Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

I’ve followed this forum very closely for the past few days. In late 1999, Chevron was accumulating as much $$ as possible to acquire Texaco. My whole group was eliminated in 2000 under a downsizing program called SITE (special involuntary termination enhancement). Instead of getting two weeks of pay for every year of service, they gave us our lump sum annuity (heavily discounted due to age), plus a bit of cash, $5k towards training/development, and full medical benefits for 6 months. I thought it was fair. I was rehired in 2007. Someone in an earlier thread said “you have to pay back your lump sum if you get rehired.” It doesn’t really work that way (at least in my understanding). If I retire in a few years (if I still have that option), instead of getting the full lump sum you would normally get for the number of years you worked (plus your age), the company discounts the final lump sum taking into account the earlier lump sum that you received. What happens when you are rehired is they “bridge your service.” So say you left after 15 years of service, and you were re-hired 5 years later. When your service is “bridged” as a rehire, you start up on year 16 (instead of year 1). Also, you are 5 years older. The annuity is calculated by combining your age and service. It can be a very large number. I know many of you are bitter about leaving Chevron. When my job was eliminated in 2000, my wife was pregnant. It was stressful, don’t get me wrong. But I ended up making about twice as much money the next year doing external consulting. Hard, tiring work with a bunch of travel, but well worth it. Three things struck me when I was rehired in 2007. 1) How much bigger and global the company was (Texaco, Unocal), 2) how much more diverse the company was (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and 3) how proud our senior leadership was in beating Exxon’s ROCE. I know a lot of our sr. leadership and have always had great respect for their brainpower. As they say in the south, I think though, some of them got “too big for their britches” and started believing their own press releases. I was greatly concerned in global town halls when I heard of the number of major MCP’s and mega MCP’s ongoing. Biggest concern I had was, do we have the manpower to do a good job? I think we know the answer to that question. While our culture is PC and conflict averse to the max, I’d rather be in a culture like that than one that fires people at the drop of a hat (I’ve been in a culture like that as well). Problem is, when you don’t routinely hold people accountable for poor performance and occasionally fire someone for flat out incompetence, we get into these downsizing situations. Last point (sorry for the long post). I’m as frustrated as everyone else with what is happening. But if you have any inkling of coming back to Chevron in the future, don’t burn your bridges. I believe CVX will come out of this (hopefully stronger). I don’t know if someone with a 2- in the last three years (e.g. RAE) is considered eligible for rehire (I’m not in CNAEP or HR, not sure how it works). Alpha folks may be able to come back, since those cuts will be more about folks who are left standing after posting for a position someone else got. If you end up leaving Chevron and are considered “eligible for rehire” you can always decide not to come back. I’m just suggesting you leave your options open (can never have too many options). Good luck to all who were cut. I know how difficult this transition is and I’m pulling for each and every one of you.