There are a lot of rumors floating around that management is pushing for big reduction in finance groups, they say much of the work can go to consultants. Heard some firms have already pitched how they will be cheaper than employees. Anyone else know who will be impacted?
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The accounting function provides more than just regulatory reporting, and the internal reporting is not a commodity function. BP outsourced accounting years back, and it was a total mess. Any time they needed a new report that wasn't in the original contract, it cost them money. The outsourced accountants also completely screwed up the Upstream joint interest billings, which ended up costing BP many millions.
There are a few hundred EMIT staff supporting accounting and finance. Don't forget that the SAP systems aren't for accounting only, but also provide logistics, transportation, procurement, and other functions that have nothing to do with finance.
Please share additional insights on finance functions. Thousands of lives and families are at stake. #weareexxonmobil
The company can / likely will cut deeply across the board - there is no need to pick on EMIT As a function or admins as a group. The OPs question was about ‘finance’ as a function - e.g. tax, controllers, treasurers. Anybody have any additional intel on the OPs question?
At least cut some admins, they weren’t so busy before the current crisis that they couldn’t spend 3-5 hours a day on the phone gossiping or making doctor’s appts for their kids. No one is turning in expense reports or needing them to book travel or meeting rooms, they have NOTHING to do now
Besides being overstaffed for years, EMIT has suffered from having unqualified folks in key positions. The Agile re-org made things so much worse in so many ways....
Easier to sell it off to a third party than try to fix it.
There are more IT people than all engineers & Geos in the Upstream. Support services will need to be cut dramatically, especially IT.
There are not “thousands” of EMIT people who support FIN. It’s in the the low hundreds.
Sincerely,
An EMIT person who supports FIN
@1buu plenty of BMWs in Bengaluru these days, your son could do very well out there as a certified tech from the US
What will happen next is that the FIN managers will replace all emps with contractors. That way, they are the only ones who stay. This is the common pattern among all business lines at EM. The lower you are in the ladder, the more chances you are getting booted out. #weareexxonmobil
There are thousands of EMIT folks who support FIN. The FTP project is another story, although we've already terminated most of the contractors but still has significant EMIT resources supporting FIN. Suggest start with EMIT.
What competitive advantage do our financial employees bring. It’s a commodity service that is highly regulated. Why we hire employees for this is beyond me
Re comment below
In an AP employee forum, 40% is supposed to be the number required to make us competitive - not ‘water cooler’ not ‘rumours’, not ‘hyperbolic’, simply Quoting senior management
“would appreciate if you could provide more perspective / detail. Openly talking where- Water cooler talk? Mid management rumors in Houston? Meeting in Dallas? Action sound reasonable but percentage seems over the top/ hyperbolic.....”
I can confirm these moves are in the very early stages. Add on ~3ish months and you’re looking at round 1 cuts in early 2021
The should remove HR as well, OE is a joke..
There will not be a bankruptcy filing. Alot more capex and people can be cut to prevent that.
@1buu not sure what your implying?
I have an MS in Chemistry and then an MBA paid for by EM.
CL28 - technical.
My son - despite my best wishes - is a certified BMW mechanic.
But can't do that job from Bangalore.
Poor kid.
@ocn. - would appreciate if you could provide more perspective / detail. Openly talking where- Water cooler talk? Mid management rumors in Houston? Meeting in Dallas? Action sound reasonable but percentage seems over the top/ hyperbolic.....
Most what controllers do can be reduced to 1/10 the staff, almost everything law does can go to law firm, and tax to big 4. Old model is collapsing fast. These functions won’t look same by Christmas.
1 VP salary = 8 junior employees. They will cut everyone junior loose before this is over. Have seen this happen in many many companies, think of Borders, Circuit city, ATT. They only have c suit walking empty halls towards the end...
Openly talking about 40% cuts across the board to overheads, this means all the service functions Controllers, Law, Tax, Business Service Centres, SHE, etc etc
The finance groups are fairly small. Treasurer's probably has fewer than 300 worldwide. Yes they will be reduced in size., but this is not a large number of people.. Accounting is not finance...There are many revenue accountants, project accountants and payables accountants and fianancial reporting accountants. Fewer projects means less need for project accounting
They can’t get rid of everyone doing finance, we will need them when we file bankruptcy. S—s for all the older people because we are pretty much stuck but young guys need to jump ship as soon as they can.
Management will work very very hard to get rid of anyone and everyone "else" to be able to save their jobs and renumeration. Going forward this is the only purpose and objective of ExxonMobil management.
Yep. I’ll make it easier for everyone - ALL functions are planned to be gutted / outsourced. Even highly technical jobs. It’s a reality.