OK folks,
What were the actual criteria used to make lay off decisions?
70% skills and fit
30% current and past performance
almost certainly were not applied.
Too many folks with critical technical skills and middle third / very good performance history are gone.
Either they lied through their teeth (no surprise there) or good fit now means low wage-young, not vested in pension yet, and will get rid of before racking up a high salary.
Nothing is certain unless you sat in the decision making meetings. (I did not.) But a few things to keep in mind that would have forced lists to include stronger performers.
1) Age distribution of group - NRE and retirement eligible were excluded, so a group with more experienced folks has to dig deeper into the higher performers to meet the same cut
2) CL - each organization chose what range was in scope, F&L was 26 or lower while GP went through at least 29. Also included in this one is how the cuts were distributed - across the entire pool or same % to each CL bucket.
3) Skills vs future needs - yes, this one is more subjective but look at where we are heading as a corporation in terms of investment, all roads lead to Upstream (for investment) and outsourcing (for service functions - supply chain, sales, project management)
I'm sure there are other criteria, but just a few to show how performance may not have mattered as much as it appears.
Salaries were definitely not up to all the hype. Shell and Chevron both paid more for some positions.
0P clearly that criteria is bs because I know quite a few people pip’d and laid off that did their jobs very well. The company is trying to lower salaries. They want people to work cheaper so they cut people and throw those jobs on the people still employed. Next they cut those people when they start to slip because they have too much work. They work a lot more hours for less pay and less benefits therefore they have been downgraded.
Follow the money.......................
Criteria is simple pal. Money! When times are good the business can afford to overpay enployees with questionable titles/roles. Now that times are bad it's a no brainer to get rid of the non essential employees who were being overpaid. The gravy train wasnt going to last forever! Hopefully you saved and invested.
In high school/College I worked for a private owned lumber and hardware store growing up in a smaller community (B/CS).
Lowe’s and Home Depot moved in to our area. Sure, I was sacked, but also a lot of folks who were supporting families were too...
My parents owned the Western Auto. Walmart moved in. They went bankrupt.
Lesson? Big corporations s—. They destroy communities.
@jjq+18JLOV89 and @OP
I agree with the guesstimate of 70/30 in original post.
Fit has a lot to do with who you sleep with??? Maybe in some locales, but not out here in Midessa.
@hcv+18JLOV89
Fit means do you fit into the party line. Extreme conservatism?
Obviously performance is a matter of opinion or who you sleep with and not fact based whatsoever.
Rex was first XON / XOM CEO to ever divorce. Conservative Exxon did frown on that. But he was only a few months before 65. We’ve always promoted them to CEO around 54-55 to serve 10 years. Lee got a few more years due to the merger. Rex was allowed to leave early due to the influence he could have on our behalf as Sec State.
Rex was about to be put into forced retirement. Actually, Rex left and was forced to sell off all his stock at the perfect time.
Religion certainly had a role.
Remember Rex Tillerson was fired for performance.
What does fit mean?
XOM has very specific hiring requirements, so it would be difficult to release people by skill set. Mostly consideration would be 1) position (can it be relocated to lower cost location or is it needed) and 2) performance 3) can the person be moved to another position same location.
they lied.
mid career were booted.
cheap grads and senior technical to keep things together.
all the young kids should think deeply about where all the 8 to 15 year veterans went. Because there is a good chance it will be them in a few years.
spend the bulk of your time networking with other companies
don’t transfer into a “stretch” role for exxon. they might fire you leaving you with garbage for your resume.
Random. If it is by true performance, many executives won’t be in their job today..