For those who 'resigned' in lieu of PIP, what will you tell future employers in an interview? Was at the company just over 3 years and looking to switch industries...looking for any advice or thoughts.
18 replies (most recent on top)
@2xui Your comments are fair, now do me a favor. Take your last performance discussion and pretend you are being told you are being PIP’d even though your performance was their they just had to put 8% in the bottom.
Until this year I felt the same way you did (some part of me still does). It’s the way they are doing it and the language in the PIP that gets to me because I am a solid performer and have been.
I think if you had called this a lay-off of 5% (left 3% in PIP) and I got caught in it fine. Many now believe true layoffs are coming just look at Neil’s comments in the earnings call. Why do we take so long to make decisions? Everyone else is already there. We don’t act fast enough and have too many layers of management. Hopefully this next cut takes care of that.
With all the negativity on here, I feel like I have to stick up for ExxonMobil. I've been with them for about 12 years, all upstream, in multiple locations. I have to say in those 12 years the overall experience has been great. I have never experienced a "toxic work culture." I admit you do have to watch your back with some people as the ranking system is competitive, but you get to a point where you can spot these people a mile away, even when they think they are so slick. You do HAVE TO PLAY THE GAME, by that I mean the political game. That's just the way it is, and that is something you learn as you put your time in. If you don't learn to play the game, it's at your own peril. To me it just pushes me to continuously improve my game, both politically and functionality (and behaviorally for that matter). I choose to have a good attitude it because it makes my life much better.
I've had a couple really great bosses, a few mediocre, and one really horrible scum-of-the earth type, who I sincerely hated. Interestingly, that scumbag was pip'd and is now gone.
Again, no company is perfect, and there will always be things to complain about, if you want to find them, especially one the size of exxon. The company has p-ss-d me off sometimes, but hey, it's not always about me. Overall they have treated me great, provide for my family, provide my healthcare, offer virtually unlimited opportunities for continuous learning, and have treated me with respect. I hope I'm fortunate to retire with them.
There are many making 150 to 300k per year that will be cut and struggle to find similar pay. I know reservoir and geologist consultants with 30 years experience now billing under 800/day, if they can find consulting assignments. There is no demand for drillers, reservoir and geoscience . Facilities engineers can shift to petrochem if they are mechannical or chemical engineers. IT demand is falling. Accounting can get jobs but not at oil gas pay levels. Expect big pay cut.
That is easy-everyone knows about the layoffs coming. Just say you took the separation package so you could move on and you didn’t want to risk being out of work at a later date. Or you didn’t think XOM would be able keep everyone employed due to loss of business. Don’t blame or doubt yourself. In today’s economy, 3 years with the same employer is plenty of loyalty.
@yls Dont be too angry about your PIP.
I am going to tell my new employer that my position got eliminated because my project got cancelled. XOM HR can't provide any more details beyond start/end date of employment.
What a sick culture. As is anyone who defends it. It’s indefensible.
I’ve gone through planned layoffs at other companies, and us as employees knew before the media. There seems to be a lack of trust and perhaps a higher desire to get things leaked out here. It’s the lack of empowerment and trust at XOM, and not challenging leadership when they come up with childish Uneducated ideas towards technical problems and really a culture that lacks proper collaboration and team work ( people just being afraid to share because others might steal their idea/ work and get ranked better?!?). It’s also being so afraid to fail or be seen by the external world as failing. Progress is made by failing... there are so many issues with the XOM culture and I truly just feel enlightened to be experiencing it. So many things that are ok and normalized here are just plain wrong other places. We all have different expectations or experiences with employers or companies, and it’s encouraging that many still view XOM as a great company or believe that the current situation of performance based cuts will make it better. $184 billion has been wiped off Exxon’s market valuation since 2014 before the pandemic... we all know Oil is in decline but could these behaviors be contributing to this also?
I am sorry for everyone this happened to. The people that come here to gloat are narcissistic and obviously ignorant to think the chance does not exist for their name to be on that list next. I wish you all the best in your endeavors.
@zhk toxic work culture is having to work with all the poor performers that were let go. More to come though! Good times!
“Constructive Termination”
If the PIP is not realistic it is forced resignation.
"Lol@1st comment"... I think you just proved the 1st comment's point. Thanks for playing.
If you took the PIL, you resigned for whatever reason you want to say. You weren't forced to resign, you could have taken the PIP and tried to save yourself. It's not a termination or forced resignation until HR says you have two options: resign or be fired.
Lol@1st comment.
In today's age of instant news, you think you will get official information from a large company prior to large news being leaked to the media from planning meeting? So Ignorant..
Layoffs? PIP program is not new. It's been literally used for years. It is not a layoff, it's a performance based resignation.
There are plenty of low performers that have been PIP'D in the process. Ignorance like what you are communicating will put you on the block next.
I also wouldn't be afraid to say you got laid off. Everyone knows that's what really happened anyways. You certainly shouldn't feel the need to own low performance scarlet letter...
Just say your position got eliminated. No shame.
Toxic culture or you can say a culture that did not fit your personality due to lack of transparency and low morale all around when you left. The best examples are finding out about benefit cuts from news sources first, finding out about layoffs and job cuts from news sources and I’m sure you have some other more personal examples. You can mention not all experiences were bad but the lack of integrity in how the company has dealt with this stuff is a total turn off for anybody. We all want to be appreciated and the most basic ask as employees is some basic decency in just a little transparency and communication. It really feels like throughout all this the employees come last.