Lay off 10% of employees​! Chemical giants cut costs again!

Several media recently reported that Exxon Mobil Corporation plans to lay off 5% to 10% of its workforce in the United States every year in the next 3 to 5 years.

US reporters reported that Exxon Mobil will use a performance evaluation system to screen out employees with poor performance. This evaluation system is mainly aimed at white-collar jobs.

The above evaluation will divert about 5% to 10% of employees to the performance improvement plan. Employees who enter the performance improvement plan may be fired if they fail to improve their performance. Some employees regard the performance improvement plan this year as a prelude to "disguised layoffs."

According to an internal Exxon Mobil document, Exxon Mobil expects to include at least 5% of R&D and engineering employees in the United States as the worst performance category this year.

Last year, Exxon Mobil listed the bottom 8% of American employees in performance rankings as under-performing employees. According to the company’s tradition, this proportion used to be 3%.

ExxonMobil spokesperson Casey Norton said, "We have been following the annual performance evaluation process for the past few months," and it is expected that this process will continue until July, "it has nothing to do with the layoff plan."

The above-mentioned performance improvement plan has nothing to do with the layoff plan announced by Exxon Mobil last year. The goal of that layoff plan is to lay off 14,000 employees worldwide by 2022. The reporter reported that the layoff plan may not be completed within the original deadline.

An ExxonMobil document shows that as of the end of last year, the company employed 72,000 people worldwide, 40% of whom were working in the United States.

International oil prices have risen by 44% so far this year to nearly US$75 per barrel, which has significantly improved ExxonMobil’s financial situation. However, due to the sharp decline in the crude oil market in 2020, ExxonMobil has accumulated a lot of debt to be repaid. For this oil giant, a streamlined and efficient workforce will help cut costs.

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said last month that Exxon Mobil will achieve an annual "structural cost reduction" goal of $3 billion in 2020 and will continue to save money until 2023.

Exxon Mobil's stock price rose 3.63% on the 21st to close at $62.59 per share.