So what happened to us. We used to make money despite ourselves making bad decisions. Where did we let it go, even before COVID
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I have to agree with @yqp - over time, all management managed was their careers, not the business. They became so good at that, they managed the careers of their a__ wipers too. This is their only product. They cannot even judge good or bad work any more. The worker bees caught on and stopped doing work, taking a cue from the management and playing "success theater" as well, as no one could/would call them out. As a result the company is now completely hollowed out, no one knows and no one cares. Amateur hour everywhere- you can see it in how they botch even the response to a simple task - reduce workforce
Somewhat expected this outcome? I mean.. we had been employees for decades and over time.. we realised helping the company does not Translate to Helping oneself.. so.. yep! Just carry on with D&I activities... we are still learning the benefit of it after 3 years.. doesn’t seem to progress beyond discovery stage..
@OP+16KX2aT6 - ahhhh.... but that was back when everyone actually worked and the managers either let you get on with it or demonstrated a least a little bit of leadership. Now, every manager is a "leader" and they demonstrate their "leadership" by spending all of their time making videos telling everyone what great leaders they are, holding employee forums where the questions are reworded and rephrased by a moderator (creating "plausible deniability" for the manager), or posting on the internal Yammer where they pile on praise for people (who are basically just doing the job they're paid to do) and saying what a "great example of company values" they are [I got so sick of reading those].
XOM has not made enough free cash to cover capital program + dividends for the past 8 years. Rex’s bet on a carbon tax never materialized, hence the move into Natural Gas is disadvantaged. Some things due to geopolitics (US boycott of Russia projects due to Ukraine invasion), some due to competitors (Chevrons massive overrun of Gorgon), but much due to XOM (Kearl Oil Sands and XTO purchase). Bring Lee Raymond back!
You forgot the refusal to reduce dividends as stock dropped... drained the bank... can’t do that.... basic accounting you can not rob Peter to pay Paul....
XTO, Kearl, the Permian and Russia and Mozambique and GCGV and Golden Pass and Brazil and countless other fantastic decisions. That’s what happened.
No cost control. Too many poor financial decisions over the past 10 years. XOM still has 12 rigs running in Permian and we are spending big bucks on logging wells. Sending US expats to recruit Indian university students for jobs in Bangalore never made any sense. Too many other boondoggles...
our lack of dollars finally caught up to our lack of sense