The anxiety, from ALL employees, is palpable. A lot of people are in fear of losing their jobs and morale and efficiency are affected. To be honest, some needed to go - they were burnt out and otherwise unproductive. It's a shame though how many good, hardworking people have and will lose their livelihood in the name of the bottom line and dollar. Not that Chevron is a charity, although it bills itself as such with its community programs - it WAS a great, diverse place to work, drawing together individuals with varied backgrounds across of spectrum of industries and that's what made it First Class. Rather than take advantage of the downturn, though, and position itself for success after oil prices recover (and they WILL recover, we are talking about a scarce resource here with only a few fledgling alternatives), it has chosen to sacrifice its human capital and experience for short-term savings. Instead of training employees to be better and more efficient at their jobs when the recovery occurs they are placing people in positions that are not their area of expertise and risking a lot in the process. How do you replace knowledge and experience once the upturn occurs? The attitude seems to be that they will just rehire these desperate, out of work individuals at a premium benefitting the company. It doesn't work that way folks! Many will have moved on to happier hunting grounds, others will be embittered by how they were treated and not return, and those that do will demand higher wages to compensate them for the volatility of the industry. Sure the company will survive, but they will be lagging behind other companies such as Aera who are retaining their talent. Instead of being posed to excel during a recovery they will be struggling and scrambling to replace knowledge and experience with inexperienced people with paper degrees that mean nothing and will lose out on what would otherwise be marvelous gains. This behavior is what created the debacle in the first place, and the the management responsible for this through their lack of foresight and planning will still be making the decisions while those who carry out the marching orders are the ones who will have suffered. The term stakeholder once encompassed employees, business partners and shareholders alike but now seems geared exclusively toward shareholders, the majority of which do not make up the heart and soul of the company. All I can say is when my time comes I will be relieved to be out of this mess, as are those who have gone before me, and it is the company that will pay, literally and figuratively. I hope the short-term gains are worth it. The lack of foresight and long term planning could have forestall ed this, but that same continued behavior is only gearing the company for further disaster, regardless of the price of oil.
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Good summary of the current situation and likely future. I'm still a stokeholder so I hope the company comes through this storm. And I have many admirable colleagues that bring value to the stock. I wish them the best. But I've lost faith in the management team. In one way, shape or form, the management team (PSG 25+) can only claim successes of the past if they also own up to failures AND FIX THEM! The buck stops no where in Chevron currently. That's disgraceful. It's not leadership. It's Corporate welfare. There are things I still admire about this company. But the problems are systemic and chronic and go right to the culture of the organization. Without a team of leaders with a consistent plan and hand at wheel in every function instead of individuals trying to one up each other, I fear the long term future will never regain the past successes.
If you are on the Chevron Friends and Family plan. You can breath easy, let the kickbacks roll in again. You survived another ROM.
In the end the oil & gas industry is a commodity business. Prices go up, excess productive capacity is built, then prices go down, capacity (and people) are reduced. This happened in the mid-80s, late 90s, then now in 2014 - ?. Many good people will be layed off, and may struggle to put their careers back on track. I have been there before, good luck and God speed to those affected in CVX.
thus, has it always been.................mgmt never learns and/or simply doesn't care as long as they get theirs
best thread development within 24 hours
Oil price will recover, big projects will produce and Chevron will be fine.
No sir! Chevron has substantial amount of cash to be solvent. In the very worst case, they will swallow their pride and suspend dividends in addition to more lay-offs. That will crash their stock price, senior executives will loose their jobs but the company will survive. This is an extreme scenario, I am not suggesting that it will happen.
Chevron will soon be in bankruptcy. ....
No system is perfect but I agree, it seems to work pretty well here. This is a good company with a lot of good people.
Anon 199805, I agree with Anon 199727. I haven't seen anyone leave that surprised me.
"Smart people that work hard will get to stay..."
What dream world do you live in? A lot of smart, hard-working employees have already been released. Don't think being smart or hard-working will get you anywhere right now. The up-side is you can leverage these skills for jobs elsewhere.
Wrong, Anonymous199771. This board is everyone.
You are not welcome here 199727. This board is here to trash Chevron or people that work for Chevron. Take your logic and reason somewhere else.
Op's post is little more than a rant. Look around. Every company involved in the energy industry is laying people off. It's the way it works. We hired for high oil prices and now oil prices aren't high. The result is we have too many people. Smart people that work hard will get to stay and others may not. That's business in the private sector. OP mentioned Aera. I had to look them up. They are a small company in Bakersfield, that has reduced activity resulting in considerable layoffs in the service sector. Not sure why OP called them out. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have approved both Australia projects, but if oil stayed high we would be bragging about how smart we were. We definitely need to execute better and no doubt we will. OP - relax - get a cat or maybe try yoga.
In reality, the 55+ have culled. The in-laws, sons and daughters are still here and there are new hires of friends and family starting up immediately. This is The Chevron Way.
OP- You wrote elegantly about the status of things taking place here. I and many others I know would agree with you 100%. The company is playing to the gallery (shareholders) and doing okay for now- our stock price is still in the 90's. But if Gorgon and Wheatstone does not come to fruition, we will be punished. Hope it does for all of our sake, otherwise it will be a bloodbath.
My biggest beef is how the two projects Gorgon and Wheatstone were managed. Why approve two projects producing the same commodity from the same area of the world. Does any one look at the overall risk to the company. CVX could have absorbed one project's risk, but not two. What happened to those who were involved in the planning and execution, are they still with the company. For the debacle in Australia everyone is paying causing anxiety to raise. As far as retraining, unless one has the skills it should not be done, the company can still get persons to work for them from outside Chevron.
Well said Anonymous199621. Those types of things were holding me hostage as well, however CVX laid me off in spite of it all. I am a single woman.
Well said Anonymous199621. Those types of things were holding me hostage as well, however CVX laid me off in spite of it all. I am a single woman.
Anonymous199522, is someone holding me hostage? Not someone, but something is... my 55+ years of age, the 8 years left on my mortgage, my two boys still in college, my wife's shopping habits, and the love of my work. Those things are holding me hostage to my job.
Who the f is Aera?
when my time comes I will be relieved to be out of this mess,
Is someone holding you hostage? You can leave anytime you want.
If it was as easy as "retraining" people, then it WOULD be easy. But, we all know that can't, never has, and never will work. Perhaps in a few, rare, instances. But, for the most part, people simply can not just be "retrained" (until the day comes when a computer chip can simply be replaced in their brain). All the whining about "How do you replace knowledge and experience once the upturn occurs?" is just drivel. Today, in THIS country, and with the intellectual resources available from other countries, does anyone honestly believe that Chevron, ANY O&G company, for that matter, will have the slightest problem, here? I read OP's epistle as nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to precipitate some positive feedback from his peers with an intellectually thin post for no other purpose than to assuage his battered little ego. If it makes you feel better, then,... I guess. Otherwise, stop whining and get on with it.
As a campus recruiter I went through the motions this season but when students pulled me aside one on one, I told them the truth. We are a horribly mismanaged company that has badly miscalculated and is now divesting its future.
Thanks OP, you get it. "Chevron, powered by human resources", yeah right. We will be paying for Gorgon and Wheatstone for decades to come, even if oil price recovered tomorrow. And Watson was the finance guru. I still hear him in my nightmares declaring that $100 oil is here to stay. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
"The lack of foresight and long term planning" - that kind of sums it up
Good post bro