I've noticed many folks are taking jobs with competitors and partners, while others are leaving the field altogether. Are they seeing something coming, or have they simply had enough?
28 replies (most recent on top)
An absolute loss of confidence in Management caused me to elect to take a package a couple years ago... Stupid decision (or worse, no decisions) kept happening and any work I did became meaningless (i.e., 'no impact'), and apparently that fact that I'm still looking at thelayoff.com means I still pretty angry about it. I tried to move away from the industry but got su-ked back in and now I make a lot less in pay but I'm WAY happier now. My advice to anyone out there - Shell is NOT too big to fail. Look at all the skilled people who are leaving and ask yourself 'what do they know that I don't?' And when all the good people leave, you might have an epiphany when you realize 'what does that say about me?'
I didn't leave because of Wael or DEI. Personally, I was miserable dealing with exploration and production leadership. They know so little about the technical work their teams are doing--they don't know what "good" work looks like.
Even worse, they prefer not to believe the expert or TA saying "that's not going to work." Why? Because (1) all opinions seem valid if you have zero critical reasoning and/or (2) they get rewarded for activity, not success. Of course there are exceptions but they are leaving too.
@bn
I regularly give away 200k just to feel good a smug about myself! NOT!
To be retirement eligible, you need 20 years of service. or 60 weeks of pay +the prorated bonus + 200 k of insurance benefits into retirement if hired after 2006 or it would be a LIFETIME of insurance worth 30 k per year for every year you manage to live if you were hired before 2006.
That's a huge giveaway for pride that's equivalent to walking away from an annuity with a starting value of 750 thousand. But sure that's worth more than a million dollars.
I don't believe you're serious or maybe you just don't get it
@k6 just wait until they revise severance package back to the US standard of flat 10 weeks. Wells already tried it this year before HR shot it down. But I wouldn’t be surprised if YL approved the strategy for shareholder value.
@bn
With 20+ years at shell, the package would be a lot more than $200k for many. With the frequency of layoffs, it was pretty easy to say "I'm in the window" and wait for the next package.
@bn
Ok if you're going out on your terms and are set financially great for you!! I mean that I cheer you on.
Please be a hero and hide bags of potatoes in the vents to rot and stink up the place. or put a pound of ground beef in the file cabinet. hide one of those noise makers in the vents and do all of this near one of the evp or svp offices.
100% true. shell values DEI and kissing butt. not talent.
@c8 I think most companies are better than shell. I won’t say my new company but the benefits are better than shell. Shell really doesn’t value the experienced hires. From my experience most of them are viewed as not the shell lifers so they are treated differently.
@a2: would you mind telling us what your new company is? Perhaps we can use this as a refreshing anecdote for life after Shell and maybe even apply for a job there
@OP The grass really is greener on the other side, when competitors have competent leaders who know how to value and respect their employees.
@bh You're 100% right. To Shell, we're all just cogs in the machine, easily replaceable regardless of our experience.
Wael
You asked why so many people are moving on. And here I thought Chemicals actually had a choice in whether to stay or go. 😂
We need an anti-Wael, not another cookie-cutter Harvard Business School grad following the same corporate playbook. Anyone can cut costs, sell assets, streamline operations, and call it transformation. What Shell needs is a visionary leader who can create real shareholder value through sustainable, long-term growth, not simply shrink the company. That takes courage, innovation, and genuine leadership. Real leaders build and grow businesses, not just manage their decline.
Silly OP. People want to feel valued and have opportunities to grow, yet promotions are few and far between. Technology no longer drives the business; it’s become the tail rather than the dog. Leadership is increasingly filled with yes-men and yes-women who spin divestments, downsizing, and a shrinking U.S. footprint as strategic wins. SPS is little more than a check-the-box exercise. Shell increasingly resembles a commodity trading house focused on LNG, crude oil, and refined products, with upstream and refining assets attached, rather than the technology-driven energy company it once was.
