Tl,dr: Comment which organization treats its employees the worst.
I’ve been on this forum for a couple months now hearing about the terrible treatment of my fellow employees and the incompetency of many of their superiors. I’m curious if there are certain groups that are far worse than others in terms of culture and atmosphere. Also curious how much different it is working in the field vs in the office environment. Disclaimer, I’ve been here 5-10 years and have always had great supervisors/mangers I directly reported to. Never felt worthless or unheard. I’ve had one role requiring quite a bit more hours of work from me than my peers, but honestly, I felt valued (whether it was true or not). I’m in Controllers and I’m wondering if the engineers, marketers, HR (doubt it), IT, etc. generally has a more terrible culture than the other. My experience could easily be related to the fact that I haven’t been part of the company long enough to deal with “incompetent middle managers” (having only directly reported to supervisors and a couple managers).
Unexpected PIPing aside, which groups are treated the worst on a daily basis from your experience? T
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And don't forget how the caretakers at Tomas Ranch raised pen fed quail all year so they were completely tame. They would slightly clip their wings and then release them along the side of a ranch road just minutes before the HQ guys showed up with guns a blazing, bragging about how many birds they shot.
Quite pitiful.
I can do one better. When EM first moved into the GP5 office, one of the HQ Senior VPs asked how large the President's office was at GP5. Anadarko was the previous tenant and they went way overboard on the executive floor, so the office was quite large.
When he found out it was ever so slightly larger than his office in Dallas, GREF had to come in and install a false wall about 2 inches from the actual wall so that no office in Houston would be larger than his in Dallas. You can't make this stuff up. See what us old geezers have put up with over the years?
Speaking of HQ experiences, my managers once prepped me for a presentation to LR back in the day. They actually told me to never look directly at him, and if he asks a question, I am not to reply because he is only interested in hearing from a very senior manager (like President of the old EMPC or EMDC) when he solicits a response. True story. I guess those weren't exactly the good old days either!
AND, they actually had folks in the parking garage with radar guns enforcing the 5 mph speed limit. CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL. Maybe that's how we got to where we are.
Can't believe this thread keeps reviving.
(Hit the 'Active' button and you'll see 2-month old threads burping up!)
Most Toxic place in the Company.
Headquarters! HQ. The Duomo in Dallas.
I remember once - sitting outside the Office waiting for a request:
An IT guy is in the personal office of my Lord (a VP at the time) to replace a wire.
My Lord walks in - glances over - and reaches for the phone.
"Janet. Please come and ask the man what he is doing?"
I've been pipped from HQ. One of the few.
I was "Groom of the Stool" for the CEO.
You can imagine I heard alot of stories!
HQ - most toxic.
Don't agree that EM legal group is toxic, although it is extremely competitive because most of the lawyers are so good. Some of the smartest people I have ever worked with, and the vast majority will do just about anything to support you on projects, in negotiations, at partner meetings, etc. I met a few bad ones, but those were the exception. The tax lawyers are especially brilliant.
I know that many don't like participating in some of the layoff legal mess, but they too must do what their bosses say. They don't have an easy job.
PROCESS.. Even as a top performer, middle management will act like your best friend when you’re in the same room. As soon as you walk out they’ll dog you about anything and everything. BTW LPSA is a joke and everyone in operations knows it, just a dog and pony show.
Not true about the Lawyers. In fact I have worked with senior lawyers that have been very much willing to cut the bureaucracy when not needed. Management puts the rules.
The many lawyers who prevent progress and transparency. They paralyze everything around them.... we are the least transplant, most secretive company about the littlest things that nobody cares about.
F&L. Led by UK mafia who promote their own, send incompetent UK on expat assignments around the world, and employ their children. Can you say Conflict of Interest?
Upstream Research, now UIS RTD, is the most useless and full of toxic people all the way from employees to 'leaders'. I have seen employees do literally no work for years and recycle their own efforts and market it. They have no integrity, no self respect, no knowledge of the industry and on top of it they are full of EGO just because they wasted golden years of their lives on useless phD degrees. Any employees coming out of this org and being sent to other parts of EM bring disgrace to the company, they are a truly pathetic breed that needs to be eliminated as they add NO VALUE at all. Dozen of examples of how they have drained company money on useless science projects and ignored academic research and external solutions. They need to be completely eliminated to save some costs instantly, there is absolutely no value associated with URC, RTD work in the past 15 years.
SSHE is pretty bad. So much turnover at my site. Literally seen 10 different environmental people come and go in the last 3 years.
