controller

project manager

analyst

engineer

pipeline engineer

Kinder Morgan

When interviewed, I never over sold my skillset. I am a Lawson admin that was willing to learn and support new applications. Instead of being given any Lawson tasks, I was placed on a very stressful and unsuccessful Kronos project as well as supporting their current time keeping software, HBS. These are 2 apps that I've never touched. I was tasked to install 2 patches in Kronos Dev and given directions to do so. I followed the directions not realizing that when I installed the 2nd patch that it uninstalled the first one. Honest mistake not fully understanding the Kronos management console. I got raked across the coals for that. Not taking into consideration that I've never done this before!

Supporting HBS was horrible. I was asked to support an application that NO ONE ON THE TEAM KNEW HOW TO SUPPORT. The original guy left. His documentation was on a shared drive that belonged to the payroll team. I asked for access to that location and was approved by payroll but denied by MY BOSS! He told me I had to go through a team member to access any documentation. First I don't know what's out there so how do I ask for a document. Then I asked that guy to copy everything from that location to a location that I can get to. Did that every happen, of course not! That's even after asking several times! But it was my fault when requests were not completed on time. Why not just give this app to the guy that has the access. I couldn't get approved for odbc connections to databases for hbs support and an Access DB that had all types of stuff going on with it.  

So I got fired for not being able to deliver on my tasks. I relocated to Houston for this job and was fired within 2 months. That dude is crazy! No one on the team believes in him and he clearly has no clue about any of the applications the team supports. So much more went on with this team...

I may sound salty about the firing and of course who is going to give a good review after being released. There are some good things about the company... well the team I worked on had a few good souls on it. We genuinely tried to help each other out to the best of our ability. That manager needs to go!

This company is top loaded, if you look at the job opportunities, always top heavy with supervisory personnel, upper and middle management saps the energy from this company. Even today they have a "compensation director' listed for employment, they have no clue what to pay their employees??? That it sad when you cannot survey the industry without some high salaried director to lead it. These upper management people sap the bonuses, taking all the monies dedicated for bonuses for themselves.
The common employee gets no merit raises, thus no reason to excel. The bonus plan is based against the employee. sick leave is not allowed, no one can die either without the bonus being impacted, the bonus is based upon the entire company not the segments that perform with excellence thus certain poor performing segments can drag down bonuses.
Nepotism while not allowed but is condoned, thus promotions are given to certain employees on the basis of who they are related too; this goes back to the old United Gas days.
The NGPL segment runs the company, and slowly but surely drives out employees from bought out and merged Companies like Tejas, GATX, EP, and now Compano. The NGPL segment drags this corporation down.
There is no job security at all, do not expect to retire if you are part of an acquisition, 30+ year employees are not safe from being laid off! Your ideas are never welcome.
Rich Kinder claims a 'safety record second to none' WRONG, this is a misnomer, if you stop any job on the basis of a safety issue, your going find life miserable, any grievance is considered a threat to the company, you will be gone in due course.
If you just want a temp job, not a career, then this is the JOB for you, do not expect a future.
One other thing, KM has a SECRET ANTI-UNION POLICY, if you are part of a union, engage in trying to form a union, KM will hang you out to dry, any way possible.

Natural gas processing plant, lots to learn, but you are on your own as far as learning all the processes, whether out in the plant or on the control board. There is no organized training, no taking operators out in the plant to show them how things run, or how different equipment plays into the process. 
        Those who want to try to learn can teach themselves some things, and ask questions, but this is a very dangerous way to run a gas plant and has lent itself to a trend of near-misses over the past several years-some involving equipment problems or spills and releases, and some involving personal injury.  
       
