For decades, Exxon and then EM had a way to retain good workers at their most employable point (10-15 years of service) - good pay and a real chance at full retirement (although with lower and lower ranking) for those who survived occasional layoffs, in exchange for good work and sticking with the company. It was known as the “golden handcuffs”.
Keep in mind that Exxon never gave anything to its employees unless they had to. In this case they had to in order to keep Exxon as a first-rate company.
That deal is broken now. The “leadership” of the company has already accepted that EM is now a second-rate company, but they will end with a third-rate one as soon as the next upturn heats up the job market. Small companies may not offer pensions, but they’re not hypocritical about it and pay more.
Clearly at the corporate level there’s no vision of what will happen five years from now. “After me, the flood”. LR may have been a nasty, mean guy but he knew that some rules have to be respected.
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H3LL would be a welcome destination, as I am stuck in Texas
Then I wonder why oldies and expensive like DW are not fired and are still kept? Tell me. Can HR tell me that.
@1zca+1al99E6B
You d▯▯b a▯s. This was atypical for ExxonMobil. The company didn't have layoffs since the 80s because they realized that purging experienced senior folks hurt the business. There is nothing typical, acceptable, or moral about how they went about concealed layoffs via PIP and lousy packages (compared to the other majors) with the real layoff. The dictatorship hierarchy with the destructive id▯▯t at the top is to blame. Go to h▯▯l and stay there!
The script is typical of ANY corporation going through layoffs. Don't make it out to be an exxonmobil thing to get around age discrimination.
Older employees are cut because they have become "too expensive." Expensive = more entitled vacation days, medical conditions that come with age that might require time off, possible disability that makes an employee slower, time off for taking care of kids or parents, etc. PIP was not limited to those over 40, but those are the employees (if not retirement eligible) that had their lives impacted the most. By cutting new hires at the same time, it makes it difficult to win an age discrimination lawsuit. This is why the company continues to bring in new hires when they are projecting future job cuts and downsizing. This also explains why the company changed ranking last year to include new hires and why many new hires were cut last year. Discrimination has not gone away. Lawyers and HR have just gotten more creative in ways to disguise it. And this is why HR gives a script for supervisors to read from. If the supervisor sticks to the script rather than being honest, it will prevent lawsuits. Also, this is why supervisors rarely give valuable feedback. Or feedback is so vague that there is room for interpretation.
Look at you Darren. You response itself is full of anger. You got some of it too it looks like. Get well soon man!.
Post ID: @1pzz+1al99E6B
Most would be delighted with a 75% pension at age 55. It is 75% more than they could get anywhere else.
If you feel EM did something illegal, hire a lawyer. It will be a waste of your money, but go for it. Oh by all means there has always been unfair treatment for boomers, but not illegal.
No contempt whatsoever for the 70,000+ employees doing good work for the company. For your anger issues and delusional rationale, all I can summon forth is hope for help. You must learn to be happy with your position in life, or work to change it. Takes courage and resolve. Perhaps lacking I am afraid. But hey, give it a shot. Anger makes for a sad life.
@1zvt, are you able to see the difference between honestly telling a prospective recruit that a company does not offer a pension benefit anymore as opposed to cheating a 20 year service employee out of his pension by faking his ranking and putting them in NSI? It’s something called ethics, but hey, we’re dealing with EM hi-po here.
@1qfo, if you are a manager at EM then I really understand why the company is in the h–e.
“ nothing to complain about regarding the pension, even with a 25% discount at age 55”. Really ? Is that what YOU will get? This sounds like issued from HR Central. Do you think that regular employees will believe just anything when you can’t threaten them with a nasty PDS?
Apparently managers also can’t tell the difference between downsizing, meaning layoff within the law, and sneakily using the MLRP to achieve illegal goals, namely age discrimination.
Obviously, the concept is too complicated for EM management, but bad morale eventually means losing money.
