Thread regarding Chevron Phillips Chemical layoffs

As an insider with intimate knowledge of what’s coming it’s really hard for me to sleep at night knowing what’s coming….so I need to at least to give warning for people. Here’s what I know:

• Manufacturing is next…dead weight will be cut…it’s going to be bad and will be the next phase
• A/P, A/R, Customer Service, MA’s, Finance, Credit, etc will be outsourced or offshored. You will be required to train your replacement to get your severance
• A “Commercial Transformation” group is being created to further cut people.
• Most likely combining NAO/PAO with Spec Chem and eliminating Spec Chem GM, Spec Chem Business Manager and Product Managers
• Aromatics will be absorbed into Petchem or Specialties, eliminating Business Manager and a Product Manager
• PE will reshuffle their deck and eliminate a few marketing managers and get rid of their Business Manager and Commercial Manager
• PE international and distributor sales at HQ will be reduced
• The Borger truck fleet will be outsourced
• Supply Chain/Procurement will start another round of reorganization eliminating positions to consolidate functions
• Finally the best part…upper management will be affected. Supply Chain GM, Specialties VP, and Manufacturing VP will all be let go after they’ve completed their reorganizations. They don’t think they’re on the chopping block, but they are.

This will all take place from September to October if CPChem doesn’t hit the $300M…

NO ONE IS SAFE! If I was you, I would start trying to get out now. Withdrawal your pension and move on from this sinking ship.

This was once a great company but they let engineers who thought they understood business convince the board to build two more world scale cr--kers in an oversupplied market. CPChem is about to learn that you should keep engineers as engineers and let the business trained people make the decisions. But as we all know, engineers know best even when comes to business. Now we’re all going to the price.

@74a and yet our illustrious CIO sitting at a table in the lunch room laughing with her cronies like she doesn’t have a care in the world! Oh wait ….. she doesn’t- it’s everyone else that is worried! Our company is so embarrassing right now and HR you can downvote all you want we are past caring

@704 What else to expect when the CIO has no technical background but an accounting degree? Should have been CFO with that accounting degree. But wait not qualified enough to become CFO, so let me take CIO position. And let my cronies hire outsiders with fake resumes that never saw ERP in their life and make them architects. Keep promoting friends, family members even if they are d-mb as rock. Those LTI d-mbers cant construct a sentence but are running the show. All this on the IT leadership.

The cost of lost productivity.

The cost of damaged team morale.

The cost of recruiting and training a replacement.

But here's the biggest cost of all:

The loss of someone who genuinely cared about your business.

Stop thinking of your people as an expense.

They are your most valuable (and important) investment.

@722 It is heartbreaking to come to terms with a layoff and to witness the greed that has taken root in American society. Companies that were built by Americans three or four generations ago are now outsourcing so that the rich can get richer! These great American companies are selling out for cheap labor, even though they were built on American sweat, tears, and sacrifices! It feels sickening to know that the wealthy are focused on getting richer at the expense of everyone else. It's especially frustrating when a majority of the board members are likely American. These companies are outsourcing their data for the almighty dollar.

@70m I do agree with one thing you said … I truly believe that a company that would violate so many laws and regulations and so many of their own rules would truly attempt to violate our basic right to free speech as well.

@71k The cold, callous tone deaf insensitivity is astounding. For a company that lauds themselves as “caring by choice” leading you to believe that they’re different because they care. They have definitively and irrevocably finally shown everyone what that tag line really means. They could choose to care but it also means that they can choose not to. They have chosen the latter. And chose to openly rub it in everyone’s faces as they are dismissed from the company with extravagant celebrations, unnecessary expenditures, and more meaningless words from tone deaf executives. Truly shameful…

@70m whatever HR. The truth is getting out.
You guys had 3 senators at your HQ unveiling. Then talked about how employees are the backbone of the company and success.
You should be ashamed of your antics. The board should be ashamed. The CEO should’ve said no we won’t celebrate this in the face of what’s coming.
None of the people who caused this are losing their jobs.
The plants are hiring to appease the unions so they can continue to cut people at HQ and on. This is embarrassing. They have job postings right now during a lay off.
Then these careless people did it by teams and made sure to cut us off at the end of the call in case we tried to gather evidence.
At the end of this teams call it’s over.
Those of you moved into new groups. Good luck! Once they understand your task bye bye.

@707 Also off-shoring especially services where CPChem needs immediate help during working hours in our time zone. Off-shoring is the trend in IT and it can work, but it often doesn't.

@6z9 Before you speak out, please take your severance paperwork to a lawyer. You need to know what you can legally say and to whom before you publicly disparage the company or one of its officers. Do this especially before speaking to or emailing a reporter, as someone here suggested. Ask an attorney to spell out what acts of free speech are prohibited by the agreement. Also ask your attorney about requesting a mutual non-disparagement clause, confirming that HR will not mischaracterize your exit, and preserving the right to speak confidentially to investigators and regulators.

@707 well 3 of the 16 PE sales people were let go on Friday so….

It would be a huge mistake to outsource customer service. They are the lifeblood with customers along with sales people and are ranked in the top (first in most categories) year after year.

