Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

Admins are doing the jobs of 4-5 people and as the demands have increased, the pay hasn’t.

Shame on you Exxon!!!!!

I didn't expect "Admin Assistants" to be such a hot topic. Seems to have struck a nerve. Sounds like we can all add that skill to our resume now 🤣🤣 I bet we're the highest paid admins in the industry!! Maybe EVER!!!

You guys are missing the point

1. OP is is an experienced new hire who joined less than a year ago.
2. OP wants to organize a townhall.

PEOPLE!!! PLEASE!!!!
You are scientists!!!!! EXTRAPOLATE!!!!!

This dude not only has committed professional $uicide by joining this garbage of a company but also is so delusional and naïve that he believes anybody will give a fk about his $hit$how of a townhall.

Last year, there was lot of discussion around higher paid folks spending so much time doing Admin work- time writing, expense accounts, travel booking, etc. We said Admin support wasn’t working — response was —
Hold my beer

About 20 years ago, my supervisor wanted his admin (then called a secretary) to “format” all documents before he reviewed them. She was older and set in her ways. She saw MS Word as an glorified typewriter. She would take a Word document and insert a newline/carriage return at the end of each line plus a blank line between each paragraph. It drove me crazy when I had to revise the document.

Also, we had one secretary for 20 scientists. Guess where the bottleneck was.

It really is a HUGE disaster the way they've re-orgd the admins at EMTEC. We used to have an admin for every department, and another one for the division. The workload was reasonable & they REALLY REALLY took care of us. The department-level admins typically supported like 20-40 people. First, they had all the layoffs, so that took us down to a bare minimum of admin support, which was bad enough. Then they did this ridiculous re-org & threw them all into a CENTRAL POOL, supposedly. Now the remaining admins don't even report to the managers or supervisors in the groups they are supposed to be supporting (depts/divisions); Instead, they report up to an Administrative Supervisor who is in the Strategy & Planning organization. It makes absolutely NO SENSE. It seems only a few of the organizations/divisions even know who their admin is or where to go for help. Most people claim that they just try to do everything themselves because it's too much of a hassle to have to go through the "central portal." The few who do have a dedicated admin, who is only supposed to support the L3 (basically, Division Manager), feel so bad for that admin because they're literally supporting hundreds of people not just the L3, because no one else knows how to get support. The central pool of admins have no idea how every single org or div is structured; it's simply ridiculous to expect any of them to have any idea how to help orgs that they aren't even a part of. EMTEC has approx 4700 employees... and there are only 11 admins in the CENTRAL group. Well, L2's (VPs) have their own admins, but that's only 7 people. Look at the numbers! There are 2 other "admin type" groups, but one is Technical & the other is BSG. I hear they brought in a couple of contractors to help. If you include the Technical & BSG groups, its approx 25 more people... but who knows if they work the central portal tickets. The admins are miserable, the employees in the groups are miserable, there is no TEAM atmosphere anywhere, no one understands who thought this set-up was a good idea. But who are the people that can make changes? The SUIT Team? Do they ever reach out for opinions on how this is going? Not that I've seen. Don't even get me started on the assessment process. Can you imagine what the admins are up against if they have so many people to support, or are supporting people that don't even know them? Who provides their KO Feedback? Every time you think XOM can't get anything else wrong, they sure do. This has the admins & the people they are supposed to support all set up for failure. But again, who's going to listen? If any of you know the decision makers, PLEASE MAKE THEM AWARE of this catastrophic failure! We just want our dedicated, dependable admins back in our teams. Please do away with this Central monstrosity. I suspect they're just trying to get everyone to quit so they can send all administrative processes to India. Good luck to THE PEOPLE if that happens.

What have I gotten myself into?

This started in what was EMRE in 2020. All non exempt roles were put in one group, told what our area of responsibility would be - no discussion. The support staff dislike it as much as the MPT’s. Also know if so many that were laid off - as if those salaries were the ones with the most cost savings?? I have heard that they are now replacing open admin roles with only contractors. I have seen more PDS, salary treatment, RSU communication and all manner of things hiring and firing. The company treats support staff like they are a dime a dozen and don’t have a brain - but support staff are a vault of information and help. So glad I got out.

Good God, these people could F-up a wet dream!

Is there ANY position at XOM that they DON'T try to remove ALL dignity from?

Just ANOTHER process the "Powers that be" have f-d up! Never mind asking opinions beforehand or even bothering to explore all the ways this could go wrong. Not to mention the affect to the "team" mentality they constantly preach.

Someone - "How many different ways can a company indirectly relay to their employees that the LT doesn't give a sh-t and provide as much instability and inconsistencies as possible?"
XOM LT - "Hold my beer!"

There are no admins.

