Downstream is not the place to be at Chevron - Anonymous employee Chevron Employee Review

2.0
Dec 31, 2010
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Benefits and 401k are very good - Salary is competitive - Work life balance can be good but it depends entirely on where you work and your manager - Leaders try hard and most are quite intelligent - Co-workers are pretty nice and want to do well

Cons

- If you demonstrate capability and ability to execute, management will assign you more and more work while others that are less capable enjoy their "9/80" schedule (every other friday off) - Recent cuts in Downstream have created a logjam at middle management - Baby boomers are firmly entrenched in their jobs and not going anywhere soon - Downstream is a very tough business to be in, but the company focuses mostly on the Upstream and Gas opportunities. Those businesses can afford much higher cost structures than Downstream, hence Downstream is loaded with unafforadble support costs. - Those in the P&L businesses 'get it' and typically execute, those in the support groups largely are clueless to how the business runs - So many processes and more focus on process development and recording rather than simple executiion - Downstream and business unit leadership constantly coming up with new visions and strategies - Managers and Leaders ask for more and more from their people and then hold supervisors accountable for over-working their teams (how do they think the work gets done???)

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5.0
Mar 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Friendly and helpful. Good people

Cons

People are very competitive and nervous about their job

4.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people at Chevron are great and overall it's a pretty good company - decent benefits and company culture. The 9/80 work schedule is a great perk. It has struggled to stay competitive with other big employers in California though.

Cons

Leadership has become increasingly out of touch, with regular re-organizations, lay-offs, and offshoring of support/operation functions disrupting day-to-day work and making processes even more slow and bureaucratic. Overall most employees are still wonderful to work with, but the constant leadership mantra of "do more with less" and removal of flexible/hybrid work has definitely reduced morale and made Chevron just another job, whereas it used to be a genuinely enjoyable place to work.

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