BP – “A very good company, not perfect, but full of potential.”

Pros

Good people. Professional atmosphere. Extremely environmentally and safety minded.
BP supervisors treat people fairly. I've not had the best experiences with HR, however. I generally view HR as evil. A lot of us do.

BP has great potential. We are at a pivotal period. The next 2 years will be very telling as to whether or not we can become the best, or merely remain a profitable company that continues to stand in the shadow of Shell and Exxon.

My hope is on Tony Hayward -- he has a hell of a task in front of him. I wish him the best.

Cons

Pay is a bit low compared to competitors. This is evidenced by a high turn-over rate in the last two years as many BP employees have gone to work for better paying oil companies.

We have a new CEO (on the corporate level) -- Tony Hayward. He is in a tough position, as BP stock has been seriously out-performed by Exxon and other competitors. Tony is big on making "every dollar count". This is good, but we've also witnessed some sweeping changes that seem to save money up front, but are costing us down the road.

Gain share (VPP) is now a forced ranking system. Every year, ten percent of all BP employees will be sh!t holed and receive absolutely no gain share or cost of living raise. I would love to know the Einstein that came up with this idea. If ten percent of your employees deserve nothing, then get rid of them!!! Don't make them disgruntled by keeping them on but humiliating them. One day, someone will go postal over this stupid policy.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the knee-jerk reaction. Yes CEO John Browne is gone, yes Tony Hayward is now at the reigns -- but too much change too fast is having some major downsides.

Ditch the stupid forced ranking where supervisors are required to select ten percent of their people, rate them (essentially) as losers, humiliate them, give them no reward or annual raise, but them keep them on board where their newly disgruntled attitude spreads like poison. It amazes me that someone in upper management thinks that this is a good idea.