Why does ConocoPhillips have so many Employees? Of course we are going to have layoffs! We have two, three, and four times as many employees as many of our competitors. Why? Start by sc-apping Bartlesville and get rid of duplicates there and in Midland. We need to trim about half our employees for our value and production size to be competitive. There is the problem and why we see a continuous struggle year after year. We don’t have management willing to make the cuts that Wall Street and our industry demand for us to be competitive on national and global scale.
7 replies (most recent on top)
Midland is staffed for running 28-30 rigs, and is running 14. Way over-staffed for the activity level. And now COP is moving in more engineers for work that doesn't exist, and who knows how many safety people to grind things to a halt. Just silly. But Concho sold because we had developed many of the same management cancers as COP. And now we're being told we do everything wrong, despite the fact that we put more new wells on production between Christmas and New Years than COP put on all year. Bright sizing is already starting; all the bright people are looking.
From my experience there.....they are required to have an excessive number of employees because the majority of them are incompetent at their jobs so it takes way more of them to do nothing or screw up things. The sad thing is that they have continually laid-off the competent employees that actually care about their quality of work / know what they are doing because they make more money - using the excuse of "cutting costs", when in the long run, they are spending more because they are paying 3 incompetent employees to do what 1 that cares can do. If you don't believe me, go check the average age of their employees (if you can find any legit info) then compare it to some of their historical numbers (10 years back). I'm sure they are saving $$$ in health/life insurance costs for younger (less competent) employees, but the offset really worth driving your company in the ground and creating a hostile work place?
Shut down Bartlesville and get rid of all duplicated positions in Bartlesville and Midland. Maintaining a large office in Midland would be much more practical than Bartlesville which is remote to all operations. Bonus would be no state income tax.
Simple. Incompetence and the need to appear to be bigger and better than they are. COP is trying to project a public image that makes us appear like Exxon-lite. Always has. But unlike Exxon, we never had the talent or money to make good on our phony promises. And by talent, I mean chief decision makers. Out people on the ground and doing the technical work are as good as any, but when you have egos, not data, driving business decisions, it’s a losing proposition. COP is being driven into the ground by a few, well spoken shysters. Bail when and if you can!
It would be very interesting to read an unedited version of one those peer reviews of how COP compares to the industry at a supervisor and higher salary grade.
sad but so true. I always thought that the h pot classification was ridiculous. Somehow COP things they can identify high potential employees very young in their careers before they have a real opportunity to demonstrate value and leadership. It is basically,...doing to one positive thing early in your career and then rest on your laurels. It would be equivalent to Harvard picking future college freshman by looking on how they performed in first grade.
This problem has two origins: 1) span of control, and 2) protecting friends.
ConocoPhillips, like many large companies, is controlled by a small group of egomaniacs. Each of them needs a certain number of direct reports to justify their existence (span of control). This basic structure expands downward and results in an excessive number of employees, both managers and worker bees.
In addition, there's an aversion to involuntarily laying off managers whose direct report count drops below a critical threshold because, well, they're managers so they must be critical to the business, right? So what happens? A fake position is manufactured just for them so they can ride out their final years without having to worry like the rest of us (protecting friends). Over time, these managers accumulate a new crop of direct reports as a combination security blanket and ego trip.
Because our industry is in decline, these's a high demand for unscrupulous people who excel at faking value where there is none. These positions are usually filled by the Hi-Pot class, and they'll be the last group to be shown the door. Personally, I think they should be called the Smoke Screen class.