Thread regarding Chevron Phillips Chemical layoffs

@OP Does anyone know of there are layoffs happening in September? I keep hearing there are two more rounds, and I'm worried about some of my coworkers. They're worried, too.

@a3k Well said and strongly agree. If you start your own company, I hope you'll hire me.

I left CPChem in April. I just finally stopped having anxiety attacks a couple weeks ago - the artifacts of the stress that I endured working there. So many tears shed in silent car rides to and from the building. I was relieved, and also horrified, to sometimes stumble across other contractors crying in the freight elevator rooms. I was glad I wasn't alone, but disappointed that there were others going through this while working there. The culture was awful. I can't speak to how it was in these golden days everyone is remembering so fondly. When I worked there, I used to tell people that I worked in the "Karen" capital of the world. The entitlement. The lack of humility. The lack of self-awareness. I still see it in these comments and it's hilarious LOL. If your experience at CP Chem in 24/25 doesn't sound like this, you were most likely one of the contributors to the toxicity or turned a blind eye to it. It was too far gone to be fixed. Gut it and start over.

@a0e We're never going to convince Zero to rethink their stance on this. Every rebuttal is a regurgitation of their favorite logical fallacies. Zero's screeds pander to the LT. "Please spare me! I'm one of you! I think just like you do! See how eloquently I can defend our REAL shared values? But if you do terminate me, you won't break me like you have the others. I'm effing prepared."
OK. You do you, Zero, and best of luck. I hope the life lessons coming your way help shape a wiser version of you.

@a0p The point is you can create an obligation by representation. No different than the old adage “I’m a man of my word”. Making a statement such as that creates a personal obligation of integrity. If you betray that self-imposed obligation, then you are a fraud plain and simple. No different standard for the company, they represented themselves as having integrity and compassion and then completely betrayed that. Same standard for the company and people have a right to be mad without your useless lecture.

Some of you are just venting, and that is fine, but let’s be honest. Personal insults and name calling do not change the point I made. Employment is transactional. It always has been.

Preparation is not bragging. It is survival. If you treat a layoff like a house fire, of course it will feel like one. That is why I lived below my means, stayed debt free, and built my own cushion. Not because I am better than anyone, but because I understood no company would ever protect me forever.

And to the culture point: I was there when we called CPChem “NewCo” before the coin flip. I heard the family slogans, the speeches, and the crafted messaging. That was branding. It was never a contract. If you confuse a slogan with an obligation, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

I am not here to sneer. I am not here to cheerlead. I am pointing out reality, because I lived it. If you do not like the reality, then prepare so you are not crushed by it next time.

@a0k Normally I would agree with several of your points, however; the company spouting their family bs, pushing their EAP benefits, and touting their culture essentially created their own obligation. They spent millions and years indoctrinating and crafting their propaganda to retain talent. NOW none of it matters and never did? Sorry, you don’t get to release yourself from the obligation you created with nothing more than a shoulder shrug and a “you should have known we were lying”.

@a0k You are really a Zero and maybe Safety but a complete HR Dog you are not wise you are a clown in an HR costume. Every word you write drips with smugness and fake superiority. You are not laid off. You are not one of us. You are a company pet barking on command.

Everyone knows what at will employment is. Nobody needs your kindergarten lecture. The issue is not the law. The issue is leadership. And your little sermon only proves you are desperate to protect the same people who wrecked this company.

You brag about being “prepared.” Spare us. You sound like a man proud he brought an umbrella to a house fire. People lost jobs and futures because of gross incompetence and you stand there congratulating yourself. That is not strength. That is pathetic.

A real leader protects their people. A real company values its best talent. Instead this company burned loyalty, wasted money, and threw away opportunity. And you cheer for them like a fanboy in the cheap seats.

You are not inspiring anyone. You are not empowering anyone. You are sneering at people who were crushed by decisions you are too weak to call out.

Your entire post is hollow. You are not a survivor. You are a mascot for failure.

Wave your self righteous look at me flag elsewhere.

You can call me every name you want, but that does not change reality. Employment is at-will. There are no signed contracts locking either side in. The company owes wages for work performed, and nothing more. Severance is extra. Benefits are extra. Anything else is choice, not obligation.

Saying that does not mean employees have no value. It means the relationship is not loyalty or family. It is a transaction. Employees quit all the time when they find a better deal. Companies make cuts when conditions require it. Both sides act in their own interest. That is not arrogance. That is the structure of employment.

You can blame leadership, and maybe you should. But that does not change the principle. A company is not a parent, a church, or a charity. If you believe it owes you more than wages for your labor, then you are confusing reality with wishful thinking.

