Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Currently, we find ourselves in a challenging position within the HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) industry. Our staffing levels are approximately 60% higher than those of our peers, yet our incident rates are around 30% higher as well. Additionally, we have about 40% more women in leadership positions within HSE compared to industry standards.

For many years, we were considered a benchmark for excellence in HSE. Other companies would often compare their practices to ours. However, we are no longer consulted or benchmarked against because we have become stagnant in this area. In an attempt to meet metrics, we expedited the promotion of individuals who, while highly capable, were not afforded the necessary time or training to acquire the essential skills and leadership development needed for their roles. This has led to a situation where individuals without the necessary skills are now being promoted, perpetuating the cycle.

I firmly believe that a comprehensive reset is required for this function. We need to consider replacing current leadership, bringing in external expertise, and focusing on developing our internal talent to create a strong, knowledgeable leadership pipeline.

If you have a different perspective or reasoning behind our current performance in HSE, I would welcome the opportunity to hear it and engage in a constructive discussion.

“As a woman working in HSE”

Opinion dismissed on two counts.

Look at the GMs we have had in this function in MCBU, SJV, GOM etc. It is obvious, the bench strength is pretty weak. Look at the audit team. I don't think I have to say any more. That is our best talent in HSE. Well, if you can call it talent or incompetence?

Talk about nightmare leaders, I work with the one in Kazakhstan. The lights are not always on with her. I have noticed that she often appears disengaged and frequently zones out during discussions. It has been this way for 2 years since I have been here. You have to repeat questions and you get crazy answers. I’m unsure whether this is due to disinterest or possibly a medical condition, but it has become a significant concern and is impacting the effectiveness of our team interactions.

I have mentions this to her peer leaders in other functions and I have been told to stay in my lane. Everyone recognizes it but we all seem to just want to ignore it. Very strange culture here.

HSE is one of the most difficult organizations to work with. They are not clear in their goals and forget what they ask of you or that they asked to put things on hold. They blame everyone around them. I also see HSE is in scope for ENGINE. I can see why. The worker bees are great to work with. It’s their leaders that are a nightmare.

HSE is the most useless group of people I've ever worked with. Only reason yoyr deemed important is lawsuits and political optics. And as a women you were retained because of the DEI trend. Not trying to be incendiary, just telling g it like I see it. As a geoscientist, i've seen lots of good mid-career men get cut while stupid women retain their jobs. Why is that? Not hard to figure out.

The time for HSE to get its act together has long passed. Expect 30-40% cuts.

I remember when petrotechs weren't going to be replaced for pennies on the dollar by the Engine. Still makes me laugh.

I remember back when the HSE function wanted to be treated just like the PetroTechs. Still makes me laugh.

It's frustrating to see so many opinions posted on here about how someone's race, gender, or even hands-on "I was a pumper/rig hand for 15 years" experience is why our HSE metrics are in the tank. It would appear to me that a lot (not all) of you have never directly supported field operations as no one has mentioned that over that last 10 or so years since the 2015-ish oil crash, our SCM group, and in turn the "the functions", have been forced to, and then rewarded for, cutting spend and leaving us stuck with the bottom of the barrel contractors in a lot of cases.

Compound that with the fact that thanks to the covid shutdown we lost another generation of contractor workforce/experience like we did in the 80's when folks left the industry and didn't come back. Same thing happend in the long haul trucking industry and many others.

It's not just us using less than stellar contractors who lost what good people they had (and/or have previous rig managers now pretending they remember how to drill) with the fact that WE are driving them harder and harder every day to shave 20 more seconds off the time betwen frac stages, or build this faster, pop this faster, move this faster and "do more with less"..... you get the point.

All the perfect processes in the world, with the most experienced, degreed, and common sense operation focused HSE folks won't do didley to correct our poor incident rates when we're expecting the lowest bid contract to achieve better results in less time.

And to be clear it's not all on our contractors, we have an unreal amount of employees that haven't added a bit of true value to field operations in their entire career and somehow have been "saved" through how many rounds of cuts, but when it comes to incident rates and these metrics everyone is harping about, thats contractors getting hurt 99% of the time.

Now there goes an hour of my life typing this that I'll never get back, but I hope that maybe just a few of you quit blaming all the people you may not like, and realize the system is broken here and starts way above any of us reading or posting on this site.

I miss when we were focused on putting product in the pipe and drilling wells better than we did yesterday, instead of whatever this is we've become that is more concerned about how many people buy our stock over "our competitors".

Colors, check 6, Louis. All parasitic. Earned an unholy amount of money whilst delivering nothing. You want to point your frustrations. Point it at them as they set the tone and they are why your still not in the role you believed you were entitled to.

Agree, most are 3s. The best we had was KR and she was a 4. You take what you can get.

We need more 10s in the field.

I’m on my bus to The Woodlands right now, and I thought I’d check in to see what’s been posted here. Wow—what sparked this firestorm?

