London, England-based Rolls-Royce, the iconic car and engine manufacturer, has announced the closure of its purpose-built aerospace component factory in Prince George, Virgina. The closure will impact 300 employees by mid-2021.
The decision was driven by the global pandemic and the near-collapse of the commerccial aerospace industry and the need for the company's precision-engineered aircraft engine components, discs and turbine blades.
According to a company spokesperson, “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a historic collapse in civil aviation, which will take several years to recover. As a result, we’ve had to make difficult, but necessary, decisions to protect the future of our business."
“Due to the significant reduction in demand for our civil products and services, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we no longer have the workload necessary to sustain operations at the site. In an attempt to stem further layoffs and retain as many employees as possible, we have taken swift and decisive action to reduce spending. However, the severity of the economic fallout from COVID-19 made the closure of our Crosspointe facility unavoidable.”
The closure and layoffs follow a June, 2020 layoff of 180 employees at the plant. The company is reducing its worldwide work force.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
AM I NEXT? IS THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL AT PHILLIPS 66? (10/20/24)
OCTOBER 20, 2024 —THE COMPANY PLANS TO CLOSE THE WILMINGTON REFINERY. 900 JOBS AT RISK
Phillips 66 announced it will close the twin refinery complex in Wilmington and Carson, California, by the end of 2025. The complex produces about 8% of the state’s gasoline.
About 600 employees and 300 contractors operate the refinery, producing diesel and jet fuel.
Chairman and CEO Mark Lashier noted, “Phillips 66 remains committed to serving California and will continue to take the necessary steps to meet our commercial and customer demands. We understand this decision impacts our employees, contractors, and the broader community. We will work to help and support them through this transition.”
AUGUST 7, 2024 — MORE CUTS COMING
A company spokesperson confirmed that "Phillips 66 continues to look for ways to position our organization to help advance its strategic priorities and enable more efficient ways of working. As a result, some positions are being eliminated."
The latest round of layoffs will affect less than 1% of the company's employees across several locations.
AUGUST 17, 2023 — 100 EMPLOYEES BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA
Approximately 100 finance and procurement employees are targeted for layoffs in its Bartlesville, Oklahoma Business Operations and Innovation Center as its reorganization plan continues to be implemented.
The company is also shifting roles for about 430 employees and contractors.
Look for additional layoffs involving 175 employees and 100 contractors.
NOVEMBER 29, 2021 — FIRST MAJOR LAYOFFS ANNOUNCED. 450 EMPLOYEES IMPACTED.
The company has confirmed permanent layoffs will begin on January 7, 2022, or within 14 days of that date. 470 employees will be impacted.
The 50-year-old refinery was severely damaged by flooding during Hurricane Ida in August 2021, and will be re-purposed into an oil storage terminal as the refinery is too expensive to repair and restart.
According to the Chairman and CEO of Phillips 66, Greg Garland, “Our decision was a difficult one, and we understand it has a profound impact on our employees, contractors, and the broader Belle Chasse community.”
NOVEMBER 8, 2021 — ALLIANCE REFINERY SHUTDOWN IN BELLE CHASSE, LOUISIANA WITH 900 LAYOFFS.
The company has reaffirmed its plans to shut down its Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, and convert it into a storage terminal. The shutdown would impact as many as 900 individuals, including 500 employees and 400 contractors.
The decision was driven by a study that noted “extensive damage caused by Hurricane Ida meant that it was too expensive to repair and restart. We made this decision after exploring several options and considering the investment needed to repair the refinery following Hurricane Ida, Our decision was a difficult one, and we understand it has a profound impact on our employees, contractors, and the broader Belle Chasse community."
MARCH 3, 2021 — 75 LAYOFFS IN BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA
The company has announced outsourcing procurement and finance division operations to a third-party vendor. The transition will impact 75 employees. Additionally, the company will redeploy 60 employees and 15 contractors to other positions as well as eliminate additional employees.
According to a company spokesperson, “It is normal practice to assess our operating model to deliver more agile, efficient and smart ways of working. The move will allow us to streamline business operations, increase efficiencies and accelerate innovation."