@6zt CIO Should be fired. People she now has inked for the new roles have NO prior experience whatsover. Just “yes” men. Infrastructure/Architecture to be run with someone that was configuring SAP Security a few years ago (zero experience), and person that just came back from Singapore running all of the business-facing applications with no prior experience (was a technical lead prior), and an SAP ABAP Supervisor now running Strategy and the SEE Office? No experience with OCM whatsoever and no background in strategy. Are you kidding me? CIO needs to be audited by Chevron or P66 to understand the crazy poor decision making process. Makes no sense.

Any signs of impacts to engineering roles at the manufacturing sites? I don’t understand the push to reduce third party spend while also wanting to outsource more… Seems counterintuitive. The whole thing just rubs me wrong.

CIO should be fired for
1) Wasting $ millions in PBD
2) Failing of numerous IT projects.
3) For allowing hiring of unqualified people (buddies, family members)
4) Keep giving kingdom keys to LTE d-mbers
5) on and on

Elliot should see this. Save millions by firing all managers.

https://communityimpact.com/houston/the-woodlands/business/2025/07/17/chevron-phillips-chemical-celebrates-25-years-opens-new-headquarters-in-the-woodlands/

If you are afraid to speak out against them you should ask yourself why? A non toxic environment would want that honest feedback but it’s like someone else said. HR is vindictive. Just like apparently they have been telling people not to post on this site, they are being watched. Even if you are laid off no doubt they have you scared to say something until you get all your final paychecks. Don’t be afraid of them. Speak out!
I know I am not leaving my pension with this company before it magically disappears.

In all of these threads about who’s next - all of the departments that are probably on the chopping block - not once have I seen HR mentioned. The main non-revenue producing department of the company and the most top heavy. Why? This is beyond ridiculous- a long time IT employee who was invaluable is gone but not one of those b#*!he’s will be terminated! This has become such a s%#t show of a company

@6xc at least two more rounds and possibly more if they don’t hit financial targets. Next big round will be all the positions that will be outsourced. accounts payable/receivable, finance, credit, customer service, support services. This will probably happen in late September or October. It’s not even remotely close to being done.

Yaffa.Fredrick@houstonchronicle.com

If you notice Chevron was in their news for news of laying off 100’s. Chevron Phillips was not. They want this quiet. No one at the top wants the story of corporate overspend on frills, that cost people their jobs.

Email that Houston chronicles investigative journalist editor with your story. How you were laid off, possible violation of the WARN, all the details you can confirm. Provide the link to these forums. Even if you think someone else did it. Do it as well.
If we all do it they can see the truth in the numbers. We can all uncover more together. Don’t be afraid they will find out. What are they gonna do? Lay you off again?

@6wm Funny how you paint CPChem as rule followers. They have falsified investigations, falsified environmental reporting records, and outright covered up large toxic releases that went on for days because a certain plant manager was in line to be moved to a VP position. So, spare me the high and mighty “we know how to do the right thing”.

@6wz there are some pick mes! In the wrore

The CIO has an accounting degree? The chief information officer of a global company has an accounting degree?!?

HR has a degree from the University of Phoenix?? Is that even a real one?

I also love how much business school engineers get taught in engineering.

But they make great vice presidents and presidents?

We need to get Elliot investors group on this. They hate that P66 has Chevron Phillips. They perhaps would like to see this and use it as leverage.
Or the boards contact emails

@6wn how many more rounds this year?

@6kc if you’re not a coward, who are you posting this insensitive note anonymously?

Yes, HR is clearly monitoring the comments, like all bullies, they can dish it out but can’t take it. And we all see what’s happening with the downvotes. Who else would be defending them if not themselves?

@6wp I wonder if they have an on call schedule in HR to monitor this post and interject periodically. It wouldn’t surprise me since it would waste money.

@6wm thanks HR. We’d believe you but you don’t follow any other rules… or ethics… or morals… again, you are dismissed and unwelcome here.

Better not get complacent if you weren’t included in this round. This was only the first phase, with many more to come. Not only is manufacturing coming…the next few are going to involve those whose job is going to be outsourced…looking at you finance, credit, customer service, marketing aides. If I was you I would start looking now as most likely you’ll not get a severance like this round got. You’ve been warned…

@6pa CPChem is well aware about the WARN and I’m quite certain they are following all the rules.

@6wh Sorry I meant I thought it was my fault and now I understand the BS is everywhere -- systemic

@3yn you are wrong. P66 doesn’t grow without CPChem. You think they are going to build another refinery? They are shutting refineries down.

@6wf Out them all.
One thing that has made me feel a little better is learning that institutionalized incompetence, unchecked nepotism, conflicts of interest, utter lack of ethics, and personal cruelty are everywhere, from HQ to the plants. Silence is enforced with fear and some relish it. It's a part of who they are.

@6vt you have to love the “as previously stated” comment. Getting under their skin because they can’t control the narrative here. No peer groups for cpchem look like this. No peer groups have excessively promoted buddies and friends. Engineers in any and every single role. No peer companies would have kept a failing manufacturing vp who hired layers in between him to manage the plants. Scapegoats. No peer companies bury real ethics complaints.

