Any thoughts on the potential to move headquarters to The Woodlands?
If The Woodlands campus has room to expand, it seems like a much more desirable place to be than Greenway.
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Here we go, no payment for gas. Employees subsidizing the travel cost to run a business when they are asked to be at different locations each day. Add extra time (=your money), toll and car maintenance costs.
It will be Greenway for sure. The Woodlands will be sold to pay down debt.
Most people in administrative jobs are been sent to Greenway. Those scheduled for sale are been left at the Woodlands. Oxy bought Anadarko and it feels like a divorce not a merger or acquisition. A lot of us vs them behavior. Who wants to live at the divorcee’s house?
The Woodlands makes more sense in the long run. It is higher ground.
Sign me up for The Woodlands.
Room to expand if needed, beautiful buildings with plenty of space, desirable neighborhoods. Really makes Greenway look like a much worse option. Proximity to energy corridor and all that stuff is overrated...
Thanks for the in-depth information and that all makes sense. The Woodlands would be nice, but is not a deal breaker as most other oil and gas jobs are going to be downtown or the energy corridor. If you have any co-workers that use to be at Anadarko just asked them where they work now. The ones I know are all out of The Woodlands in downtown, energy corridor, galleria area, or Greenway. Most people that want a job and all the things that come with a job will drive or move closer.
I would not say that Anadarko had top class executive talent but for the record most of them had residence downtown, River Oaks, Bellaire, Heights. They actually did commute to Woodlands and Al Walker actually to San Diego California where his family was while he also maintained a river oaks residence for the week days that he was in town.
Therefore I would think if you live in River oaks it is a short commute to downtown and no issue.
The main question is what works better long-term for the company. Oxy had already decided to move out of Greenway and pulled back on that for a while to figure out best path. Woodlands offers lower cost options for expansion since the land is owned by the company in addition to the two buildings. By the way, the buildings will have a lot of empty offices by the end of this year, still you will need to build another tower.
The potential problem from a move to Woodlands will be mainly for employees from Sugarland, Missouri, Pearland, Friendswood, Clear Lake and similar south of downtown. Not sure what is that percentage and will have a negative impact on personal life. Anadarko has multiple employees and executives from the Heights, Spring Branch, Memorial and Katy (Grand parkway helps a lot).
As full disclosure by the way, I am taking VSP and on the way out so not an issue for me where the company is located. Best luck to all of Oxy employees moving forward.
Now jobs are mobile and Oxy says that traveling for meetings to other locals is normal course of business. How many meetings a week out of your main office is normal versus Oxy denying CoC? 2 days is 40% travel. 3 days is 60% travel = Uber ride at $80 each way.
As much as I wish you were right I don’t think it will happen. If you have not noticed Oxy already has their top executives in place and they all work at Greenway. Besides there are many executives that would love to be downtown. Just get on the Hardy in the morning and see how many people are commuting from The Woodlands to downtown. Also, other than Exxon and a few small places The Woodlands is not a hub for energy like downtown or the energy corridor. Again, I live in The Woodlands and wish you were right, but I have been driving downtown and to Greenspoint for energy jobs for 30 years. Thank God Greenspoint is out of the picture. Wishful thinking.
From what I am hearing, it will be THE WOODLANDS! Its hard to attract top Executive talent to work downtown Houston. Plus, this is a good way to reduce legacy people who cant move and dont want to commute to THE WOODLANDS. Good Luck Oxy employees !
Oxy Execs are moving into the 30th floor of the Woodlands Towers. Oxy already made decision to leave Greenway. It’s not too hard to see where everyone will be working in a few years. Added benefit of attrition reduces need for first ever layoffs.
Smells like age discrimination by Oxy manager asking how many years of experience you have. really, how naive can the manager possibly be. Clearly more years than the manager asking the question. Anyone that gets a bad taste when asked that question should start documenting the heck just in case!
Likely where the millennials of the company want to be. Not many baby boomers in management roles: need to hear the stories of people been asked - how many yrs of experience do you have? 20. Uh, too many.
Do you think it really matters to you. There will be significant layoffs you know.
Please please be The Woodlands...
There will be coming layoff on both sides after VSP, then will be huge asset sale to help debt and cost. Then, it depends on how many people oxy finally held.
I second that. Probably all depends on what the workforce looks like after the VSP.