It almost seems as soon as you walk in the door they want to catch you doing something wrong.
Make no mistake BP management are not there to support you. They are a closed group and if you do not deliver to their exacting specifications, or they just don’t like you (it seems only certain people fit their profile) they will plot to remove you.
This is a very IT led environment and your work is constrained by aspirational (they claim to be best in class) but unworkable technical processes. What should be a clear way ahead is anything but - your path is obstructed by what they refer to as 'BP Way' (their best practice but really a post-Macondo arse-covering system of ticking every box). The company should be referred to as Better Procrastinate - they embrace pettiness and minor amendments as if it were virtue and to the extent you question the value you are adding. Your average 89th iteration to a management submission will create new doubt over those previously compounded. There is an intense pre-occupation of format over substance and as a result it is nearly impossible to get anything done, far less deliver an efficient product.
Furthermore they simply don’t care if you are overworked as long as you deliver. In their imperious world, where it is deemed a privilege to be working there they simply turn their noses up at people who underperform. Any sign of discontent is met with a mixture of curiosity and disdain. One metric for perceived underperformance for a cost manager is a quarter-on-quarter reporting variance of less than 5%, which is an impossibility in a project environment.
In my own case I had been under work stress for quite some time and I had highlighted this fact. During the 2016/17 downturn BP 'rationalised' their organisation, leaving those unfortunate souls who remained sharing a higher work burden. When my manager complained about a petty reporting variance (just a digit out is a serious problem), I dared talk back and was immediately put on a competency review. This 'HR engineering process' allowed them to release me under the guise of incompetence and avoid responsibility for redundancy. Had I raised my previous stress concerns with HR I could have drawn attention to their lack of a duty of care in an unfair dismissal proceeding. But they are one step ahead and the competency review playbook negates this recourse. A further irony is that it was the same line manager whom I complained to previously that initiated this competency review. And on inheriting my workload she shortly afterwards went on extended stress leave, then left of her own volition less than six months later. (At least I stood before their kangaroo court and not slipped out the back door.)
I still bear the scars of this wretched period and would strongly advise any budding entrants to BP to avoid being lured by the supposed prestige/ premium rate and take a chance on them. It is a place reserved for ruthless careerists (a more polite term for workplace bullies) and self-interested IT consultants (who develop unworkable systems such as Kildrummy Cost Manager). There are many other companies out there which take a real interest in employee welfare, where the expectations are fairer and, most importantly, the human element is respected.
