#productivity

Can BP do a proof of concept and identify those toxic personnel who benefited from the BL era and were artificially promoted in an effort to detoxify bp?

Also identify middle managers who’s claim to fame is making more process and hurdles…identifying just 20 of these operatives and discarding them would do wonders for productivity, profitability, and safety..

Either do it or don't, but keeping us guessing is getting really annoying. I'd like to be able to fully focus on my work, not have to balance between my productivity and worrying about the proverbial axe above my head all the time.

By: Sheila Dang August 24, 2026

MIDLAND, Texas — In rural west Texas where oil rigs and pump jacks dot the sparse flat landscape, an ExxonMobil contractor sits in a small office on a drilling rig, using controls on a screen to operate robotic machinery and move tall steel pipes weighing roughly 2,000 pounds.

This work would usually require human overseers standing on the rig floor, the most common location for accidents on a rig.

Exxon, the largest oil producer by volume in the U.S., operates more than 30 drilling rigs in the Permian Basin, two of which are automated rigs with robotic equipment. By 2028, the company aims to transition half of its fleet to automated rigs to reduce the need for workers to perform potentially dangerous work and increase efficiency to drill wells faster, an executive told Reuters.

The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. oilfield, revolutionized energy markets two decades ago when development of the shale basin turned the U.S. into one of the leading oil-producing countries. But the relatively quick decline rate of shale wells has prompted drillers to develop more technologies to extract the oil. Some in the industry are also concerned about when the Permian’s production could begin to decline.

Exxon plans to grow its Permian production by almost 40% to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030. By contrast, rival oil major Chevron plans to hold production steady at about 1 million boepd, focusing instead on free cash flow.

The automated drilling rigs are part of a combination of technologies and strategies Exxon is using to boost production, said Bart Cahir, Exxon‘s senior vice president of unconventional, in an interview on the rig.

“When we take people off the rig floor, those same individuals are now able to think ahead and plan for the next operation and that combination gives us efficiency,” he said. “This is the productivity play.”

The company installed its first automated rig, supplied by drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne, last year. It drilled two miles horizontally underground in a little over six days, the third fastest time in Exxon‘s history.

Exxon‘s use of automated rigs in the Permian and its goal of expanding the fleet has not been previously reported.

Reducing risk and drilling more
On one of Exxon‘s automated rigs in Midland, a gate surrounds the drilling floor with a sign reading “Red Zone: Restricted Area.” A drawing of the Grim Reaper illustrates the risk that workers face around heavy equipment and pressurized systems.

Where workers would usually help move columns of drill pipe over two stories tall, robotic arms now position the pipes and connect them to a drill string. This allows drilling to continue deeper into the wellbore.

Employees on the rig communicate with Exxon‘s central operations team in Houston to determine the precise movements the robotic system should make.

Removing workers from the so-called Red Zones allows them to focus on other operations on the rig and reduces variability in the work, meaning more feet per day can be drilled, Cahir said.

“In the history of well drilling activity, about a third of significant injuries that occur happen on the rig floor,” he said. “By getting people out of that higher risk area, we’re essentially eliminating that risk.”

Exxon plans to expand automated rigs to a quarter of the fleet next year and then half of the fleet by 2028, Cahir said.

Exxon is also developing a suite of more than 40 technologies to double its oil recovery from the Permian by the early 2030s. The shale industry typically extracts just 10% of the oil in the ground due to the tight, compacted rock.

I forgot how much noise, how much constant chatter, how many distractions there are at the office. I swear I was half as productive on the RTO days than I was when working from home, and I know there are many others in the same boat. Can somebody explain to me the logic of intentionally crippling the productivity of your entire workforce?

Open copilot and ask “What AI productivity tools is Centene considering?”

SBHP recently started using PEGA to track "productivity". However, no one has a clear answer on how it works or what it's tracking. No one in our department has above 67% and people are being told to just click around more. Obviously that's not the solution because everyone would be successful at that point. Does anyone have any clear metrics or tactics that work?

Anybody noticed that their productivity has gone down since the return to office mandate has been in place?

Me for instance, I have noticed my productivity has gone down while the hours worked and in office have increased. It's quite unmotivating being monitored for being in office for 8 hours, as well as all my activity being monitored. Needless to say I am miserable.

• Study finds remote workers are far happier and more productive
• Remote workers reported much higher well-being, but were also less likely to leave their role
• Study also dispels myth that remote workers might feel alienated from co-workers

A survey of 7,704 employees at a large US healthcare organization by researchers at the Leeds School of Business found fully remote workers reported the highest levels of well-being, with those entirely office-based reporting the lowest level.

