Fundamentally nasty people - Petroleum Engineer Petroleum Experts Employee Review

The company culture is one of unsustainable pressure, directed by the whims of an unreasonable and petty management team made up of fundamentally nasty people. They are haemorrhaging staff, primarily due to low pay, inflexibility and micromanagement. There aren’t enough experienced staff to train new employees while fulfilling the company’s obligations, so seniors answer technical support emails while juggling project work because there is nobody else to do it. This creates a very stressful work environment, which is compounded by minimal time off, unsupportive management and inflexibility over things like home working. They almost seem to take pride in their ignorance of modern working norms, so do not expect this to change. There’s a similar sense of pride in their reliance on layers of inefficient home-made IT systems, which simply don’t work very well - embarrassing for an ‘industry standard’ software company. The most valued quality an employee can have here is to be ‘humble’, which in practice means to undervalue themselves and tolerate whatever is thrown at them. Ironic, given the tremendous egotism of the management and owner, who are explicitly stated to be above criticism. Criticism only flows one way and it flows constantly, often to the point of bullying. Morale is nonexistent and there is no support for burnout. If it gets really bad they might order pizza. Many staff relocate from across the globe to work with PETEX, only to find an environment that is profoundly depressing, unsupportive and unlike the image sold to them at interview. Women face particular challenges, if they’re hired at all given the company’s abysmal gender ratio, as do LGBTQ+ staff whose safety and wellbeing is not a priority. Management’s attitude towards harassment and bullying is retrograde at best, if they aren’t participating in it themselves. No wonder there is a constant churn of lower-level employees whose departures are never acknowledged, while senior staff complain endlessly while perpetuating the toxic culture they’re complaining about.