In my last post, I discussed some of the issues that the recently departed may be facing. I then recently realized that I have neglected to address some critical areas in which those who are still with Chevron, but fear may be leaving soon, need to manage now. Some of these will be obvious, but some you may not have thought of, so bear it out. Fair warning: this note may not be as healthy or uplifting, and may actually have a tone of paranoia compared to my previous missives; but for those who remain in the CVX quagmire, more than a touch of looking back over your shoulder often is not a bad thing right now. When your time comes, it will be quick and sudden, and you will not have the opportunity to do any of this once you are informed. The reasons for this is that you will be asked to turn in your SmartBadge and company phone, and you will then be escorted from the building/facility by CBRES mercenaries, and possibly local law enforcement, as well. Do not count on NetGIL or any other type of remote access, as the company has that routine locked down now. Bottom line: you will no longer have any access to the CVX network, and will not be able to count on any remaining "friends" in your workgroup to dig up information for you, as they will be far more concerned with their future than yours. So, to ensure that you are best protected and have all of the information that you may need for any future career management or even litigation, do the following as soon as practicable. 1) Back up everything on your P: drive and C: drive to a personal USB hard or flash drive. Chevron is one of the few majors out there that still allows unlimited access to the USB ports on your PCs, so take full advantage of it now, before it disappears. Btw, don't bother trying to delete anything on any company drives, including your C: drive; it's all backed up on company servers anyway. 2) Move all of your email, including all of your Sent items (this can be critical) to .pst folders, and back all of those up to your personal drives. Repeat this at least once per week, if not the last thing you do every day before leaving the office. 3) Back up any and all files from O: drives and internal SharePoint sites to personal drives, before they complete the process of locking them down. Take anything and everything even remotely of potential value, either to litigation against Chevron or to benefit your future career. I'm happy to entertain arguments concerning the ethics and legalities of this, boys and girls, but those who accept that challenge probably already know their jobs are secure. Just be prepared to explain how this practice would be any less ethical or legal than any actions Chevron typically takes in the course of it's routine business. Remember The Real Chevron Way, folks: strong ethics won't pay the bills, but no ethics at all will pay for all the useless staff, bloated non-value adding departments, and overdue and over budgeted projects you want. Be sure to copy to your C: drive first, then disconnect from the CVX network before backing up to an external personal drive. Important Note: Make a list of everything you may possibly want, and do this ONCE ONLY - some have not had a second chance. Large capacity USB hard drives are very inexpensive these days, and you can literally walk out the front door with the farm in your pocket, especially those of you in the Geosciences, Finance, or SCM groups. On that note, ensure that you take these portable drives home with you. Better yet, if you have a laptop, do all of the above from home via VPN, if you have a fast broadband connection. Yes, it sounds obvious, but I've known folks who did all of this, locked their external drives up in a cabinet in their office, and were then unable to get to them once they were handed the red card. And, finally, 4) Begin moving any physical items that you value from your office to your home. Again, once the ax falls, all of that will be off limits to you, so take it now. It is very much crunch time, folks (even more so than when I first wrote this), so move quickly and smartly. And, with that, I will say so long for now, until next time...
12 replies (most recent on top)
Haha he said you are "below par". I'm not a golf expert but below par is a good thing. Haha you burned yourself bromato chip! Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to groupon.
Everyone should start slowly taking personal affects home. Don't keep anything of value at your workstation. Backup any files you think are important to a thumb drive. Delete all useless and personal files from the C and P drives. Make a broad contact list with the email, work phone and mobile numbers to anyone you think could help you later. Start brushing up your resume and GO-400. Collect all your past years of signed final PMP printouts or ePMP and take them home today. Keep only the essential things at work that can be brought home with you in one grab bag. If you have a company mobile, backup everything and know how to wipe it clean on a moments notice. Go into the HR website from work and save PDF copies of all your paycheck statements for the last 3 years or more. It won't be available to you after the company cuts you off. You can access your benefits side of the HR website from home, but not the paycheck side of that site. Prepare a "To-Do" list to not forget anything.
@1hym, the person you chastise is actually "taking the high road", IMO. That person indicated leaving the Chevron data behind in a flat file and taking his sophisticated spreadsheets with him. Frankly, I'd do the same thing if Chevron laid me off for only having a redundant job position. What use would you have for taking Chevron data to a new job? Absolutely none, because it has no value. Now, depriving Chevron of a useful tool for handling that data and taking it with you to retool and apply in your new job elsewhere, is profitable and just - IMO.
If it contains Chevron information it's not your data. The "eff them" attitude will in actuality only do the same to your family and your future. Take the high road.
Yes, everything is or can be watched or monitored. Disconnecting your laptop from the network while you back something up won't change a thing. There are audit trails and forensic tools available to any company that would stun you. Trust me when I tell you that ESPN, GQ, NASCAR, Groupon, etc, comprise a ton of traffic on our networks. Less time spent on these sites and more on managing costs would have prevented the MCP bloat we're now dealing with.
Hey @1quk, the manner how you frame your thoughts and your choice of words is evident you don't amount to much. You are a below par. You go ahead and leave your intellectual property to Chrvron. I'm sure it will end up in the trash. My intellectual property, no matter what the "law" says, stays with me. I'll take it with me and profit from it. I do unto others as they do unto me, because I have pride and integrity.
Ya'll can Whine and cry like little bitty pitiful babies all that you want and spout profanities like teenage kids "F___k them, blah blah duhee Beavis, like you're 13, but the truth is anything that you worked on or created, even partially, during company time, is company property. That's not an opinion. It's the law.
Grow up, children. Enjoy your time with the rest of the Dead Wood on the woodpile.
@nvd, I'm with you and share your view. I'd do the same thing. I would leave Chevron with a flat file (their data) and take your product with you. Don't leave them anything that's not theirs. F--- them.
My reference material may contain Chevron proprietary information, but the tool (sophisticated spreadsheet databases) that I built from scratch IS MINE. At least that's my view. The company profited from my intellectual property (my brain and my talent) then let me go because they thought my job was redundant. Fine, but that doesn't mean TO ME that I need to turnover squat. They still own their information. What I take with me to my next employer is what I built and can retool in my new job to make me recognized quickly. Chevron screwed me so I'm doing unto them what they did to me.
Never give up your reference material or your vendor contacts.
That's so stupid. If you're not a smart, resourceful and talented enough employee on your own, stealing all of that intellectual company property won't help you. You need to stand in your own truth, people. I've been through it a few times with different companies. You never use that old data and stuff (And I have a boatload of it). You use what's in your head, and your own talents and you remember all of your best contacts. You don't automatically forget everything just because you got laid off. It's not an episode of the TV show "Blind Spot". No new employer wants your old company's proprietary data and they don't want you if you stole it. Run free, people, be free, and stand in your own truth, Honestly. You'll be fine.
thanks you so much, god bless you
another great post from you