Thread regarding Chevron Phillips Chemical layoffs

@n39 Generally, bankruptcy filing protect companies from their creditors, but that doesn't include pensions. Pension assets are held in trust outside company assets and cannot be taken by insolvent companies or their lenders.

@n39 while I agree with you regarding the “fat” please refrain from spreading incorrect rumors regarding the pension not being paid out of CPC files for bankruptcy. This is blatantly false.

I believe the pension is ~97% funded currently. If CPC files for bankruptcy which I highly doubt they ever would, the vested pension benefits are largely protected by federal law through the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

This is not 2001 and the protection was largely brought upon due to the Enron debacle where most employees and retirees lost all their pension. You should be thankful that your pension is safe.

With that said, I do agree, if you get laid off, pull all of it out immediately and roll it into an IRA where you can manage it yourself.

@mzc
Interesting that all the people who knows how everything works is called fat. Just because they are 59+ years old. Yes they make good money and it's because of the value they bring everyday. So, the fat is gone and replaced by entry level skinnys, who have to troubleshoot from Mumbai. Personally, I have taken my retirement, pension and other benefits and have not looked back. Chapter 11 is next, and so with it will be all pension accounts. Like many other companies, your payout after bankruptcy will be less than a $1000. If you are smart, and retirement eligible, retire now or lose your $2.5 million lump sums.

@n2p the foundation for this downfall was laid under the Chinn regime: DEI push, 2 mega projects green lighted, incompetent LT installed, etc…. And which scandal are you referring too?

I wonder how Bruce Chinn feels about this downfall- including the scandal? It seems like it all went downhill after he retired.

@n1a At least one if not 2.

How many rounds in 2026? Chevron just double/ triple their cost reduction targets.

More Caring by Choice at work - “we are holding your severance hostage while you train your replacement!!” Excellent business decision to outsource customer service abroad. How long will it take for customers to get frustrated while they have to way a day or longer for a response due to time zone changes?? Just a matter of time before they go to your competition who has customer service stateside. Oh not to mention you still keep all of HR and no layoff any of them so they continue to bury all the skeletons.

@mzb The fat is not at the bottom.

@mzb Sorry, meant to say 3rd wave is late Q1 or early Q2 ‘26

@mys Sure. The 1st wave was to trim the fat and mainly targeted IT and also older commercial people at HQ (tenure=larger salaries).

The 2nd wave included some immediate layoffs but was mainly to offshore support services at HQ such as customer service, marketing aides, financial services, etc. They have until April 1st because you have to train your replacement to be eligible for severance.

The 3rd wave will be manufacturing to once again cut more fat. These will be immediate layoffs as they will be reorganizing groups with no replacements. These layoffs will most likely happen late Q3 or early Q4.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Can someone please break it down for me the main differences between the 1st wave and the 2nd wave? It sounds like the 2nd wave has a longer transition period until April 1st while the 1st wave only had 30 days? Just trying to be mentally prepared for what the 3rd wave would look like. Thank you all for your inputs. This forum has been more helpful and informational than any leader(s) could be.

@mxj thanks for the info and congratulations!

@mwk I was impacted on first round of layoffs and didn't use them. I just didn't see the value in using them versus doing it myself. I have already found a job by the way. Also, beware, they will hound you for weeks on end, so just ignore the calls if you don't want to use them. Good luck!

Has anyone used the outplacement service? Curious if it's worth it?

Just remember that the strategy being followed is similar to Chevron and P66 have done with BCG. We have paid them exorbitant amounts of money to tell us how to right size CPChem. They are using the same play book they have with others in the industry. It’s not right or wrong. It’s just one direction. Ultimately both owners want to see reductions because they had reductions and pain must cross all the lines. This is formulaic and not personal from the BCG end, but for CPChem employees it is personal. Therefore you face a unique dichotomy of rationalized thoughts. The reality is the company made some bad choices like doubling down on ethylene and polyethylene in a slumping market and not going after other promising areas in other businesses. We also could have just done one mega project and not two. Maybe we could have added derivatives. Purchased a company. But until CPChem is no longer owned by two competitive oil companies, we will always face unique funding and growth challenges.

@mgs Not so sure they met their numbers. Maybe in "value" but not in $$$$'s. It has cost COChem a tremendous amount of money with Severance, retirements, subsidized Cobra health care, RRA accounts, unemployment benefits and the hit they will take for the layoffs and the tremendous amount of soft costs for outsourcing decisions.

