TBK tries- Shway, shway, the Bapco way

Dear Readers

As you have been teaching me Tagalog ( and Bisaya, Ilocano and Cuyunon) I thought it only fair to teach you the first two Arabic words I learnt when I joined Bapco in 2010.

                                 " Shway , Shway"

It means slowly, slowly . I know the purists among you will say that its one word repeated. The thing is One Shway on its own does not get close to describing the issue.

In Bahrain I studied alongside the greatest English teachers like John Jaworski, Joe , David, Barry, Hazel, Shane and Little Cheryl. They would always put a new word in a sentence- so here we go:

                           "Shway, Shway , the Bapco way"

Mo Steer and Peter Conway ( no Photoshop)

That is how my then Boss, Peter Conway, explained life in Bapco to me on my first day. Everything is slow, don't rock the boat, go with the flow, and , to make matters worse he said: 

"I hope you don't end up like me, where you just get so fed up with endless forms and processes , that you just give up"

We had many debates as to whether it was a result of incompetence that things took so long or because of the outdated systems designed in 1935 by bored Engineers which never changed.

Bapco hated its "shway, shway" image and spent millions on consultants to investigate the issues. They did surveys to discover what we already knew:

"Bapco is like an old comfy worn out chair that when you sink down into it you just cannot get out"

Expats described being placed in metaphorical golden handcuffs. They were paid so well , tax free, with free fuel and house that they could not afford to leave. For those with families, say two boys and a girl they had their children's fees paid at private boarding schools in Scotland and then university, plus return flights home every vacation , and long holidays. So the people never changed, and if you don't change the people you don't change the people! Then nothing changes. 

They changed the logo, many times. CEO's came and went because they could not make the business change. Wonderful graphics were shared at Town hall meetings about Commercialization and Transformation and still nothing changed.

"Oh, Neil, That's harsh " I hear some people say.

Ok so they modernized the forms so now instead of filling out a BP2160 to order lunch for 16 delegates on an ILM course and physically taking it to the Head of Professional development to initial, then to the Manager L and D, then to the GM HR, the DCE and finally the Chief executive to sign , and then to the Bapco club to provide the lunch, its done electronically!

However they changed the ( IT) system , not the shared values ( we don't trust anyone ) and so it still took weeks to order lunch, and , as one ex CEO said when addressing my delegates

"I have to sign 45,000 forms a week. Some , for BMP, are for millions of Dollars and it is right the CEO should approve them.  Others, for the ILM lunch for 16 people for 80 bd ( 160 GBP) should not need the CE signature."

Peter's ( my ex Boss not the CE) favourite one was when they made the old paper expenses form into an e form and it had a paperclip on it . The instructions read :

"Once the form is approved please print it, sign it, and paperclip your receipts to it and take it to the Finance Department and you will be paid"

And , stupidly, that's what we did monthly, fill in the form, online, send it for approval , on line, go and knock on the Managers door when he had not approved it after three weeks, then email the HOPD or the Managers secretary to remind him he still had not signed it, and finally it would go to Finance.

Often it stayed there and when you eventually realised you had not been paid your expenses, and called to ask why they would check and give you a different reason why. My favourite from the last 11 years was:

"You claimed 150 bd"

"Yes that's what my Manager approved, 30 x 5 bd gifts for my delegates"

"But you can only claim 50 bd "

"But I spent 150"

"so do 3 claims for 50 bd "

"Why ? ( I was new then and challenged stupidity)

"To prevent fraud"

Finally it would be approved , and you would print the form, attach the receipts, sign it, get a company car, drive to the Royal Women's University, and leave it on someones desk.

Once the Queen of expenses herself was there and asked what I was doing. I told her I was doing what it said on the form. She replied:

"Oh ,sorry, we should have updated the form year's ago , we don't keep receipts any more"

Luckily I remembered the words of Guru Gregory:

  

" It's the system Neil, not the people, that is wrong. "

Several informal reprimands and letters of concern about violence and badly worded emails reminded me to walk away and not hit her.