I’ll get to what I was going to post in a second, but first, after reading through these posts, I feel compelled to say that everything written here feels true—painfully true. We are entitled. I am entitled.

Now, as for what I was about to share... I just had a meeting with my supervisor. During the conversation, I was essentially told to stay silent because I’m a Black woman, and that I would be taken care of in this reorganization. Needless to say, it was incredibly upsetting. I asked if that meant she wasn’t interested in my skills, and she said, “Well, you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t capable.” Then she proceeded to give me some vague assurances—telling me my time was coming, to just hang in there, stay focused on my work, and that the “rocket on my back” would soon take off. Rocket on my back. I’m still furious, and I honestly don’t even know what to say.

I guess I’m a double minority here. I’ve worked my a-s off, only to be told by a white woman to stay quiet, and that I’ll be okay. Really? Is that what this is all about? The color of my skin and the fact that I’m a woman?

The fundamental problem is selecting and promoting individuals who lack the necessary expertise, knowledge, and experience. Compounding that mistake with a high visibility effort to only select individuals of a predetermined characteristic - s-x, age, race - doesn’t solve that problem and serves to undercut their legitimacy in the organization.

@bq+1jq6vq7r6 I would take this chance to EOI. You’re not going to like these announcements.

I think the problem is that there are a lot of people that are still here that did not get let go that are bitter that they have not gotten a promotion in 4 years.

I have one message for them, "MOVE ON OLD HSE PERSONNEL, YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE NOW LET US FIX IT." That includes the VP, HSE and P, EMC. You got nothing to show for your rein and it is time to pass the crown.

@bj+1jq6vq7r6 - I had a similar experience with a woman in MCBU that had a safety background. Constant complaining, arguing about anything and everything, wanting to violate procedures for her agenda, claimed to be a SME when she had no idea what she was talking about, complained about not getting a promotion, liked to name drop, wanted everyone to do things like they did in her previous location, had no problem lying, and on top of that was nothing to look at.

I am in Wells (Drilling in the day) and DP did bring LS into our LT as we talked about future leaders. We talked about colors and how to find the right personnel for various rolls. He was very helpful. He also helped us work on our "Women in Drilling" push. LS clearly had influence on the selection of several people including KM during that time. After DP left for HSE, we tried hard to make his daughter a success but that just did not work and LS was hired to personally help her become a better leader but it was far to late. Now here we are today, gossiping and blaming everyone that has left the company for our problems. Some things just never change.

Why is this site devoted to HSE from 4 years ago? Who cares. We’ve moved on. I’m sorry you got let go.

I sat in several meetings with Louis Senior and DP as they talked about building leaders back in 2018. DP discussed several personnel in depth with Louis. You are clearly misguided in how things played out. Louis gave DP plenty of feedback on his thoughts.

I find it frustrating that the HSE team constantly seems to engage in complaints and gossip. How often do we see posts like this? There are other important functions within Chevron that contribute to our overall success. To be honest, it’s unclear to me why the HSE team remains, considering you largely serve as project managers while consultants handle most of the work.

I had lunch last week with a few of the Ladies of HSE and all they did was complain and talk about who left MCBU and who is coming into MCBU and when am I gonna get a promotion.

You guys are exhausting.

@bf+1jq6vq7r6 are you not all there? Those consultants were brought in at great costs to develop leadership capability in the leaders. They had no role in selections or anything and were thankfully run off for being overly expensive and ineffective.

Seeing some of these post, I understand why our incidents rates are so high. No accountability.

Some of you may recall our discussions with Todd Conklin, Sidney Dekker, and Louis Senior (please confirm the spelling), who helped guide us in improving Human Performance at Chevron. They all emphasized the importance of having leaders in HSE who possess hands-on experience in the field operations they oversee. This expertise lends credibility to their leadership and ensures they can effectively communicate with personnel. These roles are not intended to be stepping stones to CEO positions; rather, their purpose is to establish the necessary mechanisms and eliminate obstacles to create an organization with a robust safety culture, ultimately facilitating success.

While our DEI objectives were well-intentioned, it is clear we moved too quickly. Consider the number of individuals who have struggled or failed in these roles, how many are regularly ridiculed, and how many have since left Chevron. I believe the HSE function requires a complete reset with new leadership—individuals who are not influenced by the failures of the current leadership team.

@bd+1jq6vq7r6 You tell me how you’re supposed to stop some re----k crashing his truck?

Let me start by saying the you must not be in HSE if you say we as leaders had not control over our incidents. That is the thinking of the 1980s.

We own this ladies and we need to fix it. Ignore all this stuff on here and don't worry about who wrote it or who violated your trust.

We are currently the worst in the industry in incident rates when compared to our peers. The comments on here will not change that. Our employee moral is the worst in the industry compared to our peers.

Lets pull together and find a solution.

