Has your office/company laid people off or are they hiring?

[schurchill39]

A lot of people/companies including Schlumberger and Halliburton have put out statements saying that the worst may be over (or at the very least we have reached bottom). With that, and renewed activity for Q3 I think its time for a new thread with a new poll. Lets try and keep this discussing focused around the 2016 year.

We did layoffs in Q1 and early Q2 but are slowly starting to hire at the field level again - oilfield service company

[SKR]

I was laid off in February, but starting this month (hopefully, depending on weather since it's field work) I'll be consulting doing the same job for the same company.

Edit: I was told that my former company would not be hiring field staff for at least a year, maybe two. Sounds like they'll use consultants to fill in the gaps.

[dirtsniffer]

Had our big second round in early 2016, a lot of long term employees were let go. Basically a core group now, any more reductions would result in having to change the way we do business. Have now gone to a reduced work week for the rest of the year.

[riander5]

Never laid off, I was 4th person hired in 2015 and we hired again in 2016, left a job for this new job ~ 9 months ago.

But then again there are only 14 of us here so we run lean

[Xtrema]

We have not laid off in 2016, and we have hired if price is right (30-40% off 2014/15 rates) for valuable skill sets, especially for US operations as we can undercut Americans tech staffs by quite a margin after the 30-40% adjustment in wages on top of 30% off currency exchange.

That said, the key word of the year is productivity. IE, you are going to slave and you better like it or GTFO.

- IT Sourcing company

[killramos]

First time in the history of these threads that I will be reporting a change in my response.

We are now in a no layoffs yet but there likely will be layoffs to come. Management has actually come out and said there are likely to be cuts to staff. There has also been some not insignificant attrition in the past month or 2 as well, ~4% of head office staff quitting for other opportunities or retiring. Likely to increase as we have a fair number of staff coming off mat leave in the short term who are rumored to not be returning. I am not sure I know anyone outside of senior management who hasn't admitted they would leave if they had literally anywhere else to go.

Currently a lot of soul searching as to what kind of a company we are going to be with no direction from new owners so pretty much everything is up in the air in that respect.

-E&P who has been taken private in the last year.

[G]

It would be nice to know what rehires are making compared to the previous. Nothing specific just a rough percentage up, down or the same rate. Trying to see if the industry on the whole has adjusted.

[bjstare]

My company has been laying people off pretty steady since early 2015. There will probably be more cuts before the end of the summer, but senior management say things are looking a lot more promising for us into the fall. Also, lots of contractors just getting piecemeal work here and there (few hrs per week).

Large EPC company.

[vengie]

Company laid off at the start of 2016, everyone left took a mandatory 1 month off unpaid during breakup, and we are back hiring after landing some massive guaranteed contracts.

Things are starting to look up.

[89coupe]

Originally posted by G
It would be nice to know what rehires are making compared to the previous. Nothing specific just a rough percentage up, down or the same rate. Trying to see if the industry on the whole has adjusted.

A buddy of mine was just offered a job as a field geologist for a Montney play near Grand Prairie, $1000/day, he turned it down. Same job before the crash was paying him $1800/day.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by G
It would be nice to know what rehires are making compared to the previous. Nothing specific just a rough percentage up, down or the same rate. Trying to see if the industry on the whole has adjusted.

There are people willing to work for 30-40% off as I stated earlier. Even people that we laid off last year.

IT as a whole in Calgary, the only hot sectors I know of is Cloud (move servers out and reduce infrastructure spending) and Security. Everything else is outsourced/offshored to cut spending and survive potential lean years/decade.

Originally posted by 89coupe


A buddy of mine was just offered a job as a field geologist for a Montney play near Grand Prairie, $1000/day, he turned it down. Same job before the crash was paying him $1800/day.

I think a lot of people can hold out but there is also a lot that can't. So it'll be dumb for a business not to try low balling and see what you get.

[R154]

Electrical/mechanical manufacturing - No layoffs.

Building/built power gen in a shack for a supermajor. They were not tightfisted about change orders or the original build. Bought every conceivable bell and whistle one could put in it. Their engineering group (external) went through 2 rounds of layoffs over the course of this 4 month project. At one point I had to run the project through with a new SPM every week.

Seeing some work coming back from small service companies (pumps/hydraulic/small power).

Lots of civil projects. (water treatment upgrades).

Historically this time of year nothing is happening, but there are a surprising amount of engineering groups out there sending stuff out for bid and trying to get work coming.

Less budget stuff, more firm projects with actual names and dates.

From who I have spoken to, there is muted optimism. Its like industry is waiting for just one supermajor/producer to be bold and start operations expansion again.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[mzdspd]

Layoffs in Feb this year.. Slow spring but now its really busy. Things have picked up for us but prices are still down and because of the layoffs we do not have enough people to do the work so we may be hiring in the next while.

Downhole tool company.

[lasimmon]

We laid off one person this year, probably won't be laying off anymore as we run quite lean.

However, our parent US company may be in trouble so who knows, we make money!

[msommers]

Originally posted by 89coupe


A buddy of mine was just offered a job as a field geologist for a Montney play near Grand Prairie, $1000/day, he turned it down. Same job before the crash was paying him $1800/day.

That's too bad, those wells are by far the easiest wells I've ever sat. Maybe the guy was my old boss

A buddy of mine has a bunch of experience out there on Montney if the company is still looking.

[vengie]

Originally posted by 89coupe


A buddy of mine was just offered a job as a field geologist for a Montney play near Grand Prairie, $1000/day, he turned it down. Same job before the crash was paying him $1800/day.

That's actually shocking he would turn that down... I'd rather have something in the interim. Unless he has the financial means to just sit and wait.

That said, for myself personally, i'd rather get back to work, have consistent cash coming in (rather than burning savings), keep sharp, and look for new opportunities making what he was, in ~6 months to a year when things are full bore again.

[03ozwhip]

Originally posted by vengie


That's actually shocking he would turn that down... I'd rather have something in the interim. Unless he has the financial means to just sit and wait.

That said, for myself personally, i'd rather get back to work, have consistent cash coming in (rather than burning savings), keep sharp, and look for new opportunities making what he was, in ~6 months to a year when things are full bore again.

making that much a day he should hope he saved some of it to be able to turn down work. a geologist can't be that stupid, can he? lol

I, like most people would take it in the interim, it would be stupid to not make anything vs 20k a month.

[nickyh]

Originally posted by SKR
I was laid off in February, but starting this month (hopefully, depending on weather since it's field work) I'll be consulting doing the same job for the same company.

Edit: I was told that my former company would not be hiring field staff for at least a year, maybe two. Sounds like they'll use consultants to fill in the gaps.

Welcome back!

My group is hiring for a one year position, we also hired a new VP for our group who starts mid-fall so I'm sure that means more to come.
We just need it to stop raining.

I can't speak for other groups but I don't think they could make any more cuts.

[Inzane]

$1000-1800/day for a geologist?

Is that a baseline salary, or does that have tonnes of implied overtime built into that at x1.5-x2 multipliers?