They have spent waaay more to kick people to the curb than it ever would have costs to keep them.

Sure, write it off as a loss this year, but it would have been a lesser loss to stay the culture course.

Prove me wrong?

@mnf careful you sound like an employee or ex employee with a lot of common sense. Lots of ignorance on here blaming people for placing the blame on the leadership.
If they dont deserve the blame who does?

@mn7 It obviously never occurred to ELT to forgo the spending on new HQ celebration just before 1st round, all the frivolous spending leading up to 2nd round while they were planning on devastating lives! Caring would've meant doing what some companies have done to spare people from layoffs. If you're really serious about saving and looking for solutions you make hard choices like freezing 401k, EIP & AIP bonuses, annual merit increases, etc. and anything else you can pause until you're able to stop seeing red! It might not always be the answer, but it saves jobs and people RESPECT you for it, rather than worst case scenario of resorting to layoffs. This trend reflects a broader strategy among businesses to manage financial pressures while trying to retain their workforce. If others can do it...it's a shame CPC caved to pressures from parents and our feckless ELT didn't stand up for anyone!!

@mn3 Why do they need that giant waste of space in the Woodlands? Other companies are working from home just fine and renting out space when they need to meet. Restrictions that apply to the plants should apply to corporate. I' referring to the layoff parties you have been hosting. It's disgusting display of how little you care about those who got let go. Disgusting!

In the spans and layers model, once layoffs are done (rightsizing), the company will need to reorg. That means at some point managers and leaders (especially middle level managers) will need to go or be repurposed. Since at CPChem being capable at your job is not important to be a manager (knowing people and being agreeable is), there will be a reshuffling of the remaining few to fit the new standard: 1:6 or one manager to six reports. There will be demotions and changes for those that choose to stay. And eventually there has to be an elimination of one or more SVPs, VPs, GMs or other fancy titles and useless layers that will cause more money to be saved. Some of those big wigs will get the memo and retire, while others will get bonuses to stick around until the ship sinks. Either way, they're not losing.
Don't be fooled... they're not done. Since profitability is not there the owners will start intervening and making a radical change of Leadership. The drop in our credit rating and one dishonorable mention of CPC's disappointing results on CVX Q325's earnings call (CPC driving downstream results down) already has pulled more unwanted attention to our board and will hopefully trigger a drastic change in leadership. Which in normal companies, that is what is done FIRST. Leadership got us here; they should be the ones going out first. As we continue to struggle financially, I hope they recognize job cuts will not fix the problem. CPChem bleeds money every day through incapable people leading (both technically incapable and awful leaders) and pushing ideas that are stupid and costly instead of caring to win and creating wealth by taking sound business decisions. My heart goes out to all those laid off and hope you find your next gig soon. I just hope we don't go down the path of Chapter 11. That would really su-k.

@mdw Handled poorly like the 1st round. But clearly someone messed up by sending the invites before end of day. Who was the genius that hit "send" or made that call as all it did was create utter panic and chaos across 5N when comparing notes on who got what type of Teams invite or email! At least many packed up their own belongings on way out the door, but sad to see and Monday will be worse! Have they learned nothing? Proving all along CPChem LT has NEVER CARED? Mantras and tag lines are just for show! Outsourcing is NEVER good for any company, especially when government is trying to bring jobs back home to Americans. Guess Pruse sac didn't share that with Trump when he met him in Doha! What a hypocrite....offshoring jobs when Americans need them the most!! It's time to realize CPChem's days are numbered...the end game is obvious as they're preparing to sell. Heaven help us all!

@mh2 did they include the people who left on their own?

@mgr It’s giving pickleball courts…

A specific shout out to the marketing and customer service teams that were impacted yesterday. You guys worked your butts off and have been disregarded anyways.

We aren’t going to cost control ourselves out of this situation—- we need to sell more, at a higher price, and faster. So what do we do? Lay off more than 25% of sales and tech service in our biggest product line, the sales and tech service that remain have travel limitations, we were forced to walk away from a bunch of business because our consultants knew better, and now we decimate our customer service and invoicing teams. These groups were a part of the CPC value add to our customers and that loss of value can only be made up in one place—- price.

Sales and commercial and tech service are being asked to go win a bar fight without any arms or legs because our leadership doesn’t understand our identity or our markets.

