Thread regarding Cenovus Energy layoffs

Follow up post - I can confirm the grass stays very much greener on the other side. I should have left much sooner, so refreshing to see a well managed, real oil company.

I wish all worker bees the best as you go through another round of layoffs due to the merger.

What an opportunity to get rid of utterly useless VP's, the oilsands managers club that look after themselves and their buddies and the high priced "technical experts" that haven't done anything useful in years. This alone is probably 50 to 100+ people that can be let go with no impact on the combined company. They know who they are......

In the meantime, pasta for everyone!

If you were working 5 peoples jobs, that would be a 40 hour day or 200 hours/week based on 8 hours/day/person, 5 days a week. That's impossible. Even if you worked 24 hours/day through the weekend, still not enough hours in the week for 5 peoples jobs. There are only 168 hours in a week. Are there more canadian hours in a day when converted from american hours?

What! External Communications is getting paid to troll this website now?? How do I get that job? Maybe I’d be happy at CVE too if I wasn’t working 5 peoples jobs and instead just hanging out all day trolling layoffs he he he I gotta say though no amount of trolling is gonna get the stock price up!

It's the weak that beat down a company because they feel intimidated; they feel unable to control; they feel unable to contribute; and they feel unable to meet the standard of excellence.

Then why don't you leave CVE? We'd love to see unhappy employees leave so the positive folks can work in peace, unaffected by your negative waves. Go to something better (or so you think) or stay home and share your negativity there.

It's not HR that trolls these sites, it is the External Communications group. HR job is to manage the slave pool, External Communications job is to keep the image untarnished... not doing so good in that department.

I noticed HR didn’t get cut during the layoffs. I bet that’s because Bangs wants them to troll these sites and put positive spins on everyone’s complaints. I have a lot of respect for our VP of Communications and don’t think she’d put her team up to this. Hope not! Maybe Alex is spending his evenings trolling the sites and responding with why are you still here. He’s not doing much else!

Maybe you folks should go work at ECA if it is better?

@S1A2Hjo-5qln Reply to protected, chosen POSTER

Clearly a post from someone tasked to protect Cenovus' public reputation... My statement is 100% accurate. Has nothing to do with skill set. The person(s) asked for a package and was given one. - Nothing more to debate.

Time for a new beginning. The new CEO has a huge battle ahead of him. Still have hope the moral will improve. - Missing the ECA days.

Interesting how a post like I made brings out so many emotions, mostly negative. It truly is a sad situation, how once a great company under ECA and then the first few years of CVE can go downhill like it did, due to such poor management decision making.

I never thought I would ever have to leave CVE and my 2 predessor companies, ever. I am not sour at the company, just sad. And I really do wish the remaining worker bees all the best. You are good people.

And to the folks let go, I feel for you. I have chatted to well over 20 of you over the last few weeks and I will continue to keep my ears to the ground for work for you. You are good people.

When your VP can't stay awake in a meeting, yet he is kept around, I knew I had to go. Not bitter at all, just sad. Sigh....

protected, chosen POSTER, Are you sure you know all the circumstances of the situation(s)?

Sometimes companies do that to avoid cutting folks that want to keep their jobs in specific departments or functions. Usually happens when multiple people have the same skills and not all are needed. Some want to stay, some want to go and it becomes a win-win for the employees.

At a prior company multiple people had the same skills in a department, but the senior folks were ready to move on, while the younger had local connections and family in the area, they had kids in local schools. If the company doesn't need them all, isn't it best to grant their wish rather than disrupting families?

A handful of "protected, chosen" CVE Employees asked for packages and guess what.. Their wish was granted. Just another example how Cenovus Operates. Its all about who you're aligned with.

Da... yah no kidding people are bitter and sour after having received notice.

Don't kid yourselves folks, its the job of external communications to portray CVE in a positive light. They monitor these sites and try to put a positive spin on things. if post are potentially too damaging they use whatever means to have them removed. Whatever happened to the post about safety people at site and safety engineers getting layed off just before the fatality? Curious how it just "disappeared". Potentially a very damaging image to Cenovus that advertises putting safety first. The execs are not nearly as safety savy as they would like you to believe, some of the s__t that is said behind closed doors is beyond belief.

Anybody that leaves is far better off. Yes there are good people left behind, time will tell if there are enough of them to influence the system for the better, I have my doubts.

It's interesting. Employees that leave or are cut, are usually sour. What are they going to say, "I left on my accord even though I love working at the company and I will miss it and I prefer to stay!" Of course they are sour, that's why they left.

Folks, don't let the sourness of former employees sway your positive attitude.

Why didn't you leave much, much sooner? Oil has been less than $100/bbl for a while now.

Have you guys noticed there is a poster(s) here now that talk like HR/communications. I mean the new CEO really has things figured out by getting them to do this lol. "In the end it will be a company with employees that want to remain, employees the company has deemed valuable. At the same time, having a new outsider CEO will bring fresh insight". Yeah the smart employees are all leaving... why the hell would a good employee stay in a failing company with poor morale and a CEO that has no clue what he is doing. Of course not to take any credits away from the other execs.I was a top performing engineer for the company every year I worked there, but I had enough of this nonsense. I could not believe the people in charge from the execs to a lot of VPs and senior engineers. All of them were promoted during the good times and now they are running around trying to figure out how to run a company when oil is not at 100$/bbl. I am happy since I had a job lined up in a good company, here they actually know what the hell is a business. The people in charge all are educated, experienced and smart. It has been such a change for me. Good luck to the remaining, if you really care about the company then you need to push for change in the leadership at all levels or (in my opinion) there is no hope and that is why i left. All the best.

Packages were EXCELLENT. I’m thrilled with mine :)

There's two ways to look at it:

• The company decided to save $200k+ by not packaging you out at the risk of having to lay off an additional person.

• You risked someone else's job to try and get an extra $200k+ by not resigning before the layoffs.

Not judging. I would have done the same thing. But you and the company both made the same decision: $200k+ was worth more than saving one person's job.

Good luck in the new role. I'm more than a little envious.

Good for you, and good luck. You will be heading to greener pastures for sure.

It is logical you were not packaged out since you asked for it. For decades of service you were likely more expensive to get rid of than keep... and if you quit then they get away with no severance. Maybe they are counting on those that want a package leaving under their own power and it won't cost them a dime. Was there much thought into who was cut? I think it was mostly just an exercise of maximizing savings to CVE, regardless who was on the chopping block, unless you were a FOH of course, then you'd be safe.