Let the January 26th layoff be a lesson for young budding engineers:
100% of the talent released in DS/MS Projects were in technical roles. In fact the new team absorbed more managers, advisors, etc. in project control roles from elsewhere in Legacy Husky.
So rather than honing your technical skills, get your lobotomy and embrace a career path that really 'adds value'.
Engineers... geologist... way too many of both. Need more Drillers, that is who makes the company successful. They also become ideal executives.
One of the biggest issues in o&g is the disrespect between engineers and geologists. You see pictures of the thermal well pads equally spaced in a neat formation at every site.... you think the terrain underground is uniform and neatly arranged? If you improve the placement of each well, you improve production, you improve the company. If you take little to no care to ensure you drill in the optimal location you can't be upset when you look like a failure.
Uh huh, go start your own O&G company and staff it with lots of geologists. Tell me how it goes.
Same goes for Geologists! It is absolutely mind boggling how few Geologists are left at this oil & gas company! Remember, these are the scientists trained on how to find oil & gas!!!! Any energy company that has 5 times more HR Business Partners or IT Analysts than they have Geologists is not set up for success! AP, JM and DZ are you reading this?
Most companies have gone through a few rounds of layoffs sure no one would argue that. But Cenovus has done non stop layoffs every year since 2012 or so. This was the 9th round by my count. That is abnormal by any company or industry standards. While doing layoffs the management has carried out promotions consistently and given themselves extra retention bonuses (Husky and Conoco deals). That’s just ethically challenged by any measure.
In the Environment group they had one VP. Layoffs happen and resulted in a 60% reduction in staff. They then split the role and promoted a manager to VP so two VPs were left with 1/4 of the staff of the original VP. When staff started asking WTF they were told he really deserved the promotion. Not that the business needed it but that he deserved it. Sure enough a few layoff rounds later the new VP was laid off as no one could justify the split.
One example of many such decisions and this is what just happened again right now. So many places CVE had one VP or manager there are now two or three, just look at the Safety Team. CVE had one VP of EHS now there are three VPs of Safety and a VP of Environment. And it’s happening all over.
On top of that there were many managers who are now individual contributors who took the job of lower paid staff members who were then laid off.
And we have an attitude problem?!! You are the cause of it.
I’m glad I’m gone.
What the hell is wrong with the people on here that talk about cenovus like it's the only company that has had multiple rounds of layoffs. Newsflash, every oil company in Calgary has been perpetually laying people off since 2015. The people who came from Conoco can tell you all about how many layoffs they went through before being brought over to CVE.
My advice after being in the industry for 15yrs. Question every engineer! Half the engineers that i knew myself included didn't know Sh!t! I became complacent and was breaded by other c-ap engineers to thinking we are engineers and we know best! Put your pride away and do your research like how we were taught in school. Question the seniors if it doesn't make sense to you and have them explain it if they can. Its a team effort, dont think that your the engineer and you dont need to rely on others, because you will! If your not growing in the organization get out! There will be tons of politics try not to take part and be as neutral as you can. Thats my advice for young engineers! But seeing the people on this forum, might be advice for them as well.
There are a lot of hurt people in here who need to take a break and come to terms with what happened to them. Your advice is coloured by your recent experiences and not really valuable long term to any bystanders. The good news is that the hurt feels will go away eventually, keep your chin up guys.
Why any young grad would go to work for Cenovus is puzzling. New grads will take any job offered to them. By necessity. But would you want to work in an environment where every Tuesday you fear you will be thrown into the street unless you are "lucky" ? True there is no job security anywhere these days but constant layoffs for over 5 years has a cumulative effect on your health and well being as well as your trust in management.
Here is the only lesson a young engineer needs to know:
Do not under any circumstances come work for Cenovus. It’s not worth the stress and constant uncertainty. Find another industry, any other industry, or at the very least avoid Cenovus.
The management are heartless and will bleed you dry then let you go without a thought.