I was laid off. I am living it. I prepared for it. That is why I am moving forward instead of collapsing into outrage. You can call that smug. I call it survival.

My words are not to defend companies. They are to empower people to navigate their own success instead of sinking into self-pity.

0 Safety D O G you keep pretending you were laid off. Everyone knows you are still inside that building cashing their checks. Drop the act.

Your idea that a company owes its employees nothing is pathetic. Without employees there is no company. They owe the people who built the success just as much as they owe shareholders. To deny that shows either ignorance or dishonesty. In your case it sounds like both.

Do not insult anyone’s intelligence by claiming they only cut the weakest. Some of the best people were thrown out. People with brains, skill, and backbone. Meanwhile the real dead weight still hides behind titles and office doors. That is not strategy. That is cowardice and incompetence.

People are furious because CP Chem has burned cash, bled talent, and missed every opportunity to succeed. That is not the fault of the employees. That is the fault of a leadership team that could not manage their way out of a paper bag. OSHA even guarantees the right to a healthy workplace. There is nothing healthy about psychological damage caused by gutless decisions from the top.

And you. You sound like HR’s lapdog. Spouting lines about “living below your means” and pretending you were ready for this. You are not prepared. You are parroting the same corporate trash script that management hides behind. It is smug. It is fake. It is worthless.

Your whole post is nothing but arrogance and self worship. You sound exactly like the leadership that drove this company into the ground. Blaming the workers for being upset is like blaming passengers for drowning when the Titanic went under. The passengers did not steer into the iceberg. The captain did. And CP Chem’s leadership owns that disaster.

You are not clever. You are not honest. You are just another mouthpiece for failure.

Some of you are missing the irony here. I was also laid off. It happened to me too. I did not crumble because I had prepared for it.

I have always lived below my means. I carry zero debt. I built enough savings and reserves that I do not need to panic when a company makes a decision that ends my employment. That is what I meant by creating your own guarantees. Companies do not exist to carry you. If you believe they do, you have already lost.

Here is the absolute hypocrisy. CPChem is giving out a generous severance package even though it is not required to pay a single cent beyond the last paycheck. You call that betrayal. It is not. It is a company giving you a cushion it does not legally owe you. You cannot scream exploitation with one hand while cashing the checks with the other.

And let’s be clear on the other claims.
• Power imbalance: True, a company impacts more people when it makes a decision. That does not erase the fact that both sides can and do walk away when it suits them. The scale is different, but the principle is the same.
• Ethics and deception: Nobody argued for lying. Ending an employment relationship is not deception. It is reality.
• Consequences: Yes, losing a job is tough. That is why you prepare for it. The company does not owe you insulation from consequences. That is your responsibility.
• “Nurturing”: Companies are not parents. They owe you a paycheck, not emotional protection. If you confuse those, you will always be disappointed.
• Culture and loyalty: Culture is a tool. Companies use it when it serves them. Employees enjoy it when times are good. But culture does not override the transactional nature of employment.
• Self-reliance: Not everyone can build the same cushion, but the fact that some people do not prepare does not magically create an obligation for the company to cover them.
• “Cold-hearted”: Calling reality “cold” is not an argument. It is just a complaint that reality does not feel good.

I am living it. I took the hit. I am moving forward because I prepared. That is the lesson whether you like it or not.

@9ys Hop back into your Di-kens novel, Scrooge, before you commit another act of self-parody. You and I both know you'd be playing the "victim" if any of your rhetoric was applied to you.

@9ys Nice job, Dog. This is some well-composed hypercapitalist bullsh-t.

1. Corporations and people don't have the same power and influence in making market decisions and the consequences of those decisions. When a company lays off hundreds of people, it has an impact not just on those employees but also on the community. If a company offshores jobs, like CPChem is doing, it affects thousands. This why these business decisions are newsworthy. If I quit, I may impact my team, but the impact is really limited to me.
2. I agree employment is, when you get down to it, transactional. But ethics still apply. Mutual trust is not created by the economic exchange between employer and employee. If you lie to employees or break the company's own ethical norms, that's called deception.
3. Employees who are laid off can't just walk away from their jobs without having an existential crisis — they lose income and healthcare and possibly their homes .The employer determines the conditions of the employee's exit. If I quit, the consequences for the company and the market are not equal.
4. Your point about the expectation employees have of being "nurtured" is manipulative. And offensive coming from someone at CPChem. Employees don't expect to be nurtured. They expect fair treatment, respect, and transparency. You're casting a company's ethical responsibility as emotional weakness in employees.
5. By reducing work into a bloodless transaction between equals, you're ignoring the purpose of company culture: promoting social bonds and creating company identity and loyalty. These are employee values that in good times the company happily exploits.
6. I agree employees need to make their own "guarantees" when they can, but that's independent of your argument. Very few people can exist totally self-reliant. Suggesting it's the universal hedge against market fluctuation is is an attempt to absolve the company of responsibility for its decisions.
7. You're equating human value with worker productivity is some cold-hearted sh-t.. Kind of Industrial Revolution thinking, isn't it? You're about 200 years out of date.

