Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

You have to remember that when you talk about exploration there are three different levels there:

• the individual technical contributors, who do the ground work, most of the time given no credit or ignored when they come up with new ideas
• parasitic middlemen (STCs, Chiefs) who promote only ideas that make them look good and try hard to guess what the top brass wants to hear
• upper management, who most of the time make rash decisions based on their “intuition”, often at odds with the results from the grunts, which don’t even make it to their level, being “filtrated” by the middlemen.

Net result: fully dysfunctional exploration, who could not come up with any home grown opportunity in three decades.
Want to try to guess which of he three levels gets the blame ?

@2ivj+1bEps22y

Yes yes yes

I am convinced our exploration company is so bad we should stop all exploration drilling and just farm into things others discover or buy other companies for new acreage

Attrition will continue. 401K was just a small factor that contributed to the recent attrition. The main reason is because people have been losing trust in the leadership. The 401K matching incident was just a tiny example of the rotten leadership.

And we would really appreciate it if exploration would find some oil and gas. Please do not being up Guyana-a block acquired in 1999 by h-Exxon and drilled in 2015 because we had to or write the country a check. Didn't think it would work so only drilled because we were able to find partners. Please don't misunderstand, very glad it worked but even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in awhile.

@drg+1bEps22y
“ Those geos that lived production understand how real business works”
If you would know anything about the oil industry business, you would realize that in order to get assets to production, exploration has to discover and assess them, or maybe you think oil fields fall from the sky in the hands of the “real men” working production. Whenever you hear somebody bragging about “how real business works” you know it hides crass ignorance.

@drg+1bEps22y
“ Those geos that lived production understand how real business works”
If you would know anything about the oil industry business, you would realize that in order to get assets to production, exploration has to discover and assess them, or maybe you think oil fields fall from the sky in the hands of the “real men” working production. Whenever you hear somebody bragging about “how real business works” you know it hides crass ignorance.

Reinstating the pension in October will not affect my decision to resign early next year. Not expecting it to return until next year so it was a pleasant surprise. Already know that the executives are scumbags so this move really changes nothing. Did buy some company stock in the 401K for the dividend and in the process made some profit with the oil price recovery because we now know no matter what calamity befalls the oil market, the executives will sc--w everybody, especially the workers, to keep their dividend cash cow going.

@wnx+1bEps22y - you must be talking about exploration geoscientists. Those geos that lived production understand how real business works and have had few issues finding work

Pure genius !
The 401K suspension and than reinstatement has shown how easy it is to manipulate desperate people.
First, when the industry is bad you go WORSE and suspend the 401K, which most of the industry hasn’t done. When the price of oil goes higher than before the crisis, you give back the employees what was theirs, promised at time of employment, without any reimbursement for what they’ve lost. Now the sun is shining and everything is ho--y dory ! Please remember that the 401K match is insignificant compared to the sums that EM needed to stay out of trouble; suspending it wasn’t a necessity but a cynical maneuver.
That shows the way forward: abuse your employees in any way you can, cut whatever you can cut and when you stop (at least for a while), the employees will see this as heaven on earth. If in a few months they announce that the oversized PIPoffs will be limited to three and not five years, there will be people cheering in the crystal palace.

It’s an weird psychological twist, but the more desperate employees are, more likely they are to grasp at any straw of good news. In geoscience, where you have nowhere to go outside the company when the industry is in a downturn, a lot of people received the match reinstatement as pure salvation. Still, coming just a few days after the news that the Hunger Games will last another five years (only a coincidence?), people are not entirely convinced. Unfortunately, when you have no palatable alternative, our brains tend to tell us that that the status quo is acceptable. The upcoming PIP round will test that.

@pwi+1bEps22y
“ Suspending the 410K for 12 months was a mechanism to encourage employees that were retirement eligible to retire”.
???!!!??? What on earth are you talking about ? REs couldn’t care less about the 401K match because of the short time frame involved. The key variables here are how close they are to 60 (which increases the lump sum) and what the interest rate is (high rates decrease the lump sum dramatically). Right now the rate is still at historic lows (meaning VERY HIGH lump sums) and it probably going to go back to normal by next summer. The match is nice but doesn’t make any difference in this game.

Precedent is set. To think otherwise it's extremely short sided. The company has priorities and employees are not near the top.

Yes, all forgiven. We are ready for more abuse.

Suspending the 410K for 12 months was a mechanism to encourage employees that were retirement eligible to retire. If your 401K is not being matched and the lump sum pension interest rate is at an all time low, a retirement eligible employee has to ask themselves why am I hanging around for a few more years.

If you are receiving a 7% match in your 401K tax deferred, why would you want to retire.

TRUST IS Goooooooooooooooone!

Not at all. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them… The first time“ -Maya Angelou

Getting the 401k match will likely cause people to think twice about leaving. There will still be a good number of people that want to leave because they understand that the company has broken the social contract. For those folks there is very little the company can do because those folks don’t trust the company…

It was a big factor for the wage employees at the site I work at (gulf coast manufacturing). Less so for MPTs.