Phillips 66 reviews

Being an engineer at a P66 refinery will be a very stressful and toxic job. This is because they rely on engineers/salary employees for everything and are the only ones held accountable when things go wrong. The expectations are the highest. They lure you in with a decent starting salary, but keep you at the top of your pay grade. This means at the end of every year your raise gets smaller and smaller. I was hired in at 2-3 salary grades below my actual years of experience and capability. The expected overtime hours required to keep the refinery running make your salary not worth your time. In the end you make less money because you spend the majority of your life at work. Refineries have toilets that do not flush yet the Coporate HQ has all the luxuries and amenities you could think of. The Refinery Leadership Team (top managers of the refinery) typically have short term mentalities. They don’t really care about the site or native people in the long run. They’re looking to cut some costs somewhere to look like a hero so they can move to their next promotion or refinery. Meanwhile, the native employees have to live with these poor decisions for the rest of their career. Phillips 66 loves spending millions of dollars on stupid trinket technology or software. However, they won’t spend any money to hire more people to make sure their millions of dollars of investment actually can be used or make an impact. The refineries are also very petty about watching your time in the gate despite the fact that most employees work 10-20 hours OT weekly. The refineries will do anything to keep from going over their maintenance budget, even if it means spending double their budget. Yes, they’d rather rework a job numerous times than spend the money to do it right the first time. Human Resources thinks and treats employees like there is a line of willing and qualified people lined up to replace you. However, their job postings and turnover rate show otherwise. They love talking about diversity and inclusion but they do not practice what they preach.

-A lot of tension and drama between the workers union and management. -The refinery never stops except in the case of an extreme natural disaster (earthquake, hurricane). Otherwise, if there is a snowstorm or blizzard, be prepared to sleep on a cot and stay at the refinery (forget about your family at home). -Shift work. Unless you are one of the rare positions which do not require shift work (i.e. engineering, office work, supervisor, management). Otherwise most of the workers on site are required to work rotating Day/Night shifts. If you work as an operator, a laboratory technician, or any skilled worker (plumber, electrician) then it is shift work. Most of the jobs which allow the oil refinery to run continuously 24/7 are shift work jobs. Did I mention that this job has shift work? -Precarious work/life balance for shift workers. The refinery must run 24/7, no questions asked. This means if you are a shift worker there are no "holidays" in a traditional sense. Your schedule is a 14 day pattern that repeats until you retire or leave. The schedule is generally: two days on, two days off, three days on, two days off, two days on, three days off, repeat. If your schedule says you work on Christmas eve, then you are working on Christmas eve. If your schedule says you are working on a wedding or birth of a child or other important event, you are working unless you use a vacation day. Which brings me to the next point... -You can be forced to work. If you are a union employee, part of the contract you sign is an agreement to be "forced" to work. Yes, there is paid vacation for permanent employees (but not for temp workers, more on that below). When you take a paid vacation, other people must cover your shift. But sometimes, due to the rotating shift schedule, only a small handful of workers can actually cover that shift, and if there are any schedule conflicts then the company resorts to a "force list" to FORCE you to work. If somebody calls out, you can be FORCED to go to work. There is a "force list" and every worker trained for that same role gets put on the list. When a shift needs to be "forced" on someone, they get bumped down in priority on the force list, so the next person who hasn't been "forced" in awhile will be "forced" next. Scheduled an appointment? Nope, sorry you have to come in. Groomsman or bridesmaid? Better cross your fingers and hope that the day of the wedding you don't get a phone call that you have to come in. Caveat: if you have a good relationship with your coworkers and/or manager/supervisor they are often more than willing to work around this. I was lucky to work with a team where we tried to make sure nobody got forced to come in if they had important events. However the rules are the rules and there is always the possibility you have to be forced to come in once it is "your turn". -There is a constant paranoia of being called in to work, even on your "days off". The only way to be 99% certain that you will not be called in to work is to take a vacation day, and even then...emergencies happen and you may be called in. -It can feel like a "golden cage". It is exceedingly difficult to find equivalent pay for the same position outside of the oil refinery. So the retention rate is high if you are hired directly as a permanent employee. Many people stay for 20-30+ years. Almost everyone stays for the pay and the stability of working in a union. However many years of shift work can take a psychological and emotional toll on some people. Some people can be very (justifiably) jaded after 25+ years. -The high pay means upper management expects all of the above is "par for the course". AKA "You signed up for this, take it or leave it" -If you are hired as a temporary worker via contracting agency, you are expected to work the same hours and perform the same tasks as a permanently hired Phillips 66 employee. This may have changed since I left but during my tenure at the company, I was originally hired as a temporary worker and I was expected to work the same job, the same shifts, and be on the same "force list" as the union workers. Some temps have worked 2+ years before being hired. It is the worst of both worlds. You don't get the pay, vacation, or benefits (insurance, retirement etc.) of a permanent employee, yet you suffer all of the negatives of the shift work. -Virtually no upward mobility. Especially if you join the union. Yes, there is a payscale progression, but once you are in the union that's it. You are an operator/Technician for life. You can maybe be a production supervisor someday but that's about it as far as "upward mobility". Upper management generally never hires from "the union".