Then there's the old saying:

"Change the people or change the people"

In Bapco they wont change the people, they just move them to another department, unless of course they are expats who are expendable.

So when too many people take advantage of a particular benefit they change it.

Recent examples include changing the notice period to 3 months  from 6, taking away the indemnity interest ( huge sums of money paid when a 36 yr contract of a loyal expat is not renewed) and the procedure for claiming Professional membership ( 216 gbp or 108 bd a year for the CIPD)

I submitted the e form

It was rejected- not approved by Manager

I emailed my boss- submit it again

I submit it again

It was rejected, by HR

I email my contact in HR.

"Oh yes, sorry about that, we changed the system"

"Did you tell anyone you had changed the system, the notice period, or the interest on indemnity payments?"

"No"

"What is the new system?"

"You get your manager to email you approval, print it, scan it, and attach to the form and resubmit. If you do it today I will ensure its paid at the end of this month"

Case proven. Lovely person, Lousy system.

I email my boss copying her Suhaylah email and saying what I need and get a snotty reply:

"Neil,

 

I know from experience (and for much greater sums) that attaching an email with approval does not work as the expenses claim still gets routed to the Manager and without his approval does not progress anywhere.

 

Tell me once you have resubmitted it and I will try again to get it approved.

 

He does get hundreds of such notifications a day, but I know it is annoying.

 

Regards

 

Maureen"

I forward this to Suhaylah who replied:

"Good afternoon Neil,

 

The expense report doesn’t get routed to Manager L&D, therefore an email of his approval is required to be attached to your expense report.

 

Best wishes,

Suhaylah."

Like I said , lovely person, lousy system

3 attempts, 20 emails, and much frustration ( and the money being taken from my UK account on 1st July causing it to go overdrawn and incur interest charges as Bapco still have not reimbursed me ) .

Finally I get the approval email from the Manager, print it at home ( my ink), take it to work, scan it, fill in the online form for the third time, and email Suhaylah to process it and Maureen, and, Inshallah ( the third Arabic word I learnt meaning "God Willing" I will get the money back at the end of July.

Peter had a theory that the systems were designed this way on purpose to save Bapco money. He argued that eventually people would get so fed up trying to claim back what they were owed due to unclear instructions, constantly changing rules, people delaying the approval process and so on that eventually they would just give up! NOT ME!!

On my Time management courses I used to do an exercise where we calculated the hourly cost of each person involved in such a problem ( me , Maureen, Mohammed, Suhaylah) and work out how much time was taken all because HR did not tell anyone they had changed the system.

Talking of lousy systems , due to a security flaw, I can print any employee's learning history, with their pay grade on , so maybe I will do this exercise when I have more time. They have removed the report now but I already printed all the ones for L and D before I left to fact check some gossip that all the new people who joined our team were on the same grade as me

Nice people, Lousy system- my informant was correct, they were!

I could go on forever. Like when my CPR expired while I was on vacation. I went to send some money to the Philippines and BFC asked for another ID and then said my Driving license was about to expire too. The joys of having survived 10 years in Bahrain, everything expired at the same time. I was on vacation and emailed Maureen to ask who to contact. She gave me a name and being on vacation and not on the work email I had to email back from Gmail to ask for their email, and then email them to say

"I am on vacation, My CPR and Driving licensee expired, what do I do"

Thanks to Evan for this picture of me in my Pajamas

They replied to my work email saying send a photo and a copy of your CPR . Two weeks later when I return to work and get the email I do as asked. Then I get another email from someone else- we need a copy of your electricity bill and from someone else to say the photo isn't suitable , send another. I say it was okay for a visa for Oman but they insist, get another one taken. By now its just after Eid and I am on vacation again so I go to work again and get Evan to take a photo and send it with my electricity bill. Then they email to ask for my mobile number and I say I don't have one .A week later no CPR and no valid driving license so I write to chase HR- ""Where is my CPR and Driving license, its been 2 months since I asked you to renew them? "

Accepted by Oman for my e visa but not by Bapco HR for my CPR

They email to say they have sent it to me and I go to work and search everywhere and eventually go to the post office to find it sitting in my PO box. Well the CPR, but no driving license.