  About two months ago, there was a fire that caused injury to an employee. This was caused by the employee. The plant had to be shut down, and an OSHA inspector came to investigate. Kinder kept the plant closed for another 3-4 days for their own investigation.        
      This plant is a Process Safety Management facility and has focused on  training its employees on how to follow those rules, and complete the required paperwork when necessary. The management here,however has tried to use PSM and the paperwork to replace the training that they lack. There are still plant operators who have been here 2-3 years who do not know the hazards of each vessel, chemicals that may be present, or how key systems or processes in the plant work.
          It would make sense that the company would start spending some time training its operators, for obvious safety reasons.
       On the up side, the 8/6 schedule was very good- you can go almost anywhere on your days off without taking vacation days.
The insurance and other benefits were excellent also.
        But your lack of training and/or job knowledge could lead to the next incident, and you could get seriously hurt or maybe be their fall guy when the system fails again.

They have a sytem called "Do the Right Thing Everday". Which is a joke. The company doesnt even abide by there own "Six Core Principles. They have these in place for there benefit only. They use these core principles against you so they are not at fault. If something goes wrong or someone is injured they munipulate anything and everything so they are not at fault. I had the HR department say to me, "We are here for your protection and to protect the employees". I ask them do I pay you or does the company. They had no response. Management in the company is not qualified for the postions they are in. If you are smarter or have any brains they will try to get rid of you. They have a huge legal team in place. When I say huge I mean HUGE! A Co-Worker was injured on the job a few months back. As a witness, it was not his fault. They took the situation and have tried to turn it against him just because he got legal advice about his situation. Everything was fine untill he seaked legal advice. Management has tried and is still trying everything they can to fire him. They have even asked employees to watch him so they can write him up. I had a senior manager tell me, "He p*ssed them off when he got a lawyer, They are going to fire him any way they can". The company has a safety bonus program. They put money on walmart cards every three months, now its a chase prepaid card. At the end of the year, on the last pay check they took out taxes for the whole year. It ended up making some people only have a $54 check the week after Christmas. All in all this company is not here for there employees. They are in it for there benefit only. I have been an employee for 7 years and am currently an employee but seeking opportunities else where.

The company pays decent but if you look up and down the street I think you will find they predominantly under pay. The upper management at this company are in my opinion, ineffective leaders. You will be asked to work extremely long hours so be ready for sacrifice.My own experience is I was faced with the worst of the worst when it comes to corporate yes men who spent more time covering for each other than productive management. Worse yet they are controlled by a team of reactionary Directors who manage solely from a place of fear. A healthy work environment is extremely important anywhere. Lets face it in O&G or a huge Midstream, safety is paramount and the people who drive safety are supposed to be about changing/maintaining a culture that fosters an ever safe effective workplace where everyone has respect for the job and coming home in one piece. Horrifically this outfit from my experience is more about punish and fire anyone who even appears to be having a problem vs. mentoring and correcting behavior. I saw this happen time and time again. My upper management did not council or document the issues, they just replaced people with no warning. Think about it for a moment, how do you grow a person into a safe operator if they are so scared they hide everything? I observed that he management is scared of themselves as well. In summary my honest assessment is that the above is the general operating culture at Kinder Morgan. I hope you find this helpful I was very excited when I came there but after all that I observed, I would not recommend this company to anyone.

Start of my shift (1400-2200) i write down all the plant operating orders (poo) and then i go check out the entire field to see where all the pipelines are relieving. As i do my relief check i will switch where lines are relieving depending on the non going orders i have to set up. 
I am always with a partner, bouncing ideas off each other, communication is very important. we may split up as there are many items to check, but then we go and double check what each other did. My coworkers vary in ages but i can work with any of them including the ones that may not be quite up to par, in that case i just stay on my toes for sure.
As for management, my immediate supervisors stay the same for the most part because they need to know the line systems as well as i do since they will be issuing the POOs. As for upper management they really have no clue how the job is done, they are in place to cut costs and find what they feel is a more efficient system of completing tasks. Upper management usually changes every 3 years or so.
The hardest part of the job is staying "in the game" mentally. I could be doing transfers out of the same 4 or 5 tanks into several other tanks back to back. I need to remember where each line is relieving and make sure i close it on whatever tanks have completed so i can use it elsewhere. It may sound simple but when its busy it is tough.

