I've never been laid off in my 20+ year long career (granted, I've been here for 15 of those years) but a lot of people I talk to say they've been laid off from some of their previous jobs. Some have even been laid off more than once. It never occurred to me that layoffs are something so common. How do you deal with that? How do you deal with being laid off more than once??
12 replies (most recent on top)
I’ve been through 4 major enterprise reorgs at Chevron. I survived them all because I kept up my skills and company exposure. I contributed to more than my workgroup. But there was the one thing I couldn’t do anything about that got me laid off after 30 years on the job…… my age. That’s what ended my productive career in 2017.
Layoffs are pretty general in common.
But pension better if you stay with one!
People need to change employers more frequently and just get used to it. A new gig every 3-4 years is a good thing. keeps you young and on your toze.
@4dle+
I give your post 4 out of 5 stars. You needed to throw in that you doubled your salary each time you changed jobs to get full marks.
@1rqz, No need to go to linked in, you can see them right here on this site, they are the ones posting here.........
I have been laid off twice in my thirty years: both times I was employed again in less than a year. Both times the initial layoff was a bit of a relief. The key is I have always lived on way less than I made. First time I was laid off I traveled the world for 9 months having a great time before a friend suggested me for a new position. The second time I build a log cabin in northern BC, planted a big garden and did a lot of fishing before an opportunity showed up (having the pull up stakes just before my harvest). This industry has always had ups and downs. Save on the ups and have fun on the downs: the rest tends to work out. If you can’t flow with the punches you’re not going to be happy (like the “ what’s this got to do with layoffs” guy). Sad.
There is a lot of deadwood circling the drain in our industry. They get laid off from Shell or Exxon and hired by Chevron. We lay them off and they end up at Conoco or Oxy. Another lay off and they are at Marathon or Aramco. Some go 30 years, lurching from lay-off to lay-off, completely unphased by the drama and unchanged in their lack of business, social or technical skills. You can see them on Linkedin with 10 different employers.
Honestly it sucks to be laid off. I feel for you.
Especially when you do the best for the company for 10-25 Years and then you are effectively thrown away like a piece of dirty scrap paper.
Management sucks at Chevron. It is full of deception, they take care of their hypos - whether hyoid deserve it or not.
If you are not a hypo or a protected minority you are screwed.
You are just a number that HR needs to get rid off to make their percentages. Walk around during the last days of a lay-off folks returning their laptops. Eye opener!!!
Equality and inclusion are non existent. Only on paper. It’s only to protect the HR percentage minority numbers for the optics.
All the good ole managers are long gone.
Only pricks with no backbone are left.
And when the oil is at $100+ everyone smiles.
Most of the folks that are left there hate their job. They are working only for the compensation- which is actually good.
It is quite a toxic environment with lots of soul selling, back stabbing and the Agile nonsense of making a waterfall with Sprints for id--tic PMs to keep their job. You are treated like a kindergartener at best.
Consider it a blessing that you are out!
Give it time.
Your self pity feelings will disappear. You will get a new job.
Will look back and smile.
You will also become the needed counselor of your friends who remained onboard to continue the suffering and faking in leu of the fat paycheck, Fat CIP and pension.
I say nothing but the truth.
Dare anyone to argue the above undeniable truth.
Not sure about other areas, but O&G petrotechs are now considered mercenaries by their companies, have been for about a decade now. My guess would be that some 20% have been laid off at least once. If you think that’s too high, add up the number of Chevron petrotechs laid off since 2015.
There was a period of calm in oil industry staffing ~2005-2014. Outside of that, going back to 1982, significant layoffs occur every 3-5 years. OP, you’ve been lucky, but how did you not notice the calamitous layoffs of 2015-2016 and 2020?
That may be hard on you, depending on your life goals and how career oriented you are. If you are a top quartile performer, it is very unlikely you will be laid off, even if in the wrong department as the company will find something for you. Since performance is relative, we can not all be top performers and there will naturally be people at the bottom quartile, mid range and top. If despite efforts, you are in the bottom quartile, probably you may be subject to being laid off when the company needs a reduction in workforce. I believe all people have different strengths, so maybe this person get more fulfillment from other things than the corporate job (i.e. family, side gig, jobbies, learning etc) and the impact to self esteem is not that dramatic. Market changes and employment will be found again. IF you are career oriented, with high expectation/ego, then this is a dramatic punch in the gut.