I’ve let myself slip away from the blog lately and haven’t
posted anything in the last couple weeks, but everything has been pretty
routine lately. I haven’t done anything crazy exciting or adventurous the last
couple weeks so I figure now is a good time to write a little about the work
life I’ve experienced here thus far. My current role is part of the Internal
Controls team, which is part of the Compliance group. There’s really not any
technical finance or accounting work in this group which is what I’m used to,
so it’s a big change of pace for me. It’s not known as a very glamorous part of
the business and, quite honestly, I’m not entirely sure why it even falls under
the finance function. But nevertheless, it does, and therefore is part of my
development experience to get some exposure to this field. I will say though
that if you’re going to be doing compliance work, Nigeria is a very fascinating
place to be doing it. There are an insane amount of challenges in this business
unit that I’m learning more about every day. I’ve already gotten to take place
in a couple audits (both internal and external) and will actually be conducting
a couple of my own audits in the next few weeks. I should get to take part in a
few fraud investigations, which I think will be very interesting, and hopefully
even travel to some of our platforms/rigs and see what it’s like out there. I
am excited to be finally working in the upstream after two positions in the
downstream, as this is upwards of 80% of where Chevron’s business is.
Working in Nigeria is challenging, to say the least.
Everything just operates differently over here. Things take longer, you have to
trace people four or five times, a simple email will rarely suffice, and for
any relatively simple task you’ll usually have to add a couple illogical steps.
I’m slowly learning that this is just the way things are and I have to be
patient, but some situations still get the better of me and I find myself
pulling my hair out wondering why it has to be so difficult. I won’t give too
many examples, but in summary, it took about six weeks after my arrival to
finally have all my initial office-move tasks completed. This includes things
like having access to the right shared folders, getting my basic employee information
into the new systems, getting my telephone set up with my information and for
international calling, getting a local ATM card, and several other things. I
spent my first two weeks almost entirely working out these issues and trying to
get everything functioning properly before I could even really start digging
into the work. Another example was the task of replacing one of my desktop
monitors that was broken. The request was put in a month before I even arrived
and was just delivered this past week, almost three months later. Luckily I had
another to use in the meantime, but still three months is pretty ridiculous.
House maintenance issues are a whole different story and entirely different
headache. If you ever need to put in a maintenance request (which happens very,
very often) you have to be absolutely explicit in what you want done and what
tools will be required. Otherwise they’ll come out and look at the situation
like 3 times before they even start working on it just assessing what needs to
be done for a simple task. For instance, right now I’m trying to get a light
bulb replaced on my front porch and the workorder has been outstanding for
about 3 weeks. Preventative maintenance is nonexistent in Nigeria and applies
to everything. Anywhere you go you see decrepit buildings and structures that
are not cared for whatsoever, yet are somehow still in use. All maintenance is
reactive here, as in nothing is done until something is broken, and that
applies to everything.
The pace of work here is just very different than in the
states. I’ve always known that the US is very driven and work-centered, but it’s
hard to really grasp the differences until you experience a work environment
like Nigeria, which is completely opposite. Much time at work is spent
socializing, meetings rarely ever start on time or are well-organized,
everything can be put off for another day or two, rarely anybody works past
five and most people’s lunches range from an hour and a half to two hours; it’s
just a whole different mindset. Productivity is rarely a priority and, as I’ve
stated previously, logic never prevails. Another key thing I’ve already learned
over here is how to be more stern with people. Many people here are always
trying to push the work onto someone else. There have been a couple times I’ve
been given the run-around by coworkers trying to say they’re not responsible
for something and pushing me on to another person. After a couple endless loops
determining nobody is going to take ownership I just had to finally say it’s
enough and tell them somebody needs to get it done. In my past I’m well aware I’ve
had a tendency to be more of a pushover when it comes to things like this; I’d
have been more likely to just say forget it I’ll do it myself, but you can’t
operate that way over here. Way too much work would fall into the laps of a few
people. I do think this is helping my development quite a lot.
All this being said, there are some things about the
Nigerian work style that I do appreciate. People are very direct with one
another. Nobody is afraid to say what’s on their mind or shoot down bad ideas
and it’s not considered offensive. I feel like so often in the US people try
and sugarcoat everything or try and find a polite way to say something won’t
work, myself included. It’s not really that way over here. People are blunt and
direct, which I think is honestly the best way to go about business. Another
thing that I find rather useful (but still get beyond frustrated in the moment)
is how facetime is very valuable here. I mentioned how often times an email or
phone call will not suffice and I have to physically walk over to someone’s
desk and talk to them. I can sit there and see that they’re online, call them
and get no response, then walk over and see they’re clearly at their desk.
While this is no doubt frustrating, it also has its advantages. In our current technological age we’re not
used to having to actually talk to somebody. We always want a simple email or
phone call to be the solution. However, business was not always conducted like
this. There was a time when social interaction was necessary and we didn’t get
to hide behind our computer screens, and I genuinely think there is something
to be gained from that. I’ve found that I’ve already gotten to meet pretty much
all my colleagues in a rather big finance group and was able to more quickly
match up faces with the names. I’ve also noticed that having these relationships
does, in fact, help my productivity as well. After talking with someone and
getting to know them, even just a little bit, I’ve found them much more
inclined to respond to my requests in a timely manner. I’ll have sent a request
that’s been sitting in someone’s inbox for three days, but find once I just go
talk to them for five minutes and explain the situation, it’s back in my own
inbox within a couple hours. Relationships go a long way here, they really do.
I’ll close with this… I’ve found myself in a very unique
situation here in regards to my timing. Without saying too much (because I’m
not sure how much I’m allowed to), there was a recent round of layoffs that
just went on here at CNL (Chevron Nigeria Limited). Well, not exactly layoffs
per se, but what were called “Voluntary Severance Packages (VSPs),” in which
the employees had the option to decline the packages. The business here is not in its
best shape and costs have been skyrocketing lately, most of which are people
costs. For a little background: all Chevron employees here below a certain pay
grade are unionized, and have basically lobbied over the years to have some of
the best employee packages in all of Chevron. Nigeria employees are some of the
best, if not THE best, compensated employees in all of Chevron and the costs
have simply become unsustainable. This is what has prompted the latest round of
layoffs and some company-wide cost cutting initiatives. But, because they are
unionized, there has been some unhappiness with the recent round of layoffs,
despite having union approval beforehand and negotiating very generous packages for those offered VSPs. Over the last two
weeks some of the unionized employees have been holding prayer sessions in
front of the building in the morning and, I’m told, these are usually the early
stages of a strike. Strikes have been very common here because of the unions
and, I’m told, there are usually a couple each year. There hasn’t been one in
the last year or so, but I think we are shaping up for one here pretty soon. I’m
anxious to see how it all plays out and what it means for the rest of us as far
as getting anything done. We shall see.