@9ys What you say is obviously the way the company feels today. But, it is a realively new attitude. For 25 years the company has been focused on safety, and proudly promoted a family style relationship with all employees. Maybe you are too young to remember, but it was heavily promoted as a culture.

Apparently, they simply woke up and said, the he-l with all of this goodness and culture. Employees are nothing, and because they are nothing, the focus on safety can be reduced as well, which it has been. After all, employees are just a number, and if somebody gets hurt, well, it's just business.
Many of those faceless numbers no longer feel any need to be loyal. I think this has already become the predominant attitude on both sides of the same coin. A house divided cannot stand, and unfortunately, it will not.

@9ys I think what happened here was the company fostered a culture of family and loyalty etc. with their employees for many years. And now, the exact opposite. So, I can understand the anger some employees have. This is normal behavior in the tech world, but not in an old time chem company that still has pensions etc.

The comments here miss the point. A company owes its employees nothing, and employees owe their company nothing. Employment is an arrangement, nothing more. Both parties are there to serve their own interests for the time the relationship exists.

Companies have to do what they need to do to survive. That may mean layoffs, shutdowns, acquisitions, or other abrupt changes. Employees do the same every day when they find better pay, better conditions, or simply a lifestyle change that suits them. Quitting is not treated as betrayal. It is just choice. So why is a company’s decision to end the relationship treated as some moral failure?

Employment is not family, not loyalty, not charity. It is a trade: time, skill, and effort for compensation. When either side no longer finds value in that exchange, they walk away. That is not cruel, it is reality.

If you want guarantees, create them for yourself. Save money, build skills, diversify your options. But stop pretending that corporations exist to nurture you. They exist to generate value for themselves, just as you work to generate value for yourself.

@9t7 The severance package is full of legalese. Take solace that even if you sign, you cannot sign away your rights forever based upon whatever they tell you today. It will eventually come to light that the demographic information provided has been spun and is not the whole story. At some point a whistle blower will come clean and will provide information on the conspiracy to defraud the ADA protections as well as a very large group of employees. You know it, I know it. What they are trying to do is absolutely illegal. There are some who are already very uncomfortable supporting leadership and will come forward to make an immunity deal with the feds. No one is willing to risk prison time to support this so called CIO or CEO. Whatever you have already signed will be just as worthless to them as their own lies. Just be glad you are not attending the ongoing sh-t show that is happening every day across all the business. Live free with an unburdened heart.

@9sv..we can still go to the EEOC and file a complaint even though we’ve signed the severance agreement. The EEOC can still investigate them and look into the age discrimination claims and fine them!

They don’t want justice. They want silence.

HR is corrupt. HR doesn’t protect employees. HR doesn’t protect the company. HR only protects itself.

The “investigations” are a sham. Biased. One sided. Retaliation ignored. Complaints buried. No accountability.

And the managers they protect? Let’s call it what it is. The so called leadership team at BGR and ORA are little more than glorified supervisors. The other leaders go at CED,SWE,PA. Inept. Incompetent. They make decisions they don’t understand, waste money, and cover their failures by blaming the very people who keep the place running.

How many times have jobs been delayed because of their bad calls? How many projects have gone over budget because they chased the wrong suppliers or ignored obvious risks or worse we planned it wrong? How often do they cut corners just to look good on paper, only to dump the fallout on the crews later? That isn’t leadership. That’s incompetence with a title.

And now HR hands out severance like hush money. Sign this and you get a check. Sign this and you give up your right to sue. That’s not a benefit. That’s intimidation.

Wrongful termination. Hostile workplace. Retaliation. Discrimination. It’s all here. And it won’t stop until people fight back.

They want us quiet. They want us scared. We should be neither.

It’s time to sue. It’s time to expose the corruption. Even if you anonymously share with media outlets. You are doing something!

