The Job Family Lead for EMIT’s Business Capability group just emailed the whole job family to complain about people’s negativity towards the company. In addition to being poorly written, it reads like a desperate attempt to keep his own job by showing the management team the depth of his loyalty.
25 replies (most recent on top)
I fail to see what was so horrible about that email.
The comments were the lead off to a newsletter. 100% done on purpose and sent to ~2000 employees.
Yes but you still gotta put them on the spot by asking them. With the whole group included.
@2pgz+1bJ983mC Done intentionally
Someone should should reply all to that email and write "Hey bud, did you know you sent this to the whole job family?"
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
ID-10-Ts
I'm confused about the 8-10% mandatory PIP being something new. Maybe more transparent to everyone, but not new. People have lived on PIPs for years and never been fired. There was even another thread on this site last year about how XOM keeps lazy people around way to long and doesn't fire them. I would have thought someone in their 40s who had worked there would know that is the reputation.
@1uga : kudos
A lot of thought in your post.
I must admit I have not the energy anymore to write this kind of fair - positive feedback.
I have seen a lot of wrong statement on what is a technical career and leader.
We should target this mantra : you become a manager because you failed to be a technical leader (advise for EMIT to have a look on the start-up structure … for example Snowflake).
The fact we retrieve this kind of deep assessment outside XOM is not at all a good sign.
The famous open and candid communication is behind us.
@1prg+1bJ983mC You nailed it.
I believe the job family lead has good intention writing this. And he is likely doing what the other good managers are doing - trying to stop the attrition, because from his perspective and from his own ranking and salary level, EM is a good place to be. But I do think we need to share the perspectives of the worker bees with these LTs, so that they can see what we see.
This lead has probably been in the top third ranking all his career. He doesn't know what the middle and bottom 66.67% of people feel. (Even some of the top ranking people feel uncertain now... I am one of the quiet ones who did very well in the recent PA but I don't feel sure about a long term career in the company at all.)
In the past, all of us know we can look forward to a stable career with EM, and slowly grow our technical expertise. I have been ranked middle, and also middle closer to bottom third for 1-2 years. And I still felt married to EM despite the average ranking. Many of us know we are not the top quintile and will never be a manager. But before 2020, this was not a bad place to grow a long-term career, regardless. Because -
- Slowly but surely, we knew we would build expertise and become a subject matter expert in our respective areas, be it infrastructure, risk management, or applications.
- We forged real friendships and trust with many colleagues in our offices and around the world, some of whom we had never met and who were of a different skin color, culture or opposite time zones, or a lot older or younger than us.
- We looked forward to slowly building up a good sum of retirement money. Yes we always knew EM didn't pay like the tech companies, but it paid enough especially if we project the stability out to retirement at 60, and we believed we traded money with work life balance
- We had stability that allowed us to take care of our family
- We all took pride in learning opportunities, in our safety controls that allow us to act with integrity
I wrote in the past tense because that's past. We trusted in the stability, although there were opportunity costs but we decided it was worth it. Quickly, all that changed in 2020, with the sudden 8-10% NSI and PIP, the layoffs in Australia, Europe, Canada and Singapore, and so much rumors about HW3 and further job cuts. Before 2020, none of us thought we were always one rank cycle away from being out of job. Today, this is true for the vast majority of us, except maybe the hi-pos and Outstanding with Distinction people.
When management talked about "we know we have lost the trust of the people", there is always a implicit BUT in their speech. They always sounded like they know have lost the trust, BUT they are also one pay increment, or one 401k restoration, or one LinkedIn Stephen Covey's Trust training, away from restoring all the trust. They always sounded like we are kids throwing tantrum but would be pacified with candies.
But I want to tell management that the trust lost is so, so fundamental, and the worker bees all know that.
