I ran into an old friend whose career has stalled out a bit and I was flabbergasted how braindead he presented. I felt so bad for him, he’s miserable but enabled to not remove himself from a bad situation by EM and the pension, etc.
It is extremely sad what has happened to him. If you’re not successful, getting promotions and have work keeping you engaged then get out and don’t die the slow death of a corporate career buying time to retirement.
At least they pay for the anti depressants needed to survive there.
Yea I was discouraged my last few years. Once I got NRE status I started getting Ni ratings. Was pi---d and discouraged. Now that I’m retired my main decision is do I mow the yard or play a video game. Right now at this moment I know Exxonmobil is a sh$&ty company but I do enjoy the retirement check that is paying for the margarita that I am drinking.
Was the army guy at Permian?
The best thing is to start at 40 years old. Work and suffer for 15 years and the retire. I did this and can't stand exxon anymore. I will retire next year at 16 years service. It would be impossible for me to last 20 or 30 years at exxon. Now for the chosen protected class it us easy as exxon is thier playground. One star employee did nothing all day but play with his fish tank all day. Another played world of war craft on their personal computer all day in the office with the door closed. Years ago an older employee would hide out all day. I would see him in the morning getting coffee and never again. I asked what he did and no one knew. He was an ex army buddy of the site manager. He was protected to the maximum. Everyone else is subjected to corrupt ranking process. I grew tired of exxon at 10 years. So thanks for the medical and pension payoff exxon. To all the others that have 20 or 30 years left good luck staying sane.
@d5+1jty7h8kx It’s truly about tradeoffs. Is it worth being potentially unhappy for 30+ years but have security in retirement? Obviously the best case scenario is being happy and being secure but that is rare. As you said it’s not for everyone.
I left Exxon a few years now and definitely wonder what if. I’m making about the same money now but have to save more as I don’t have the pension. My career potential is also lower now. But the trade off is i work considerably less and have more time to spend with friends and family. It’s all about trade offs.
XOM wants everything procedurized, taking out alot of critical thinking......... Overtime, you lose your engineering edge/thinking.
Good luck getting to retirement.
Not many companies offer a pension.
We all know most cannot live on social security as we age.
The savings plan is a plus as well.
Once again, not every company offers that.
I got a call from a recruiter a few weeks ago. She said you would not believe the amount of Exxon managers she speaks too that want to leave but can’t because of the pension. It’s a true double edged sword.