AUGUST 28, 2020 — Original blog post…
Houston, Texas-based Phillips 66, a major oil, gas, and energy company, has announced plans to close its Nipomo Mesa Refinery near Santa Maria, California in 2023. Oil pipelines servicing the area will be phased out commencing in 2024.
Approximately 110 employees and 50 contract workers are at the facility.
According to a company spokesperson, "The Santa Maria Refinery Complex will be idled and shut down. The equipment will be dismantled and removed from the property. We will assess the property and make a final decision for the land at a later time. The refinery is being closed because of the economic climate in the state, where the push is toward renewable energy. The current configuration of the refinery is not economically viable to continue its production of traditional fossil fuel products.”
It is likely that the State of California may demand extensive mitigation of oil-soaked grounds. While this is a marginal refinery, no new refinery capacity has come on-line in California in decades, making Californians susceptible to major short-term price increases.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT SALESFORCE (02/18/25)
FEBRUARY 18, 2025 — 1,000+ EMPLOYEES
The company has officially announced the layoffs of at least 1,000 employees to make way for new staff who possess specialized experience and skills in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. The ever-secretive company, known for its discretion regarding internal matters, refused to provide any further details or comments about the decision or its implications for the workforce.
NOVEMBER 22, 2024 — 700 OWN EMPLOYEES TARGETED
The company has announced layoffs at Own, the recently acquired data-management startup, targeting 700 employees by the end of January 2025.
A spokesperson for Salesforce refused to comment on the workforce reduction.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2024 — 150 OREGON EMPLOYEES
Salesforce will close its Hillsboro, Oregon office and lay off 150 employees, primarily in sales and customer service, by January 31, 2025.
According to a company spokesperson, “Like any healthy business, we continuously assess whether we have the right structure in place to best serve our customers and fuel growth areas. In this case, it led to adjustments in our real estate footprint.”
JULY 17, 2024 — 350 MORE GONE
The company has eliminated another 300 employees, ostensibly to streamline operations.
A company spokesperson noted, "Like any healthy business, we continuously assess whether we have the right structure in place to best serve our customers and fuel growth areas. In some cases, that leads to roles being eliminated."
JANUARY 27, 2024 — 700 EMPLOYEES TARGETED
The company has announced a 1% reduction in its workforce that will impact 700 employees.
Forewarned is forearmed.
MARCH 1, 2023 — CHANGE IS CLOSER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK
Elliott Management, the most aggressive of the five activist investors inside of Salesforce, has nominated a slate of candidates to the Salesforce board of directors. This does not bode well for employees.
It is no secret that Elliot’s demands include cutting operational costs and personnel, increasing profits, and possibly divesting some of the non-core parts of the business.
JANUARY 23, 2023 — AGGRESSIVE ACTIVIST INVESTOR SUGGESTS TROUBLE AHEAD
Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. has made a multibillion-dollar investment in Salesforce. Elliot is famous for grabbing board seats, forcing management changes, demanding divestment of non- or under-performing assets, cutting costs, reducing headcounts, forcing upstream dividends and stock-buybacks, That is when they are not advocating acquisitions, mergers, and outright sales.
Either way, look for cost-cutting and layoffs.
JANUARY 11, 2023 — 752 EMPLOYEES ARE TO BE LAID OFF IN SAN FRANCISCO
The company has announced that it plans to lay off 752 San Francisco, California employees on March 4, 2023. This is approximately 10% of the layoffs previously announced.
JANUARY 4, 2023 — 7,350 EMPLOYEES TO BE LAID OFF (10% OF THE WORKFORCE)
Salesforce is laying off about 10% of its workforce, more than 7,350 employees, and will be closing some offices.
Employee restructuring efforts are expected to be mostly complete by the end of Salesforce's fiscal 2024. Actions related to its office closings are anticipated to be fully complete in fiscal 2026.