Regardless, they met their numbers this year at the cost of 260 people. Next year, they have to meet higher cuts. And given the trend, you can guess how they will accomplish that!

@mg5 the golf tournament was Tuesday this week. CPC rents the entire Augusta Pines golf course for a “shootout”. It’s done every year but clearly it should have been skipped this year. LT tells everyone to cut costs anywhere we can and layoff 260 people yet they’re out spending hundreds of thousands on golf. Can’t make this sh-t up!

@mfw A lot of us were talking and can’t believe this: they’re outsourcing AP- which will be disastrous- IT outsource and already the pain is being felt- yet not ONE HR person Is gone- the most top heavy- non revenue producing department in the company and they’re all still there! So disgusting and incompetent- this AP thing is going to bite them in the a$$

@mfq was the golf tournament recent? How many days before they let people go were they out spending money like there is an abundance? And 150k for golf how?

@mfq The LT is still doing it because the rules don’t apply to them. Just the rest of us. Golf tournaments, ICARE celebrations, ERG celebrations, etc. Now they’ve let go 260 people that made the company run but how many LT positions were changed or eliminated? There’s your answer! They’re motto is “do as I say, not as I do”

LT is the epitome of leading by example.

@mfk why are they still spending money? The plants didn't get a golf tournament. The ergs are told to stop spending money. Icare day? What icare day? Yet they are still spending money like nothing has changed. It's more than bad optics. They are irresponsible children that needs their cc taken away! If you want to save money how about selling that hotel you built and work from home like a lot of other companies are doing! It will save you a lot of money in staff and building maitenance costs! Stop making up new manager postions! You wasted company money to be told how to do your jobs and you are still doing the thing they told you to stop doing! You are destroying what used to be a great company! Please STOP!

@mfk Because the LT justify it as necessary 🙄. And you wonder why we are going broke!

@me4 the golf outing is typically 100–150 k?? Wow that’s insane. Makes sense it’s a big event. Why are they not cutting things like that out?

@mdr I’m curious, how much did the CPChem Shootout cost this year? Historically it’s been between $100k-$150k. You’re having a golf tournament full of smiles and fellowship with customers right before another layoff. Get a grip man…what terrible optics that is! How many customers or new orders did you procure from the shootout? ZERO!

They're laying people off with a garbage script in a TEAMS meeting. Unprofessional is the understatement of the century. They make bad financial decisions and the people that are ACTUALLY doing the work are paying the price. F**king ridiculous. There are some fat paychecks that could be cut for those who literally do NOTHING... but, by God they have a masters degree, so let's keep the useless tu-d. RIDICULOUS.

@mdc if their lips are moving, you know they're lying. Full of sh*t.

It’s always a big celebration before the layoffs. Big party for the new HQ, layoff round 1 right after, CPChem Golf Shootout, layoff round 2 right after. Next will be the fancy Thanksgiving lunch in a parking garage and then round 3 layoff right before Christmas. True iCARE, Caring by Choice!!

I think AI could do a better job running this whole thing... now there's a cost savings!

@md8 Yes, I agree and this isn't the end. He said "planned layoffs" in his email. Well I can absolutely see "unplanned" layoffs will happen because leadership at corporate and sites won't stop spending on unnecessary items. Free lunches, shirts, coolers, green egg grills, you name it... all in the spirit of "team building". Leadership with their heads in the sand while the morale continues downhill. They won't hold people accountable to do the work they were hired for, which is wasting more money! They need to cut cards off, reduce budgets and truly stop the frivolous spending. It's all these sugar coated words of "shared sense of urgency" and the rest of the AI written email that isn't hitting home! Just speak the truth and say you sc--wed up with 2 huge projects at once and you don't have the ba--s to stop the bleeding! These long time employees that are used to spending what they want - they won't stop. And replacing company workers with contractors isnt the answer. The contractors from staffing agencies give zero Fks about our CPC bank account.. they spend more because they are not an invested loyal employee! They will buy whatever because they think it will make them liked enough where they will get a permanent spot. We will bankrupt and they will roll on to the next.. I have recently seen some really intelligent and vaulable employees leave on their own accord. I realized today that it may be best to be open to new opportunities too. No positive attitude can fix this sinking ship. We need a real CEO!

@mdp right. Hard to answer what group and still have to go in and train your replacement. Just keep your head down, do what’s asked and apply like crazy!