Before I go into my thoughts on EM, let me say a little bit of my feelings and thought. I basically grew up with EM and grateful for the many years which had kept me in employment. It had provided me with a job security with a reasonable income to get me to where I am now. I was very proud working in EM and ‘defended’ very aggressively when other employees criticised the company for any reasons.
What I have noticed that have deteriorated over the few decades I worked for EM were:
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Management to lead are lacking Technically. I was told once by Management that EM does not need technically competent managers/leaders. All they need to be, is to be able to ask ‘smart’ questions and then make the right decision, ie Managers. This has resulted in increasing layers of technically competent engineers and the number of reviews, overseeing, V & V. The end result of this we have become non-competitive in the industry when the name Exxon is respected and valuable Company.
Can you imagine that we want install a simple online analyses which cost about $100k, will cost the Company close to a $1M ( that’s right, a Million, and not a typo error). The root cost: outsource engineering to outside companies and they are not managed properly. Imagine a medium size Project kick-off is like a classroom full of Contract engineering staff for the top man, department managers, Section Heads, supervisors, then really working engineers from the various discipline for a whole day and a few of such sessions. All they want to is to clock-in for their time sheet and who pays for all this, EM. We no longer have Project Engineers, who run the project internally, like we did in the 1970’s to the 80’s. We now have Project Managers and even that they do not control the costs well and it just ran up the roof. Another experience I can share was a Pilot Plant test, using the Contractors old equipment and the Management want to impose EM Engineering Standards. The overall cost for a 6 months run ( if I recall correctly), total cost to EM about $5 M ( yes, Five Million) and this due to retrofit and engineering time required. I can go on and on, in other areas, like maintenance, operations, etc..... All this is done in the name of ‘Do it Safely’, ‘Right-the First time and Reliability. We cannot blame wholeheartedly on the changed business environment but on the desire to want to be Number One and doing it wrong.
I am not targeting any particular discipline but wanted to share my thoughts and observations as a very long-service employee on how things have gone so wrong for EM over time of ‘decay’. If EM want to go back to it’s glorious day of the past, a re-think of how the business need to run. I hope to see EM become a Great Company again soon, in my lifetime I hope, that I am very proud to have contributed.
Not to bore you, one last comment, Non-technical competent managers resorted to following DP, GP, GII strictly, irrespective of whether it makes sense or not. This is to ensure that the Managers are not blamed for bad decisions as they have adhered to Company Engineering Standards and Practices.
After what has happened recently, I do not live with regrets working in EM but my perspective of EM has changed and gone to south. If there are any bright young graduates who ask me for my opinion about working for EM, I will still advise them to do so but it is for them to learn engineering skillsagree the fact that the reputation of EM has plummeted. It’s no longer the Company young, clever and enthusiastic people should work on a long time basis. Integrity and honesty was a virtue that was required from employees in the past and I believed in it wholeheartedly and I used to remind new, young employees to abide as EM was a great Company to work for. The recent events (Management was not truthfully with lay-off and using an exaggerated performance-based lay-off to avoid paying due lay-off payouts, had made me changed my mind. had was a to a very deep ravine that I am ashamed to associate my life long ‘career’
Thank you for reading this post.. Take care.