Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

Record share price while employee compensation lags peers

Executives take home huge bonuses while employee attrition accelerates due to their inaction. The sh-t is about to hit the fan. We cannot succeed with the current level of attrition and lack of something HUGE to stop it. Small incremental change will be woefully inadequate to solve the attrition issue. It has to be big. It has to be now. Quit fu----g around executives and do something big.

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| 1741 views | | 5 replies (last October 24, 2022) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1jkDEwNg

5 replies (most recent on top)

DW making a choice to trend EM employee pay below peers, at same time paying new hire KM 18+ million $ in her first 5 months of employment.

KM motivated to squeeze employee pay lower and championing WE3 and campus building mothballing to justify her astronomical pay.

Focusing on reducing office space cost and headcount reduction instead of expanding exploration and reserves acquisition seems a downward slope that is unsustainable.

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Post ID: @2eff+1jkDEwNg

@zns - really interesting insights, I never knew DWW wasn’t ever a “real engineer” contrary to how his image is crafted/portrayed by the company.

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Post ID: @2oac+1jkDEwNg

@zns+1jkDEwNg I just listened to the podcast....very interesting and does make you think DWW playbook is straight out of business school, his actions are shrinking the company but increasing profits....which only works for a certain amount of time. If you destroy employee goodwill it will only come back to bit eventually

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Post ID: @1pkj+1jkDEwNg

Heard that raises will be same as last year or less.

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Post ID: @rxl+1jkDEwNg

Don't expect it happen. Great podcast on Freakonomics on the stagnation of wages at companies run by CEO's with MBA.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-m-b-a-s-to-blame-for-wage-stagnation/

Recent research by MIT professor. Companies run by MBA's on average drop employee pay by 6% versus peers within 5 years. DWW is following his training. Sure he has an an electrical engineering degree from UT but immediately after an MBA from Northwestern. He did not come up through the trenches. He was hired in to Exxon Corp International (ECI) as part of a special MBA program. It was fast rotations through jobs (never long enough to see his mistakes, hence infallible). Most of his early years were in the UK (that deserves a separate post on the effect of familiarity bias and the predominance of UK senior managers at EM). The program was move up or out. Very few of that program are left at EM. He is now in year 5 of CEO and what do you see...wages going down versus peers.

He is an outlier as an MBA CEO. He is the first MBA CEO in recorded history for Exxon.
Clifton Garvin, Masters in ChE after serving in WWII, started as Process engineer at BR
Lawrence Rawl, Petroleum Engineer after WWII, started as a drilling engineer for Humble
Lee Raymond, PhD ChE, started as a production research engineer
Rex Tillerson, Civil Engineer, started as a production engineer

As a CEO with an MBA he is an outlier in the industry:
Mike Wirth, Chevron, ChE, started as a design engineer
Ben van Beurden, Shell, ChE, production engineer in North Sea
Scott Sheffield, Pioneer CEO, Reservoir engineer for Amoco
Vicki Hollub, Occidental CEO, Minerals Engineer, started on oil rigs in USGC
Lee Tillman, Marathon Oil, PhD ChE, former EMDC, started as a research engineer
Michael Hennigan, Marathon Petroleum, ChE, started at Sun Marcus Hook refinery

So, he is following his training of MBA school. The Milton Friedman ethos of shareholder value at all costs, the workforce is not a resource but is a cost to be reduced. It is a pattern that is true for the MBA CEOs writ large. I highly recommend the podcast. Many parallels to what you see playing out.

If you expect that there will be an awakening, a change, you will be disappointed.

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Post ID: @zns+1jkDEwNg

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