The World of Work is Changing

I continue to hear around the Basin that majors are moving a lot of staff to Houston. It is understandable. There are many contributing factors.

In the past week, I learned that a nurse and a teacher were leaving for Houston with their newly transferred spouses. Transfers are good if you want to advance and survive in tough times. For those not willing to move, be prepared to retool your skills.

Recently, I have assisted with updating resumes and have been told that management employees are getting a choice—Houston or a layoff—even when those employes have been with some of those organizations for more than a decade.

It is smarter and more efficient to centralize management staff.

Some jobs cannot be replaced with automation—at least not yet. I have heard the complaints that you cannot replace a good teacher with a computer or online instruction. Manufacturers have also learned that a robot cannot sew a shoe as well as a human, no matter what country the shoe is being produced. I have a memory of the television series, Lost in Space, the original version, when the robot was portrayed as not just a sentry and work assistant, but as the cook, seamstress, and teacher, to name a few specialties.

These (below) are some results from a simple Google search, with “layoffs” as the search term. More are certainly to follow. The Wall Street Journal reports layoffs one day and strong job reports the next. Buckle your seat belts.

• Microsoft announced multiple layoffs in 2025, with thousands of jobs eliminated, particularly in the sales division.
• Intel plans to lay off a significant percentage of workers in its Intel Foundry division, starting in July.
• Meta is also conducting layoffs, though the exact scale and reasons are not specified.
• Amazon‘s CEO, Andy Jassy, has warned of potential workforce reductions due to “once-in-a-lifetime reinvention” in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• Chevron is another company that has announced layoffs for 2025, and they have started.
• JPMorgan Chase and UPS have also announced layoffs.
• Workday announced layoffs impacting 8.5 percent of its workforce due to AI investments and increased competition.
• The Big Four accounting firms, including PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte, have also announced layoffs, particularly in their consulting businesses.
• Intel announced over 500 job cuts in Oregon, effective July 15.
• The Eaton Engine Valve Plant is laying off 219 people in Kearney, Neb., effectively shutting down its manufacturing operations.
• Telstra, the Australian telecom giant, is laying off 550 employees amid restructuring.
• Jasper Therapeutics, a biotech company, is laying off half its staff.

Companies are restructuring and adapting to technological advancements, economic conditions, and competitive pressures. Some larger and smaller publicly traded companies here in the Permian Basin have had layoffs, with more to come.

We know it does not mean the company is failing; it is all about maximizing your resources and minimizing expenses. Remember, people are the largest budget line item for most companies.

In the past, I have cautioned folks to keep commercial space rent reasonable because less is more, and we now know a lot of work can be done from home or in a communal space at work. I toured the office spaces in a couple of oil majors pre-COVID. Even then, majors were reconfiguring office space with small offices and large communal areas. It was probably because of the costs at the time, but now it makes even more sense.

Due to payroll costs, we can hire overseas engineers and geologists to do much of the work remotely and do it much cheaper than employees in the United States.

Speaking of payroll, I have encouraged everyone to automate their human resource services from job postings to payroll more than once. With automation, one person can now do what three or four people did in the past. AI Human Resource (HR) systems save time, eliminate human error, and take much of the daily grind of employee changes and questions and put these on the employee to look up or do themselves.

Recently, the world of work articles has said that work-life balance is overrated and out of fashion. In the real world, prospective employees are being told that work expectations are to work harder, no matter where they are doing their work. If management can do better with less, then employees who work harder, including putting in longer hours at the office, will have a better chance of keeping their jobs. If this contradicts my statement that an employee can work from anywhere, maybe. However, employees can work in smaller spaces, whether open or not, because frankly, everyone has some form of a noise-canceling device.

Outsourcing to independent contractors is back in fashion, and safer in the current political environment. I was a contractor for more than 10 years and will probably be rebooting my business sooner rather than later. As an independent contractor, we also need to continue evolving. I have two very different companies and have changed directions more than once.

Then there is AI. It is a fantastic tool, and you can assume that most of the fresh material that you read online or in print, including even material you’ve read in some of my monthly articles, has featured AI-written passages in at least parts of it. AI is scary, but it is here to stay, and it has been around for a lot longer than we think.

Look to the future, not the past. George Burns stated, “I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.”

 

“Your employees are the heart of your organization.” Dr. Michele Harmon is a Human Resource professional, supporting clients in Texas and New Mexico that range in size from five to more than 3,000 employees. Email: micheleharmon1@gmail.com