Pros
Good 401k plan Great safety performance Generally good people Excellent college recruiting Generally receptive to what employees want (relocation, working in a different unit, etc.) Excellent relocation package (not as good for college hires) Layoffs pretty much never happen because headcount is already at "post-layoff" numbers Recently there's been tremendous career growth opportunity for young engineers because of low employee retention. It's not uncommon to see superintendents with ~4 years experience. Oxy has success through acquisition rather than building. Because of this, they have an interesting melting pot of cultures. Working at a different plant is almost like working for a different company. 9/80 schedules, which is typically also the case for plants outside of the Gulf.
Cons
Poor employee retention and often the reaction is to blame the people who left instead of looking inward. Poor "mid-level" recruiting. When oil prices are up, OxyChem doesn't see much of the profits. If oil prices are down, OxyChem gets punished. The compensation program punishes individual plants that are struggling (normally because of low retention), which then causes more retention issues. It's a lean company, so you need to be dedicated and put in the extra hours when necessary. College hires tend to be hired on and forgotten about. Mentoring and getting honest feedback can be like pulling teeth. There's a formal performance review system but it's not taken seriously at the plant level.