Sniffet: From Canada where everythings A-Ok, Don't worry, etc, was talking to Church member who works at Natural Gas refinery. All employees on call for rollover. If problems occur Natural Gas Refinery Company will provide free generator for employees home if they show up for their twelve hour shift as scheduled.....Generators are in warehouse ready for distribution. Refinery claims to be tested but not sure if pipeline Co. can supply product to refine. "And the uncertainty goes on...."

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

Answers

Charles,

Thanks for this item of information. There seems to be a lot of this sort of thing going on, with utilities making provisions for their own employees, or management, in case of failures. Obviously, they didn't decide to spend this kind of money if they were as confident about things as some of the "happy face" reports we see elsewhere.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

Offering some incentive for employees is a great idea for preserving your business. Unfortunately in the oil industry, this idea is only being considered for overseas employees by and large. At an API Taskforce 2000 meeting a few months back, an informal survey was taken which indicated that the primary incentive for people was and I quote "They get to keep their job". Lots of chuckles ha ha ha. Unfortunately, many employees when faced with their family's well being will drop their job in a heartbeat. Most executives in the corporate environ we currently favor, shun their families regularly anyway. What they fail to understand is that the average grunt does not. That's one reason many are grunts in the first place. They're not willing to trade their family for a paycheck.

This rather cavalier attitude from management is simply part of their mighty denial of this problem. I have talked to a number of people in my and other industries. They tell me if the light's go out or they see things going south, they're bailing and fast. It's to late for corp America now. We blew it. Sorry, I'm not feeling very cheery.

See you on the other side.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 1999