Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
I came from a company called Shell Refining Company in Port Dickson, we are in the downstream business. For the past 5 years, downstream business were under scrutiny due to depleting resources and many other constraints. The company tried to promote the motto "A good place to work" in order to keep the morale high. Though we may not enjoy the benefit as much as the people in Upstream, we enjoy the company nonetheless. Bonus were not that high, cost being slashed, forget about the additional benefits that the Upstream colleague enjoyed, we never get to experience that. Travel is restricted, and most of the trainings are in house. But because of the people, we enjoyed our work, we cherished the camaraderie, we helped each other, and somehow despite the lack of resources, we can always count on each other. We went through the thick and thin of the industry when the crude price record an all time high and we were being penalized for the slightest glitch possible.
Now, I am here, an Upstream company, you can say that I am enjoying all the monetary benefits, but honestly if I can come up with a motto, this particular company, SPDC, based on the people's attitude, can be called "The Worst Place to Work". Its a big organization, and as a friend said, these kind of set up leads to inefficiency, very true. One project involved soooo many people, but still the work was far from perfect. Common issue that I found here:
- Meetings NEVER start on time. (Well maybe once for the past 8 months that I am here)
- People have commitment to stay put in a session until the end. A workshop, may start at 8am, they will come at 9am and by 11am they will be going out again, saying they have something else to attend, and that is the last of seeing them, and yet, they claimed that they are involved in the project.
- They have serious commitment issue, no MOM with action party has ever been circulated. Nobody takes responsibility, but many would claim they have done this and that. To me that is b*llsh*t.
- They also have compliance issue, few times we get request to do work that is meant to retrofit a certain design that does not meet the standard, helloo.....there is design basis in DEP, use it, you did not even use DEP , now you are asking us to do all sorts of things to cover your ass. There is specific project guideline, with proper Technical Assurance sign off to make sure all are in compliance, but how come it gets to this stage? What is this Technical Assurance doing? His signature is all over, the documents, which clearly does not meet the standards. WTH??
- The people will only commit to meetings if it is being held in hotels, then you'll get people that was not involved in the work, attending it full time. WOWW!!
- Every meeting that dragged on to lunch time, no lunch would be provided. I was told each employee were given pocket money for lunch, and yet the complaint about the meeting that does not serve lunch, once the topic is opened, they can drag on discussing (complaining) about it for a good 30 minutes.
Seriously, if its not about the money, I don't think anybody (non-Nigerian) would stand working here. I am here for the experience, in terms of work scope, I am learning a lot. But I think I learn more of how to control my anger here. SERIOUSLY.
Life in the RA on the other hand, is a bliss. So that is the main trade off.
Guess this update comes much earlier than anticipated....huhuhu...next one will definitely be about garden, till then, Wassalam. :)
