It'd be great if we can have this thread with dignity and stay polite.
15 replies (most recent on top)
Horrible culture, horrible people. Not recommended.
Learned that you can teach management principles to engineers, but you cannot teach engineering to professional managers.
Learned that you can teach management principles to software developers, but you cannot teach software principles to professional managers.
Learned that you can teach management principles to geophysicists, but you cannot teach geophysics to professional managers.
Learned that you can teach incompetence to the competent, but you cannot teach competence to the incompetent.
Learnt that you are better off higher up in the food chain.
Operators pay better than service companies, who in turn pay better than their suppliers.
The capability development is in the opposite order though.
Oil majors still operate like oil is at $100/bbl, especially deep water ones and can only think of squeezing the service provider margin
the oilfield services companies cut headcount and close bases, but don’t get any more efficient at working
the suppliers of the service companies who are still standing, have diversified their business beyond O&G
S@*t flows downhill!
That it is perfectly possible to stab someone in the back whilst enthusiastically shaking their hand........ Oh, and Schlumberger have no idea about planning and manufacturing.
It’s a complete sh!tshow since PK, Hinda Gharbi etc. I don’t think the upper management got one thing right over the last 10 years. Schlumberger is less valuable now than in 1980. Horribly run company where politics are similar to high school. The behaviors of these people are outrageous.
I learnt during my 9 yrs that I learnt nothing whilst the others were kissing management butts. Strange but true. They think that they finally punished me for not doing what almost everyone else did. But I am proud of who I am and I did find a job where I am treated equally and with respect.
I learned that big corporations stifle creativity and innovation but use their marketing resources to try and convince people that the opposite is true. The pressure for employees to conform to the internal marketing/political machine is overwhelming so everybody drinks from the same kool aid regardless of whether it makes sense or not. The alternative is to get fired. (the self destructive behavior of enron comes to mind here)
talent doesent always get to the top as its more about politics - i have seen some stunning failures by top management that beggars belief but somehow they keep their jobs or get promoted even
people don't buy into big corporations fully so a large part of the workforce never really gives 100% because they are working for the machine and never feel truly connected like they might do in a smaller company - what a waste of human capital we have here
big corporations like schlumberger are terribly inefficient and highly expensive for clients which opens opportunities for smaller agile companies
the sheer size of corporations means they can withstand these failures and still seem to prosper however one wonders whether this latest oil price collapse could be game changer for the industry to the detriment of companies like slb. Operators are complaining about the high costs and talking about taking these services in house again - we live in interesting times
Hope its not a cuter that sr managers do stuff, e.g. are on the take to promote their blowers and never get nabbed. no one belches cause buffaloed by these bents. they need to stand a gaff. and for me it is time to mope out.
I learned to put my spirituality, my wife,and my kids first in my life. I learned that my morals and spirituality came first. I also learned that I didn't need as much financially as I thought I did. I left in 2008, going to work with heart skips each morning and super stress with a manager who said one thing and his boss who said 180% degrees different. My boss was very unethical and was later arrested & divorced (gambling habit - $14,000 at the horse track in one day, white collar theft, outright racist - you know they type of guy who is waiting for his father to die so he can get everything his dad worked hard for) as was my bosses' boss. Both scumbags.
One morning, I just handed them my ID and left. "Your quiting?" You can't quit right now at this stage of the game . . ." I turned and said, "When the stress of the job, is worse then the stress of not having a job, . . . that's your sign."
I cashed out my 401K and started my own small business. Three times happier and make the same money doing 60% less work. You will always be emotionally or finacial poor working for other people because in a good or bad way, you are their slave.
Simplifiy your life, stay out of debt for a bunch of crap from walmart, and live below your means. Didin't borrow a penny to start my business and it is well diversified into multiple revenue streams in a nitch service market AND it is something I love doing and was doing as a hobby for 20 years.
Things will only get worse as time moves along and this system keeps falling apart. The time to uncomplicate your life is now. You can bitch and moan all you want, but you're the one driving to the office every morning. No one is forcing you to.
Some great posts. I was with SLB almost 20 years, have been gone 16. I learned a great deal, was given a lot of responsibility at a young age, did many different jobs. Hated the politics, but that's going to happen in any big company. SLB is tied to commodity prices, will always be cyclical. Most of my peers have done very well post-SLB. With time, hopefully you will appreciate what you gained from SLB, and remember fondly the good people that you shared time with. Best of luck.
SLB is well organized and I learned that if organized good you can do amazing things. I also learned that I dislike office politics and that if people are treated well they will do miracles for you.
Good luck Anonymous60738 - it was time to go, only for the better, I guarantee you. Good luck and God Bless!
I can do one better. I earned a B for 8 consecutive years and got booted out the door anyway. I learned a lot of good things but in the end I think God closed that door because he will open others.
What a great post #60728, very gracious
I learned how to work harder than anyone else I knew. I learned how to give up most of my friends and give up seeing extended family on holidays. I learned how to bite the bullet, standing in freezing rain with icy coveralls. I learned how to survive on gas station food and not sleep, often existing in zombie mode. I learned that without 360 appraisals, crappy managers move up and of course you are appraised based on chemistry with your manager alone. No amount of hard work or sacrifice will get you a B if your manager doesn't like you because so and so said you don't deserve a decent appraisal. I also learned that in spite of horrible conditions and some terrible people, I can do it. I was there for 9 years and I made a lot of lifelong friends and I talk to them often. A good story for them is that it's getting better, never that it's great. Or, living the dream. Or, days off and big bonus, oh my. But having been out of that company now for a little while on my own accord, I learned, life is better outside of big blue because I actually have a life outside of big blue. I don't talk about SLB all the time anymore and my boss pushes me out of the office at 5 telling me I work too hard. I don't regret working for SLB and I'm proud to say I started there but I must say, I wish I'd left at year 5, it would have made those last 4 years so much more enjoyable.