The deep contempt for ordinary employees that transpires from your posting is truly shocking but explains a lot - it’s what some call “inbred management” - bad managers choosing new bad managers, generation after generation.
You got it. Next b–m everyone will be gone. I’m not waiting that long. Actively looking for a new job in Midland. The reasons for staying are all gone. I’m headed to the small companies with the big pay. Stability at Exxon has proven to be a lie. They didn’t leverage the balance sheet to protect employees. They screwed us hard and fast at the first sign of trouble.
In 2017, only 16% of Fortune 500 companies offered a company funded pension. By 2019, only 14 of these companies a company funded pension. That’s less than 3%. And EM was one of them then, and still is today.
Still think you have it so tough?
@1ghv+1al99E6B
It’s tough for anyone to lose their job. But, Covid is the largest disruption of the entire global economy ever seen, and oil and gas was among the hardest hit. Practically all businesses downsized, impacting millions across all economic groups. For EM, it wasn’t just Covid, but also a major strategic shift to fewer projects that required lower headcount going forward.
If anyone is RE, they have nothing to complain about regarding the pension, even with a 25% discount at age 55. They still enjoy a very nice retirement package. And smartly investing that lump sum can recover much or all of the discount, even up to 25%. And those NRE were not touched.
If you are unable to understand the necessity of downsizing in incredibly difficult times, then you are the problem. And exactly where do you find a job today that guarantees a full pension and cradle to grave employment? Maybe a civil servant job that pays nothing?
And to further educate you, LR had just about left Exxon project bankrupt when he brought Mobil in. And if you think LR gave a flip about morale, you truly are deluded.
When you find that cradle to grave job with outstanding pay, benefits, pension and never any downsizing, let us know. It isn’t now nor ever was EM. Until then, accept business realities and climb down off that moral mountain. After all, don’t you hate EM? Why would you want any of those let go to still be here?
There was a time when this company would not PIP an employee (that did not deserve it) until they were at or close to full retirement age (of course there were exceptions, but it was less likely until now). At 60, you have full retirement, and could usually work another 5 years or so somewhere as a contractor (with your retiree medical insurance) until old enough to draw full social security. An employee that is over 40 (especially closer to 50) is a big blow and will turn lives upside down. No sizable pension, no continued subsidized medical insurance, etc. Needless to say, the older you are, the harder to get hired anywhere. There is no real job protection for older employees. Law and HR have "partnered" with management to ensure that the company will cover its tracks and not be sued for targeting older employees who are not truly bad employees (rather management just doesn't like the employee for some personal reason).
In the old, rather nasty Exxon, many things such as layoffs, no promotions and no pay raises were fair game during a downturn, just as for the entire industry. However, destroying the trust in the promise of full retirement was considered counterproductive. No such qualms today, as if young people can’t see what’s waiting for them.
Apparently, we have too many managers reading these posts, immediately thinking about their dear RSUs. No, “golden handcuffs” refers to the FULL pension of regular, technical employees, not to what “the chosen few” get (which could be called Ridiculous Undeserved Rewards). If you would actually read the original post, it’s not about going back to LR culture but the fact that EVEN LR understood that if you want to keep the people who really do the (technical) work you have to give them what you’ve promised.
“Retirement will be there for most” ? Tell that to the technical people with 20-25 years of experience who got laid off a few months ago around the age of 50 or those REs who were forced to retire with 75-90% of their pension after being put in NSI, not to mention the fresh batch that’s just around the corner.
EM still offers excellent pay, and retirement will be there for most. Not normally considered golden handcuffs though.
For 99% of the company the 401k and pension far outweigh RSUs.
I can't believe you felt the need to type that out, honestly what on earth are you hoping to accomplish?
Oh the virtues of LR now. You really want that culture back? Don’t think so. The so called golden handcuffs are RSUs that take years to vest, and that can be taken away by the corporation for any actions deemed potential harmful to EM, which is pretty much anything they want it to be. And those golden handcuffs, my friend, are still very much in place and far exceed any pension benefit.