During these tough times when hard working operations employees are getting laid off, what is the value of keeping an organization that has collected some of the most worthless employees and fake management over two decades?
At CSR in Clinton, NJ, they hire the lowest quality Ph.D.s that they can find and then put them under the supervision of most conniving and untalented management — the result is an entire facility continuously draining company resources.
extremely worthless
@8fnh+19U5OZtJ Very lucid and well put argument. You have precisely noted the CSR bluff. The reason they don't talk to Paulsboro folks is because why worry about exposing their true incompetent standing. Dallas has to be dumb blind to not see through Syrup BS.
Excellent post.
The whole “collaboration” line was complete BS.
They should have sold Clinton and moved people down to PTC just like they did with Princeton. Mike R knew it made more sense economically (that site got grabbed up in a flash) but as we’ve learned over the last 10 years, our current upper management don’t have a clue about finances.
Yes right on, him and his useless group head, and overpriced contractor supervisors, foreman, filling Xom jobs, remember all involved were promoted and flooded the PPLE hallways, (NJRSC was a mess, can you imagine what the cost was)and good young engineers laid-off, maybe J A- - en can program the PLC’s and stay away from the Excel spreadsheet, management way to fat in Annandale must be wear your mask J A- -en. Sneaking down the pilot plant hallway...PPLE deserves its own thread, what a mess third floor has to catch up with this shortly...
NJRSC = POS headed by a POS project manager
PPLE = POS headed by the same POS project manager as above
Hmmmm, t–d in the punch bowl?
Hopefully one of these layoffs will flush that sh–head down the toilet.....
Having worked at Paulsboro and Clinton (moved through the NJRSC), I know that the Paulsboro folks were very unhappy. Yes, some took relocation assistance and felt financially better off, but they were unhappy about moving from the Philadelphia area to the middle of nowhere. The wise ones didn't relocate and had a 90 minute/65 mile commute each way, but they will be glad of this in the end. With employment opportunities shrinking, who the heck would buy your house if it was in Allentown, Doylestown, Easton (God forbid!), or in one of the third rate shanty towns around Clinton in NJ? That will be a huge millstone around your neck.
The main reason for their unhappiness though, was that the NJRSC activity just didn't make sense from an economic or technical perspective. Paulsboro was a low cost operation site compared to Clinton, and there were empty buildings available for use as offices and labs.
We were told fairytales of creating a "world-class R&D facility"; that the infrastructure at Clinton (where ceiling plaster was falling down in the food court area, the rotating doors at the north entrance were out of action half the time, where the heating didn't work properly and the first floor corridors of the Lab Building were freezing during winter) was more robust that at Paulsboro; and that everyone would benefit from limitless "collaboration and synergy" between CSR and Paulsboro staff.
In reality, the reason for NJRSC was to use Paulsboro's project money (intended for Product Development) to subsidize the exponentially increasing overhead costs at Clinton. Much of the test equipment from Paulsboro had to be left behind, as the "donated" lab space from CSR was too small to fit everything. Combined with the fact that the heritage CSR Analytical Section didn't want to support the test needs of the h-Paulsboro groups, this meant that more and more test work had to be sent offsite (increasing external costs). But hold on - the budget for external costs had to be reduced, because the overhead reductions (staff hourly rates and internal testing rates) got bigger, to subsidize CSR. So all of the Product Development work from Paulsboro had to slow down or be pushed back on project timelines. In a way, the effects of the pandemic helped here (reduced product demand led to delayed rollout of new formulations), but that's going to impact on future needs and timing for any new products.
As for "collaboration and synergy", well - it's extremely rare to see anyone who is heritage Clinton talk to anyone who is heritage Paulsboro, unless they are forced to through project work. The h-Clinton (CSR) folk definitely regard the h-Paulsboro staff as second class citizens. From the alternate perspective, the h-Paulsboro technical staff know that CSR has survived on smoke and mirrors for the last 25-30 years. The only valuable output from CSR in that time has been a couple of catalyst developments (e.g. supporting Rotterdam and Singapore Group II production).
The rest of the "big ticket" items (such as Algae and Carbon Capture) are just money pits for their PR value. Everyone knows that the main work is conducted by third party companies and universities and that CSR doesn't have the necessary in-house expertise. But Dr Syrup continues to spin the story for an uninterested Board and for general media purposes, while those on the inside (who are force-fed the same stories) know the truth.
PPLE should be first to go, what a bully. Clocks ticking I do believe in karma!
Looks like about 20% of CSR employees have left since January for various involuntary and voluntary reasons. But all the section heads are still there. Why do they need all of the section heads when 20% of the staff are gone? If they want to save money, at a minimum they should fire 20% of the section heads.
Welcome back crusader. This place stinks. Management, leads and section heads have technical talents and job profiles same as a prison wardon. Wait, prison wardon actually do work and they will feel terribly insulted to be compared with CSR employees
I was very glad to quit CSR. CSR has the most incompetent, immature and untalented section heads I have seen anywhere in the corporation. They should consider themselves lucky they have Exxon to pay them, as no normal company would hire these types.