Anything even related to PROCESS
Wow. What is going on in Controllers...I had a brief rotation as a business resource into there and was appalled by the level of bureaucracy but it did not honestly feel politically as bad as other folks have suggested. Interesting insight.
Controller's, with limited exceptions, is a prime example of an uncontrolled bureaucracy and non-value added services.
Despite migrating almost all transactional and accounting processes to the BSC, headcount keeps increasing as these positions are added to provide "oversight". Most of these positions are fully engaged in useless make work projects - "step outs" to embellish their "performance".
Controller's need to shape up or ship out.
Having worked in both, it’s difficult for me to believe any department could be more toxic than CSR and Lubes Technology. Certainly, LT has got worse since in moved to Clinton.
Incompetent managers and supervisors, completely brainwashed and committed to “EMRE Behaviors”, the “EMRE Journey”, EMRE “Leadership’s Bold Commitments”, and the inexorable self-fulfilling prophecy of “High Potential”.
I didn’t want to be NSI’d, but my God - I’m glad that I’m out of there !
Midstream
Finance
Has to be controllers
All of them are equally toxic.
Intermediates (Chemicals) the worst and most screwed place to work, mess and disorganized, worst to be led by clueless PM.
Controller's, nuff said. Disgrace to the company.
EMRE FPO takes the cake . In FPO the best is the optimisation division ... great leadership (not sarcastic) - positive spirit and environment from the top down to the new hires. Other divisions in FPO don’t come close
AP FVC
Too many layers and overpaid Advisors/middle managers. Managers sit in reviews and wonder why they are there. External hires talk to them like they are id–ts
Gas & Power Marketing (now across all Upstream groups) toxic at all levels equal opportunity offender to minorities, hard work and anyone who knows something they didn't. What a bunch of bumpkins that has reached the highest level of management. Their leadership and down was toxic, they are now a bit diluted across the organization but their poison has infected the bottom line, relationships and EM people.
UIS & HR
ASL is a trainwreck of people trying to avoid responsibility for NJSRC
the fact that G W- -d ran controllers a while back tells you all you need to know about that culture
this thread exploded.
kudos OP...
dont use names, HR will b–ch to layoff.com and they will nuke our thread.
dont swear too
not sure how Lubes is being lumped in here. don’t believe it.
@kac+17nTuC8P Are they? The organisation effectiveness colleagues are enjoying free business trips on company’s cost. Heard it clocked to the highest honours of flying on business classes. Definitely not toxic but happy employees!!
Guess this thread suggests where the hardest hit layoffs Have Been.
The worst situation is not any one organization - it's Management.
It's a class struggle and always has been.
Middle management has little training, but all have one skill (probably in-born):
Know how to watch a bus schedule and know how to push.
Doesn't matter if it's crack, or a motto, or a knife - be the pusher-man.
That's a repeated theme here - the middle management is major downfall cause.
But, then, who established this system?
The upper management. So they like to be called.
UIS for sure has some of the worst culture, morale, and leadership.
I did time in both Controllers and EMIT. Controllers is more toxic by a wide margin.
Everyone knows DON’T transfer into controllers. Toxic dumpster fire, no doubt.
Controllers are definitely the lead contenders in this category. Arrogant to a fault with very little commercial or financial experience. They give the appearance that they are
responsible for everything but in reality are not accountable for anything. It's about time they start adding value to the business or be relegated to the thrash bin of history. In the same vein, business controls and internal audit are the other two groups which are a total waste of shareholder's fast depleting money.
EMIT. It even has its own thread here, no need to repeat
It’s Controllers, but not necessarily for a bunch of the reasons stated here. Let’s not act like the business lines are full of great ideas that just didn’t get to work because Controllers said no. That’s not how it works. Controllers said no to Edmonton Rail, but got run over. If the business line wants to do something bad enough, they do it without regard for what service lines say.
Controllers is definitely the most toxic though. The competitiveness is insane, the work is almost entirely not meaningful, and management definitely has a $hit rolls downhill approach. Brown nosing is out of control. They are more focused on step outs like ERGs, United Way, and other activities that don’t help the bottom line than actual base business. Our analytics capabilities are about 30 years behind the rest of the world, but management keeps trying to push these outdated tools on business contacts, which loses controllers credibility, and rightfully so. Add all that to the move down to the C curve, no actual business input for a bunch of business majors, and the soul crushing hours, and you have the most toxic org.
Lubes is a strong contender for most toxic. Leaders who tell people they're empowered and use culture change buzzwords while micro-managing things into the ground. Those who get promoted are relentless self-promoters who s— up to management and add limited value.
It’s across the board. Controllers are no worse than the rest.
E&PS (fka GREF).
Agree HR is toxic