There is a lot of survival politics at play all around in Chevron now -- a symptom of the underlying fear. examples: bosses trying to portray themselves smarter than their subordinates or trying to downplay the achievements of subordinates in the PMP process, team members playing the one-up-manship game with each other, trying to prove "I am better than you", and so on. If you know that 25% of a 12 member team is likely to lose their jobs come 2016, then no one wants to be Part of that 3 that are going to be fired, including the boss with an inferiority complex who might just be a paper pusher or a highly paid MS Office jock masquerading as a "facilitator". Yes, the boss is scheming on ways to justify low ratings for his subordinates so that his own ass can be saved.. Look for situations where boss finds ways to deny opportunities that will make the subordinate shine -- it may be a presentation opportunity that may showcase the employee's competance or it may be a project opportunity that will bring out the strength of the employee. I have seen this in companies on the verge of layoffs all the time. Now Chevron has become rife with these kinds of situations. I am noticing this all around. It tells you what is in store when you come back after holidays. I am sure many of you will notice these not-so-subtle situations and clues when you just look around yourself. It is ugly, it is unproductive and it is unprofessional and mean. But it is the dirty reality of survival politics. If you are oblivious to it, you will be taken by surprise. If you notice it, you still may not be able to do much about what may happen, but may be you could be prepared for it and not be surprised.
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Yet another of John S. Watson's finest showcasing what is wrong with Chevron today
any time "facilitator"
Thanks, @Piwa. I understand now what dork tried to say.
@Pgwc poster is referring to "coherant" highly paid MS Office jocks masquerading as "facilitators"
Some of them can't even spell without their spelling checker (sigh)
Who or what are you talking about, @Pskv? I have difficulty understanding how your comment jibes with the main topic of this thread or any of the comments left by the previous posters. Please try again to make a coherant statement.
Its easy to spot these people -look at their linkedin experience -you will see completely irrelevant "experience", qualifications out of a cornies packet, huge gaps in their areas of "expertise" and ask HR how many people "resigned" under their incompetency in the last few years then politely ask to be moved to another team
True
Just punch JebBush.com into your browser's URL and see for yourself.
1hlw, agree. Certainly applies under normal circumstances in Chevron, and even more so in a survival kind of situation brought about by the specter of imminent layoffs. You will see all kinds of game playing and jockeying for position.
On a side note, but still dealing with "survival politics and psychology"... how clever is Donald Trump? Just punch JebBush.com into your browser's URL and see for yourself. I really call this a clever move on Donald's part.
As far as I'm concerned, OP description applies to Chevron, even in more normal times. After all the chest-beating about "building a team", I don't think anyone had a clue what it meant to be a real team. Oh, well,.... Merry Christmas, everyone!
Actually, the situation OP describes pretty fairly defines "normal", in my experience. Anyway,... Merry Christmas, everyone!
Use the Northpark GOM model of office behavior. Constantly look for things to attack other employees with like holding hand rails, backing your car in, etc and then when someone tells you to do the same, run sniveling to HR like a 9 year old child and claim you felt threatened.
Or when a co-worker leaves their computer un-locked when they go to lunch, access some inappropriate websites.
One tactic anyone facing this dilemma can employ to bump a team mate is to swipe a small object off the department manager's desk and plant it in a hidden area of the coworkers workstation. Then inform the manager where to find it, with no further explanation.