In the past few years, I've worked with a few people who came over from another big oil company, and they brought that same cutthroat attitude with them. As a result, in my area, being aggressive gets you promoted faster than being good at your job. Teamwork is a foregone idea no one really believes in anymore.
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Because people get butt-hurt when not invited to every single meeting or not included in absolutely all decision making. It has more to do with EGO and control than actual oversight.
@h0 This company has castrated personal decision making. We can't assign a differential rating without reaching consensus, you can't approve anything without running it up the chain. . . . .how can you truly delegate if you (the person at the top) wants to be involved in every decision, no matter how mundane or routine. Even if it isn't routine, it shouldn't have to be run up the chain every time.
I have never worked a company that relies so heavily on consensus and more matrix managers than grains of sand on a beach.
As an engineer, everything I do has multiple committees, and then just when you think you have made a plan, the global engineering group wants to have a say and everything starts over again.
Ehhh. COP is at the other end of the spectrum and deserves a healthy dose of controlled aggressiveness and accountability. We take far too long to make decisions, no one wants to own any decision, which as a result then implicitly requires consensus on every. little. thing., and everyone is afraid to hurt peoples’ feelings. It’s basically minority rule with too many stale or uninformed ideas of survivors that are faaaar too safe in their jobs, and weak managers / useless “directors” blocking any meaningful progress…. that is, unless a whip gets cracked by senior management that has lost all patience, then it’s the complete opposite and brainless haste to rush into something. Naturally whatever actually manages to get done is either a rushed disaster, or gold-plated, overdue, and over budget. Then we all wonder why things are the way they are, and those same competitors being moaned about outpace us in nearly every aspect.
We can do both, and capture the collective value of a team, but have some intensity in our actions and decisions. But let’s not fool ourselves, COP is doing neither right now, and here we are, again.