About 18 months ago, I was tasked by an impulsive executive to look at an outside of the box type project. Through some skill on my part, and a ton of luck generally, we hit an absolute home run. The project exceeded all expectations, and hit all the buzzwords: improved outcomes/efficiency, reduced costs. Etc. just as we were getting ready to scale, this all started. Despite getting high level interest, including some plans to highlight it internally and externally, we got hit with the churn. The exec left. My whole LT shuffled/gone. Replacement LT are great corporate bureaucrats, but paper thin on technical skill (in fact never worked in this function). And now I’m EOIing. There is no one left with the skill or even fundamental understand of the work to recognize the opportunity we’ve left gift wrapped. It’s been put on a shelf where it will be forgotten. Chevron’s purpose seems to be making sure certain people have ego satisfying titles, not actual professional excellence. Sad and shameful - never been happier to be leaving something behind.
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ID: @bs+1jzxdvmxv
FS and DJ are worthless. Like mammary glands on a duck
lol 5 years later and people don’t know the difference between chapter heads and subchapter heads. Just goes to show what a jacked up model it was thanks to Jesus U.
@dr sure, you could have switched chapters multiple times (like across software and data or whatever) - but that’s usually the employee choosing to go in the PDC to change. It’s not actually a chapter head swapping 3 times, which is not even that relevant anyway for you, even if that had happened.
Stop playing victim! - famous last words from JG, aka Lady Gaga
@dr a level below those people were chapter managers or subchapter heads.
@bs, a person can have more than two chapter heads without the heads of the chapters changing more than two times. Think about that for a minute.
Also, the chapter heads were a level below the people you listed.
You can think it’s an exaggeration all you want, but it sadly is not.
A home run with nobody in the stands to appreciate and cheer and the game was still lost! All the best in your endeavors
There's always a cool tool story
Can you somehow monetize it for your own advantage? Or take it to your next employer? CVX won’t notice/care.
@b9 can you stop exaggerating? Assuming you’re in IT because the whole CTC to SBS nonsense. But NO chapter has had more than 2 chapter heads.
The software engineering chapter head JS had been in the same role for 5 years until EOI and abolishment of the chapter.
The agile chapter went without one for several months and CS took over and also remained in role until now.
Data engineering chapter has only had 1 in DP, but you could argue that you were operating without one since he lived in PA the whole time.
The cyber chapter has only had TM, until they rolled up into IRSM and cyber chapter went away.
Data science chapter has only had 2 from JL to SF.
Infrastructure chapter was FS to DJ.
Please tell us again how you’ve had 3 chapter heads and all the exaggerated boohoos…
@OP, your anecdote hits close to the bone, and resonates deeply.
CVX has this weird fascination with moving people around. The obvious example is routinely changing its organisational structure.
Part if this is the obsession of putting people into growth roles for which they are totally unqualified for in order to “grow their breadth”. This may be good for the individual, but is disastrous for the organisation as it becomes a collective of people with wide but shallow experience directing work and strategy.
It is also disastrous for stability and continuity.
Over the past five years, I’ve worked on about a dozen projects which had reasonably high potential value, but went absolutely nowhere, primarily due to constant churn in the business. It wasn’t uncommon to start an initiative, and by the time an MVP was completed, for the customer to have rotated into a different role, to have a different supervisor, and for the entire function to be reporting somewhere else.
As an individual contributor, this is what the past 5 years have looked like:
- 6 different line supervisors
- 2 different product owners
- 2 different BUDMs
- 3 different BU digital advisors
- 3 different BU GMs
- Reported into CTC, SBS, CTC and now TPE
- 3 different chapter heads
- 3 different PDRs
- Myriad other reporting changes, too numerous to count.
The insane thing is, for each project, the customers we worked with experienced a similar amount of destabilising churn themselves!
As far as I can tell, almost all of these changes have been in response to individual career plans; few have been strategic.
Then we wonder why nothing gets done?
It almost feels that some competitor managed to infiltrate or through some outside means/powers, and managed to slowly but steady destroy CVX to a level that it will make it unrecognizable in the future. Preparation for a potential acquisition on a lower price by others?
Cool Story bro, could you please make up another one for us?
Congratulations on your EOI, Chevron lost an opportunity to benefit. This does not surprise me but it is sad. In the years I have been here, I have noticed more decisions made to benefit careers than actual business value for the company. Move on and improve your life, your family is the most important thing.
@OP this is applicable to all functions.
Why would we want to spent efforts to make money when our business plan is have Exxon make it for us.