complaints and wants or wishes. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
We need to layoff our current executive management team. They have crushed the employees and made them more disengaged than I've ever seen it. We need change but not what management is doing. They need to cut executive pay!
Leadership's view should be clearer from the top, with all the long-view consultants reporting in, but I fear their view us clouded by their own compensation drivers which are not always aligned with the broader health of the company and it's employees.
We judge our leadership, not day to day, because we can not see far enough in the future to get a view past the fog of everyday life, but rather by looking back over a decade. But now, in full review, one can only conclude that the current Chevron leadership was a huge failure. We had huge cash holding when many smaller companies were failing during the pandemic but did not use them for acquisitions or strategic advantage. Instead we doubled down on short-life assets like the Texas Permian and stock buybacks. Going forward we are weaker than we have been in a long time, but leadership bonuses are at record highs...something is wrong. It is time Sr. management did better: Move beyond current failures to new blood with new promise.
@olr: "Except we don't need more oil and gas"... but when you drive your huge (by world-wide standards) SUV to the gas station you be pi---d when you can't fill your tank. Let's be real, there is a big disconnect between the idealistic aspirations for curbing global warning and reality. Oil and gas may not be forever, but we are a long way from a solid stable replacement: A LONG WAY! Sure we should be looking forward to nuclear (maybe fusion) and the 25% added by a robust (but variable) solar and wind sector, getting us past the whole post petroleum (hydrocarbon burning) global warming problem, but today you want to fill your gas tank and the new future is not realistically on the horizon. A new nuclear plant takes 20 years to plan and get approvals, and an expect double that time time for an experimental fusion plants (even then the technology is developed to support development). Between then, and your idealistic future, is a lot of tank fills at lot of driving to day care and work, and a lot of potential profit by oil and gas companies that focus on reserve replacement rather than stock buybacks!
Management juices the stock price with buybacks, buyers rush in thinking they are buying a solid growing “dividend-rich” company, the rise in price pulls in more buyers … all while the deck boards are burning in the boiler to continue to move the boat forward… until they start burning the hull and water begins to invade. Let’s stop with the deck boards and start rebuilding the bridge and straighten the tiller!
Except we don't need more oil and gas. We will never produce 70-80% of what we have now. The world of oil and gas production is quickly being stamped out by cheaper renewables. The tipping point hasn't come yet, but once solar and wind get enough scale to affect oil prices, there will be no way back up the slippery slope of price declines. There will be no more production outside the middle east ($5/bbl lifting cost) by 2040 or so.
Management gets paid in shares. If the total value of a company stays the same you can raise the per share price by reducing the number of shares.
It is 6th grade math and yet it determines the fate of many companies. Luckily CVX has a reasonable gearing ratio.
My favorite quote, from Sheila Bair, a former banking regulator, "It is hard to create a new product, it is hard to come up with a new idea for a service, it's hard to build a plant, hire people, and run your organization, but it is real easy to issue some debt and pay it out to your stockholders to goose your share price. That's real easy to do, but it doesn't create real wealth, it doesn't create real opportunity, it doesn't create jobs." So our question, after the major distraction of this coming next layoff, is how to create real value for the company now that the time of cheap money was squandered. I don't think we will succeed in trying to use expensive cash to buy those who found oil with their cheap money, but rather we need to double down and start finding oil/gas reserves of our own...starting like yesterday. Stop the f%$#ing stock buyback and let's get this bus rolling forward again before it is too late!.
Cope and cope harder. Do better.