I email again , where's the driving license

We don't deal with Driving licenses

Who does?

Security

I email my old friend in Security , Ewan , and he tells me its a relatively simple e form ( That's like Jumbo shrimp, or third grade drop out or Fun run, there are NO easy e forms in Bapco)

I go to the office ( system error, you cant access any of the forms from home where 50% of us were working due to COV 19) and fill in the form and wait. When I chase it a few months later I find out...... wait for it...... its not been approved by my Manager! I write to Maureen who tells me :

"I reminded him – twice! And printed out the request track and gave it to him.

 

But if you haven’t received confirmation, my guess is no.

 

Did your professional expenses get approved as I gave him the print out of that at the same time?"

Eventually its approved and I get an invite to attend an on line Defensive Driving course and then on 18 June , a month after the old license expired , I get an email to say:

"'Dear Neil Anthony Porter

Your Driving License Request is approved.

Please keep the copy of the attached approved request.

Please submit the Expense Report E-Form for Driving License Fee Reimbursement

Bapco E-Forms"

So I write to ask where the driving license is but get no reply. A month later still no license so I write to Ewan:

"Hi Ewan

Do you remember when I wrote to asking how to get my driving license renewed in April and you said it was an easy on line process!

I filled in the form, had it approved by my Manager, attended the on line defensive driver course and got the email below, but still no license

I have now been driving without a valid driving license for nearly two months and it is now 3 months since I first asked how to get it renewed from HR. 

Please help

Thanks

Neil"

and got this reply:

Neil,

It has been approved, so all you had to do is get it replaced at the traffic directory, this system is about getting paid for the licenses not collecting it for people..

Ewan

 

Ewan Reekie Superintendent Training & Administration Security
	Tel: +973 1775 5191 | Mob: +973 39473714 Fax: +973 1775 5499 | Email: ewan_reekie@bapco.net Bahrain Petroleum Company B.S.C. (Closed) P.O. Box 25555, Awali, Kingdom of Bahrain

“Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution”

That , ladies and gentlemen, was the straw that broke the camels back.

If 3 months ago, when I wrote to Maureen and said I need to renew my driving license she had said:

1. Write to x in HR attaching a copy of your CPR, mobile number, passport photo and electricity bill and

2, Go to the traffic directorate, get a new license and receipt and then fill in the eform to get the approval to claim the license fee and another e form to claim the money back

I would have had a new CPR and driving license in 1 week instead of 3 months

HR Transformation , my ass!

The new Bapco, dream on

Sorry Peter, you were right back in 2010- I became like you, I lost the will to live and handed in my notice.

Things in Bapco will never change until you change the people AND change the systems.

Guru Gregory, in Bapco its not just crap systems but crap people , and don't just take it from me,  I had 11 people make a present on "Motivation" yesterday and they all gave as a barrier to working in Bapco :

"Withholding information"

No one tells anyone anything

Peter had a theory about that too- if they told us what we were entitled to , we would take it, and they would not have as much

He was right on that too!

If you want to change the shared values and Trust and empower people you have to create Eforms without physical paperclips, change the staff to those who share information and process Eforms quickly, Then you give people the skills to process an Eform without having to have 3 people print it off and show them what to do. Next you change the style of the business from shway shway, and reactive , to proactive. 

But as we know from bedtime tales with JJ the journey from Re to Pro is long and hazardous and many ( expats) will fall along the way.

My thanks to Phil, Peter Conway and McKinsey for explaining it all to me , and if you are studying this on an Open University programme with Professor Conway- yes it really all happened in Bapco!