Pi---d off with bunch of self-serving toxic people and current work environment in Shell. If I decleave, sevarabce package will cover over 15 months pay. Should I try for a new role or leave?
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When your best employees go quiet, it usually means the workplace has become toxic and the leaders have stopped caring about the culture…This is true Shell culture these days!
Don't leave without your package! In 2021 some people landed then took a new job and left without severance. Make Shell pay.
Impacted individuals are sharing true color of Shell’s culture on this site that most outsiders are unaware of! Please don’t make a fun of others’ pain (people have sick family members and bills to pay that di--head bosses in Shell don’t care).
Looks like the gravy train is sayonara.
Ok to the hallucinatory who thinks only the underperforming get impacted. I had a stellar track, IPFs always above 1.1 in the old system and outstanding in the new system and exited of a divestment. Thank heavens I am with a new company that values me. But just because you were a top performer matters little in Shell’s world - they now want “leaders” whatever that means
I am soo glad all the underperformers at least can rant on thelayoff.com :)
First calm down, take a deep breath until you can form coherent sentences again. Then make up your mind .....
I have watched many very competent people leave Shell. Everyone who wanted to work after leaving is working at a job they like or love and most of them are thriving. The rest are happily retired. I don't know anyone who regretted leaving.
It seems that all of the woke bosses (not leaders) and HR people would know the basics of managing and motivating people (the main asset of any company), but they have proven over several years that they either never learned, or forgot these basics.
https://cdn.vectorstock.com/i/1000v/22/53/maslow-pyramid-of-needs-vector-7402253.jpg
Most American oil companies are aware of these basics and use them to manage people properly. This is the main reason for the market cap gap between Shell and our AMerican competitors. Wael wants to achieve the market cap of an American oil company and the best way to do that is to acknowledge that the methods used to date have led to the current state of affairs. I.e., they don't work. Then they should look around to see what does work and start their improvement journey by copying the methods of companies that have the market caps that Wael and the shareholders want.
What is the probability that they will figure that out and make the required changes?
It may be late to give this advice now, but early in a career one may want to consider the following —
Diversify jobs skills into (A) Inspection Technologies (Material Sciences), (B) Computational & Applied Mathematics, (C) Quality Assurance or (D) Information Science & Supply Chain Management.
Make sure your career plans are kept secret until you are ready,
I wish you luck and hang in there.
Just when everyone is bearish I will go long oil, I love it!
I left deep water technical about a year ago with 10+ years at Shell and I don’t regret it for a second. I got a nice bump in compensation and don’t have to deal with nearly as much doublespeak BS and non-core business waste. It’s such a breath of fresh air going to an actual oil company and not a neocolonial European make work machine.
I think anyone in upstream has got to make a move soon. You should read Art's new article:
https://www.artberman.com/blog/the-end-of-growth-why-oil-prices-are-falling/
The prospect of good times ever returning to the upstream sector seem grim.
The thing that always kept me here was the care for people. That feels less and less each year and the loss of care for people has accelerated rapidly under Wael. I'm out. I'd say if you have at least 5 more years in your career - go somewhere else.
I moved out Q1'23 - feel lucky/thankful that I could see 'outside the box' and predict Wael's moves. Proud/grateful to have worked at Shell in my formative years and when the company was so solid....a true leader which many others in the Industry looked to as a reference across all aspects. Now it comes across as a bit of a mess. Further cuts and maybe a merger would be on the cards and the "reshapes" will be continual but the issue is more a fundament shift in Shell culture away from strategy-execution-technical basics to more superficial things. Bag carriers everywhere and bloated middle management.
What is clear is that actually being good at your job has little to bearing on your success at Shell (our VP Petroleum Engineer has no clue about Petroleum Engineering … it’s embarrassing, not even a good communicator).
If you are an actual engineer that is good at what you do, I don’t recommend staying, there is nothing for you at Shell. It is a hollow echo chamber. If you can go somewhere that will appreciate your skill leave while you can still make a career elsewhere. I wish so bad that I would have left this cesspool while I still had the opportunity to make a career somewhere else. No I am stuck just trying to get through the next 3-5 years, pretending to give a s* all the time working for aho* who just don’t know what they are talking about.
Shell used to be the absolute best place to be. Highly technical and at the cutting edge. Really cared for people … now it’s been reduced to psychofans with no idea spewing buzz words. Just listen to one of the many ‘discovery sessions’ and you will be sure this place su-ks.
If you have enough time left in you working life leave now while you can …
I came into Shell with a PhD and realized in 2 years (after giving the benefit of doubt) that the program managers who ran R&D programs were a joke. Their reviews were more on budget than any serious review on technology development and deployment. Moved to an asset that ultimately got divested after 10 years with Shell - thank goodness when my skills were still intact, I now serve as the SME of the new company in the Environmental discipline (American, focused on fossil fuels). No regrets, a blessing to have gotten out while Shell had a strong reputation, and am in a reasonably senior position (equivalent to JG2). In summary, there are bright prospects outside Shell
You have nothing to lose so apply...
Bounce… this place is in a tail spin. Getting worse by the month.
I'm at the same experience level. I thought a long time about when my exit window would be and many, many conversations at home about plans after I exit.
Looking back, I could have saved so much time if I had just crowd-sourced the decision through the layoff.com. live and learn.
The amount of severance you specify indicates roughly 20 years experience. At that experience level you are expensive and will likely get laid off soon anyway. I would leave with the package
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