Actually folks, it is not easy being in management and having to make decisions that impact the livelihood of your employees and their families. I agree that some folks don't belong in management, but others are dealing with the hand they, too, have been dealt. You may not understand the stress of the preparation of a layoff - you review employee records, tenure, work area, etc and make the best decision as objectively as possible. Then you sit on this information for a long period of time while having to interact with your colleagues and pretend all is well. It is a very stressful and painful time for those managers who do have a heart. I see a common thread in a lot of posts..... managers are worthless and should go first. You know something? If you think you can do better, work yourself into a manager's role and be the difference. Being a manager is equally, or more so, thankless than being an employee. If things go right, you're good; if they don't, you're in the cross hairs. It is easy to get frustrated and look at your own situation, but do try to view it objectively and look at the other side, too. Been there, done that, and have the ulcers as evidence of the difficulty in prepping for a RIF.
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Amen 7380. A top down cleaning would do a lot more for the company. Granted none of us are oil Industry experts or we would be sitting in offices. But it just seems to make sense. Look at the people with the large amount of responsibility and salaries to match. They are the ones that can change the entire culture of a company. The common worker has to play a part in that but good leadership can easily start us down the right path. I don't blame this 100% on management. But think of management like birds in a tree. When we look up all we see are a@# holes and when they look down all they see is sh#@. That's part of the culture that needs to be changed. It shouldn't feel as if it's us versus them. Sorry about the rambling but like everyone else my mind is all over the place with this stuff going on.
I so agree with the manager's post..and in a downturn, nobody's job is guaranteed, including this manager's. 30 yrs. in this business has trained us to be ever aware of this industry's rise and fall. No work here for us either right now and it's going to get much worse by mid summer. All those months of working, missed holidays, no days off, we funded a savings account. Now with all this time off, we plan on doing a bit of traveling and finally relaxing from the rat race of "on call". Best of luck to everyone. Roll with this..it will come back.
I feel for ya Manager. It sounds like it's about as likely to happen to you as much as any of us. Question: are you seeing anything on this site that makes you think about what you'd do different if we weren't in this situation? Would you try to be a little more fair? Would you get rid of your Purcasing manager that can't run his department so ends up blaming everything on his people? How many people in that department have to be miserable and complain before you figure out the common denominator? How many peoples jobs could be saved by eliminating a non performing manager and keeping the actual worker bees? Instead of laying off a % of headcount - why doesn't the company look at saving money by eliminating some of the big salarys?
Agreed 72935. It's pretty d@mn hard to have a decade of experience and extensive knowledge in a pl that doesn't translate to anything else. Being a specialist in something means jack crap when it comes to looking at other jobs outside of the oilfield for similar pay. If you're never given an oppurtunity for supervisory or management role, because hiring friends without knowledge of the product is acceptable, you're left with basically a useless skill-set until the industry turns around. Now, I'm not so naive to think this doesn't happen everywhere, but this contributes to the problem. For those who didn't save, I hope you learned a valuable lesson. I can only hope that I find something decent before my well runs dry. Good luck everyone.
Easy for a manager to say. It's a little easier for a manager to find another job. Management is management is management. For the actual "workers" it's not as easy. We all don't have a resume like yours. What makes all of this bad is management will say I don't know anything about a layoff then it happens the next day. A little transparency would be appreciated.
Its no ones fault, this bubble was bound to burst. it's just that so many of the young people have gone thruogh this before. it is a never ending cycle of boom to bust in the oilfield. it will happen over and over, and the companies will still go on with or without you, never missing a beat. its not for the timid weak of heart or weather its fair or not. Lifes not fair move find something else and look at it as an opportunity to make changes and learn from the past.
Ulcers huh? Oh please, is your family fractured? Did you have to face the humiliation of being walked out like a criminal? Did you have to watch in pain as family shed tears? We're you asked by your 3 year old, "Mommy, are we going to be homeless?" If the answers to all of those questions is no, ulcers are the least part of your problems!
This would be possible if this shitty company ever promoted or rewarded those who were good and worked hard by moving them up to management roles. However, with Weatherford they do not promote from within and hire people from other companies first thus leaving those hard workers in the crosshairs at all times for a layoff.
How are your ulcers now?