Current process is as follows:
Lofty promises made on hiring (aka lies)>hopes high>that’s not my job surely!>it can’t be this bad>maybe it’ll get better>how does anyone work with these people!>biased pmp rating>realization moment>insulting “merit”’increase>morale plummets>disengagement>acceptance or resignation.
Those at end of their career or desperate will accept and stay, all others resign. The process typically takes most people 12-18 months. Some smarter folks realize within weeks.
" Nasty people, nasty company, nasty country." Never a more true word read today.
A place where the purest of water that flows are of the tears of sadness, despair and the heartbreak of workers and their families.
The old timers had the golden years of the company with high benefits and lower effort.
In late 2021 I recall seeing dozens of cars caked in dust abandoned outside folks homes. Their possessions left behind with no time to plan - they were treated like subhumans.. A few months later entire houses were cleared out with contents dumped into skips in the street. No doubt all valuables were pillaged by locals beforehand . Nasty people, nasty company, nasty country.
Best example families layoff during 2020 Covid time. No humanitarian flights from the company, HR pushing to accept any flights, School retiring kids immediately, some people struggling to leave the country, electricity was cut in their houses. Dealing with a move during pandemic. Worst ever process and regardless in few months they were looking again for people.
I post here because I also hope potential employees read through these messages. It IS as bad as described. I’m not talking about the old timers. I don’t know about that. I’m sharing how it is now. Today.
Think twice and then think again.
And remember ARAMCO is a propaganda machine across the board.
You and your family will not be cared for if anything goes wrong. Stories abound.
Avoid Saudi and avoid ARAMCO.
All it takes is one push too many before you bring that leaving date closer than you keep putting off time and time again.
I hope westeners contemplating joining ARAMCO are reading these posts. Being su-ked into turning you and your families life upside down only to find out you have been sold a "Pig in a poke" is what these man dress wearing, lying SOBs will do to you and your family with absolutely no remorse.
Zero lifestyle benefits. It’s a sham.
$$ aren’t even there for new joiners, can’t see anyone sticking around for a 10-15% uplift. Staff turnover must be off the scale. Lifestyle benefits, what lifestyle benefits.
“They just want slaves or low grade yes men with no esteem, motivation or morals.”
That was my lived experience of the place. My colleagues were not bad people at all, little malice and liked a laugh to some degree. But aside from notable exceptions, they were yes men whose whole demeanour changed in the presence of any local who had even small amounts of power over their continued stay in the kingdom. I’m talking changes in body language, face expressions, style of talking and tone of voice. Very deferential. And maybe some of them were playing the game, not giving a fcuk over it. Kudos if you can stand to be bent over and shafted for dollars.
These threads make quite uncomfortable reading but are hard facts with work and life experiences there. A more important topic is clinical depression. It's widely experienced in the camp and I often wonder of the longer lasting issues it causes.
So true. On my first day I was asked by my boss why I hadn’t been writing his minutes for a meeting he was in. I said because ‘I’m not been hired as a secretary’. Wrong answer.
I left after 3 months of purgatory. I was little more than a human punchbag.
They just want slaves or low grade yes men with no esteem, motivation or morals.
“Expats” with western passports earning a pittance are lining up to join, just like those jumpsuited chain-ganged workers waiting for the bus.
A vacuum of sadness said the previous poster. Well described.
I knew inside myself within weeks of arriving I had made a big mistake. Tried to deny it. Dithered on my family joining (slowed the paperwork etc). Then after some months hit the eject button.
No regrets at all.
I was sold a lie. A job lie. An accommodation lie. An air quality lie (by silence). A facilities lie. But most of all what an utterly sh-t place to live. Behind wired fence surround by the shti show that is Dhahran / Dammam one one side and the industrialised hellscape that is the desert on the other.
My advice. If you’re self aware enough to know you are incompetent and want to max out your earnings to intelligence ratio then do it if you can accept the above. You’ll be surrounded by similar and also local dimwits who are really the d-mbest you are ever likely to meet.
New encumbants feel.something isn't right even before the job offer and know so when they arrive. At this stage there's still some denial.
The company psyche is that once you come for the tax free salary that you will stay a little longer because expats don't have a job to to automatically go to, or return to. Same applies for families arriving or the singletons that endure most psychological distress. That's why it's such an unhappy place. A vacuum of sadness.
same as it ever was... post Jum'ah that is.