Ok I was recently called into the supervisors office. I was told in order to improve and move up in ranking I would have to work on skills unrelated to my current job. I thought how nice of them to be honest with me about how I was doing. They were not being nice they were spelling out my next years deficiencies in writing. If they were smart they would lie to us and ding us at ranking time. I does not motivate me to work harder but I think that is what they want. They want to discourage us and demotivate us. They want to soften us up and get us ready for piping. They want to pi-s us off and let our pride take over and quit. Instead of building us up and promoting us they are doing the opposite. Again I am over 50 and it was better before this. So many others I have talked to have had this happen them and it will happen to you.
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Our group had a script read to us, with the actual ranking being about the only unique sentence. Differentiators for the different rankings literally described a 1:1 relationship to our group of CL 24-29 positions. Our boss was in our rank group, so obviously got top marks, LOL. What a mess.
There are skills that are easily acquired by reading a work process manual. Then there are skills one acquire through decades of “doing”. People with experience and who continue to acquire new skills are the ones who are most valuable. However, these are also the ones who left for companies who value them.
Exxon is on this procedure everything and document everything craze. I have been told to document and standardize everything I do now. They keep saying it is because of efficiency and regulations for OIMS. It is so they can replace me with a new person who can hopefully follow simple written instructions. No thinking or innovating required. A button pusher is what they want now for half the pay. I have seen it fail before with all the talent and know how going out the door. You cannot replace experience with new hires. It takes years to learn and develop technical skills. I make the procedures very simple and to the point. This makes them easy to follow but if there is a problem or change the newbies are sc--wed. I have nothing against the new hires or BTC folks everyone needs to work. Remember who is the real enemy and the bad guys.
The solution to your problem is to have a job that is not easily replaceable. Your age won’t be a factor if you have a job that requires someone with skill to do.
So very true. Same happened to me. Fortunately, I quit before they could PIP me. Because I left early, management was in a scramble to replace me with 4 times more expensive contractors (two of them), and still couldn’t get my works done. Feel blessed that I was able to leave.
Similar incident happened to me. I turned 55 and was told I need to move to another area where I have absolutely no training in.
Despite this, I did well and was able to carve out an area where I was able to make contributions. My supervisor who knowns nothing about the work started to undermine my project. Moved my work to a mid career engineer who works for other supervisors. This engineer told me he didn't know how to do the job. The other work went to HiPo engineer who literally copied vendor's slides and presented it as her idea. So arrogant she even told me to get out of her way. It was difficult to watch the sh*t show because my old projects were falling apart. The pay was not enough to tolerate the disrespect.