Over the several years that I have been with BHP, I have never seen an organization with an ever-changing strategy that is so politically driven. Not just with the bureaucratic workflows and dealing with mining bosses in Australia with no oil and gas clue trying to direct things, but straight up buddy/buddy politics and bullying in the Houston office. Despite campaigns over the years regarding mental health, safe to speak up, and leading step up, nothing has changed in regards to individual contributors being pushed down while managers take all the credit. I have seen many colleagues being bullied by their managers and neither HR or two up management gave it the time of day. Performance system is ridiculous. For someone on the team to achieve a higher than usual bonus, someone has to achieve a lower than usual bonus. On a high functioning team this can be very demoralizing. Lots of bullies. Lots of big egos. But yet -- after Shenzi, what real progress has this organization achieved? $40 billion shale blunder and no meaningful conventional discoveries. But yet you listen to these managers and they talk like they are Jesus Christ reincarnated doing miracles. Reorg into the TSO (shale organization being sold) and CPO (future conventional organization) was done unfairly by a committee hand picked by the top picking their own personal favorites. The top looks almost the exact same. Same people that ran shale into the ground moved right on over. Virtually all mid to high level managers got kept. Mid level managers that haven't been an individual contributor for at least a decade are now individual contributors. And the individual contributors were either let go or placed in shale. Makes perfect sense. Same broken system. Hopefully BP will be a better company. It was quite entertaining to see the BP L48 CEO hold a town hall with the BHP Shale VP. It was so reassuring to listen to someone (BP CEO) who actually knows how to run an oil company instead of a charismatic puppet that feeds superficial garbage to the masses. And word on the street is the BHP VP is safe and sound too in the new organization after this $40 billion blunder....
