Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Indonesia is the only country I know of that has the policy of 3 years max for an expat. That is a smart policy that does not allow these hangers on for life leach like expats. They also have an age limit of 55 though, which I do not like.

Itud, good luck landing expat jobs especially in Thailand the most sought after location because of the weather, perks, spinners, etc etc. Expats dont want to leave Thailand. So no question of anybody getting in there.

Are there many expat positions likely to open up in the upcoming PDC? I would very much like to go to Thailand or Singapore.

uffg, Enjoy your spinners until you come down with an incurable STD or worse. Those Asian street girls will one day give you VD that even penicillin won’t cure. Maybe then, you’d come running back to the good ole USA looking for a cure.

@TMJjyaP-topc. I would do the samething. Enjoy the spinners. Why return to old USA?

@topc, You had me going up until the last sentence. After he leaves office ending in 2024, history will show YOUR premature assessment of the President was all wrong. If I knew who you were, I’d personally wager $1,000 with all confidence you’ll be paying me.

Thailand is the quintessential expat haven. You get to more than double your take-home. Cost of life is low. Car with driver. Generous housing allowance, cost of living allowance, location premium, yada yada. Great Thai massage anytime by willing-to-please thai ladies. What is there not to like? Why go back to that old USA ruled by a despot?!

More expat contractors were released on FGP over the last few weeks due to a cost efficiency measure. Project is overrun by $600MM for this year. Expat contractors cost the company $35K per month. Jobs are being filled with locals at 1/3 the cost.

These ones in Farnborough Fluor office are a joke.

Nbcx: So your idea of being financially independent and enjoying life is spending your days trolling a layoff site.... lol.

I would be interested to know what the poster thinks is "well above 26". Maybe said poster is speaking truth, but I really doubt it.

But of course Watson made it to CEO and some said he blew all his money as soon as he got it. I find that amazing, and probably another tall tale.

Sounds like you have no clue what PSG 26 is much less be well above that. If you are financially independent and don’t need to work again in your life, what are you doing trolling a layoff site? Don’t have anything or anyone to do with all that free time? Sounds like a turd pusher to me!

Don’t worry about it, @lwii. Most people posting on here are “turd pushers” anyway.

@lgpl: oh it’s you again? The guy that brags about how much more money you can make stateside than an expat.... knowing full well that expat compensation uses what you actually make at home times a multiplier as the calculation of your compensation. 2-3 times your salary for an expat.... so unless you are in senior management... PSG 26+ you are full of it. If you are in this group then you would make that much more abroad.

I liked the comment about buying a modest house and that says a lot. One of the biggest advantages of being an expat is that it gives you an opportunity to start over. It is a big reset button. It is a chance go back home and avoid the mistakes you made the first time. Buying too much house, buying a more expensive car than you need. Getting buried in debt trying to live the American dream. Having money instead of owing money is comforting. Not all expats learn that lesson. I have friends who spent fortunes building mansions to retire to. One guy was so extreme, he couldn’t afford to retire. He built an amazing house in Santa Fe he never got to live in. The renters really enjoyed it.

There is an open position for “Drunken Sailor” coming up in the Fall PDC. Look for it if you qualify.

Also the 2+ times normal take home pay is after housing costs are taken... so you just have to pay for food, entertainment, and travel ( if you choose to take it). Travel home allowance for my location is around $5K per adult per year split into 24 paychecks.

On an average PSG it’s not difficult to save $10-12K per month after everything is accounted for as long as you don’t spend like a drunken sailor.

@Kaaam: few months inner here...that’s cute! Never knew mathematicians could do math without knowing the numbers. You must be special. I’ll summarize:

There’s several one time allowances when you first move:

-Miscellaneous expense= 1.5 months salary ($15K max)

• appliance loss $3K (sold cars anyway)

• vehicle loss $5K (sold appliance with house)

• spousal allowance $10K ( per year, prorated upon arrival and paid in full every January)

• home sale incentive 4 % ( found a buyer instead of company buying it) ~ $4.5K

• $30 K in home equity upon sale.

