I worked in P.C. for almost 26 years scumbooger came in and with help of Italians messed everything up. Smith International was a great place to work and be able to raise a family. Of witch I will be eternally great full. But Scumbooger s--- a-- management, we'll you know are cowardice. I have since acquired another position doing the same thing I was doing. In the last two years with new employer have gotten 3 yes count them 3 raises. Company is much smaller but they care. If you have any sense at all leave Scumbooger now. You will benefit greatly. Happy to have been axed.
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2mzu lot of ponca people were offered way less than 20.50 ph some even several dollars less than that and were told wages started at 14.00 per hour and no timeline of raises nor dollar amounts. some were told be happy you were offered any type of job at all. and find own way down there.
-2mzu
You are absolutely right. First of all the "most live in the Woodlands area" is a massive stretch of the truth, maybe they meant 30 or 40 miles around the Woodlands. Yes, most managers and engineering employees with a six figure salary live in the woodlands but that is not true for most of the workforce. With that kind of pay, which is ridiculous because most decently experienced people in Houston's shop floor were around $27/hour or more and still they had to rely on massive amount of overtime to survive, living maybe in spring, but you need at least $200K for a small home in a neighborhood where you might not get shot driving into. In the Woodlands you need around $500K for a home. Most people got used to 45 minutes to 1 hour commute, one way, to get to work which is insane because doesn't leave any time to take care of your family, or anything else. Just for reference, most engineers in Rankin hit the 6 figures in the first 5 to 6 years of employment. Office staff is around $70 to $75 after few years of experience and they collect overtime. The shop floor has always been a mess since Little Caesar (LOL) is there. They went from working 12 hours, 13 days every two weeks to 8 hours 4 days a week depending on how he wanted to manipulate his numbers to take care of his bottom line. Offering you less than $30/hour on top of the fact that I imagine he hasn't offered any relocation assistance such as move in bonus ($10K to $25K for most employees), buy out of your current home at market price (independently appraised) plus bonus if you can sell it by yourself in less than 2 months (usually another 10% on top of the sale price) and to cover 3 months (minimum) of your expenses while you live in Houston and you seek another home, plus every closing cost on your home, and so on...
Well, you did right to don't move and to let him sink in his own greed, all the best to you and your family. I hope you find a better job and a less stressful environment.
Again SLB demonstrates that it's a service and engineering company but it's absolutely unable to run a healthy manufacturing environment where the margins aren't ridiculous as D&M, and still, there would be a lot to say about that too.
All the best to y'all, has been a pleasure to work with most of you but unfortunately it's time to move on.
Now you know why Ponca People aren't moving to Houston. They are tired of being treated like cattle. Neither valued nor appreciated. Little Caesar will be exposed for what he is sooner than later. Unfortunately it will be the end of Smith Bits as we know it.
Oh my that is remarkable insight. Now That all being said, that puts egg on his face sense Houston plant cannot produce what was being produced in Ponca City. Hopefully that will show Scumbooger they messed up and should have axed this guy long ago.
Also would explain how come employees, I should say non management employees were not given any kind of raises. No raises in 7 yrs Scum has operated or the 20 plus years this guy was running things.
That being said now everyone can see why Smith Legacy employees from Ponca City are not moving to Houston. They are only being offered what they are making in Ponca City to move. And one cannot live very well at all in Houston on 20.50 an hour. Then have Houston HR come in and say most people down there live in the Woodlands area. Really on 20.50 an hour and in some instances even lower.
Thanks for the insight on the Italian maffia. Explains alot. Good luck to all Smith Legacy employees who will be losing there hobs this year.
-1lzw
You can thank the guy driving the maserati for that. He did a similar thing in Houston "re-evaluating" a lot of people employment conditions and moving them from exempt to nonexempt salaried and even more from salary to hourly, where you don't get anything. He saved the company a fortune doing that before letting the people go. No other division has seen such thing happen. But again, money talks, bs walks, and they let him get away with murder considering what he brings back to the table.
If you were working in the shop floor, then I feel sorry because SLB doesn't give a rat's a$$ about manual labor, or low skills office jobs, and there is no severance at that level. But again, according to the HR mapping, most people in PC were mapped one or two grades lower than comparable positions in Houston, Sugar Land, and Rosharon.
I worked in the Ponca city plant for 30 years. No hefty severance for me.
-bfi
Yes, hefty. Most people with experience, the ones targeted by the layoff, got around 6 months of pay + their bonus, which was, depending on the level, between 10% and 20%. People in the "upper divisions" got up to 3 years of severance and a 40% bonus.... Even between the hourly the severance was up to 3 months instead of a customary kick in the nuts with steel toe shoes. Maybe in PC the Sopranos twisted the rules to screw the people even more, but between the SLB population the exit was a very nice and soft slide.
My experience was similar, just over 12 years in Ponca City until March 2015. My new job is 30 miles southwest of Ponca and in the 21 months I've been here I have received 4 raises. Right now I'm within $1.50/hr of what took me 7 years to build up at Smith working on the floor. This is not including the incentive bonuses I'm getting which equates to just over $2.00/hr - money for doing my job and following the procedures. The insurance is MUCH cheaper and MUCH better. Since I'm working 9 hour days there's an extra $100+ per week.
This company is expanding and hiring. A relaxed atmosphere, like Smith was before Schlumberger.
SLB bought another bit company once, and admittedly screwed it up. I don't know if any Italians were involved, but I know no Smith people were. Schlumberger has a history of destroying companies with their ignorance of how they should be run.
Hefty severance? Really? Hefty?
Don't worry. The Trump Train and I will fix everything.
Perhaps your right on Italians,BUT it is scumbooger who allowed them to screw everything up. If upper management has truly questioned thete abilities to right the ship, then why have the masterminded idiots not done something about it. Just another case of scumbooger upper management being enept!!
Reality check. The Italians are Smith people, they were hired, promoted, and put in charge by other Smith people even before SLB acquired the company. You might blame SLB for not getting rid of them, that's it. Check your facts before blaming SLB for the only thing it hasn't done to run Smith to the ground. Thanks to SLB, on the other hand, most Smith people got a pretty hefty severance package when they got dumped, while with Smith would have been a 2 weeks of pay. Internal sources confirmed that the Italians dumped more people than required at every layoff round just to show their commitment. Other internal sources confirms that the same Italians have been questioned more than once about their ability to keep the business running even with the extra personnel reduction, by the SLB top management. Unfortunately the destruction of Smith Bits started way before the SLB era and was supported by the Smith Bits top management of the time.
I was there 29 years. No job yet, but just not working there any more has been a tremendous relief to my wife and me. It was a great company. We built a great product we were proud of. My co-workers were talented and dedicated people. And they were my friends. I too am happy to be gone. RIP Smith Bits.