Look at anybody who has worked for Devon over the last 20 years and you will find one thing in common: Short tenure. Constant lay offs, re-organizations, a trail of management driven dysfunction all the way. Not a place where you can build a long career.
Best that one can hope for is a 7 to 10 year run and a severance at the end.
@2rn Because Devon is a dumpster fire and not very profitable
@1m9 DVN produces about 45% more boe/d. Cant compare the two as they are not the same model, fang is pure play.
Honestly I’m surprised a major didn't acquire by now anyways. The good question is WHY not??.
Dvn was great under Nichols then became soft and spoiled while overrun with narcissists…until that’s addressed catching fang/eog is a pipe dream
@1d1 the reason the merger is taking so long is because CTRA's ERP is a dumpster fire. The COG - XEC merger closed in 10/21; however financials didn't start getting combined into COG's ERP until 1/23. Even then, they booked the first 6 months on estimates. It was (and still is) a complete sh-tshow.
@1cy Been in the industry 40+ years bud, so I've known and seen about everything. Taking over a year to finally "merge" is ridiculous in these days and times. As far as acquisitions, look at the quality of deals Gaspar & Co have done the last several years. Validus (EF) was not very good with marginal inventory. RimRock (Bakken) was the joke of the industry as everyone who pays attantion knew their acreage was trash. Grayson Mills is decent but it is nowhere near the top Tier 1 acreage position that WPX had on the FBIR and brought into DVN as it is much further North & West. Oh, I forgot about FERVO . . . that isn't a place a top tier O & G operator needs to be spending any capital on . . . leave it for the multi-nationals. Circus Tent.
@1cv Not talking about a singular group or departments. Company wide FANG has ~1800 emplyees, while DVN now has ~3100 post "merger". DVN needs to sell there cr-ppy Anadarko, Powder, minimal Eagle Ford and the gassy Marcellus. But Gaspar and company think that market cap equals power and prestige, so they will hold on as long as possible. Big, bloated circus.
@p7 what group are you in Bud? We aren’t even fully merging until January there is zero chance anyone would acquire us by end of 2027 unless Clay has a second company he likes making d-mb acquisitions with. May is the last date for severance so most people are being let go before that, but they have up to that date. No one outside the board cares about the investors pressure. They can buy up more shares if they want more influence, but plenty other firms are jumping on board. We are basically a dumpster fire of misfit toys trying to make something good right now. If acquisitions talk happens it’ll be 2028 and that will really depend if we go pure play.
@dy what insiders say 300-400? Okc lost a good handful and Houston lost a lot of accounting and some marketing with a handful in other groups. You’d be lucky to hit 400 by May. Investors are impatient about a divesture, but guess what they also hold sub 5% so they’re going to keep waiting, it’ll come soon but not tomorrow.
@cq that’s almost every corporate job. You’re either a boomer or delusional that workers will put up with corporate bs.
@tc FANGs departments are more bloated as someone who currently communicates frequently with both companies. Their finance groups are twice as staffed as ours.
Is the hole in the 47th floor bathroom still there or did it move to Houston? Asking for a friend.
@19g Devon didn’t have CIC because they were the acquirer. But compared to what Coterra gets, it is cheaper.
Devon’s CIC was rather cheap, wasn’t it?
@z0 Their CIC is 24 months from close date, so they will wait to can them until mid-May, 2028. Save themselves a shitload of severance.
@yn Plan on a short stay . . . say 12-16 months. Better rent for a 1+ years and keep your home in Houston if you really love it . . . . grades K-12 better start researching private schools and make sure wherever you live definitely has a tornado shelter . . . . enjoy that.
@w8 If you are moving from Houston and aren't a frat bro, what are your chances? Should you start working on your resume now? Would you be the first one on the chopping block during the next round of layoffs.
Asking for a friend.
That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
@nn. Five years is easy. dVN hasn’t grown up from the frat. They like them young and d-mb. After five years is where it takes a little cunning to stay(if you want)” to). Praise your supervisors and you’ll have had several by that time. Always be ready to say yes. Don’t think too hard about what the right thing to do is. Just know that the decision was already made and you need to agree to stay. They’ll alway wish they were EOG or FANG or whoever the Wall Street darling is at the moment but they’ve always been the last one asked to the dance. They’re not looking for the best and brightest. If you wanna stay you’ve gotta understand how the culture works. Remember, YES.
@sd Jorden and Gaspar dragging their feet as they don't want to give up any of the kingdom . . . . way overstaffed and bloated. FANG & EOG run circles around this company.
@p7 nobody said hundreds kept through mid 2027, the exit letters, with few exceptions, go through then. The bulk of remaining exits are slated for Q1 after SAP conversion completed. I do think after a few asset sales DVN will be bought by a major though.
@nm Mid 2027? There is no way hundreds are going to be kept on until mid year next year. I'm hearing TOMS Capital, Kimmeridge and others want at least 300-400 now with additonal substantial headcount reductions of thos supporting each divested asset. Gaspar & Jorden get it trimmed down and by YE 2027 DVN will be acquired by CVX, COP, XOM or maybe even EOG, OXY or even FANG.
@jd completely false. It’s an industry issue. Anyone can make it 5+ years if they want to. If anything it’s the longer tenured employees let go in a RIF.
@jy no only about a third at this point, exits will continue through mid 2027 depending on department. But they are for sure already notified
@gr Have thos 300-400 left the company yet? I doubt it or Gaspar surely would have announced it to quiet the wolves just a tiny bit.
At best, you have a 50-50 shot of making it past 5 years. People will blame the industry, volatility. But it is a Devon-specific problem as to why they cannot hold on to their people. other organizations RIF numbers are a fraction on Devon’s sad track record.
@dy number is correct but all of those people have already been notified. No additional major cuts sans a divest
@cv right but the claim was that you can’t build a long term career and it’s very clear a large percentage of people do.
Every company has churn. Not every company has that many 10+ year folks
Is it department specific?
@dg Insiders say they expect at least 300-400 minimum even before any asset divestitures. Institutional investors are growing very impatient.
Odds on a RIF in the next 2 weeks?
@OP It used to be you'd stay forever if you were part of the local OU fraternity type group but now that is disappearing as Gaspar has run off David Harris, John Raines, the HR ExVP and numerous VP's. Couple that with his thumbing OKC and Nichols with the HQ move and it's every man for himself. It won't matter as DVN will most likley be a thing of the past by YE 2027.
@cq That's a measure of current tenure, not churn. Those are two very different metrics.
Just pulled the data for L DVN. 46% <5 year tenure, 20% 5-10 years, 21% 10-15 years, and 13% 15+ years. I’d suggest that will change but would argue you are incorrect in that you can’t have a long career based on the data. But with inventory issues and new leadership, a few years and a severance sounds good to me.