@9my Chevron would pretty much have to get rid of upper management, even if only to rebuild CPChem culture. CPChem at HQ is virtually unrecognizable right now. Morale su-ks. No one trusts a word that comes out of LT's mouths. Can't wait for Town Hall.

@9n1 Isn't some of the LTE attending the emergency meeting? That sounds like Chevron is still including upper and mid-level leadership in all its planning — not intending to get rid of any of them. Unless I don't know the whole story, which is likely.

@9my What emergency meeting?

@9mx If they do buy Chevron Phillips they will get rid of most if not all of the upper management. HR will will dissappear as well. Don't you wonder why there was an emergency meeting? It's not just the low level employees getting cut. Upper management is about to experience this as well.

@9fw my friend was high up in HR at Hess. They had 80 people in their group. Chevron is only keeping one person.

Hess had 85 in procurement. Chevron is keeping 7.

@9ef Haha. That was some privileged ivory tower HQ bullsh-t by someone who still has a job but is fantasizing about becoming a "victim" and trying to be profound.

@9h2 HR is not your friend. They are there to protect the company and document employees they see as problems. The company has all the power unless you have concrete proof that they have broken some law. Even then it will be hard to do anything. Be mindful.

Well If Chevron acquires the Phillips stake in Chevron Phillips, I hope they also bring in their own HR team!!!

@9ej In the Hess integration did Chevron move some of its employees into jobs where the Hess employee had been laid off?

Is there an imminent sale to Chevron and this is part of the agreement? Then, the integration will be as fast as Hess acquisition.

@9df There are CPChem employees why buy Louis Vuitton purses?

@9df There won't be many people left by the time they are done. Don't think because you are close to the process you are safe. You are not. They are already working up plans to get rid of as many people as possible regardless of your position. It will all be ran by the contractors. You have been warned.

@9ck I don't think they showed a lot of discretion over who was laid off the first round. They didn't only cull out people from a pool of redundant managerial and other positions. In some departments they virtually destroyed capacity i by laying off the experts responsible for those areas. This means CPChem can no longer perform these functions or someone less qualified or unqualified will be given them in addition to their existing duties. The outcome there is predictable and it didn't matter to CPChem. There's a reason for that. No company who is merely cost cutting but wants to maintain a level of service does that.
Also: CPChem believes they're doing the best they can for their laid off employees. They have bigger fish to fry right now and being unsuccessful there would have horrible consequences for customers and suppliers, etc. On the employee level, though, being laid off is is a form of ego death. If we're an employee in good standing, we don't think about the possibility of losing our livelihood and the ability to take care of ourselves and our family. We often don't realize how much our identity and self worth is wrapped up in our job success and that number on those biweekly paychecks. You'll look around your house at your possessions, your families' possessions kicking yourself at the excessive spending because you "could afford it." Everything you see and the car you drive and the house you're living in may have to be sold to keep you and your loved ones from becoming unhoused. You'll feel like a fraud going shopping for essentials with that Louis Vuitton purse you may have to sell eventually. Your self worth is decimated. You are not an earner anymore. You're a discard. You're anxious all the time, you can't sleep, and your family is nervous. You're eyeing your life savings, which may take decades to rebuild. If you still have a job at CPChem, take control of your career now and don't rely on your manager, HR or anyone else to save you from this. Don't accept on faith any words of reassurance from people who claim to know what your fate will or won't be. And if you have already been laid off, I'm thinking about you, sending you good vibes. It may feel like the end of the world, but it's not. Believe in yourself.

@9cs Yep, the 130 people they just let probably equates to about $26 MM, we got a long way to go to get to $300 MM. Do the math! Next few months are going to be brutal so just get used to seeing people let go and pray you’re not one of them.

@9ck Wait until September and especially October. It’s about to get really interesting. Hope everyone is saving up a nest egg to get by.

@99w warning. Whoever is left. If you get interviewed do NOT tell them everything! They are trying to figure out what other jobs they can take. You have been warned.

@99q Ditto! I’m sure a lot of people will celebrate when that happens- I only hope it really comes to fruition- couldn’t happen to a more deserving CIO

@981 If and when Chevron does buy their half from Philipps, they will boot every one out starting from CIO, her extended family, friends, neighbors and who ever left, that includes her cronies. Not even CEO will be spared.
Guess what goes around comes around. Can't wait to see that.

@981

News flash! Chevron already owns 50%. The only seller could be P66, of which would get sc--wed.

This company is for sale. Chevron is going to buy them. They are getting rid of as many people as they can presale. That's is why they dont care about who, how or preservation of culture.

@93s more than two words for people like you. Feeling guilty about laying off good people?