36 years really did go by in a hurry. What did i learn about folks in that period of time? The majority of folks in my early career were stand up employees. We cared about our company and our jobs. Then during the late 90's we started getting the "participant award" employees that thought that they desevered everything "just because". This is very evident in the posts on this board of the whiners and haters. Whiners are a useless sort that hang around with the "never-going-anywhere" haters. If you can't get past the fact that the world was not made just for you, take your grade school "participant" trophies and go cry on Mommy's shoulder, she will console you. The whiners and haters can rag on this post and say bad things about on old employee that was "past his prime" and should have went a long time ago, but the reason I was around so long, is because, "I gave value to the company" PERIOD. So, to the young whipper snappers, just remember, "The days fly by, ere long you too will grow old" ["The Frost" by Tzu Yeh].
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I spent 10 years sleeping with management to provide for my family and now they cut me loose. All those gross men I did things with and then the butch women I had to please. None stood up for me when I was let go.
I have worked with a lot of these “participant award” employees and many of them are great to work with, have a lot of ideas and an open mind (I am not a young person, but a 20 year hand). Any one of the young engineers I worked with could pick up the technical skills needed to do well at COP, but none of the old farts could learn any new tricks and most were very stingy with trying to assist them with things. I was so sick and tired of hearing the old farts complain that these new personnel cannot communicate when it was them that s---ed at it. In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of new ways to do things that are faster and more efficient (example is AutoCAD vs. hand drawing a P&ID). How many of you went out and actually learned about social media (text, Instagram, twitter, Facebook, etc.) so you could function with them? Not many. All I heard was a bunch of complaints that these young folks cannot communicate only to find out the old fart complaining would only answer his phone and never respond to a text, IM or answer emails timely. And in essence, this is why COP ended up the way it did. It did not adapt to things after the split and operate as an independent – I have worked for a few, so I know how they operate unlike most of you COP lifers. I don’t want to hear that “everyone laid people off” as that is not true – just ask someone that works at OXY. The old farts have been laying the tracks for this train wreck for a long time with your poor decisions, piles of paper work or “make work”, endless processes & procedures, redundancies and inefficiencies. Good grief, if anyone should be commenting about whiners and complainers it should be the young people that got let go after putting up with you all.
I retired from Conoco in 92 ,I was so happy. I never saw so many fast trackers trying to get to the top of the pyramid, Not caring who they stepped on
I am a old dude, and anybody that is blind loyal to a company is a s---er.....Period!
OP, you sound like a great person. I can only comment on the dude who I worked with who was not only past his prime, but as the senior engineer on the project, he hoarded all the best (and technically interesting) work, leaving only mundane, repetitive, or ill-posed work for any of the junior engineers. I get it, experience matters, but to screw over an entire younger generation so that he could have something fun to work on was just selfish. Or, maybe that is how he survived all this time. There was no mentoring, no helpful conversation; just grumpy old guy who always said "that's my project, you can have it when I'm gone". Well, he's gone. Finally.
large companies aren't about value anymore.
they're about being a yes-man.
Thanks for all your years of service!
i met senior folks that added tremendous value and some that were waiting to get packaged out. Either way most of the people were good people and wish them all the best...add value and be smart or milk the cow as long as you can...
as for your comments..."back in my day BS....not your day anymore...its my day...."
All the best on your retirement and thank you for mentoring the young ones.
As my old and wise Aunt Mary used to say about the character of this latest malformed generation "That's the way you raised them, that's the way you've got them"
Being a 63 yr old COP retiree, I do relate to most words of the OP retireadandlovingit. Though I don't agree with any of the reply by JGqkjuo-wae, I do see the reply as Donald-like, off-point, wondering, hateful, non factual, threatening... Hillary is right about the post-fiancial crisis workforce as damaged in expectation, upset with their current circumsatances, blaming the elders... Ripe time for psychotherapists for the younger year generation of "children-in-mind with adult bodies"
No, you didn't provide value but were the guy we kept around to help defend the actions of the company over the years. Don't worry, we got your user log id and will be following up shortly with some "discussions" around your package - it's not good news but thought you should know about it