Letter from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff…
Subject: Important Company Update
As one ‘Ohana, over the last 23 years, Salesforce has built the #1 CRM that drives incredible customer success across every line of business for every industry around the world. We have never been more mission-critical to our customers. We have an unparalleled ecosystem, with thousands of partners and millions of Trailblazers building their companies on our platform.
However, the environment remains challenging, and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions. With this in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10 percent, mostly over the coming weeks.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we came to this moment. As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that.
Within the next hour, employees who are initially affected by this decision will receive an email letting them know. Our leadership will reach out directly to these employees and provide clarity for their teams about changes within their organizations.
For those who will be leaving Salesforce, our priority is to fully support them, including by offering a generous package. In the U.S., affected employees will receive a minimum of nearly five months of pay, health insurance, career resources, and other benefits to help with their transition. Those outside the U.S. will receive a similar level of support, and our local processes will align with employment laws in each country.
The employees being affected aren’t just colleagues. They’re friends. They’re family. Please reach out to them. Offer the compassion and love they and their families deserve and need now more than ever. And most of all, please lean on your leadership, including me, as we work through this difficult time together.
I’m grateful for every single one of you who has contributed to our continued success as a company and the hard work and sacrifices you have made to generate success for our hundreds of thousands of customers. You’ve built our company — for all of our stakeholders — and you’ve shown incredible resilience every step of the way.
With gratitude,
Marc
OCTOBER 17, 2022 — 90 LAYOFFS AMONG HIRING CONTRACTORS
The company has slowed down its hiring and appears to be leaving some positions unfilled. Now we see 90 layoffs, mostly contractors in the company's recruiting department.
FEBRUARY 25, 2021 — SALESFORCE: CUSTOMER DISSERVICE BASED ON PARTISAN POLITICS
Salesforce President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Bret Taylor, in a leaked video, told his staff that the cloud-based customer relationship management service has entered the political arena and will ban any messages “questioning the validity or integrity of the election” on its platform. The service apparently has canceled a number of clients whose public and private messaging appears to offend the company’s political sensibilities.
“Salesforce told the Republican National Committee after the January 6th storming of the Capitol that ‘no messages on behalf of President Trump and no messages questioning the validity or integrity of the election are allowed on our platform under the guidelines that they may incite violence given the escalated conditions in the United States right now.’”
A curious position is given that much of the pre-planning of the January 6th event, and political discussions took place on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Parler.
Project Veritas was banned by Salesforce a couple of weeks after this internal meeting took place with Salesforce providing no explanation other than it being a “business decision.”
One must question the propriety of a virtue-signaling enterprise that is willing to alienate large segments of the population but even worse, signal to current and prospective businesses the company’s capriciousness and unreliability based on partisan politics. Possibly the CEO’s violation of his fiduciary duties to maximize profits for its shareholders, not pandering to its so-called “stakeholders.”
It is not known if the company took similar action against corporations that massively funded the Black Lives Matter organization that was complicit in civil insurrection and the destruction of billions of dollars worth of public and private property.
What this might mean for employees is that their politics could affect their current employment and future prospects with the company.
AUGUST 27, 2020 — Original post…
San Francisco, California-based Salesforce.com, a cloud-based software company providing a suite of enterprise applications focused on customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and application development, has announced that it is laying off 165 employees located in San Francisco as part of a larger reduction in force, estimated to impact at least 1,000 employees in the near future.
According to a state filing, the immediate layoffs will affect general administration (4 employees), sales and customer service (42 workers), and technology and products (119 employees).
According to Salesforce founder Marc Benioff...
“We’re reallocating resources to position the company for continued growth. This includes continuing to hire and redirecting some employees to fuel our strategic areas and eliminating some positions that no longer map to our business priorities.”
"We started this quarter with 54,000 remote employees working at home. We knew that we had to make a number of changes. We knew that it was going to be critical for us to reshape our company and that this was a moment in time when you basically had to make a decision.
"Are you going to keep things the way they were? Or are you going to change? Or are you going to shift? And we made a decision that we were going to change, and we were going to shift. We shifted our operational values very aggressively."
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?