Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

All of these posts are true. The deal is "we'll move you up to CL 28 with nice double digit increase, but, your ranking will drop". The party line is that CL 28-29 is the most competitive ranking group. Not bad deal for a 50-something except for losing RSUs

Now, this weaponized PIP is out of control.

@2fyw+1fk8P7wt

Your manager lied to you in order to keep you from quitting the company.

It is common knowledge that Department Heads and Directors are consistently in the top 50% of each CL level because they have direct reports. Technical staff with no direct reports are consistently in the bottom 50% of the CL level. Only a very small percentage of technical staff make it above the 50% criteria.

Many years ago there was an initiative to promote the Technical Ladder as a viable career path to higher CL levels. We were told that technical experts could move up to higher CL’s and be respected for their knowledge and contributions. I was promoted to A higher rank group and my ranking dropped. I was told that this was normal every time crossing into higher rank group and not to worry. Next year dropped again and was told because I was competing with managers with huge portfolios and my contributions did not equal theirs. Next time I was PIP’d and told specifically an example of a person in my rank group with hundreds reporting up to him and that nothing on my PDS was comparable to anything on that manager’s PDS. I told my boss that my dropping was his fault because he did not give me 300 direct reports like his example was given. That did not go over so well.

Technical staff should not be force ranked with managers on executive path. Technical staff only promoted to Management rank group to fill the bottom of bucket and donate RG points to the sponsored Managers.

Squid Games

At the age of 50 and definitely by age 59 1/2, technical employees who have never been NSI'd or PIP'd will be promoted from the CL-27 to CL-28/29 grouping.

The promotions of technical staff to CL28-29 with no direct reports means that they will be put in the bottom of the CL-28-29 group after the promotion.

It makes it very easy to justify PIPing or NSIing a CL28-29 technical subject matter expert in order to protect a CL28/29 manager who is typically much younger.

Welcome to the world of creative ranking in our company. At the end of the day, it is not about performance. It is all about "politics".

There are quite a few technical subject matter experts who do not want to be promoted from CL27 to CL28. Their message is "I cannot afford to be promoted" since they will be ranked against Department Heads and Directors.

In XOM's version of the game "Hearts", Management Always Trumps Subject Matter Experts.

You, the controllers supervisor, might want to read tens of posts on this site about the experience of workers who after 50 are dropped in rank without reason.
In fact, using technical people at the end of their career to pad the CL28-29 ranking group is going on for decades, because the young supervisors and managers in that ranking group obviously have to come on top.
The only difference in the last two years is that those technical people artificially ranked low are now thrown out through PIP. It wasn’t done in past decades because somebody had to do the work.
If you were a supervisor, read right on this thread what another supervisor has to say - @qjd+1fk8P7wt.

@1mru+1fk8P7wt
I don’t know much about controllers, but for sure they don’t represent the bulk of the company.
Among engineers and geos there have been a lot of valuable, highly recognized experienced technical people who have been PIPed at the end of their careers for no reason other than their high salaries. I’m talking about people who publish in peer-reviewed journals, not about people who do what they’ve learned in 1987. In fact, in these fields and in true technical positions (no sponsors) the company wouldn’t keep you and pay you $300,000 if you wouldn’t be very good at what you do.
There’s plenty of advisors, STCs and other such creatures who pretend to do technical work who are clueless and don’t deserve their salary. But those have been nicely sponsored and are exempt from the PIP. Just like the supervisors.

Sorry, but I agree with unpopular opinion guy. There are quite a few older technical employees who try to bully people with ‘experience’ because they’re lacking in knowledge. Regardless of your age, sometimes you’re nowhere near as good as you think.

@1lxy+1fk8P7wt

You sound bitter, maybe use the great insurance plan to get some help.

I’ve posted on this site several times and would gladly post my thoughts in a public forum as well. I was a CL 27 in Controllers and left back in September. 10+ years of experience and was a supervisor for half of that time. And yes, I had to PIP multiple employees. One was < 5 years of experience and the other two were 25+ years of experience. It sucked in all three cases, but it was 100% based on their work and not their age or salary. I can say with certainty that my new hires coming in with Masters of Accounting degrees and 2 to 4 years of public accounting experience did more than twice the work of those that were placed on PIPs. Is every old person behind the technology curve? Absolutely not. But are there plenty who are and weren’t able to transition to a reporting world where we relied on SQL, Tableaux, and Spotfire for our reviews? Yes — and they simply couldn’t add value anymore. Knowing how something was done back in 1987 just doesn’t matter.

@1viu+1fk8P7wt
It was clear that eventually corporate trolls would wake up to the fact that their “influence” not only doesn’t reach anybody, but makes people even angrier.
So let’s claim that “I just left the company” and then add your desired message.
For your information Mr. Troll who recently left the company, when the consultants sold our top management on getting rid of experienced and highly-paid employees, it was clear that this will apply to everybody, from top technical experts to sleepy old workers on cruise control, as long as they’re RE.

Unpopular opinion alert! I left a few months ago, but I can tell you from my experience that many of the older folks “targeted” for PIPs just sucked at their jobs.