I was very glad to quit CSR. CSR has the most incompetent, immature and untalented section heads I have seen anywhere in the corporation. They should consider themselves lucky they have Exxon to pay them, as no normal company would hire these types.
The bottom line is there is no need for the Clinton facility in its current size. CSR needs to be sc-apped, altogether, one fell swoop. Maybe at one time the PR from it was useful, but no more. Not even that has value, so it's time for the axe.
There are other groups that do churn out useful technology developments located in Clinton, however not part of CSR. BUT, to me, writing is on the wall that it will all move south to BTEC (or partially farmed out to lower cost locations). I just don't see any advantage to keeping it in North Jersey. Locations s—s, super expensive, and with all the reductions in staff, there is going to be entirely too much open office / lab space.
Glad I got ahead of the curve with the involuntary. Best thing that ever happened to me.
Corona? Developed in the last decade and lunched 6 years ago. Multiple new generations of most of the others on the list since the merger, with some about to be lunched. Many more not listed. Each newer generation enabling more product (less undesired byproducts) and more energy efficiency. Some technologies developed are shelved, waiting for the right time to be lunched. So no, not everything is Mobil. Learnings from old developments are also good - can help you speed up development by picking up where previous work failed or stopped due to previously poor economics.
Corona do you know how long ago that was, were any of the catalyst you mentioned developed in the last 15 years. How many belonged to Mobil. The take-over ( I mean merger) was to get Mobil’s catalyst technology.Ask the heritage Mobil folks how they think that went, their still p-ss-d.... That was 20 years ago, catalyst technology doesn’t have to be in Annandale, cost is outrageous, place is toast, get a cowboy hat your going south. Clocks ticking tick, tick,tick
Nothing has come out of Clinton? Maybe not CSR, but what about Catalyst Technology? Ever hear of Corona, MSDW, Maxsat, MIDW, MTPX, or any other catalysts that keep the refinery or Chem Plants churning out product? Ever hear of a little place called Rotterdam?? Not too shabby for such a small group.
Mr. Talley please make an unaccompanied visit to Clinton, and leave the third floor elevator closed . This should be a visit to the lube blending area, engine lab ,PILGU, lab technicians from CSR and the Central Plant, and the few mechanics left in PPLE. Get the unfiltered story,feeling from these dedicated employees, that have been to work ONSITE all through COVID-19 ,pulling the train. Should be just you walking the pilot plant hallway talking to these folks. Good idea to initiate when COVID calms down, thanks in advance Dirty Wrench Turner
CSR CRUSADER IS BACK EVERYONE!
@Dirty wrench turner.....Preach! Amen!
Annandale just can’t survive in this environment.PHD,s technicians and researchers leaving for better jobs. It needs to be moved to Baytown or the site closed and sold. . It cost the corporation a fortune to be there and no technical advantage for a long time. The Paulsborough move NJRSC as reported below was a failure, and the employees moved to Clinton are miserable, 1.5 hour commutes on a good day or renting apartments during the week. The cost of research there is just to expensive, union electricians (102) and pipe fitters (475) are costing a fortune, and still no contract (3) years now for the ILEU ?...PPLE and HR deserves a separate thread, what a joke management way too fat, and clueless. The” team” on the 3rd floor are just “yes” men and women nobody up there has a set, they are scared to death. I’ve seen new equipment go into the metal dumpsters, that cost a fortune new pumps,swagelock fitting tons of them, etc. Our new VP of EMRE needs to walk back there and take a look, and stop having Zoom meetings , Hey it’s time to plant corn and soybeans something productive will get accomplished this spring . Clocks ticking......
I know a lot of folks write this off as "the oil boiler" but there really are some serious questions about the value of CSR/Clinton. The whole attitude there is fairly divergent from the rest of the company. I hate having analytical work done there as the speed is terrible and the quality is even worse, and everything is reported through that id–tic LIMS system. If it was up to us we would have completely outsourced our work years ago but we are forced to push work through Clinton to subsidize them. That does NOT engender good feelings. And due to the weird a– structure there the MPTs aren't even accountable for their equipment.
The excuse for the loss of capability relative to Paulsboro is "we're an R&D site". Which does not align with NJSRC promises, a project that was a Kearl or XTO scale failure. And, if you want to call yourself an R&D site we need to actually see some R&D. I know of specific projects that are 20 years delayed that weren't even novel at the start but somehow they keep getting rebranded as "blue sky". Not sure how they get away with it, guess leadership is so technically incompetent that they don't understand what the tech landscape actually looks like in 2020.
Mocking OP as an "oil boiler" is kind of ironic considering the absolute dearth of next gen tech coming out of Clinton, the tech they are pushing basically is oil boiling.
R&D is absolutely valuable, but something is very very wrong at Clinton. Lift and shift to Baytown, they still now how to do real research there.
Please! This company is full of racists. Why else can you explain that the executive committee is full of white males?
Yep, the oil-boiler is back.
Must've been terminated again.
got plenty of spare time. as always.
He’s baaaaack, everyone!
You’re right! His background is from India. He must be worthless solely because of that. Nothing else.
I hope you racist piece of cr@p don’t work for the company.