Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

Good luck and may God bless you and your family in retirement.

I retired almost two years ago and I can’t complain, I got pretty much all the good things the company had to offer. However, unlike the OP, I was not blind to the obvious decline of the company and to how toxic it has become. Especially after 2020 it has turned into a cesspool, with pretty much every process turned into a caricature of what it was said to be (think ranking, for instance).
The management of EM is now completely rotten, so it makes no sense to give them advice on how to “make things better”. “Better” is reserved for them only. To ask the younger employees to be “positive” is essentially asking them to be blind to the corruption and toxicity of the system.

I also recently retired from EM after 38 years working. All good experiences. I feel my age group is the last of the dying breed who got a great f n deal across tje board. In general, it won't be as good for the younger workers. Some will di better, most not as well. Hang in there, and take what they're given.

Ok Boomer.

I miss the old oil and gas industry.

OP is posting a very rosy picture indeed.
Perhaps it’s an expectation vs reality… if you are straight out of school, age 16 and no degree/university qualification having a future like Exxon promised is extraordinarily. With travel to foreign countries, a final salary pension, perhaps a CL 27 to retirement would be beyond expectation…
However, having a degree (or two or post graduation) or worse, being an experienced hire, the expectations and reality are very different. They were different even prior to 2019…

Even before 2019 one couldn’t really rock the boat and speak up… but there were pockets of integrity here and there…

Post 2019, you are a sitting target if you spoke up or said anything that isn’t aligned with some dirtbag managers view to the extent that you have to agree with donkeys even if they r wrong as they might hold some unknown political power… and you will be the next one pipped. If not now, the following year as it will sneak up and catch up on you…

If you hold qualifications that allow you to work elsewhere, why are people hanging on to this very poor management style and culture that seems to be going backwards to 1950s?

There is also a constant amount of brainwashing… that this is the biggest company is the world… it makes so much money… ofcourse it does, but these days, even a midsized company offers better career paths and pay. Majority of them, one can share into the profits in a way of bonuses or share options… the only stick (and carrot) exxon seems to have is the shares and final salary pensions…
There is no job satisfaction, career path if you can think for your self and see Exxon for what it is…

I can’t decide which is worse: is it the delusional, narcissistic old timers with a chronic empathy disorder that prevents them from seeing the plight of the rest of us? Or is it the transactionalists who need to quash everyone’s desire to make something meaningful out of their careers here?

My vote goes to the old timer who just couldn’t help posting about how they made enough money working for old Exxon that is enriched their family for two generations to come. All of us struggling in new Exxon thank you.

@1dfa+1r5qJ0Rl Completely correct on every point made. A company now run solely for the benefit of the top self appointed 10%, the next schmoozing 10% layer hanging on to their delusional dreams of going up. The 80% majority just turning the handle trying to avoid being in the bottom 20%.

It's just a job, view it only as that. Buy stock as the shareholder is even more important than the top 10%, so you may as well also get some benefit from the misguided priorities in EM.

Started in 1980 retired in 2017. Upstream EM engineer. 35 countries. Many deepwater +Billion dollars projects. What I derived from EM will benefit my family for two generations. Thanks EM.

Everyone needs to figure it out and find their own way. Most won’t. Good luck to all!

Just to round this out.
A company, just like a society or civilization, becomes just as thin and lizardy as the skin on the back of our hands.
The fat in the gut just stays there until the end.
For the maggot or the carbon-fueled incinerator, depending on your wishes.
Pass it on.

I’m sorry, but you are talking 20th century concepts to a 21st century workforce. We are all obsolete, top to bottom. Good luck in your retirement.

I liked your post purely because of how emphatically positive it is. But, as others have mentioned, your vision of XOM is colored by the pre-2019/2020 experience. The 10 good managers have been retired, the young people are being pip'd straight from school, and the opportunities to visit 16 countries are gone for all but the most high potential folks. The Exxon of the future is a transactional sweat shop were the only global opportunities are Zoom calls with people in BTC and KLTC. Even pre-2019, people didn't trust line management and certainly wouldn't speak up in front of execs or ask any "tough questions". Now, no one cares anymore. Everyone is checked out. There's no connections among teams and people are watching their back every March. A 40 year career for HC10 employees starting fresh out of school is pretty much impossible now. And positivity from young folks isn't going to change the fact that Exxon as you knew it is gone. Enjoy your retirement.

I hope this company burns to the ground.

Enjoy your retirement. You deserve it.
I put in 40.5 years. No idea how.
Retired Jan 2019.

Take care

We all wish we had this experience. This absolutely used to be the norm. Sadly, this just isn’t the reality for most of us today. What irks me about the OP is the underlying idea that we can make it all better if we improve our attitudes. We can’t make it better. Yes there are good people to be found everywhere in the company, but the winner-take-all incentive system has ensured that the worst of us rule over the rest of us. We would all like to return to the Exxon of yesteryear, but that would require a culture shift at the top that just isn’t in the cards for us.

To the OP, I’m glad you had a good life and best of luck to you going forward. I appreciate your intended good wishes but your suggestions on positive attitude are not relevant to the situation we find ourselves in. We are NOT the future of this company. We are specifically being written out of the future of this company. We were duped.

sure you got yourself a good nest-egg and legacy of good memories and mementos.
so why are you here?
use the future energy you have for a good cause now.

I wish I had the same positive experience. As an experienced hire, I was always treated as an outsider. I have been harassed, lied to, and disrespected. And no, I was not Pip’d. I gave 100% to this company and stood up to my manager and others when I was bullied or when they did not act with integrity or was promoting really bad ideas. Perhaps that was my downfall. Nobody speaks up around here. They are too scared. Who advocated for me? No one in the last few years. It’s group think and politics. The most hurtful thing that a manager can say to their report is that nobody cares and the task they have been dutifully executing is irrelevant. That piece of Sh*t was particularly good at gaslighting. I finally left because staying here was simply bad for the soul and not good for what’s left of my career.

Yes, there were some good people here in the past, but it’s the remaining rotten eggs who are the most memorable.

My question , how are they allow to retire after a lot years with the company?

Vaya con dios, soldier

I might have agreed with your statements 25 years ago but not after 2019. Good bye and good luck.