The findings, published in Frontiers in Psychology, also noted that it was unable to discover significant evidence that remote workers felt any less connected to colleagues or workplace culture, once again disproving the myth against flexible working.

Stay flexible
"This suggests you let people work remotely if they want to work remotely," said Stefanie Johnson, professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the Leeds School of Business and co-author of the study. "Taking away people's choice of how they work is probably not going to help them in terms of their well-being."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/people-who-want-to-work-remotely-are-unsurprisingly-actually-more-productive-and-happier/ar-AA2aipIh

So your IC will take a hit if you do not meet workday persona.

Has anyone seen the data Ron used to support his BS claims about "productivity" gains while being in the office?

This guy was a loser at HP, loser on the BOD’s, and now a loser running the whole company. What was the plan here? This guy is an id--t with zero ideas and the negotiation skills of Trump. He will 100% accept a lowball offer for this company after he spends the next few months sending our share price back into the $42-$45 a share range. He has no plan and ruined productivity throughout the company.

100s of them remote and no work, how does the company afford to keep them for 5-6 yearS?

I show up at the office. I sit there for 8 hours to the exact minute.
All I do is hang out, talk to people around the office, scroll on my phone and watch Netflix on my iPad.
The best part is with this new 8&skate culture there’s really no pressure to deliver anything anymore. As long as you show up and sit you get an exceeds rating.
I’ve significantly reduced my hours and no longer feel any stress or pressure because I no longer care. I’ll stick around and keep doing the exact same thing until I’m paid to leave.
You bootlickers can keep ki-ling yourselves to pick up the slack while I get the same rating, pay, and bonus for 1/8th of the workload. You keep working hard and paying my bills while I keep chillin. Thanks!

Enrique Lores has completely lost control of this company and it’s a complete train wreck with lower and lower output from employees. Everyone keeps talking about layoffs leading to sh-t productivity. Each day is worse than the one before.

Well, Ramon and his boys promised a record year of “productivity”. That means the biggest year yet of changes and their hand in your pocket. Is anyone else walking funny yet?

I’m spending more time trying to figure out how to turn features off that were automatically changed on my Outlook. Then I am actually working because everything is so inefficient and such a pain in the @… but I can’t even turn these features off because they come right back! I hate this. I’m absolutely confident and comfortable with change, but this is just unnecessary unproductive and unwanted.

If they’re gonna put this on our computers, then they need to give us the access to make the changes we prefer in regards to Settings. I’m tired of opening up emails just to have to close out a bunch of automatic Outlook calendar invites that don’t make any sense and we’re not requested or needed!

GIVE US ACCESS TO MANAGE OUR OWN SETTINGS SO WE CAN BE PRODUCTIVE AND TURN OFF THESE DISTRACTIONS AND ANNOYANCES!!!

In organizational psychology, cronyism is directly linked to "ingratiation"—the practice of employees using flattery or sycophancy to win favors from a boss rather than performing high-quality work.The Proof: Peer-reviewed regression analysis indicates a massive positive correlation (β = 0.553, p < 0.001) between organizational cronyism and toxic ingratiation strategies. When an anti-cronyism policy is instituted and paired with objective, merit-based metrics, subsequent employee tracking shows a sharp decrease in sycophancy and a measurable rise in overall objective productivity.

If we had products people wanted to buy would we be in this situation? If we were selling products hands over fists, a lot of the issues we see today would be swept under the rug.

Placing the state of Nike right now solely on the whole innovation team for not creating or bringing to market anything that customers remotely want for the last I don’t know how many years. The last wave of Nike innovation was arguably 2017-2019 when we dropped zoomx/vaporfly/react?

I’d just wipe out that whole org, anyone a part of product design, product innovation, etc and start from scratch. Poach people from our competitors who are actually growing. Genuinely curious what people in product design/innovation have been doing the last 5+ years.

bh um is no different from all the cr-p going on! Since all the policy changes auth requests have dwindled - very litlte work to do! We point this out all the time and were asking how is all this affecting our job security - told with a smile no no….there is always work to do. Nope!!!!! No one can meet their ridiculous productivity requirements and on every 1:1 PL are told to mark us down for not meeting metrics even though there isnt enough work to do!!!!! Then they start tracking our laptops with pega to make sure were are in the applications but there is no work to do!!!!!! Im so glad i got the heck out of UM!!!!!! A nightmare!!!!!!

