This is a tale of an older employee years ago. I witnessed this whole ugly thing go down. The employee in question was over 55 years old and was getting f uced. I heard people talking about him that he was slow and inept. The supervisor had it out for him and talked so bad about this employee. It was sickening to see these vultures attack this defenseless guy. Every vicious rumor about this poor guy was being spread. Rumors like he was too slow, he was sleeping on the job and he was not computer literate. He would actually sleep in his car for lunch and not eat. As far as the computer literacy Exxon kept bringing new systems in and provided no training so most employees had trouble learning the new systems. It was all exaggerated BS and was so apparent that the supervisors and managers wanted him out. He was being forced out and they were preparing to pip him out the door. He was a dear friend of mine and I told him about what was being said about him. This employee needed a few more years to get his children out of college and did not want to retire. He was going to go to HR and file a complaint against the offenders. I advised him to go to an employment lawyer to protect himself. He contacted a lawyer and the lawyer sent a letter stating he was representing the employee. He then filed a complaint with exxon HR. Once HR knew about the lawyer things suddenly changed. HR took his case seriously and got him moved to a new group. All correspondence was sent to his lawyer and exxon was very careful with the employee from then on. After this no one would ever talk about said employee. It was night and day the way they treated this employee. He never had to sue exxon and retired at the ripe old age of 61. The lawyer took his case because the damages would exceed 1 million dollars plus. The employee was also over age 50 which is a protected class for age discrimination. So HR is not your friend and only works for exxon's benefit. If they start f ucking with you lawyer up and get some protection. or Remember retaliation is easy to prove and if exxon retaliates against you for going to HR you can sue for retaliation. Be strong and don't let exxon push you around and intimidate you. There are many lawyers who would love a case against exxon. Exxon has deep pockets.
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I had a lawyer involved too when I got piped. Although I didn’t notify the company, I got legal support and kept all the paperwork. Fortunately I found a better job elsewhere.
Document document document and get legal advice.
Anyone under 50 is sc--wed with no protection. I knew of several in their 40s that were piped and let go. Some worked for 20 years and got the boot. The time from 40 to 52 is the worst. This is when you are most vulnerable. Before 40 you can find another job and build retirement. The worst is age 48 to 51. Good luck to those in the danger zone. I am in the NRE saftey zone for a couple of years and then it is open season on me. There are no guarantees in this game unless you are protected.
What about those in the 40-50 range? I'm assuming if PIPed, securing a lawyer would be a lost cause? The PIP/PIL documentation does say that you shoul consult an attorney, but how effective would that be for the age bracket stated?
This is why exxon classifies 52 plus with 12 years in as NRE. Many years ago they did not have the NRE protection and would pip employees at will. Exxon piped so many 50 to 54 year old employees that these employees filed a class action lawsuit against exxon. The case was going to go to trial but exxon settled out of court. The sheer amount of money exxon was saving by getting rid of employees before 55 was huge. Exxon did not want this to come out at a trial. So after this the NRE program was enacted to protect employees from losing out on their well deserved pension. Remember over 50 is a protected class for age discrimination. Good luck to all the game players this year.
I wish I knew this a few years ago when I got PIP'd at 50.
Took the PIL and happy to be gone, but I should've lawyered up. There was a lot of money left on the table that I walked away from because I initially believed the bullsh-t they were feeding me about needing "significant" improvement. Most demoralizing thing to ever happen to me, after a 25+ year career with people who told me a mere 6 months earlier, I was a critical member of the team.
My writing is going to get me piped this year. I am always dinged for excessive communication. I have mad math and design skills but not so much in writing. I guess that is why I am an engineer not a writer. There is a highly paid supervisor that only writes simple sentences. The reason is he is uneducated who cannot write paragraphs. Exxon promotes nothing but the best. So you don't need to be able to read or write to work at excon. Next time I will use chat gpt to write my story.
Too long be concise when writing please.