Word to the wise. Start asking around about layoffs associated with the upcoming reorganization and 2021 PIP targets.
24 replies (most recent on top)
Predictions? Will there be another layoff after the reorg? Will PIP next year be 8% again? What are you hearing?
Just as many of us thought. Despite the seemingly endless number of dividend haters on this site, not one rationale suggestion as to how funds from a dividend cut help the company or employees . Facts are stubborn little rascals. Game over. Granny wins.
No matter how clearly facts are laid out, some people will just never get it. Op clearly said everyone suffers that is laid off, so forget the starving kids analogy. It's just childish and irrelevant. You are a subset of everyone. Everyone is not a subset of you.
Let's try another approach that will satisfy you. Yes, EM management is personally responsible for the current pandemic. They also control world oil production and the world economy. They control the One World Council and are more powerful than all of the world's leaders combined. Even entry level supervisors are in on this secret control of everything. So NOW you can blame EM management for EVERYTHING. Happy now? How about delusional?
Now for the truth again, one more time. You are not special, You do not live in a special time. Neither the world nor EM owe you anything. If you did any research, you would have known the risks and rewards of working in a cyclical industry. Maybe you pursued the wrong degree and hired on with the wrong industry/company.
So who failed here? It's called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. There will always be significant good and bad times at EM. If that's not something you can stomach, maybe you should take charge and look for a career more aligned with your personal view of life. It apparently isn't O&G.
Or s— it up, stay and help the company recover. But don't just endlessly whine and feel sorry for yourself. No one is going to save you. That's your responsibility. Good luck.
@1rld+18f0v6HQ They may be paid to do that but how often are they actually able to do it?
@1rld+18f0v6HQ Your life is destroyed by a layoff? In that case so is everyone else’s life. Pretty unrealistic in today’s world to never have to change jobs. Even if the recruiter promised you something else when you were 22 years old. The world changes. Not always in ways we like.
your comment amounts to “don’t feel bad, there are starving kids in Africa”
executives are meant to run the company in a fashion to prevent these massive disturbances of highly trained personnel. literally what they are paid to do.
that’s why we joined this company (and don’t tell people to be happy with peanuts when many of us were literally generating multiples of our salaries for the company)
now the lives of many rank and file are destroyed, and in the middle of a pandemic!
People say layoffs are the worst ever when they are personally impacted. There is not much historical context. NY Times headline dated April 1986 is "Exxon Move to Slash Staff Called Startling". Comments include shock and unfair just like today. How severe was it? 15%.
The 1980's were brutal with a long period of low oil prices. 2020 is brutal, even though the time frame is fairly short thus far. Downsizings are always brutal.
Exxon and Mobil have gone from a combined headcount of just under 400,000 employees in the 1980's to 75,000 today. That is a reduction of over 80% impacting 325,000 employees! It didn't happen all at once, and included divestments and significant business model changes, but everyone impacted still suffered.
Headcount at EM is down 25% just since the merger. That's 25,000 employees. Is today bad, yes. But it is nothing new for this industry. For perspective, I have seen many exec careers destroyed over the years, so the pain is always across the board. It will be this time too, soon you will see.
I feared for my job countless times over a long career, even though I was highly ranked until the last couple of years when EM threw me to the bone yard like they do most people near retirement.
You have every right to be scared, upset, sad, unappreciated and on and on. But don't think this is a special time. It is just another down cycle like many many before. And there will be more to come. O&G is not for everybody.
I was in a meeting today and manager said we are done with layoffs and everyone is safe followed by a brief pause and the words "for now". Gotta love this place.
@lql+18f0v6HQ Every single person I've asked who was around in the 80's downturns says this is worse. Not by a little. Much much worse. I know you like to think you walked uphill both ways to school and that before you retired everything was perfect but consider:
- The young people you criticize were raised by and in the society created by you and your peers.
- The c-appy investments the company is saddled with were made when you and your peers were in the company and failed.
crickets......chirp chirp?
Name one legitimate use EM could utilize the cash saved by cutting or eliminating the dividend. Just one.
Should they eliminate or reduce layoffs? NO. EM is way overstaffed for fewer projects and much lower capex levels that are coming.
Should they increase capex levels? NO. EM was way overinvesting like a drunken sailor. Capex levels need to be significantly reduced in preparation for a long period of limited demand.
