A casualty of the oil bust

[montesa]

30 years at an energy company is a long run.

 

[Shadowrider]

Had she worked for a non-union company that offered a 401K for that long, she would be making well over that chump change retirement. She now is one of the retired people that live on SS.

Yep. That's one of the benefits I was alluding to about being in charge of things instead of toiling all those years for whatever someone else will give you.

My mom had a high school friend that retired out of the GM plant in OKC (tool and die maker). He got in as soon as it opened and stayed there. His retirement was just insane, he made more retired than I was running a CNC machine during the oil boom with all my OT. It was just nuts.

 

[dc4ou]

My brother in law worked there for over 15 years and he was laid off today. Our prayers go out for all of those out of a job.

 

[dennishoddy]

Yep. That's one of the benefits I was alluding to about being in charge of things instead of toiling all those years for whatever someone else will give you.

My mom had a high school friend that retired out of the GM plant in OKC (tool and die maker). He got in as soon as it opened and stayed there. His retirement was just insane, he made more retired than I was running a CNC machine during the oil boom with all my OT. It was just nuts.

That's why Obama owned GM for awhile. The unions couldn't fund their retirements.

If anybody wonders why you have to pay 50K for a new truck, look to the unions that require the company to make enough profit to fund them.

 

[lkothe]

Aww man,,,,, sorry to hear that she was cut. Good luck and prayers to all.

 

[nofearfactor]

My wife is a highly paid and well benefitted corporate officer with over 30 years one company, refinery equipment manufacturer, she went to work there right out of school finishing her grad school at night. She is basically right now training her replacement- she hasnt been told that, officially, but she's a smart cookie and she knows whats going on. She has a new 'aide' who is a young attractive person with shiny new degrees but no upper level corporate experience hired to do administrative duties. And she is shadowing her every move, asking alot of questions, etc. She will be trained by someone who took many years and sacrificed time at home to work her way up thru the ranks to working directly with the president and founder. Until he passed away recently. Long time customers knew him and her as the face of the company. But his kids are running the show now and are probably just looking at surrounding themselves with younger smarter and healthier people, cant blame them for wanting to have a young and healthy workforce. (The wife has had some health problems recently, stuff that over 50 yr old people get here and there but nothing serious, she just had to take some time off but was still totally devoted to her job from her home office. It took 3 people to do her job at the company while she was gone and they still F'd some things up she said). Luckily for her she has a nice retirement package if it happens and everything we own is always paid for so she can afford to retire she just wanted to get in a few more years before she did, now it looks like it may be shortened by just more than the oil slow down.

 

[tRidiot]

Like others said, chopping the higher-wage employees in favor of younger, healthier and cheaper labor is nothing new, not by a longshot.


Still sucks when it hits close to home. Sorry to hear about your situation. Hope something good can come out of it... I am wanting to make a career change as well, and the wife and I have been asking for patience and guidance from God to help us know when and where to make the move. Only real advice I can offer. We went through 5 months of no income before I took this job and it was definitely not a fun time.

Good luck, man.

 

[1krr]

Oil executives aren't fairing quite so bad...

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/19/news/companies/schlumberger-ceo-pay-oil-jobs/index.html

 

[Raoul Duke]

Sucks to be getting yer nutts cut while younger cheaper workers are kept on, but hey, it could be worse. At least it's not the indignity of getting your throat cut while wage slave illegal aliens with no right to be in the workforce at all keep drawing a paycheck nontaxed cash under the table.

 

[Wheel Gun]

First of all, to the OP, sorry for this bad news. You guys are in our thoughts. Hang in there. You're in the same boat as many other good Oklahomans.

But, how about a contrary opinion to those beating up on greedy companies for laying off senior expensive people instead of younger less expensive ones. First of all, this entire subject sucks. It's not just those who are employed in energy that are hurt. There are huge numbers of us that are investors or small business owners or who rely on royalties that are being hurt as well. It hurts more knowing that this crisis was caused by the Saudis and intentional. This was an attack on US Oil by Saudi princes and it's hurt the entire world.

But, back to the perceived cruelty of greedy heartless businesses. Having been in business for about 40 years now in various industries, I keep hearing about all these senior people being cut right before their retirement. The executives making these decisions are usually deemed heartless and their plan to cut the expensive long-serving staff is considered devious. Having been in that position before, I can tell you that it's a task that rips your guts out. Usually, you're following someone else's orders, but it's up to you to decide who stays and who goes. It's horrible. Often, the choice is between cutting one senior person or two junior people. I'm not asking for anyone to feel sympathy for these guys, but please don't assume that these decisions were made by evil uncaring people. They might be; but probably are people just like you that are in a terrible position.

Something else to think about. While mass layoffs are fairly unusual, here is something that I've seen CONTINUALLY throughout my career. In almost every company that I've worked with, there are those "old guys" that are just hanging around for retirement. They stopped being good contributors a long time ago, but they do work hard at attending meetings and drinking coffee. They remind everyone how many days until they retire and are a fixture in the breakroom. While it's hard to justify keeping someone that is coasting like this, it's super common to just put up with them and expect less until they retire. One one level, this is a kind of compassion. Now, executives are seldom applauded for keeping these people around so they can ease into retirement. But, I've seen slowing, questionable seasoned-citizen staff kept around much more often than I've seen them laid off. But, your mileage may vary.