Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

@1our - to be honest, they are nothing if not consistent. Generations of managers (all the way from Executives down to Department Heads) have covered up for each others mistakes, even when doing a complete 180 on corporate strategy (e.g. centralization versus decentralization, diversification versus core business) and policies (e.g. chasing market volume, then focusing only on high margin products, then go back to volumes).

We are always told "it was the right decision at the time", even when I know that people at my worker-bee level had been scratching their heads and telling each other "this doesn't make any sense".

I don't expect any supervision or above will be held accountable and see it reflected in their ranking for failing to retain talent...?

One issue is that the entire workforce noticed that zero Executives were held accountable December 2020 for the hiring binge of 5000+ new employees in 2018-2019.

Not a single Executive was fired when thousands of workers were fired.

The entire workforce feels betrayed and no trust in Senior Management.

The Executives who pushed the hiring binge got bonuses for leasing that hiring binge then those same executives push the layoff and got bonuses for leading the layoff.

No accountability for senior executives. Bonuses no matter if made good or bad decisions.

It’s called money. It’s not about you it’s about running a profitable business. Go have your mom tuck you in.

Up until the layoff of December 2020, nobody had ever actually quit EM in my group to go to another company.

Since my group suffered through that horrific event, we have averaged 1 person quitting every 9 weeks to go work somewhere else.

To go from not losing even a single employee in 9 years, to losing on average of one employee every 9 weeks really indicates deep problems with morale.

What can be done to solve this?

PS. I have heard of other groups with higher attrition. One group losing on average 1 employee every 3 weeks in 2022. Unsustainable.

You should see the dumpster fire 🔥 in Annandale….

Everyone is human. Unfortunately, we have a system that makes our VPs and above think they are gods and so their behaviour and connection to mortals is void. There are many who are CLEARLY nothing more than selected in the first year or two as a chosen one and can then never fail. However, they demonstrate no materially different performance to any other mediocre who had been fortunate enough to get the same outstanding support and sponsorship.

It started when legitimate oilfield executives made a few bad choices on persons to sponsor.

Those sponsored id--ts became executives with no qualifications then chose persons to sponsor that were even worse id--ts.

A few more iterations of that and nearly 100% of executives are id--ts and sponsor worse id--ts so from department manager upwards All positions filled with incompetence.

It took 25 years of sponsoring incompetent brown nosers to achieve the morale.

@hqg+1gLq8KdE Mental instability can happen to anyone of us at any given time especially when under stress from trying to balance work and family life. There is truly something wrong when you work for a company that refuses to recognize this. The fine line of work and family balance can be hard to walk sometimes especially when one side keeps pushing you further away from center balance. It's good news that you found peace and happiness for yourself and your family elsewhere. The management at O&A chem plant Beaumont never see this stress as an issue. The consent fear of being reprimanded by bad management and long hours can take a toll on anyone. THEY and THEM have their heads so far in the sand that THEY will never see this as an issue. They ask a select few questions on moral and work life knowing that they're going to get the answers they want to hear and tell the rest of us SEE no problems here.

Agree with @gmx+1gLq8KdE

My last supervisor was an opportunist who brown nosed his way into the job. I did his job and my job. He did next to nothing except regurgitate my results and ideas up the chain. Messed up everything he put his hands on and left me to clean up his mistakes. Never provided any direction or communicate information from up the chain. Hoard information and instructed me not to involve others. Not humble enough to ask for help or seek to understand. In the end, he moved me to another role. Heard he claimed credit for some of my and other’s work a couple of years later.

It’s a shame that management is not sharp enough to see through the sham.

Bottom line, they don't give a f*k. You are replaceable. Leave and they will pay someone less qualified more to do your job. Or better yet, will just spread it among the poor souls that stay. The higher ups are extremely disconnected from the average worker and it shows in their global meetings, aka bullsht fest. Recruiters love XOM employees, just saying.

In 2019 I was so overworked that I came extremely close to putting a g-n in my mouth at 3AM as I wrapped up budget work. About a year later I got laid off.

Don’t give this ungrateful company (or any company) your life would be my message. I love the new job I am in. The work life balance as well as the “sharing the wealth” mentality of the company is refreshing.

It’s fairly easy to see the reason. EM promoted people based on politics rather than accomplishments or true business knowledge.

The wrong people were promoted to management and they promoted more wrong people into management. These wrong people made bad business decisions for about the last 15 to 20 years. To cover up their incompetence they squashed any one who questioned them or their decisions using the PDS and ranking. Using the PDS and ranking to quiet folks who disagreed or reward the yes men/women they no longer had a true understanding of who was a productive contributing employee so when layoffs came the eliminated the exact ones they needed to turn the ship around.

@gmx+1gLq8KdE and OP just described the O&A Chemical plant in Beaumont but a few things were left out. The good ole boy club and poor personnel management by our leaders has crushed the moral here. The lack of or no regard for our work / family life balance and no communication on how to fix these problems. THEY and THEM must not have the same family stress as the rest of us.

Op, same here. I wish I knew how we could fix this….

I think it still goes back to the breaking of trust during COVID. Some very basic principles of my unwritten employee/employer contract were broken. (The layoff was not top of the list.)

And now I am trying to build back my trust in the company, but it is hard….when no one takes responsibilities, or thinks they have done wrong, or makes reparations.

Your average manager doesn’t think they are part of the problem, but they are still one cog in the greater machine. And there is some truth in the article, that people leave because of bad supervisors. So each ‘cog’ who thinks ‘they aren’t part of the problem’ keeps going on their business and disenfranchising their employees…who are already at lows and leave.

I cannot believe our higher-ups think Leadership Training will fix this. Nope. Get rid of the useless layers of management. Promote the people who others like working for. Start seeing the ‘managing-up’ kiss-ups for who they are.

A principle I learned back when this company was greater: If your base business isn’t in order, you have no business doing more. So look for the groups where their base-business is in order, but then look harder. Is their base business in order because of the supervisor or because of some responsible team-member who keeps things running smoothly? If it is the tream-member, promote them.

I hear you and I feel the same way. We got there because wrong people are promoted to the ranks of decision makers and supervisors.

And yet we are told there are more opportunities than ever.