ConocoPhillips Reviews in Calgary, AB Area

Pros

ConocoPhillips is a great place to work.
- experience with an international corporation
- extensive focus on training
- great knowledge sharing atmosphere
- stable company, good collection of people
- good track of hiring interns back
- competent management and motivated co-workers

Cons

In comparison to other companies, there doesn't seem to be any downside. The only complaint might be the sluggishness on making decisions about project and moving them forward.

Advice to Senior Management

Put in place strategies to keep top talent and develop good engineers into managers.
Wish you all the best and keep up the good work!!!!!

Pros

Compensation package and relatively stable work expectations (i.e. 40 hours a week is expected, but overtime is not).

Cons

Work is not overly challenging and you have to deal with the bureaucracy of a large company. Also headquarters are in Houston, so major budget decisions are made outside of Calgary.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate vision of company to employees and ensure they are receiving interesting work. It can be very demotivating when it's unclear what the long term vision of the company is.

Pros

ConocoPhillips is an ethical oil & gas company with a demonstrated commitment to innovation and the environment. ConocoPhillips values safety. ConocoPhillips is a large global company with opportunities all over the world. ConocoPhillips pays their employees very well compared to non oil and gas companies. ConocoPhillips offers a very nice benefit package in terms of time off for vacation and in flex days. ConocoPhillips values and supports work/life balance. Because ConocoPhillips is a more conservative company the risk exposure is lower which (should) contribute to a higher return for shareholders and a more secure job environment. They should also be able to survive in the long run through these conservative practices and by being innovative leaders in the energy sector.

Cons

ConocoPhillips shoves the United Way fundraising efforts down their employee's throats and does not respect people's decisions to support other causes. People often feel harrassed by the yearly campaign. ConocoPhillips will let you overwork yourself, they do not enforce the work/life balance. ConocoPhillips does not always promote the right people. ConocoPhillips does not do a good job of identifying who the right people are - often times it's the person who got the job done, not the person who got the job done right. ConocoPhillips is often trying to implement change but is very ineffective in doing so. ConocoPhillips employees get frustrated with the same reinvention of the wheel that actually needed to be fixed or replaced. ConocoPhillips does not proactively respond to employee feedback. ConocoPhillips stifles and discourages creativity by their conservatice approach that they take in everything. ConocoPhillips is way too beaurocratic and wastes a lot of resources due to this beurocracy. ConocoPhillips has too many employees that do not perform well or care about their jobs or their co-workers (they're "mailing it in" to get the paycheck) and managers don't deal well with these performance issues. ConocoPhillips does not always treat people equally and many decisions regarding performance and bonuses are based on the managers discretion. ConocoPhillips has a lot of bad lower level managers. ConocoPhillips Canada is to ConocoPhillips USA what western Canada is to Ontario; at election time our votes don't really count. ConocoPhillips requires that you take global assignments to progress within the company. It is very difficult to move up in ConocoPhillips and they almost always under value employees in their pay grades and in salary increases. Many people will leave the company to increase their work station because they can not do this within the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up your commitment to the environment and the innovative approach to researching alternative energy.
Quit with the 'Canadian' style of leadership, don't worry about being "nice". Start holding people accountable. ConocoPhillips is filled with victims and you're enabling these people by not holding them to any standard of excellence. One good employee taking ownership for their job and their choices has to be worth two people who blame everything else. Why not fire those two and use the money saved to recognize and develop the strong performer?
There is an enormous amount of waste in our company. People take things for granted because working in oil & gas is so lucrative and the perks are opulent. They have lost all perspective and now they feel entitled. The ogranization is full of ego maniacs running rampant. A lot of money goes out because of them and there is a lot of redundancy and waste. And in the meantime, the company is nickle and diming the good people working below. Good people are going to your competition for promotions because of HR policies. It costs more to hire them than it does to keep them.
Otherwise, keep up the good work.