Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Beard's gonna take people first then assets.

Beard = Big sign bonus?

Speaking of the beard and alum, some say it is good for shaving. Anyone try it?

A little more than 1/4 twitters.

I’d like to report a theft…

Fear the Beard.

Huh…what happened to the Rockies BU post about HW and KM change out? Too sensitive??

$4.1 billion + $8 billion debt.

I just remembered they picked us up for only $5 billion (plus debt, I know). What an absolute steal. And what a shitshow of debt/financial mismanagement

Noble management juiced their severance packages right before they started shopping the company and then dropped it in Chevron's lap. They had other options but those would have required them to continue working. They were tired and wanted out. They witnessed the Anadarko debacle, threw in a little pandemic panic and took advantage.

But the world has changed. Our cheese has moved. California is going to sue us for excess profits. The great transition has started. We may end up like tobacco stocks. Oil stocks suck compared to the rest of the market the last 10 years, including ours. We are circling the drain so doing the old same old is not going to cut it. Wake up.

@bmuw, your insights are spot on. Take it from someone who prefers to keep a low profile (retirement's not that far away!), it wasn't always like this. JW and DO'R had their share of bad managers and cronyism, but the company didn't waver from its only purpose for existing - to find, produce, and market petroleum products. That all changed with MW. At least the last 15 years of his career, he has done nothing but layoff cycles, scale down operations (so much for integrity and safety), and jump from one trendy social engineering initiative to another. If you want proof of this, just go back to an Annual Report from, say, 2007, and compare it to the 2021 AR. You'd hardly know they were describing the same company. Circa 2007 had strong, definitive corporate strategies, currently we have a number of "loose thread" strategies which are more trendy than growth-related.

Other things that have taken me by surprise…amount of nepotism evident (kids, spouses, etc), the push for digital garbage and as OP mentioned meaningless, low value work initiatives - all which consequently serve as distractions to the core work folks don’t seem to know how to do, the manipulation of data and benchmarking all to paint a very sl--t view of the results (recent post on fatality are great examples)…begs the question of integrity in general….the list goes on and on but those are a few to add. Yes noble was far from perfect but a main difference was…we never tried to pass ourselves for a top tier O&G company like chevron touts they are. Financial results may look good but if you look under the hood and at the day to day - Safety record is abysmal and seems to not matter and There is a large unhappy, Disgruntled workforce who are there to just to collect a pay check.

Put all this discussion in this context: Noble was a consolation prize. Anadarko was the real intended target.

@3cbv+1lCLEogv Who are you talking to old man? Wrong thread.

@4kbs,
No, just pointing out the obvious that Noble was a poorly run company. Whether than extended past its upper management is unknown at best. I would expect that most intelligent people would prefer not to work for a company managed by mo--ns.

No arguments NBL upper management were clowns, and came up losing on a number of bad bets. But to be fair, this deal was almost certainly in place before the pandemic. They new they were screwed and it’s public record theyd been directed by the board to sell asap. Chevron wanted/needed something to bolster reserves following the anadarko debacle.

And let’s face it - if CVX was NBL’s size and asked to the same amount, it would’ve bankrupted years ago. You all would’ve been arguing about OE initiatives and playing career game of throwns as it all burned to the ground.

@4tke, fair enough, but what in heaven's name has that got to do with the average joe or jane looking at a layoff's board? you think there are upper management on here, lol now that's rich.

Those are fair criticisms of Chevron. Now lets talk about the company that ran itself into near bankruptcy and then sold out for dimes on the dollar.

Why on earth are you wearing a skirt to work anyhow??

NBL was a shitco that threw in the towel at the depth of 2020 and sold at the worst possible time ever in O&G history. Chevron, for all its woes, is a better place for branding, network, and career reset from a shitco.

It is funny how the gradual decline of Chevron has horrified Chevroids. The company is a shell of its former self. But it is fabulous compared to Noble which had almost no opportunisties at all. The Chevron people, after watching the slo mo dismantling of the business and collapse of half a dozen businesses, were thrilled to see the first decent assets in over a decade in Egypt and Colorado. The Noble people were like kids at Disneyland, so excited to have more than three offices, etc.

I have stayed and was a top performer at Noble. There have been some setbacks and frustration, but I believe I made the right choice. My experience has been that if you make an attempt to really integrate and network there are a lot of great opportunities for growth. It’s important to recognize that noble wasn’t a top tier independent, and while we had some talent, we weren’t as good as many of our peers. I’ve seen some great talent move on, but it’s been more due to liking a smaller company. I don’t love it here, but it’s way better than going to a tiny shitco. Fair disclosure: I do not work for HR and am not a troll. If they’d pay me to be one and shitpost I would though.

NBL was a clownshow itself with a bunch management hacks. Get real buddy

Que the kool- aid drinking trolls! Enjoy your career of self congratulation, pointless initiatives, and corporate masturbation.

You might get rich, but you’ll be shallow, talentless, and empty inside.

@1dhf, and just think, you learned all that from reading the posters here on the layoff site where you live full time. You didn't even have to look in the mirror to learn about yourself.

I’m amused by how inherently exceptional all the lifers/koollaid drinkers believe they are. As though somehow working at chevron means all things we do are the best, and how much disdain they have for anything external that isn’t Exxon.

But when I look around, apart from the the benefits you get from enormous scale, I see little-to-no innovation, break throughs, advancements, etc. in fact rarely find basic competency in roles. Like most large/stagnating companies - those things come through acquisitions.

You don't need to tell that to the troll who calls everyone popcorn, he lives here ever since he discovered the interwebs!

Yes, it’s doesn’t take long to figure out. You can stay!

Well said, Popcorn!

You missed the acknowledgement of the official chevroid loser website - the layoff.com. For all the people at CVX who dream about actually having a career, a legitimate profession, a life that has meaning and also one day learning how social media works. This is home!

I stayed on after the merger but had to leave at some point. The people were great but they didn't understand what it means to actually do something as opposed to talking about doing something. On top of that, my area of responsibility was so narrow compared to what I did before. I felt like I was regressing and began to question my abilities.

Now on to something more like Noble, but with good senior leadership. I feel challenged, valued and productive. I'm learning, growing and actually getting stuff done again. Chevron's a great place for many people. In the end, it's a trade off between job security (important in these times) and job satisfaction. For me, I'll trade a micro-aggression awareness meeting for a project execution celebration party any day.

If you wanted out of Noble and into Chevron before the merger you stayed. Otherwise, move where’ve you would prefer to work. That’s why nearly everyone is gone. Same with Unocal (2005 merger) - only the bottom of the barrel stuck around.

Personally, I saw most colleagues leave within the first year - and then more steady departure rate after.

Interestingly, the smartest/most talented were the first to go. Saw the writing on the wall sooner than the rest of us I suppose.

@grk+1 - it would be fascinating to see the stats, %remaining, and how this has changed over the past few years until now.

All reasons I left…good people, but I wasn’t ready to collect a paycheck and go nowhere the rest of my career

Wait - how many of us are even remaining? Most of my cohort has moved on.

What did you miss? Nothing. What you're observing is the difference between a small, always-struggling-to stay-ahead small company and a big, lumbering giant that has enough legacy momentum to spend an inordinate amount of its resources (people and money) on peripheral, trendy issues rather than continuing to grow the company. Chevron's nepotism and cronyism, while not unique to the industry, is certainly accentuated. You are also right, Chevron retired or laid off all its 'technical knowledge' 2015-2020, and instead is enamored with its book-smart, experience-poor college grads.