So many people say ah well just move on.
I want to know how we fight. No one will get their job back but someone needs to look into this company and their questionable tactics. Do we start a petition?
Do we all compile our own experiences and mail them to them? What is the best way to get this information out?
Accountability is important here.
People lost their jobs for fraternity style behaviors.

@6vs There is no difference at HQ. We also have a manager’s daughter at the AP working under the same department. Most of the employees do not have a degree as well and are somehow connected to managers. The turnover is ridiculous. There are employees working several desks while we have a girl that calls in sick every week. There was weeks with her out of the office however no one does anything about it. There has been alot of complaints about management and favoritism. HR and Hotline are aware nothing changes. After reading most of these comments sounds like now that this is a common culture in the company.

@6vt thanks HR. You are dismissed and not welcome here… or should I call you and tell you on Teams?

As previously stated in this thread…. any jobs/roles or groups that remained, are a design of the consulting firms org chart, which is benchmarked against the peers. Based on that, the work group remaining are relevant for the future. It may not make sense but apparently it’s most common amongst the peers.

My Observations After 15 Years in IT at the Plant.

It took me a while to write this because I wanted to first hear what others had to say.
It seems many of us had our “blinkers” on—only seeing what we wanted when things were going well.

Here’s my perspective, based on 15 years working in IT at the Plant:

Despite my dedication and contributions, no one recognized the hard work I put in.
When I became ill, the focus shifted to what I couldn’t do rather than what I had done.
When I was let go, the new IT hire literally celebrated. She should realize she’s part of the problem too—she was only hired because her husband works at the Plant.

CPChem has allowed unethical practices to persist for years.
Now that some issues are finally being exposed, the company seems more focused on covering things up again.
The Ethics Hotline and HR? A complete joke. Nothing ever changes.

I can’t speak for what happens at HQ, but here’s what I witnessed directly at the Plant and in IT:

1. Hiring Unqualified Personnels
   Many departments quietly removed requirements like a Bachelor of Science degree or industry certifications.
   This opened the floodgates for hiring friends and personal connections.

IT set the tone for this trend under the new CIO—who promoted her friends. Others quickly followed.

1. Keeping Underperformers
   Managers and supervisors are unwilling to do the paperwork needed to address performance issues.
   So everyone ends up marked as “meeting expectations,” regardless of actual output.

We all know who the underperformers are, but no one is held accountable.

Some of these same individuals made critical mistakes—like with the 1594 project—and were still sent to Orange afterward.

1. Nepotism
   Nepotism happens everywhere, but here it’s blatant and protected.

One employee brought her own sister into the company.
At one point, two different managers had their sons working in the same department.

One of them was a known bully—misusing his badge, creating a toxic environment, and even driving contractors to quit.

As usual, HR and the Ethics Hotline did nothing.

1. The “Good Ol' Boy” System
   This culture is deeply entrenched and out in the open.

Just look at Teams—it’s obvious who’s being promoted into managerial roles.

This is exactly why Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) matters.

Many managers and supervisors do not have the qualifications their positions require.

If you want the respect and the pay, earn it—with real qualifications and leadership, not connections.

1. Minimal Effort from Employees
   Many project engineers and staff contribute the bare minimum, relying heavily on vendors and contractors.

The 1594 project was a prime example of this laziness.

“Turnkey” has become a code word for poor oversight and accountability—especially in finance.

Even after all the errors at 1594, the same people were sent to Orange.

1. “We Make Plastic, Not Sense”
   That’s a common phrase around the Plant—and sadly, an accurate one.

We often redo the same project two or three times just to get it right.

The ongoing issues with wireless infrastructure are another repeat example.

1. Poor IT Leadership
   The current CIO lacks a clear understanding of what IT support truly means in a Plant environment.

She constantly emphasizes “resource management,” but her team doesn’t know how to implement it effectively.

She treats IT as a project-based app shop—meanwhile, promoting friends and wasting millions of dollars and critical resources.

After 25 years, we still can’t even properly route support tickets. The entire IT process is a joke.

@6vc This should serve as a case study for any organization that encourages “accountability and ownership” and speaking up when you see something wrong, but then silences top performers who speak up against poor business decisions and ill behaviors of individuals brought in on the buddy system. This is exactly what happens when you use your broken HR system to silence these employees. The performance of the organization as a whole declines because the individuals causing the problems and making bad decisions are left unchecked. The biggest issue is that these individuals are still not being dealt with because they are in the failing manufacturing organization, led by the person who is arguably the biggest failure of leadership that CPChem has ever had. (And we’ve had some doosies)

This is little comfort to the commercial folks that were forced to do manufacturing’s bidding or the accounting people screaming “look at the financials!” or the IT people who support every single person in the organization… these are the people we’re letting go. Not the TOTAL rejects that never deserved a place in CPChem, not the leadership failures that caused the whole mess… the hardworking people in the support groups that believed they were working for the greater good.

Congratulations B Can, you really messed up this time. No wonder TOTAL got rid of you. I hope your wife finds out about your HR f buddy and leaves you with nothing, just like you’ve left 300 hardworking people with nothing.