I think about my most current audit from this team and talk about overuse of ChatGPT. The person reading us the report even looked a little lost. I am an HSE professional and I was lost.

We have become lazy and entitled. Now is your call to action. What are you going to do?

@b4+1jq6vq7r6 I might be missing something. Can you please list the incidents you’ve had and explain how any of them were under the control of the leaders sitting in hou.

Please define field experience. Please remember that not everyone has to start in the mail room to be fit to be the CEO (Rex tillerson was last example of that). Sometimes the leaders are there because of what they bring to the leadership table, not because they know the details of how everything works. Think about what that would look like from a career progression standpoint? You’d have no one on the slates.

@b6+1jq6vq7r6 do you even work in this industry? When has that ever happened? And for good reason it won’t.

First of all Women should support Women.

Second, this is painful to read. Everyone check your facts. EMC is a President and HSE is a VP.

Third, No they have not had field experience regardless of what the resume says. I have worked with both of them for years but that does not mean they are not capable. I am behind you to support them but make sure you have your facts straight.

Fourth, I hate to admit it but our incidents rates are through the roof. We have to do something.

Ok. So they’re not VPs. They are presidents. Both have extensive field experience with chevron and other companies. I’m sorry if you can’t get your head around woman being in charge and coming out to your place of work to observe what’s going on. Lest we forget the amount of injuries and deaths that have occurred from id--tic decisions a being made ‘in the field’

Is this a ChatGPT contest?
I bet you would like me in nothing but my puzzy hat, boys, and on all fours. You would be in for a real treat and I would proudly accept the big bonus coming my way, if you catch my drift.

@b5+1jq6vq7r6 knows how to use ChatGPT. LOL or was that intentional. I don't know or care to be honest.

We have f-c**ed up leaders in both HSE and EMC. No doubt. One is painfully silent and the other is obnoxiously loud. The thing they have in common is that neither knows how to do their job.

I think everyone over 45 in HSE should leave and we should do a clean reset with all new leaders. The generation that is in seat now don't know what they are doing and they should just move our and let us fix this function. They are mean, angry and evil.

Got it! Here’s a version that’s still upbeat but a little more toned down:

Honestly, I totally agree with everything in that post. It really resonates with me. I’m in HSE, and honestly, whenever something goes wrong, it feels like we’re always saying, “We’re just trying to fix what our predecessors messed up.” It’s like no one wants to take responsibility for our own mistakes. We even end up throwing each other under the bus sometimes, which is so frustrating.

But here’s the thing—we need to take ownership of this. We’re the ones who are here now, and we need to step up and fix it.

I went back and read some of the old notes, and it honestly feels like we’re just stuck in this cycle of depending on consultants to do the work that we should be doing ourselves. We’re capable of so much more than that, and I know we can break out of this cycle.

We can do this. We will do this. Let’s leave the past behind us and work together to make CVX the best place to work while also getting our incidents under control. We have some incredible leaders here, but sometimes it’s hard to see what they’re doing. But I know we’ve got what it takes to make it happen.

I've been with CVX for a long time now, and after 35 years working in the oil patch, I guess you could say I'm a bit set in my ways. I'm a white male, been around the MCBU long enough to have seen a lot, and honestly, I’m not one to apologize for my experience or my perspective. That said, it seems like every so often we get some 5'1 lady from Horizons who comes out to our FMT and tries to tell us how to do our jobs safely. We always show respect, of course, but it gets frustrating when none of these folks— not even the EMC VP— have ever worked in the field. None of them. The EMC VP, who used to work in Wells, came out to our FMT a few years ago and sounded like a New York attorney who had no clue what we were actually doing out there. I’m not trying to be harsh, but honestly, the HSE function sometimes feels more like a Texas sorority than a corporate operation. It’s just not working. And to those ladies out there, yes, I know how to use a computer.

I’m in HSE. I’ve yet to see one directive from any leader that wasn’t as vague as “let’s not have SIFs.” In fact, I’ve seen systems that could be beneficial to the overall program regress to excel. People are promoted into LT positions without fundamental understanding of how to apply HSE in the field. The only advancements I’ve seen are when ops decides to take initiatives of their own. So many in HSE LT have never been in the field and don’t know the basics. I don’t care what gender they are, I care about competency. Visiting a rig or participating in a turnaround doesn’t make you an expert. No wonder we have so many consultants in HSE…very few Blue badges actually know how to do the job.

So you spent 6 months in the field and you became some kind of expert? Hopefully you’ve AEOId.

Depends, some folks blindly follow rules yet miss the forest through the trees, others have brooms to sweep under the rugs (risk management), but most of do the best we can even without metaphors.

Post seems fake. That being said, it also embodies the problem with HSE: quit doing business with yourself. You are a support function to the operation. Field-facing HSE should have an ops background. No one cares what se% you are, just do the dang job and quit blowing smoke when you’re asked to provide leadership and guidance. We run some of the most inherently risky operations in the world. This is not play time.