Starting to witness some changes and challenges both at the stakeholder and operational levels. The miracle of Covid hands off performance is starting to show. As assets age no amount of resilience will improve performance and productivity. The Covid era bubble is bursting. Expect serious declines and reductions in uptime with elevated OPC…

I can't tell you how many hours are lost every day because of faulty network or connection issues. I won't report them anymore because they go into a bottomless pit.
I just sit and stew about it. and if I'm doing that and everyone else is doing the same, think of the thousands of hours down the drain .
Such a waste. But then again, what do you expect from S running the group.

There are absolutely times when people should be together, but in reality those times are few and far between. If the work actually benefits from being face to face, great. Get everyone in the room and get your sh-t done.

But that’s not what 5x RTO has become… We’re tracking badge swipes, building dashboards, calculating hours and obsessing over whether someone’s a-s was physically in a chair for eight hours. All for… what?

So people can drive to an office, put on headphones, open Teams and work remotely from the office?… Seriously, what the fu-k are we doing?

If my entire day is Teams calls, emails, spreadsheets and work with people sitting in different buildings or different states, then forcing me to commute to do it from a cubicle isn’t collaboration. It’s pointless theater.

I could do the exact same work from my house just like I did for a decade before Covid. I’d get more done, I’d be less burned out, and AT&T wouldn’t have to waste money supporting the office just so somebody can say we were “present.”

Bring people together when there’s a reason to be together. Stop confusing physical presence with productivity. They are not aligned.

If the end result of 5x RTO is that I commute an hour to sit in a building and work remotely from my desk, then congratulations, you did it (and nothing else)!

Way to go baldo! You just reinvented working from home - with traffic. What a joke!

Having to waste more than two hours on commute is certainly not making me more productive. What it is making me is resentful and slow and absolutely unwilling to go the extra mile, something I used to do all the time. I'm betting you RTO will turn out to be the biggest productivity ki-ler.

There’s been this huge crackdown on my team within care management recently on performance and policy compliance. We’re all getting flack for our idle time, call avoidance, taking lunch too late, and on and on. Used to be no one ever checked Verint unless there was some concern about metrics, but now everyone is in the hot seat. Lots of formal coaching and PIPs all at once for objectively very minor offenses. Is it some directive from senior leadership? Maybe they’re trying to thin the herd of less productive associates before AI implementation increases our productivity expectations?

Title of post - comments for or against welcome.

Rumor around HQ today is that easing the 5x RTO policy is actually being discussed and could be on the horizon. If true, it would be about damn time.

The employee feedback has been clear. The commute is draining, morale is in the toilet, productivity has drastically decreased, and the policy is making AT&T less attractive to the exact talent it needs to retain.

Rumor is leadership is finally realizing that forcing everyone into an office five days a week wasn’t the brilliant strategy they thought it was.

Nothing is official, but if this actually happens, it would be a pretty big admission that 5x RTO went too far.

“Study finds remote workers are far happier and more productive

Remote workers reported much higher well-being, but were also less likely to leave their role

Study also dispels myth that remote workers might feel alienated from co-workers”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/taking-away-peoples-choice-probably-120000206.html

Just curious if any group in Aerospace is using AI tools? Are you accepting the rollout or rebelling against it? Are you finding it productive to your job?

Biggest bunch of Muppets I have ever dealth with

Destroyed morale, productivity down all cus they can't just execute a fricking plan regarding layoffs

Worse company EVER

Some people seem to genuinely need the office for their social life. Fine. Go in five days a week. Nobody is stopping you.

But I’m not going to work to make friends. I’m here to do a job. And we’re told loyalty is dead and we’re a market-based company, so let’s be honest about the relationship — I sell my time and expertise, AT&T pays me for it. That’s it.

I prefer working with people who can get their sh-t done without an adult babysitter watching over them. If you can’t perform from home, sitting in an office doesn’t magically make you productive. Now you’ve just added a commute and a day full of distractions.

We’re supposed to be here to work, not recreate a nursing-home social mixer five days a week.

If you need the office, have at it. Just stop making the rest of us pay for your social life.

Worker productivity saw a significant acceleration in the second quarter, outpacing expectations and helping to curb labor cost gains. Initial unemployment claims saw a slight uptick, but overall layoffs dropped to a two-year low in July, indicating a stable labor market. Economists suggest that the adoption of artificial intelligence may be contributing to this productivity surge. Despite these positive signs, the Federal Reserve may still consider interest rate hikes next month if inflation does not improve. The data suggests that AI buildout has not yet led to widespread job losses.