The crux of the issue is not the pay freeze because the company was in crisis. We are NOT selfish people who insisted on increments in bad times; I remembered when the COVID pandemic and NSI announcement first broke out, many people were asking in the forums, why wasn't the company considering cutting our pay and saving jobs? Those conversations in times of crisis made me so proud of being a part of EM and EMIT. We were asking for pay cuts to save other people's jobs, that's who we were!
The crux of the issue is the 8-10% NSI and PIP. It is just this.
As long as there is a mandatory 8-10% NSI - PIP - PIL, the management cannot, SIMPLY CANNOT, tout a long term career or growth opportunities. Because these are fundamentally opposite and contradictory. Because
- We can no longer slowly but surely build expertise and become a subject matter expert in our respective areas. Every cycle is a hustle cycle. Every cycle we need to be highly visible, show some projects, show some step-ups. The technical folks, the young developers, they cannot think, I'll take 3-5 years to grow my technical expertise, take part in projects, learn from the tech leads. Because they will fear that by year 2, they could already be ranked NSI if they were not visible. But if everyone only focus on high visibility work, we would all only ever become generalists like our own managers. How do we build technical depth if the system doesn't allow us to focus on quietly building our T-shape expertise? Young people are not stupid. They know if they only have a few years to build their technical expertise before the younger ones catch up
- - We find it harder to be real friends and build trust with many colleagues, especially in other places in the world. Everyone is a competitor, especially people from lower cost countries. What is at stake is no longer only a ranking number, which many of us could care less about. What is at stake is our job that we can easily lose, and it impacts our family as well.
- We now know that the longer we stay, the more disadvantaged we'd be. Firstly, the longer we stay, the higher the possibility of being placed in NSI bucket. It is only logical statistically - the older we get and the higher our CL, the more competitive it is in the rank pool, especially if we are ranked as individual contributors. Also, many of us beyond our 40s know there have been ups and downs in our careers, our family and personal lives. Most of us had encountered personal issues that affect our performance at our work, but this company used to offer the stability that allowed us the leeway to bounce back. Now, well, that is gone. We are one health or family crisis away from losing our job.
- There is no longer work life balance for many of us. I found myself unable to care much about my personal life anymore. I had to onboard and hand-hold 2.5 new people in their work since late last year while the layoffs and high attrition are taking place, while doing my own job. EMIT management said they have already stopped doing some work. But is anyone brave enough to claim these as achievements in next year's PDS form... what they stopped doing? Would these brave souls be ranked well?
- Keeping the lights on has been so draining the past 6 months. I wonder whether the management knows this. My biggest achievement this year has been that I onboarded 2 brand new people, when people with 20+ years of experiences were suddenly laid off. I've also worked 50+ hours every week for couple of months to help cover the work of these brand new people and myself. Might I put this on my PDS to save me from being ranked NSI? Oh but keeping the lights on is not good enough.. we need visibility... so let's hustle some more. Then more the year after next? And some more... just to try to keep a job that no longer gives me any stability.
Most of us, if we are honest, don't feel married to EMIT anymore. If we were to imagine how we would one day leave this company, few of us would think we'd retire in 20-30 years' time. Most of us likely realise we'd either get PIP'd or impacted by a HW3 type of program, or forced layoff when we are in our late 40s or early 50s, which is the worst time in life to be out of a job. We saw that happen to many of our colleagues recently. When we read about the Cold War or the Great Depression, we learn that a few years of hardship can change the mindset of entire generations of people who lived through those times. I muse that in EM, one year of bad HR policy has changed so much for us.
I wonder if the job family lead who wrote that email, in his reflection about the value proposition of the company, had thought hard about these.. all these changes that came with that mandatory 8-10% PIP. I believe if he did, he would not have written that email.
@1mci+1bJ983mC agree 100%, this is how EM, particularly EMIT managers operate. They get a prescribed list of behaviors and systemically demonstrate them without appreciation of the intent behind them. My last EMIT manager stepped on the backs of their own team in order to “check the box” demonstrating their ability to “recover a troubled project so they could get to the next career stage. Thank goodness they were repatriated to their high cost home country during the pandemic so they will be limited in their ability to destroy careers.
