Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

I have worked for EM 30 years.

Quitting EM was once a very rare occurrence.

Now I hear about resignations so often that it seems production will be impacted soon.

I have already seen work impacted in 2 ways. 1. Backfills not knowing the job that they have stepped into. 2. Some activities completely stopped because the the few remaining employees have been assigned to train new hire replacements.

Seems like far too many new hires have been recruited recently, but if 75% quit within 5 years then huge recruitment efforts are required.

Maybe treat people better and stop the PIP instead of just recruiting 4x the number of people required then cause 75% to give up.

Good employees don't complaint!
They just walk away!

EM employees realize that having a satisfying career with increasing roles of responsibility are only for a few who are hand selected early on. The best anyone else can do is mere survival within a limited and basically unchanging scope. It used to be a good deal given the historical security and above average remuneration. Since these are now gone, so are the employees. They need to keep themselves marketable.

I have recently seen several great young employees quit. One had been at EM 4 years and said he was the 5th person to quit from his onboarding group of 7.

Hire 7 and have 2 remaining after 4 years.

Never seen attrition at EM this bad.

Is this typical?

I’ve seen this happen a quite often. That’s what broke my heart over working for a corporation. Things are far from ideal, and no matter how much if an idealist/purist you may be - you still can’t get around office politics and the outside forces. In other words, you can’t change things.

I fully agree that hard workers who don’t play the ‘political’ game are often overlooked and under appreciated. Their supervisors know they are the pillar of the group, so the supervisor doesn’t want to let them go. No one from above is pulling them up, so the supervisor doesn’t HAVE to let them go. These strong workers become the anchor, and soon realize that isn’t a good thing. I see it happen most to women. Sometimes to men. These are the people that hope their good work will speak for itself….and when they realize it doesn’t, they just quietly hand in their resignation.

I would encourage them to speak up, at least to their supervisor. Give your supervisor a strong ‘I am not your anchor’ talk. Tell them you do all the work and mentoring, and are tired of being overlooked. At least put them on notice.

Oh, and don’t accept ‘You are really good at what you do, but just don’t have the pizzaz we are looking for in the next level.’ Pizzaz may be replaced with some other unmeasurable touchy-feely word. Your supervisor’s job is to quantify exactly what you are lacking. If they cannot, then remind them that their statement represents favoritism/popularity vs valid performance feedback.

A good post, dismal but good

@gab+1hutwd7N And you think you are good? The door is always open!

I can relate to all of these cases and am putting in my notice next month. I would really love to contribute to the company, but if base operations are not valued then find I guess I have my answer. Good luck to those remaining!

Push employees out. Hire contractors. Contractor becomes at a level where they can be employees. Push high performing contractors
Hire contractors

Let’s go XOM!

It's not that management suddenly became bad, it's always been that way but with enough good workers it papers it over. It seems to me there's an incentive to push for attrition with false promises made to these supervisors and managers. Experience shows it doesn't bode well for them at the last hour.

I’d be willing to bet my life savings that anyone who’s been at EM for a few years has certainly seen, if not experienced all 3 of OP’s scenarios. That’s how rotten the culture is here, and I’ve yet to see that change in any substantive way.

We may need a slide deck to review for alignment on this topic.

From my perspective, the root cause from these examples can be attributed to poor management (leadership in EM lingo). Case 1's manager let a culture of non- inclusion. Case 2's manager failed to put the individual in roles that may not have been a good fit for them. Lastly case 3's manager needs at leat some sensitivity training. The business dies need measurable and impactful results, but there are better ways to convey this. And why wait until the final assessment to tell the individual? In all these cases what happened the rest of the year? Poor Management.