- The return to office mandate is purposeless and idiotic. We're spread across the world now: India, Oceania, Asia, Africa, and North America. Your day is spent on Teams calls. The arguments for "in-person collaboration" and "magical hallway conversations" don't apply. Work does not happen that way - we work with sites across the globe. This doesn't get into the unassigned seating that makes this even more absurd.
- The CEO was a senior citizen before the pandemic. Not only does this explain his hostility to remote work and hybrid work, but his insistence on bringing our people processes backwards: a return to stacked ranking and mandatory relocations to Houston, for example. The board erred massively in allowing him to stay on past 65. A man that old cannot learn new ways of doing things.
- Very top-heavy in management. First-line supervisors watch over perhaps 8 or more individuals. Second and third-line supervisors watch over just a few. They seem to preoccupy themselves with the tracking of metrics that don't matter to anyone except themselves.
- There is no plan beyond performing the legacy business until it is no longer profitable. Despite a lot of green-washing, Chevron's efforts in renewables and alternative energy was a bust. It's back to drilling and refining, which may be good for a while, but I pity the younger workforce. This is like having a job at Kodak, circa 1990. Time is fleeting!
- One executive is a boorish loudmouth who likes to send emails and make media appearances threatening to shut down California facilities and pretending that Gavin Newsom pays attention to him. It's embarrassing, like listening to a bloviating drunkard or a stereotypical fat kid who thinks being loud is the same as being confident. We need savvy executives who can deal constructively with hostile politicians, not raving buffoons.