FYI. None of these allowance are secret. You can read all about them in the expat page on the network. Some of the are taxed others are tax equalized

Anyhow this was a huge boost in lying off $20K in student loans, and about another $40 K of other messes I was in the process of cleaning up..... I did the debt snowball and paid the smallest balance with each paycheck. Now have an emergency fund of 6 months and working towards saving for a modest house upon my return.

Good look with your wizardry of number crunching.

@kaam, there’s a dubious ring to your post which leads me to disbelieve your story. You say you’re a FEW months into your first expat assignment, but then you tell us that all of a sudden you’ve paid off student loans and all your debts. Even though your take home pay was just over double, in only a few months you’ve managed to shed all your debt? Sorry, I think your spreading BS.

The notion that expat assignments are some sort of goodie that should be shared by all and limited to a certain time is laughable. It’s about demand and supply. It’s about business need, supply and demand. Expat assignments are extend if the person is qualified otherwise they would be sent home. It costs a lot to relocate someone home and relocate a replacement abroad. The reason the expat positions exist in the first place is because often qualified locals are hard to come by. Think about it, why would the company pay roughly 3 times the cost for an expat vs a local if they were equally qualified? Expats are a business need, not just some sort of development assignment. If you are interested in getting an expat assignment you have to talk to the PDR, network, and find something you are well qualified for. Beware they aren’t for everyone. An expat assignment isn’t sitting on the beach of some exotic location sipping fine wine and taking it easy. Yes, the money is good, but you make sacrifices to your social and family life that you can never get back.

I’m a few months into my first expat assignment on a project. I didn’t know anyone, but the job description was a perfect fit for my resume and I networked and landed the job. First 2 months were drinking from the firehose. That had settled, but I’m still taking work home with me every evening and weekend just to stay a float. It takes a toll on my family life. I miss the Cush job in Houston with 9/80s. Here, weekends, holidays, etc. don’t matter to the project schedule. Project is going through costs cuts and we’ve released several expats (contractors).

The expat premiums and allowances are no secret. They are posted on the network for each location. If you find the allowance calculators you would realize you don’t profit from getting married due to additional costs incurred. Family size and whether you’ve been sterilized are not considerations in the selection process. In my particular location a housing deduction is taken from your paycheck based on 3 factors, PSG and family size. Likewise goods and services depends on the same.

If you get a get a raise/promotion, or increase in family size one goes up and the other does too , so it’s a wash, no real incentive. I got a raise/PSG bump, my rent went up 400 per month, while living in the same apartment.

Take home pay is a little more than double. It’s helped great financially, paid off all student loans, etc. so now I’m debt free and following a financial plan by setting away money to stay debt free forever even after I repatriate. I miss home and so does my family. Looking forward to a Cush job in Houston with 9/80’s again in the future...

Good luck to all with your search.

Setting aside what is equitable or fair for just a second, can we look at the math? A few posts ago someone implied that having an expat on an extended assignment costs the company money that would somehow be saved by rotating expats on a regular basis with fresh new expats. So what costs more - one expat on an extended assignment or multiple expats rotating on a shorter term basis? The expat benefits are the same in either case so the paper costs should be the same. Rotating expats will add moving expenses and the intangible inefficiency costs of new expats working to get up to speed. So I believe that, mathematically, the extended assignment represents the lesser overall cost. If you want to look at it on an individual basis, don’t put married employees on expat assignments or limit the number of children an employee can have to qualify as an expat. Make the policy to deny family benefits to a single expat who gets married while on assignment or exclude children born while on assignment. Personally I believe that would be very unfair and discriminatory but it would reduce costs on an individual basis. So, excluding personal circumstances, what costs more - one expat for a long term assignment or many expats/repats working on the same expat position? I can’t even understand how this could not be more clear.

The reason ExPat assignments get extended is that the ExPats are deemed to be doing good jobs.

Quit whining about how life is unfair. Expand your network and differentiate yourself and your performance so that you can compete for an expat assignment.

@TMJjyaP-hdos is right on the money.

Expat stints are nice opportunities for employees to make some money which otherwise would be very difficult to do. My advice to the younger employees: make use of it. You will learn something about other cultures to boot. What I don't like though is that some expats just hog these opportunities and never leave the host country once they get used to the luxuries and e tra cash. That is a gross misuse of company resources and denies opportunities to other competent employees. Examples of these misusers abound in desirable destinations like Thailand, Australia, even UK.

