When many of he Shell European executives talk about Exxon or Chevron, they refer to them as "Americans". It funny, because Shell CFO/Chairman is American and so are 1000s of employees - albeit we are being let go more than others. Similarly, Exxon and Chevron also has many Europeans.
why the subtle hatred towards Americans?
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My experience at Shell was the brits had more issues with Americans than anyone else. And as American female I was super disliked by the expats who has wives who hadn’t worked a day in their lives. Still I enjoyed my time at Shell. It was a good company. Glad to be out on my own though.
I always found it interesting how involved and actually current with what was going on in USA that the Brits and Neth were. US employees did not follow nor did they care what was going on politically in other countries. My take was that the US is the big dog so little dogs feel better when they yap,
Having retired from Shell at management level after 30 years, 5 of which were spent in Europe, I witnessed a definite anti-American sentiment. In my experience, it came mostly from the Brits rather than the Dutch.
I saw it from Brits seconded to the US and during my secondment to Europe. As the only American on my European team, they would sometimes forget an American was at the meeting and the distain was not subtle when speaking “amongst” themselves.
If you’re intelligent, consistently productive and aware of what’s going on around you, you can enjoy a good career at Shell. But I will admit, I had never realized how pervasive a general condescension towards all things “Americans” was in the UK. Very solicitous to your face but not so much so otherwise. I can only chalk this up to our countries’ historical interactions.
Not to say one-on-one relationships can’t be forged and fulfilling. But not far below the surface, Americans and Brits are separated by more than a common language.
Jealousy. Its a bit of napoleon complex.
And yet, all the American oil companies (EOG, Exxon, Chevron, etc) continually outperform their European competition.
Americans are more expensive. They won’t work for peanuts. But, you get what you pay for and this VERY evident in the company.
So back in 2016 there was the 1st Euro takeover when Upstream Americas disappeared.
In the reshape 2021, they will take over the remaining US strongholds. Other than CFO and Onshore evp, there are no Americans anymore at those higher levels. There will be a few token VPs, but that's about it.
Once they layoff a bunch of US staff, the next wave of higher oil prices will lead to lots of expats - since there won't be any "tallent" in America to fill those jobs.
Well duh
Americans - American oil
N—rians - N—rian oil
Australians - Australian gas
British - British oil
Omanins - Omani oil
Dutch - ... wait why does Shell hire Dutch people ??? Oh right it’s a Dutch company (not really any other reasons ...)
We are expensive. Not personal.