IT leadership in shambles. CIO resigned, possibly because he was effectively made into a co-CIO with 5 or 6 other senior IT folks. Poor coordination, too many cooks in the kitchen. Lots of other senior or longstanding middle IT managers leaving the company, taking valuable historical knowledge with them. Lack of leadership makes it very difficult to get the "easy wins" done, like deploying out-of-the-box updates for standard applications. Stuff that should take 20 min can take 6 months, under the right mix of bad circumstances.
2021 merit increases have been "deferred" indefinitely. Not a shocker considering the state of the industry. Haven't had layoffs to the extent of Exxon, BP, etc., but a few dozen people were let go in late 2020. Most teams in IT are already skeleton crews. Bonuses are expected to be drastically reduced this year, or eliminated entirely; normally they are 10% or more of salary.
Culture very oriented towards physical safety when I joined. That all went out the window when everyone was forced back to the office in May/June 2020. Hard to take the "Hold the handrail" rules seriously when mask-wearing is not enforced stringently. Working remotely is not an option for most corporate HQ staffs, even though many can and did work remotely with great success from March-May 2020. Understandably the situation is different at refineries, but those teams are also spread out over larger sites, which can make social distancing easier.
