XOM forums have started sharing ranking session outcomes. Rumours are floating that there might not be severance this time and they already know the invidious that will be fired.
It’s seems that it will be at least 10% of each group.
Anyone involved in ranking sessions at IOL would like to share what they heard or saw?
17 replies (most recent on top)
Yeah, Finance sucks. I worked there for serveral years - as a minority I didn't stand a chance. I still have the emotional scars till this day.
So back to the original post, any news to share regarding the ranking sessions?
The finance function, with the exception of Tax, is highly overrated and expensive. Majority of the supervisors and managers are forgettable, unremarkable puppets, adding NO measurable value other than toeing the EM line. Finance Function managers have developed a reputation for asking numerous questions to demonstrate their attention to details. In reality, their subordinates cannot fathom how such incompetant persons were promote to average $250k plus benefits position. Drastic action is needed to trim the fat.
XOM doesn't do massive layoffs anymore. They do it in moderate sized increments to avoid mandatory, legally enforceable WARN notifications, potential news reports and media scrutiny.
I really hope this isn't true. I am just too exhausted at this point. Burnt out and tired of feeling scared all the time ... it's awful and I wish they would just be honest about things instead of getting rid of people using pip.
Have been away from this forum for a while, my advice from someone who worked at several companies is, as Canadians join a Canadian company, do not join a US company with an office in Canada.
Canadian companies like Suncor, Cenovus, CNRL, Syncrude are committed to this country and their work culture is different, they control their destiny and don’t receive instructions from Houston.
IOL, as it’s becoming more and more obvious is NOT a Canadian company. It’s being run by Houston with shadows “managers” here in Canada. They can’t speak up because they know they can lose their jobs.
IOL could have been the best company to work for if it wasn’t controlled by XOM, but unfortunately reality is different and it’s heading in the wrong direction.
If you have the opportunity to leave, you definitely should.
Management is actually indirectly telling you that the future is for KL and BTC, you are a high cost burden for the company. They can’t be more clear, don’t listen to what they say but rather what they do. They have been lying since the start of the pandemic and I remember clearly on the intranet in April 2020 the articles that were saying “IOL is well positioned for current market conditions and we don’t anticipate workforce reductions” Once the instructions came from Houston they reversed all their commitments.
Simply LIARS
I really don't understand the juxtaposition of having sessions to convince staff we are right sized and to stay while also having aggressive 8% pip targets across the board. Absolutely mental. If we are correctly sized and competitive, have the stones to raise it with HR and change the target distribution to accurately reflect where your personnel fit wrt the market. Otherwise it comes off as disingenuous and will exasperate morale problems further causing more people to leave (usually our best talent).
I heard from a number of supervisors that this year’s ranking session is going to be a bloodbath. Just as bad or worst than last. Basically everyone’s ranking dropping from last year.
Any of the other refineries have forums with management to convince employees not to leave? How disingenuous or clueless is management? Exxon tells them jump, all they can ask is how high? Like they have any real influence to change TMTS.
That’s why they are using PIP to avoid severance. Last year they laid off all recent hired (2/3 yrs) in order to lowering the severance amount per employee. This year they will terminate past hired based on PIP( eye wash) in order to avoid severance amount. It’s their long term plan. Some evil puppet Managers like to do that to make their boss happy.
As Canadians, I don’t see how there’s a future within IOL anymore. Direction we’re going with TMTS our group leads and managers are going to be KLTC and BTC (see ESC). Overseas engineers with just a quarter of the site experience but career fast tracked on a ridiculous level given prestigious assignments now doing our PDS reviews/rankings. It’s already bad enough with all the useless Exxon expat managers at the sites.
This is all turning into a really really bad joke!! Better off going to Suncor,or Cenovus at this point. This place is the worst.
To add to the previous post, most companies will still offer severance to employees who have been coached and continue to fail to meet performance expectations to avoid potential legal battles.
Severance is absolutely mandatory in Canada. You can terminate an employee for cause (no sevarance) due to performance issues but there would need to be a documented trail showing that the employee has been coached over a period of time and they are still failing to meet expectations.
This is the trick they might play, call it performance related and fire people rather than layoffs. In this case we will not be eligible for severance.
Severance is not mandatory in Canada. Which section of the law are you referring? However, it’s a standard practice for larger companies to offer severance during mass layoff.
In Canada, they have to offer severance given our employment laws.
I hope they fire all the useless people in Finance.....
As per TMTS the BTC/KLTC offices will be doubled in size, and huge investment underway into their competency and supervisory capability. That means significant cuts in manufacturing support in ESC/EMRE and especially at the sites. Expect technical to be slashed again.
Despite what you may experience at the sites with someone new quitting every week, Exxon upper management still thinks there’s a site headcount surplus based on TMTS. My advice is start aggressively working a plan b because there’s no place for engineering in the new order. The company is not your friend.