Thread regarding Weatherford International Ltd. layoffs

Re Anonymous72734: Wow! I thought I was the only one who learned the lessons of the '80s. I live in a very modestly priced home, drive a 10+ year old car, have no debts, low mortgage and a lot of money in the bank for just the reasons we are witnessing today. No big cars and trucks for me. No fancy vacations. Just a modest lifestyle I can sustain when just this sort of thing occurs. Good luck to one and all.

It is Weatherford specific. The oil industry layoffs are normal but Weatherford has been laying people off for almost a decade straight now this is not something that just started due to the recent price decline each year they have had a mass layoff.

The age thing is in reference to so many of these employees taking this layoff so personal. It really doesn't matter how dedicated you are or how many holidays you've worked...it's still a business and when the business takes a hit, so will the employees. Most of the folks working in the patch make much more then the average person working a 8 to 4 job and I get it..that the hours are irregular and the job is dangerous.

I lived in Wyoming during the last big long bust...in the late '80's. It didn't matter who you were or what you did, you lost your job. The rig owners were cutting up their rigs for junk. Renting a U haul to get out of town was a three month wait. You couldn't even get a job at McDonalds. A town of 80,000 lost 50,000 people; homes were abandoned and the police surrounded the banks ....It was an experience I will never forget. After a year, BHI called and back into the patch I went. I made over 200,000.00 last year. My wife drives a 1999 Marquis. I have to have a good truck ..this one is only a couple of years old and still has low mileage on it. My house is very MODEST....nothing we have pronounces the income earned..but we do have a healthy savings acoount which was more important to us then driving the latest model car or buying a bigger house. That bust in the '80's was the best lesson anyone could get on living and working in the patch. As soon as work came to a screeching halt, we took a seventeen day break and did a little traveling. We will live low as usual and watch and wait for the oilfield to gear back up. It's really nothing personnel and arm chair quarterbacking on how a company should be run ..well, I've never worked for a big company that I didn't see a lot of waste in personnel or equipment. Hang in there..it will return.

Anon72679 - Not necessarily an age thing. Regardless of what the norm is for the industry, the tactics that Weatherford are using are whats the issue. I'm pretty confident when I say that everyone understands the gist of layoffs, but the manner in which they've gone about them is what's not comprehended. If this was so standard, then why not prepare for the beginning of the year changes a bit better?? Stop over-staffing, stop spending $$$ on wasted warm bodies - especially ones that can't even use proper grammar/spell when corresponding, How about if that "trend" were so consistent, then let's better prepare for it, The constant turnover and irresponsible business practices of a huge company are not our fault. And as for the "savings accounts" being our friends - maybe. But what about those hard workers I'm speaking for who've been paid in shits & giggles? I can almost guarantee that the average american lives paycheck to paycheck - yet slaves daily just to get by. Doesn't matter if they make 6 figures or not... The more you make - the more they take! With the rising cost of living & expenses, you can't possibly believe that being able to last more than a month or two is even remotely possible, if the average family consists of 5 or more people, let alone with the economy still rebounding in the manner it is. There are a lot of stay-at-home spouses these days simply because of this very situation - whether by choice or not. I've survived 7 layoffs over the past 10 years. I'm sure my time is coming. But like so many, I'm far from being prepared.....

I can bet that most of these people are under 30yrs. of age and this is their first REAL bust. Those of us that have been in the field for over thirty years know that none of this is personal. The company isn't going bankrupt...this is a normal condition of the industry. Nothing personal about it. I just talked to my neighbor, works for Texaco for the past thirty years..and this is not his first rodeo either. He just smiles and says "it's gonna get worse". (offshore rig where the layoffs are just starting) I haven't seen a job since the last one I finished up in December..am a field coring specialist...consultant basis. It's now time for me to sit back and watch this one ride out. It will come back...it always does. Your best friend in these times is your savings account.

I worked with Baker and Halliburton before spending 9 years with Weatherford. The size of the layoff's since 2014 is unfortunately a clear indication of where WFT is heading. Since 2009 there have been a number of high level managers VP's, etc. that have left the company. They could see the writing on the wall. The odds of Weatherford surviving and being a competitor in the U.S. market is not in their favor. With the problems Weatherford had with fines that cost them hundred's of millions, you would think the board of director would have started cleaning house from the top down. Bernard has placed himself in such a position, that WFT would have to try and borrow the money to get rid of him. To those loyal employees still there, I would suggest updating your resume's and getting them out to the companies with true leadership that know how to make money.

No, not really. I've worked for three different companies in the industry, and Weatherford has been by far the most unstable, disorganized organization of the three. With the other two I honestly never wasted a thought about it.

Which explains my naiveté (read: stupidity) in signing up with this company.

It's an oilpatch thing. Once burned, always cautious.