Should they restore benefits? NO. Company matches and such perks are things of the past. No longer needed to be competitive for retaining or hiring people. Company match and the like are the least of their problems with the workforce.
Should they reduce debt? NO. Debt is available at historically low levels and EM should load up on all of the cheap debt they can rather than wait and borrow at potentially much higher rates in the future. Leverage at 1 or 2 percent is good, not bad.
Should they give generous salary increases? NO. The O&G industry is in a hunker down mode, as it has been many times in the past. COLA only at most. May be new to some, but salary freezes and even salary cuts are not uncommon in the O&G industry.
Should they acquire another company now? NO. EM needs to focus on cost reductions, and is in no shape to take on another transition process at this time.
Should they purchase XOM stock in a buyback? Maybe, but management probably wouldn't.
So, if EM eliminated the dividend, it wouldn't save any jobs, restore any benefits, eliminate "bad debt", increase salaries, allow an acquisition or anything else truly needed at this time.
EM management would simply find a way to waste the money saved from dividend cuts, just as they have with most of their other strategic decisions. Then employees would scream to reduce the cash on hand instead of screaming about the dividend. Employees are not going to benefit either way.
IF EM is about to lose valuable acreage or about to non-consent a major development because they don't have and can't borrow the cash, THEN consider cutting the dividend. But, I haven't heard about any such situations.
A dividend cut now only lets EM management off the hook to do what must be done in this environment. It might tank the stock and make things worse, but in no way or scenario would it benefit employees. That is a pipe dream. As much as posters have no trust whatsoever in EM management, why would you possibly think giving them more money would help you?
Retirees batching about their dividend is about the scummiest thing i can think of right now
You think we became so unprofitable overnight? Take some personal responsibility for the current status of the company
As a retired manager you are far more likely to have caused this than every person I have seen get laid off so far (almost entirely early career).
@olj+18f0v6HQ Counting in the dividend because you only have COM stock? Smart. You do sound like a manager.
@olj+18f0v6HQ Exactly what I would expect a former manager to say. Oh by the way how is holding all that XOM stock working out for you? Held onto it like a true best and brightest HiPo Did you? Oh that’s too bad. Well cry yourself to sleep you poor investing genius you.
@lql+18f0v6HQ So in the 80’s and 90’s you couldn’t just talk to people? Don’t you have friends? I can understand why based on your posts. I wasn’t fired but like everyone else I’ve talked to except a few notable b–tard exceptions I am p-ss-d at how this is being handled. Only the id–ts who were too greedy or stupid go sell their stock are still buying the lies the company is selling. Having seen their investment destroyed they are now grasping at straws that they will continue to receive the dividend. id–ts.
Sad to see people who were too stupid to sell their stock posting c-ap like get back to work I need my dividend. Look on LinkedIn at the people who are losing their jobs and then come talk to me about the caliber of people we are firing. This is not the same as past and spare me the back in my day I walked to school both ways uphill stories.
Exciting times!
Only a fool would think they are going to get the size of the organization “right” with this round.
It would be even more foolish to assume doubling down on the same failed strategy will render better results.
They are cutting close to the bone and they have no takers on the divestment side, so it’s more likely than not that they will have to cut again if they persist on putting the dividend first.
They don’t want to appear to be wrong, so they go out and pretend we will now “Win” by 2027 instead of 2025; but not everyone is buying their lies anymore.
Gotcha too! But I will double down that this is no worse than past downturns in the industry.
Why I am monitoring this website? We didn't have this in the 80s, 90's or just after buying Mobil, so thought I'd see what the folks would've been saying back then.
Anyone who considers this a “cry baby” website is obviously someone who got out before this mess and remembers the good old days through rose colored glasses. We aren’t the XOM you lovingly remember, and you just need to ask any of the NSId or redundant folks to corroborate this. I agree that the best way to keep you job is to do your job, but a lot of redundant people lost their jobs despite doing them. It is pretty crass to whine about your dividend when thousands of people just lost their jobs. Some of them may think you sound like the cry baby, huh?
Gotcha 🤣
what a pointless swinish post.
best you can come up with?
Hint: Quit visiting cry baby websites like this an do your job. Your attitude will keep you off PIP.
This from former manager, retiree, dependent upon dividends!
Just when I breathe a sigh of relief I start hearing about this as well. Apparently round 1 layoffs were bottoms up. Now senior managers are filling roles from the top down. Those left without a role will be fired in round 2.