Wait EMTEC has an IT help desk style pool for admins? At least in my little corner of the company we still have a designated admin for our team.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how a ticket system for admin work would be an absolute s***show. Sounds like it is in practice also.

Don't waste your time with their silly "ticket" system (insert eye roll here). Don't get me wrong, I know they have a few good Admins that remain, although I have no idea WHY they're still there, but it's the luck of the draw, if your ticket will be assigned to a knowledgeable admin, or if it will go to one of the many who now hate their job too, and therefore do only enough to get by. Not unlike pretty much everyone else on the Campus.

It's pretty pathetic that they've managed to F that up too!!

Who comes up with this sh*t? Does no one read these boards and stop to think "maybe this isn't such a great idea"? Or is it a matter of no one being willing to admit that their ideas didn't turn out too good in practice, and they're unwilling to double back?

Fing MIND BLOWING stupidity at XOM!

I worked for h-Emre, times were different pre-2020. As someone else emphasized, the admin played a HUGE role in the day-to-day operations of our Dept. She was like our work-mom, in the BEST way. We built a relationship with her, she always looked out for us, she taught us things, organized small breakfasts for our Dept. & brought donuts. If one of us was out sick for an extended period of time, had a baby, death in the family or got married, she was the one sending flowers and passing a greeting card around for everyone to sign; not because she HAD to, but because she cared about us, and we all cared about each other, back then.
I've since moved onto a much happier area of XOM, but still keep in contact with many colleagues, who remain on Campus, many within EMTEC. It's pretty sad when two people with graduate degrees, sit around lamenting about the absence of greeting cards and donuts. The truth is, it's not about those things, it's about the appearance of instability, OBVIOUS inconsistency, and complete lack of personal touch, that IS their "latest and greatest" Admin ticket pool.
Not to mention, there's no accountability! From what my colleagues in EMTEC have expressed, getting any real admin support now is impossible. Since it's a "pool" type system, the buck gets passed on and on. There's no singular person responsible for overseeing/assisting with the day-to-day operations of the Depts. It sounds like most Engineers and Managers have had to learn how to be their own admin, or get by without one. Not to be redundant, but I assume it will only be a matter of time before those roles are gone entirely, or routed to India, along with everything else.
If you have a job that can be done on a computer, then your job is NOT safe at the XOM of today. Extremely sad times :(

Wow… Things really have changed over the last 3 years.

They pip’d a bunch of admins the two previous years. When I started, there were two admins for one manager, 3 section heads, ~30 mpts, plus 10 techs. Give or take. With another admin for the manager’s manager.

2 of those three are gone from what I heard and there was a similar sized group that also reported up to the manager’s manager with like 5 section heads (?) with 3 admins. Heard 2 of those 3 are gone.

Also heard that group went from ~ 100 mpts/SHs to like 40 but who knows.

Like someone else said here, your an experienced hire that actually decided to join now? Pretty silly of you.

Why would you want to do anything like town halls. Too much exposure unless you are a sponsored favorite. There is an admin pool we are supposed to use. There is no help anymore just forms, request and a holes. Exxon does not have a shortage of any of these. Good luck with the town halls. I will be hiding out so no town halls for me.

Welcome to the world of silos. Every silo gets kudos for cutting costs but no one looks at the big picture including whether overall costs are actually reduced or rather just being passed along. For example, if you are doing the work of an admin at a higher biller or level of skill, how is this efficient or saving money.

Have you checked to see if they have outsourced this function to India and someone can assist y🙄

Seriously dude, WTF were you thinking????

If by now you didn't realize how toxic this place is, did you take the time at least to read the Bloomberg article?

As brutal as you might think it is, believe me, the article's depiction is mild compared to reality.

I’m not sure about EMTEC, but there are still plenty of admins at the Houston campus. The company would come to a standstill if we got rid of our admins. They are like the teachers of the corporate world in that they are given all the extra jobs that many will not or cannot do.

Our admin is an ergo contact, fire warden, event coordinator, decorator for holidays, spill cleaner, garbage collector, caterer coordinator, amongst her standard duties.

Over the last couple of years, her job has grown considerably. She helps us with absolutely everything and probably gets paid too little.

Seriously laughing almost to hard to write!! No one told you that you will ultimately become a member of a no name group or lump of people that are less than a contractor status in a queue for next idget up for the next inquiry!! No need for names. No need for org charts. No need for a desk. New World order of things for the bottom feeders!

....I am a recent experienced hire (<1yr XOM)....

WTF were you thinking when you join this company? Didn't you consider before joining that the more active a company layoff board is, the more dysfunctional and toxic the company is????

Dude, you don't need an admin, you need a recruiter.

They are too busy processing resignations.

Upstream admins are nearly nonexistent unless you’re a VP these days