That sinking feeling

I am genuinely concerned for the future of our company. While I initially understood the measures taken in response to the pandemic (restructuring, 8-10% NSI, invol/vol, 401k suspension), I can flatly say that upper management has lost the pulse of the organization. As a manager, I am not sure how many more years I can stomach of the unrelenting PNI/NSI targets. This is like cutting your wrists when you have a loaded g-n in the desk drawer. Even younger employees assessed in outstanding are questioning their future. Upper management has the audacity to feign surprise at each up and comer who leaves. "Thanks for picking up an extra job and a half. Unfortunately, because of the 'downward pressure,' you dropped a performance category this year." At this point, I firmly believe that HR and Dallas are too arrogant to admit they are wrong on the new perfomance assessment process.

Myself, I have 17 years with the Company, and for the first time find myself questioning the long term. Not because I am in danger of slipping into PNI or NSI (well, at least not the next 3 years anyway), but rather due to the culture we have created. I can't bury my head in the sand and pretend everything is ok, yet I am powerless to change it. If we're being honest, we had problems BEFORE the pandemic. Now we have the added headwinds of new hires and early career employees realizing 30+ years is a really long time.

Comment! It's anonymous!

14 replies (most recent on top)

@qmj Thanks for explaining, but I have better things to do.

You are right, OP. When I joined, a couple of decades ago, there were certainly problems but Exxon was clearly the premier oil company in the world. A lot of nasty things were done in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but they were smart enough to protect a core of experience and expertise. The things that have been done in the last years put this company on a course of no return. It’s now a second-rate company and keeps drifting, while the upper management absolutely refuses to face reality.

OP- spot on. 19 years with the company and always considered myself an EM Lifer. Needles to say, I surprised myself and my spouse when I put my resume together and started looking.

@urc+1c23hejM
@sad+1c23hejM

Vote, clear browser cookies, vote, repeat voting until you’re tired of it.
This comes from a boomer field hand who is practically computer illiterate…

You speak of the sink.
But think of the stink.
As all of them billionaire astronauts say, it also applies to any job.
Let the stink of your camp determine if that hill over there might smell better.
Pretty simple really.
Bots up!

Of course the culture change was B.S. Any 5minute talk with management above the pion level would show you that there was nothing THEY had to change. And immediately when the crisis came, their reflexes were old EM, command and control - only now they had created the expectation to the “best and brightest” - that they should have been more open. Ha!

@eix My guess is that somebody figured out how to vote repeatedly on the same comment and deployed a cheap algorithm to automate the process.

At least the XOM threads aren’t being constantly trolled by a dedicated anti-vaccine lunatic, which is problem on the Chevron threads.

OP makes sense. Why did his post get so many downvotes?

This downvote boy is working overtime

Totally agree. I was optimistic that the talk about culture change would actually materialize in something better. Unfortunately the culture has gotten even more toxic. I was optimistic that the new Performance Assessment system would actually be a marginal improvement. Unfortunately it seems to be even worse than the old ranking system, drives even more uncertainty, and is driving people out the door. The ship is sinking fast.

If the downvote bot-maker actually worked directly for XOM, we'd probably not need to borrow money for dividends. But they don't.
The guy that invented 'Goto' links capability left us 8 years ago.

Vote me up, bot-boy.

The dislike bots attack! I agree OP.

Why so many down votes and who's/what's doing that. OP, your post is on point. But since I'm out, I don't care anymore about the future of EM. Everybody knows the future of EM (which is not that bright).

Frugal/Brutal.
Frugal/Brutal.
I don't know if there is much of a difference for any industry held up by government subsidies. EM can't cause wars to be made no more.
But that's showbiz, baby.
and the trickle of dividends.

Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

That sinking feeling

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