I think the longer a person has been with Chevron, the harder it will be for them to make the transition to another company because I work with a lot of people who have spent their careers at Chevron and am continually amazed at how process-oriented they are and how they have to adhere to the script - to the point of doing things that serve absolutely no purpose except to waste paper and land on someone's desk who in turn, puts it in a file that eventually gets sent off to offsite storage as if it was worthy of saving -- all because "it's always been done this way."
5 replies (most recent on top)
The two rules of the entrenched bureaucrat:
-
We've always done it that way.
-
We've never done it that way.
Chevroids (Think Chevron/Hemorrhoid) got it covered. Propose an industry norm or other common sense method to make a process more efficient? No, no, no... refer to rule #2. Ask why it's done a certain inefficient way; refer to rule #1. And now you understand the Chevron Happyland experience. It's time for a micro-pause... too much typing.
Well since the OP cut and paste a reply of mine for this post, I'll elaborate some more ... picture it, June 2013, cross training with the 30-year retiring chevron employee (me, outside hire). We've just saved a report to three different folders on a share drive and now we're making six copies to send to the department's managers. I ask "why don't you just email them the link to the file and if they need to print it out, they can?". Answer "oh we've always done it this way." They make reality tv shows out of this stuff!
Congrats to you fellas! You probably jumped ship before Titanic hit the iceberg. We are getting ROM'ed out of CVX at a time where almost no one is hiring. I so regret my time at CVX!
In some companies all this "process oriented work" is called "chasing your own tail". In other places it is also called "having your head up your ass".
I just left Chevron. I could not take it anymore. What truely got me to make the jump was when a person I admired asked me this question. Of all the managers you have worked with how many would you hire if you owned your own buisness. None! That's a good question. Think if it was your investment. No way you hire anyone.