Great work life balance but it's tough coping with the bureaucracy. - Engineer Chevron Employee Review

3.0
5 Apr 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good respect for Employees and their right to a personal life. Fantastic Work-Life balance especially the flexitime and nine-day-fortnight system Decent exposure and opportunities to get in the petrochemical industry. Can earn a reasonable income without being married to your job and being under constant stress. If you are prepared to spend some extra time after hours there are good opportunities to develop skills as they have licences to tons of engineering software and plenty of good manuals on design that you can explore and get acquainted with.

Cons

The bureaucracy and red-tape wastes a lot of time and can be very frustrating. Despite being an international company with many business divisions where i work there are no opportunities to explore or get a secondment to another area / division of the company. Combined with all the red-tape it feels like you get the worst of of both worlds - all the BS that comes with working for a big company but none of the benefits. Wasting employees time with "token gestures" towards safety - e.g. having to observe someone walk on site and having about 4 managers hassle you about why your observation is late. As an engineer on the client side you need to think extremely careful about overstaying your time there - if are hang around more than 5 years you may find that you do not have too many marketable skills. Other companies might not be that interested in how many personal safety plans you drew up or how many people you observed walking down the passage.

Explore other reviews about Chevron

5.0
24 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of resources, great people

Cons

Can feel siloed at your role

1.0
24 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The paycheck still clears (for now, until your role is moved to Bangalore or Manila). ​The 9/80 schedule used to be a perk, but it’s hard to enjoy a Friday off when you spent the previous four days hunting for a desk like a game of musical chairs.

Cons

The RTO Charade: Leadership loves to talk about "collaboration," but the 4-day Return to Office (RTO) is clearly a quiet layoff tactic. They want people to quit so they don’t have to pay severance. The "Invisible" Office: It’s impressive how Mike Wirth can demand everyone be in the building while simultaneously removing the basic infrastructure of a workplace. No assigned desks, no storage, and literally no trash cans. Apparently, "Human Energy" includes carrying your own garbage home and spending 30 minutes every morning wandering the floor looking for a monitor that actually works. Leadership Vacuum: Les Copland is the definition of a CIO "yes man." Instead of standing up for the integrity of the tech stack or the US workforce, he’s overseen the systematic gutting of IT. It’s a race to the bottom to find the cheapest labor possible outside of the US, leaving the remaining domestic staff to clean up the inevitable mess. The War on American Workers: There is a blatant, aggressive push to minimize the American footprint. We are being phased out in favor of massive outsourcing hubs. You aren't a valued engineer here; you’re an overhead cost that Mike Wirth is looking to delete.

6
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