Low workforce moral. The culture is toxic. Although, this is highly dependent on where you work as the culture of each site/office can vary widely. The low moral is everywhere - from entry level to managers. Nearly everyone is either openly bitter or discontent. People stay primarily to receive a paycheck in order to pay their bills. Very few workers are actually happy to be there and come to work because they enjoy it. Negativity is quite pervasive. I can literally count on one hand how many times I've heard someone make positive comments in all my years here. On the other hand, I can fill a book with the number of negative comments.
Very high attrition rate. Younger folks are leaving all the time. Those who have been around longer seem to be imprisoned with golden handcuffs, and are literally waiting around to hit that magic age when they can finally retire and collect their pension. Management seems to care less that people are constantly leaving before their prime.
Clandestine ranking system. Highly subjective and not a true meritocracy as it’s very dependent on what managers "think" about you and not so much on actual work output. Perception is everything. If you’re not willing to pucker-up your lips and schmooze, or you don’t get along with your manager, you can kiss your career good-bye.
Pay is good for new hires and drops off sharply thereafter. The pay eventually plateaus unless you are continuously promoted. No bonus of any kind of profit sharing unless you are a higher level manager.
Lack of accountability or expectations. People are rarely held accountable for their actions – especially managers. Roles and responsibilities are written down, but not consistently followed or enforced. Positions are literally reinvented as new people rotate into them.
Poor management. Too many new managers who have no idea how to manage, and older managers who would rather be individual contributors, or simply don’t care anymore and are just waiting to retire. The good managers are few and far in-between. Unfortunately, they tend to rotate away and never comeback. Management provides little vision or direction. Most of them are just checking the box and trying to survive to their next rotation. Managers keep implementing new initiatives and reorganizations when they are absolutely clueless as to their chances for success. There is no acknowledgement as to why past initiatives failed and why these new ones will work. The managers like to point fingers and rarely take ownership and blame for their shortcomings. Heaven forbid it’s ever management’s fault for something as that would damage their careers, which seems to be their only concern. There is a so much rotational movement in management that there is an endless cycle of initiatives, agendas, and policies.
Refining business has been tough since the economic downturn. ExxonMobil treats production sites and the workers there like a commodity that can be bought or sold at anytime. Unless you’re a high level manager, you will be sold to the highest bidder at the right price.
Lazy workforce that is extremely contractor dependent. The contractors tend to do most of the real work.
Tons of procedures and guidelines on almost everything. The problem is, not everyone follows them or even know they exist. As a result, the vast majority of guidelines and procedures are not accurately followed and simply ignored.
Very little training. All the training is focused on safety and you are rarely trained on actually how to do your job. Only operations/maintenance workers tend to have some type of set training plan. Otherwise, it’s a free for all and you are left on your own to figure out how to do your job if your manager isn’t proactive in developing you.
Safety culture is a bit too strong, even in comparison to other ExxonMobil sites. All everyone talks about is safety and its been taken to an almost painful extreme. Everyone is forced to do field observations each month. Most people think its a joke exercise - something forced upon them by management. Very few people actually believe in it, but its taboo to say that openly.