The best part of the day is when all the work is done without any mistakes.

This will be a straight up review, no disgruntled ex employee in his feelings but the actual deal, there is absolutely no work/life balance here, no set schedule expect to work weekends and holidays regularly and you won't know what days you'll be working in advance from week to week because the schedule changes without warning.  The management could care less what you have going on in your life or what event you'll miss as long as his numbers look good. You can expect to work short handed in the summer heat to the snowy winter without as much as a thank you, and the paperwork alone is enough to kill you. The terminal and all of the equipment is falling apart and or broken with no plans to fix anything in the foreseeable future and last but not least the job is physically hard, you'll come in with perfect health and after a year you'll feel like a old man, something that is never acknowledged by the management or reflected in the pay. To be clear this terminal is the lowest paying terminal of all of the terminals that surrounds us and we do 100 times the physical work as the others. In closing i will tell you  that this location is physically located between a sewage treatment plant and the city dump and depending on which way the wind is blowing you are guaranteed to have a smelly bad day especially in the summer. 

Teammates quickly learn to stick together, as they quickly learn upper management is not friend, but foe.  The management appears to put safety first, but that is far from the reality.  One need only look at their safety record, to include several deaths.  Upper management takes no accountability for incidents, rather they punish local management.  Yet, they provide no support when it's pleaded for.  Additionally, it seems these upper managers are selected for who they are, thus, not the best qualified.  The means by which these managers address concerns with you is to persecute first and maybe they will ask questions later. The field employees work extensive hours as there's constant struggle to maintain their workforce.  The pay is below average, there's no merit increases and bonuses are very lacking.  If one is seeking to be merely a puppet, with no desire for growth or improvement, this will do.  Talented driven leaders will leave.  KM should ask themselves what happens when they experience an exodus of their current long term upper management and the new ones are at a lost due to fostering an all inclusive workforce.  The upcoming Millenial workforce will not thrive here & will leave.  If KM does not truly change it's culture, it will be it's own demise.

This is a company I loved working for. They are a very family oriented group, and treated everyone with respect and as if they were members of a very large family. 
    The management group was very involved in the safety culture, participating in the safety work groups and safety meetings.  They were excellent in talking with the employees, to see how we were doing, if we needed anything, how are families were doing.  
   They were constantly reviewing or processes, and looking for ways to improve the way we do business, including the use of new equipment, making sure they we all received the training required to better ourselves, and thus improving the company value.
    As a self starter, I appreciated that they left me to do my work as soon as I was able to demonstrate to their satisfaction that I was capable of doing the work.  They trusted my judgement on repairs, even coming to the point where I was able to perform as an independent when needed or as a member of a team when we had large projects to get accomplished.  They constantly asked for input of all members of our group , and make sure we know that at any time we can stop a job if we feel there is any type of safety issue.

A typical day at the field office starts at 6 am.  I am there to gather reports from the inspectors from their previous work day and begin compiling the Chief Inspector Daily Report.  During the day I am given the packing slips for the materials that arrived.  After verifying the materials did arrive I send a copy of the packing slips to the main office so that payment processing on the material can take place.  I put the materials received on the Bill of Materials and if it is pipe, I also add to the Pipe Tally.  These are crucial closeout documents that tie all the material together so that auditors can see that the pipeline is complying with industry and government standards.  This is also a way to explain the costs involved.  I enjoy working, traveling and meeting new people. I have learned a lot and although I know I've still got a lot to learn, I am eager and up for the challenge. I have never worked with a group of people that I did not like or could not get along with.  These people are like me, trying to make a living.  The hardest part of my job is pulling out of the driveway leaving home going to the job, and the second hardest part is at the end where I'm parting company never knowing whether I will ever see these people again.  It's all good.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Controller 5 salaries reported	$96,600 per year
Project manager 5 salaries reported	$137,000 per year
Analyst 3 salaries reported	$92,000 per year
Engineer 8 salaries reported	$115,219 per year
Pipeline engineer 3 salaries reported	$119,667 per year

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