Upper management are some of the most worthless and worst decision makers in all of history. The Anadarko deal was an atrocious and dismal decision which absolutely ruined the company, and ruined many of the employees through layoffs and many more to come in the future, along with compensation cuts for all employees.
The entire company is extremely silo'd. The right hand never knows what the left hand is doing. So much wasted work is performed because of this.
Despicable business practices are common place. Numerous cases of harassment and discrimination have been raised to HR, but they sweep everything under the rug and still allow those practices to continue, and completely support those managers and executives.
There is absolutely no trust by executive and upper management for the employees. Oxy was one of the last companies to institute work from home due to the Coronavirus, because they could not trust their employees, and they didn't care if their lives were on the line. As another example, simple low cost workovers had to to all be approved by the CEO, even before the Saudi and Russia market share war led to a drop in prices, because executive management does not trust employees to do their jobs.
It is a completely micro-management culture, with most managers and executives dictating exactly how work should be performed. They want trained monkeys, and not independent thinkers.
There is no accountability, even from the top. Executive management blames everything on external factors, not learning from their mistakes. As an example, executive management blames the downfall of the company on the Opec+ price war and the coronavirus, not once recognizing that they made one of the worst decisions in history with the Anadarko purchase (which was ridiculed throughout the industry even at the time). Another case in point is that when they made 30% salary cuts across the corporation, the CEO couldn't even be bothered to make the announcement, but she put it on one of her subordinates to deliver the message. Another case in point, is that when dealing with Icahn in determining control of the corporation, the CEO only cared about saving her job, and made a deal with the devil in order to do so. She also instituted a poison pill against investors from buying a large number of shares in the company, because she wanted to retain as much control as possible.
The pay, benefits, and working environment are worse than most companies. Therefore, the quality of employees at Oxy are much less than at other Oil & Gas companies I have encountered. Also, many of the best left with the voluntary separation package, leaving behind a ton of dead weight.
There is a ton of backstabbing throughout the company, especially against the talented and the innovators. Oxy is more interested in having individuals who tow the line and do exactly what they are told by incompetent upper management.
Worst company I've ever known of or worked at, and I have worked at many throughout my long career. STAY AWAY!!!