@bs Wael seems to have mastered the art of change management. Our jobs keep changing, our teams keep changing, and our organizational charts keep changing. But somehow, his salary and bonus only seem to change in one direction: UP!
Change is the only constant at Shell. But now we’re changing how we change, changing the changes we just changed, and preparing for the next round of changes before the last changes even take effect. At this point, even change is asking for a change!
@OP
YL’s Shell: Shareholders first, employees second. Enough said.
@bn FIRE!
@bn
He-l yeah! If you can, just coast for a while at a place where you’re genuinely valued as a person, while your nest egg continues to grow. That’s a pretty sweet spot to be in!
@aa
The same applies to those late in their careers. If you’ve spent 20+ years at Shell, invested wisely, and have accumulated multiple million dollars in assets, walking away from $200K may not be a big deal. At that point, the value of your time, peace of mind, and ability to leave on your own terms can far outweigh the financial benefits of staying. Money matters, but so does the freedom to decide when and how you move on.
@b5 I mean there are many roles that Shell fills with people that are not as qualified or have the proper experience. Every time I asked I was told Shell hires the best and anyone can learn the role. This is the main reason for Shell’s downfall. The thought that anyone can do anything and not value expertise.
Shell is the most DEI committed company in the history of DEI
If you aren’t diverse you may as well quit now before your career “mysteriously” stagnates.
They will get to 40k by cutting out one race above all others and we all know it. They will do so with pride and celebration. There is a lawsuit right now about Shell giving someone they fired a “white male tear jar” after they replaced him in a cybersecurity role at woodcreek with a DEI hire with no experience.
You have been warned.
Several months ago, a senior letter grade told me that the goal was to continue to keep cutting staff over the next year, as Shell wants to be like Chevron when it comes to staffing. Shell was able to cut from 80k staff to around 60k globally, but now wants another 20k reduction across the boards. I was told this could be done through divestments and more reorgs, so if they can get folks to leave on their own, they are making progress they think. Seems like they are keen on keeping id--ts and DEI hires though over talent and longevity. Been with Shell over 20 years and the last 8 have gotten worse year by year. If I had only 5 -10 years in, I would already be gone.
The industry is dying. There are these things called solar panels and batteries.
Oil and gas won’t go away. But it will run with fewer and fewer people and be more and more niche. It will be less and less relevant as more and more things are electric.
What typically happens is an energy source doesn’t go away. Instead, it becomes insignificant compared to the rest of the available energy sources. We can clearly see this now in the data.
In a decade nobody making power generation or a car will start with the idea of using oil or gas. Building codes have even started banning the installation of gas hookups.
The writing is on the wall. Do you really want to sit at Waels shell? Dying industry, harder and harder hours, 5 days a week in office, no chance for promotion, leadership team openly happy for you to quit so that they don’t have to pay to fire you.
Well?
@aa ya I left because I was an external hire with less than 10y of tenure with Shell so I didn’t have the golden handcuffs of the10% 401k match. Heck my new company had a higher match straight off.
The decision to go on your own terms or stay until you get the package...
It can be a financial decision. How many weeks do you get with the package + unused vacation +$ prorated bonus, and how much unvested PSP stock? If you quit you don't get the package, prorated bonus, or unvested PSP. That could be multiple years worth of pay, and if you become retirement eligible it also could be close to 200k for insurance matching/payments.
Quitting would feel good, Oh so good, but you could be walking away from multiple years worth of pay.
But if you are early in your career it may not be such a big deal. Just roll your pension into an IRA!
@OP I mean all the reorgs are kind of forcing people to look. I wasn’t looking, but a competitor offered me a promotion for the same work I was doing at Shell, so it wasn’t hard to pass up. Considering I was in chemicals with all the uncertainty, I figured it was better to leave on my own terms then be hunting after the sale and other reorgs. My new company is great and I would say better than Shell honestly.