May 14 2016

A few weeks ago a further and more drastic headcount reduction was announced.  "It will be 40 pc of our expat workforce on average" said Simon with a composure that seemed rehearsed. One never knows what to make of such leaders- is he  sad? Is he indifferent? Does he feel accountable? All irrelevant matters. What mattered is that 40 percent were going home. Most of these were from the Projects department which was to lose 60 pc. The bgc LT had met a few weeks into march and each lt member representing his department was asked to volunteer some staff to be let go. Most of the members were either humane enough, man enough or professional enough to defend every member of their team with as much gusto as they could muster. save one...a mark denneny, c and p manager. Just like during the last round of cuts, he offered to sacrifice more of his soldiers than was necessary.  In particular there were two chaps he didn't care for- ahmed abdul razek, the Egyptian procurement mgr and tom woods the warehouse mgr. both of these gents had the support of ali talib, the iraqi director of materials and transport who was "technically" the boss of denneny.  But the Iraqi staff, even senior staff, had no say in the staffing decisions of the expats- and much as talib would like to kick mark out of his smugness, he really couldnt- he had tried to complain to Simon about some of dennenys decisions but didnt get much back from simon in the way of a polarised support. Thus equipped with Simon's invisible hand, the denneny went on the offensive and sacked these two men. And did i detect an tinge of ecstasy while he did it?  Furthermore, he really thrives in situations that require unpopular actions, he will go where no other man will venture. Assignment in syria, sakhalin, gabon,iraq? Sure, no problem. Cut 10 staff in my team? Sure, heres 20. Cut costs for the company? Sure, lets fly air arabia , let us have our rooms cleaned only once a week, let us reduce food in our canteen, let us only shower once a week to save water, let us stop reimbursing taxis back home from the airport- these will reduce costs minimally but, hey, every penny counts. These are not insightful cost savings ideas of course and neither is what i have just said about him particularly remarkable, after all he is a c and p manager and in that capacity the burden of savings does rest heavily with him for third party spend. What is truly remarkable is that he is a sadist- he derives a narcotic high when he sees others suffer at his hands. Similarly he loves being hated- which is a rather curious mental condition. He would suffer from chronic unease if someone actually liked him ( other than his boss and anyone else that can impact him professionally and derail his gravy train). As a shell manager in the shell i have seen, it is astonishing to find someone like him in the mix. There are two important sets of questions in my mind regarding this exceedingly unscrupulous but decidedly anomalous Shell manager. 1) how did he come to be like this? Was it a congenital conditon or an affliction later in life caused by circumstance? 2) how did he survive the Shell system for so long? Why, for example, does he roam about a free man with such an airbus a380 worth of bad karma? Should he not be locked up?