Cut the expat premiums and allowances and ensure fair treatment of employees.

FGP sent some deadwood expat contractors packing from my location this past week. More expected to come next week. This is due to the cost efficiency initiatives due to a $600MM cost overrun this year.

And if you had the same job role as an expat, you would be making even more. Hey look, a manager that makes more than his subordinates. Wow, who would have ever thunk it?

Expats often work long hours so it can be challenging to maintain a personal life. It is important to keep excercising for your health. Biking is great excercise so great news you found a spinning group in Bangkok.

Good times in Bangkok. Tripling my US take home pay and savoring the local delicacies and delights - including spinners - whoohoo!

@TMJjyaP-5anf Indeed he has no clue. When your allowances are tax protected, that is the equivalent of tripling your US based takehome pay. There is no way you are going to get that in the US unless you are the CEO, BU President or something like that.

Pretty obvious @4bcm has no clue what he’s talking about. There is no way you have an equal compensation stateside as you would on an expat assignment. But this is the internet so anything is possible, I guess.

You NEVER get back the time away from family and friends when you go abroad for an expat assignment. In addition, you get the agony of dealing with often terrible living situations that while livable are an endless source of stress and frustration. It adds up over time and is not pleasant. Vacations are spent back home catching up with family. Alcoholism and depression are common.

Many are not willling to put up with this. We should thank our lucky stars for the few who do and keep paying them whatever perks are required for their service.

I’m on my first expat assignment. It’s not as I expected. CVX staff are the minority while the project is over-staffed with contractors on day rate. Contractors find any reason to not do their work during the week so they can try to claim the need to work overtime/weekends and get paid. Then the system is obviously getting abused and we are asked to justify our team size, too little, too late. There’s very little checks & balance no wonder why MCP are behind schedule and over budget.

As for CVX staff, there’s too few of us to make a big difference. The reason it’s hard to get an expat job is cronyism. Management will just hire their contractor friends from the last project before they put a job up for the PDC.

Overall, yes, the pay is great, but you work (or make sacrifices for it). 9/80’s don’t exist and neither do 4/10s. Everyone works on the holidays otherwise you fall behind. I work evenings and weekends from home just to keep my head above water while I’m coming up to speed. Also these places where location premiums are high, are real $h1t holes. It is a boring place and will take a toll on your family life.

I’m just doing it to get a little financial freedom. Looking forward to being back state-side.

I thought this thread sounded familiar from one 6 months ago. Indeed the OP copied it word for word! Very creative:

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/QKbFeLr

@TMJjyaP-1rnu. Right on. I couldn't have said it better. Most abused system. Flies in the face of all those hard working Chevroids who put in more than their share for nothing more than their base salaries in their home countries, while some privileged princes fly around for vacations at Chevron's expenses with numerous tax protected allowances that in effect triple their takehome salaries. Well, I suppose nobody said life was fair.

I did a two year stint as an Expat. Would have done more, it's a great gig! Not for everyone though. Saw my share of 'washouts', sometimes I wondered if I was heading in the same direction.

Funny how when times were good, Chevron had such a difficult time filling expat slots they had to go outside the company. Now that times are rough all these “superstars” are whining they can’t get an expat position. Should have taken one when you had the chance.

@TMJjyaP-1clt

Expat life is princely life with unbelievable perks. Only some undeserving nonperforming gravy train milkers enjoy it though.

It has always amazed me that we are unable to find qualified Australians to work at Chevron and must resort to higher cost expats. Is Oz that pathetic?

Jealousy, must have got passed over at PDC.

@TMJjyaP-1inv

Exactly. I know who you are referring to. They have been milking the gravy train ad infinitum. You see, this is exactly what Chevron's expat assignments are all about. A handful of good expats create great value abroad, but the bulk of the expats milk the system years on end what with all the multitude of taxfree allowances and premiums, while the US based employees do all the work. They should at least establish a rotation so that the gravy train does not unjustly get monopolized and exploited by a few.