Many thought they could rely on experience instead of continuing to develop their technical skills, they were often reluctant to change processes that they relied on for their SME tag, many had no interest in moving to more challenging assignments (choosing stagnation over growth), and few would step up for extra assignments as they fell to our team.

I’m sure that in a company this size there are isolated examples of demographics being targeted by bad managers, but thats the exception. In my experience younger staff still trying to make a name for themselves ran circles around those approaching retirement.

It seems that EM is protecting itself from lawsuit by only PIPing persons under 52 and over 55.

Persons 53, 54, 55 are NRE (Near retirement eligible) and safe.

Do other companies exempt everyone 53-55 from PIP or firing?

No doubt older employees are targeted. It happened to me. Top quintile many years in a row then suddenly once I turn 50 I started dropping rather quickly despite still performing the same as I always had. I was upset when it first started happening but then I realized how full of sh-t the system is and there was nothing I could do about it, plus XOM ranking does not define me and my self worth. I got out at 55 and have never been happier.

Hello Annandale guy. Please look up the difference between your are you’re.

Definitely happening in Annandale, if your RE beware, this place is so corrupt, almost time for your Performance Discussion , knowable others means nothing……..so sad what this site has turned into.

I have seen PIP used as a we---n in the past to weed out REs hanging on past age expectations (getting in to mid 60s). In the cases I witnessed, arguing they were "poor performers" was a weak argument in and of itself, but, it was the only tool available and it worked in low numbers. Extending the concept to hit big numbers is clearly in violation of industry norms and professional standards. The argument that it's not breaking any state laws because we are all under employment at will is highly disappointing and destroys the professional relationship between Company and employees. Now the Company has CTO completely reinvent itself on all fronts. It'll take decades.

@1web+1fk8P7wt
And the management propaganda is back.
We don’t need to prove it as it would be in court.
Maybe it will be proved in court, maybe not. It’s essentially the army or corporate lawyers vs. top management hubris. Our Great Leaders think so much of themselves as Gods that they might spill the beans.
But this is the court of public opinion, and we know what EM does. So spare us your “perhaps”.

“The PIP system was weaponized to target older employees”

Perhaps.

Proving that statement however, is another story. Private companies, through decades of lobbying public officials (especially ones with the “Rs”), have secured for themselves an almost limitless prerogative when it comes to letting workers go. It could well be that they’re ageist, even though they’re all old men themselves. Maybe they’re tired of the high healthcare copayments for older employees. Maybe they’re tired of paying you $220k/year. Maybe all of the above.

The fact is that you can be discharged from employment for any reason and with no notice in 49/50 states in the US. The only exception is if you’re let go for a reason directly related race, gender, religion, or any other protected category under state or federal law. If you think you can prove age discrimination, hire a lawyer and take EM to court. I hope you win if you do.

Always good to post the truth on this topic. There are endless posts from managers (even one time from a self-declared HR person) trying to pretend that nobody targets the REs and that the big repeated PIP is just a favor the company does to its employees.
It’s also good for some younger employees who might think this doesn’t concern them. They should realize that they’re never going to get to pension age at EM; they’re going to be out by age 50, if their jobs aren’t shipped to low cost centers even earlier.

You should realize that PIP was "weaponized" when Dallas changed the ranking system in 2020 so that an employee can drop from the top 10% to the bottom NSI 10% in less than 12 months all because of "lack of cultural fit" instead of your historical "lack of accomplishments".

Before 2020, if you were top 10%, you could only drop by 1/3 each year going forward. It would take 3 years of poor ranking to drop a top 10% performer to the bottom 10%. The rationale behind dropping by 1/3 each year allowed you to correct your behavior or as one person noted, your current manager may not like you which allowed you to transition to a different group with a different manager and recover from dropping by 1/3.

15 years ago I was almost tanked due to a geo manager taking a personal dislike. Luckily I survived due to the safeguards in place (Deek Rauzat - a pseudonym- if you’re reading this, I win, you lose).
But from here forward anything can happen

Managers now have the ability to target any RE employee no matter the input or effect on the RE’s project team.

That scenario described below of a manager tanking an RE has become the norm.

Managers now given target numbers of how many RE’s to tank.

Any RE marked to move to RG 0 by a senior manager is never defended by the other ranking meeting attendees for fear of retribution.

Which rock did you crawl
Out of? Where were you in the last 2 years? Frozen in Carbonite?

When the PIP was first weaponized, I attended a raking session in which the Management Lead of the ranking session kicked off the meeting by explaining how useless an RE employee was. He said he did not understand the high position on the rank list given by his project management.

When the ranking session got to the RE’s name, the manager said put him at bottom of list, RG=0, against the project team list placement.

Because of his kickoff statements against the RE, nobody in the room spoke out to defend the RE against the drop.

The RE was PIP’d and fired. He was so valuable to the project team that they had to then hire him back through the EPC contractor.

OP here. I speak the truth often and a few times I have seen my comments moments to posts copied into new threads but this is the first time the copier gave me credit.

Thanks

What took you so long?

Your title should read "The PIP system is being weaponized to target older employees"