Washington

https://libn.com/?p=559782

I truly want to thank the leadership team for finally ending the nightmare of a productive, comfortable home environment. I’ve desperately missed the thrill of the morning commute and the illusion of "cross-team collaboration." Since my ultimate goal is to never leave the building, please let me know if I can volunteer my weekends to help the janitorial staff empty the recycling bins. I’d hate to miss out on even a single second of this vibrant workplace culture

With all the focus on productivity and transformation, should S&T also be looking at its own organizational structure?

As more infrastructure moves to cloud, the traditional I&O footprint is changing, but we still seem to have multiple organizations with overlapping responsibilities across I&O, Common Services, Tech Strategy, Deployment and Transformation. In some areas it is difficult to understand who actually owns the work versus who coordinates, governs or gets the visibility.

India Operations is another example where the operating model and accountability are not always clear. There is a perception that resource quality has declined and that PepsiCo is increasingly being used as a stepping stone, while it is not always clear how performance and outcomes are being monitored.

Common Services also seems to overlap with Operations and other teams, without a clear understanding of what it uniquely owns.

Maybe the bigger question isn’t just whether I&O should be consolidated. Should S&T be looking at simplifying its overall structure, combining overlapping organizations and reducing some of the senior leadership layers? If we expect the rest of the organization to become leaner and more efficient, shouldn’t S&T be asking the same question about itself?

The biggest thing leadership still doesn’t understand is that “the office” never created any value. The employees did.

Remote work existed long before Covid and for good reason. No wasted commute time and cost. More time with family. More flexibility. The ability to buy a home somewhere affordable instead of being forced into an expensive city just to sit in an office and take the same Teams calls they could take from home.

And then somehow stink decided to go backwards…

The arguments against remote work keep changing because the old ones don’t hold up. It was productivity. Then collaboration. Then culture. The reality is that talented people don’t need an adult babysitter watching over their shoulder to do their jobs. They need trust.

The companies that understand this will attract the best talent. The ones that don’t will keep losing the best people while wondering why engagement is falling and culture is nonexistent.

The office was never the magic. The people who deliver were. Give them what they want and let them choose where they work and deliver, then watch the productivity, culture and morale 180 from where it is right now.

I know people don't want to hear that but it's true. Hear it out.

BAIN is running the company now. That's why there is such a stark deviation from the way Dell has always operated in the past. Bain & Company is one of the top global Management Business Consulting firms - emphasis on the term "Business Management" since Dell has exercised very little of that discipline up until now.

Rest assured BAIN is going over the portfolio with a fine-toothed comb. They are looking at delayed and failed projects. They are looking at the number of employees per project. They are looking at burn rates. They are looking at abysmal productivity ratios. They are looking at fixed, variable, and sunk costs associated with underwater ROI for numerous projects that have failed year in and year out.

The truth is Dell operated with little to zero accountability in the past. Now there is accountability and people are surprised?? It should be the other way around. We should all be surprised it took MD this long to clean up the fat, the bloat, the waste, the inneficiencies, the lack of execution, the lack of accountability. And whether you want to believe it or not, he's cleaning it up to get the company ready for sale before he retires.

Granted, Wall Street loves these types of moves because layoffs in particular artificially prop up EPS on the income statement. Investors love that. However, when there's no one else to lay off, and productivity is still floating around 3%, Dell is dead in the water. That's a fact! That's why MD is trying to sell pieces/parts before it caves in on itself. Dell has run its course.

BAIN Is calling the shots now people. Get used to it. The more layoffs we have, the more you can assume long overdue waste and bloat are being discovered in the numbers.

Direct charge causes a 50% loss of productivity for anyone what works more than one project. This is an early sign of cash flow issues

But then they ask the next question, which you dread, So who are you working for? And you say Cengage. The not so polite people say what? Wait, how do you spell that? And then I found my trick is I say it's like a C and then the word engage. And then the lethal third question comes, So what do you do at Cengage? And then typically, I don't know about you, but for me, I was always struggling a little bit.

So what I want to do today with a very specific purpose is give us collective understanding of not only what we do, but why Cengage is an awesome company and why we deserve to win in the battle for the hearts and the minds of our customers.

We have an engagement survey and I can only implore you fill it out. I really do not care what you say.

Meaning it doesn't have to be like, Oh yeah, everything is great and like, but engage with it and like, say what's wrong, say what's right and engage your help with each other and help each other also not only in the survey, but also in the day-to-day, like interact with the product group, interact with the marketing group and make sure that we have a highest level of engagement because that really is a prerequisite for our productivity and our success.

What a waste of time. These guys are useless je-koffs.