“I reject your reality and substitute my own”.
Can you imagine how much time he spent doing up this email before sending it out? A LOT!
This is done to show the desired behaviours. I see a man trying to survive the system.
Surely the growth opportunities he’s referring to is in India only?
Ask the BA, Hungary, Bangkok, Brazil colleagues whether they feel there are growth opportunities… ah YES! A resounding YES! As long as they stay this cheap! So please, yes! there’s plenty of growth opportunities if you are willing to accept little salary increment for the next 20 years… Your rate card rate has to remain very low. otherwise, to India we go!
Ask the US, Canada, Belgium, Singapore, UK colleagues whether they feel growth oppor… oh wait, what? Did you say growth? sorry those messages are not relevant to these hundreds of people… lets do better in our communications… all the talent management communication will filter by countries - Contains ‘GBC countries only’
Don’t give us bs about meritocracy and integrity… we have seen and heard in the past one year that management act in ways that lack meritocracy and integrity. I know it’s no fault of Emit bosses, they are still low on the meritocratic food chain. Just keep blame it on Dallas. The only value propositions that are certain now are 8-10% PIP, zero job stability, HW3, relentless, continual job growth and moves to India…
Was the email written only for India? if not send the lead for communication training… Pluralsight or LinkedIn learning has some good ones?
Made you reflect? Did you take action to make things better for those left behind? NO! Do I care whether or not you agree with me? NO! So, take a seat! I was advised to “keep my head down”, “be more visible”. Which is it? You don’t know because like everything there it changes like the weather. It’s embarrassing to see the once #1 O&G Company sink because the “Leaders” are incompetent. The true Leaders have exited and there’s nothing left but crumbs.
"But I believe our grass is still greener than most" Maybe for him and the other managers who lack any technical depth, as their skills would never transfer to another Company. For the working bees in EMIT, the grass is definitely greener at tons of other Companies.
Its a typical insensitive e-mail at XOM. Rather than addressing employee concerns, the underlying tone is that you are either unappreciative or stupid (that can only be the answer to them).
He believes the EMIT grass is greener than most. Isn't this delusional? He doesn't know what's on the other side, that's for sure.
To give the guy the benefit of the doubt, English is not their first language. So I really hope this was just a poor attempt at being motivational. It might not have sounded bad to somebody who has English as an additional language but to native English speakers it just came across as arrogant and brown-nosey.
Kudos to whatever brave employee let it rip on the way out the door. Problems? What problems. Everything is fine. Nothing to see here. It’s YOUR PERCEPTION that is the problem. Carry on.
“He who has eyes to see, let him see.”
Some context: it’s a job family newsletter and this dude opened with the most motivating speech ever…
——
Dear X-x Job Family Member,
Last week I got an e-mail from someone leaving the company that made me reflect on talent management aspects such as job satisfaction and retention. While I respected the person’s opinion, I was a little frustrated because I disagreed with the negative comments he made about our company. Undoubtedly, our company was hit by an unprecedented financial crisis affecting its strategies, practices, and, to some people, the credibility of its strength in the long run. However, this is far from saying that we work for a company that pays below standards, has no growth opportunities, or doesn’t care about its employees. I believe our company still holds an attractive value proposition – we are one of the largest companies in the world, with excellent facilities & equipment, surrounded by smart & friendly people, with a large variety of learning & development opportunities, a truly global environment, a strong meritocracy, integrity, values, & inclusion, excellent safety & security standards, fair salary & benefits, among other good things. Is it perfect? No job is perfect; it’s always a tradeoff. Can we get better? Of course we can, and we always will. But I believe our grass is still greener than most, and I wish we could hold off the negativity bias and focus on the positives of working here.
X-x
X-x job family lead
Post it here. After all, as we all know, if you don’t want to whole world to know something, don’t put it in an email.
Such a tone deaf email. What a tool.
someone post the email
Would love to know what it said!
There will be more.