M-I Swaco Reviews

Pros

Good pay
Two weeks off every month
Good benefit package
Excellent pay

Cons

When on location not much back up
Company organization can be lacking at times.

Pros

Diverse company, offers many opportunities for personnel growth within multiple business lines

Cons

Internal politics are rampant. Upper management restructures almost every two years for the past six years and each restructure results in high percent of upper and middle management changes. Loss/change of directives, cohesion, and effects moral. Career paths are non-existant. I have seen many people, especially young professionals, leave the company with this is a major complaint. Due to so much movement/hiring/firing within the corporate structure, most managers make short term decisions to achieve yearly goals to hit bonus plans. End result is employees are left working without support, equipment, capex expenditures to support future work. The company grows primarily through aquisition and focuses on new technology. Produces a repeated process for employees that come in with new technology push- rapid early advancement followed by lethargic growth and corporate interest after a couple of years as the new latest and greatest technology comes in. You have to keep changing with the wind within the company to continue to advance. The company is full of prominate experts in thier given fields that langquish behind a desk now with no upward mobility. Its a company of very low morale.

Advice to Senior Management

Should be a system in place to evaluate exiting managers on the group or division they are leaving when promoted. Current system rewards short term decision making and hurts company in long term strategies. Executive level should be reminded they work for the company, the company doesn't work for them.

Pros

Good benefits compared to competitors and curently strong ties within manager employee relationship.

Cons

As company grows and combined with Sclumberger meger employee manager relationship is alienated along with bullying tactics on personal & work life from Schulmberger.

Advice to Senior Management

Overwhelming need to hire additional staff for customer, company, and operational needs. Staff reduction was done on the bottom end of the company that plays a key role in "day to day" customer support. Thus leaving current staff overwhelmed and basically operating company as an upside down pyramid.

Pros

Our office has a great group of people who have all "been there" and gone through the hardships of solids control. Everyone seems to be on my side with performance resulting in getting the job done in a timely fashion.

Cons

If you do not want to be away from home this is not a job for you. The great thing about me working here is getting to appreciate my family more than I would if I was here all the time.

Advice to Senior Management

A posting of classes to take at corporate would be a great thing for techs/mechanics to be able to see.

Pros

The management was very open door with lower level employees. You were able to know where you stood within the company. They allowed you opportunities for growth and training.

Cons

Certain areas were very political and therefore it did not always matter how much experience or skill you had but rather how much upper management liked you.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen better to employees and judge more based on skill and experience.

Pros

It's a decent company, even a good one, overall. They are a market leader. People can move to different areas in the company. There are a lot of good people at the company.

Compensation is fair but not spectacular unless you are among a select few specialized operational departments. Benefits are decent and the company does a few family-oriented things. As the company is very distributed around the world, each site is smaller and despite the overall size, working there can have the feeling of a medium-size company. If you get in to the right place, it can be fun to work there. Headquarters employees that do good work and are willing to communicate and get involved in the breadth of their tasks will meet other people and could even get on a first name basis with executives; try that at an IBM or Chevron.

International travel opportunities are there for certain jobs.

Although there are some cons (see below) the top executives seem to manage the company shrewdly; with a few exceptions they are generally careful about their acquisitions, and the company's growth and global footprint lead to all kinds of interesting work.

Cons

It can be a good job, but not always a good career. Advancement seems to come primarily through operations and select groups in finance.

IT in particular has a limited strategic approach and tends to be reactive and subservient to finance. It could do considerably more to benefit the company but doesn't seem to have the vision and verve to get there.

The company runs non-ops divisions very lean and IT and accounting personnel can be put into poor work/life balance situations; recognition for extraordinary effort can be very inconsistent. The leanness and tendency of the company to expand without growing internal departments can mean more work over time with little advancement opportunity.

Family and friends of executives get jobs and sometimes also any available upward mobility. It's ok when the person is a decent worker, but that's not always the case. Managerial competence varies as it does in most companies, but some definitely play favorites.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect all divisions of the company, not just operations. If you're going make everyone go through LEAN just like you do with safety, then stick to it and let other departments engage improvements. Understand that high instances of turnover in certain departments IS an indicator that you are not competitive among your peers in retaining employees, and this is conduct unbecoming of a company that wants to stay a market leader. There is a knowledge cost from turnover that does affect the bottom line. That goes for acquisitions too; you may be careful in picking your purchases, but in being abrupt in the transition, are you losing key players from the acquired company that might have been beneficial?

Pros

Good business model, knowledgeable leadership
Family-like atmosphere/good internal relationsips

Cons

Disconnects between strategy and execution
Lack of career growth and development
Highly dependent on customer demand - poor job security

Advice to Senior Management

Move beyond words (plans, rhetoric) and show commitment to strategy via goals, objectives, growth.

Pros

lots of locations so I had a chance to travel and see some of the world.

Cons

It was a boys club where it didn't matter the quality of your work so much as who you knew and who you sucked up to.

Advice to Senior Management

Your friends and relatives don't make the best employees recognize your people for the job they do and treat them well or you will lose more. Organization skills among operations is terrible and there seems to be no formal chain of command that must be followed. Job descriptions are a must, during the decade that I put in at M-I Swaco I held 8 different positions and only had job descriptions for two of them. Work instructions are also needed and were never provided.

Pros

Excellent benefits, reasonable vacation time with pay, stability, 401k, well known, safe, certain positions get a truck with gas card!

Cons

Low pay for industry! Our location has the lowest pay scale and it sucks. Takes forever to get a raise but this could just be the local management. Headquarters is out of Texas and we are in California. Other than that you have to work ALOT of hours to get a descent pay check. ALOT=70-80 hrs a week. Family is somewhat sacrificed but it pays the bills

Advice to Senior Management

Hmmm maybe offer better hourly pay or incentive bonuses. I know this career doesn't take the smartest person but it attracks the idiots. If there was better pay it would make it more attractive to the right people and you would have a better crew of motivated individuals.

Pros

When given as assignment, I am not questioned as to how I do it.

Cons

Have to work in harsh weather environments sometimes

Advice to Senior Management

The upper management should stop the favoritism game.