transport driver

engineer

accountant

truck driver

project engineer

Marathon Petroleum

Typical Day At Work

A typical day of work would begin with a routine check of e-mail and planning of tasks to be accomplished. I would then check in with my peer mentor/supervisor for an impromptu meeting covering the various projects I was currently working on and how best to approach them. I would spend the remainder of the morning working on a medium-priority project until lunch. After lunch I would resume work on a high-priority project if available or multiple low-to-medium priority projects otherwise. My afternoons would often be spent meeting with colleagues outlining necessary project specifications. At the end of the day I would send e-mails reporting project status to involved parties. Occasionally the co-ops in my department would go on production facility tours.

What I Learned

Beyond rigorous technical experience, I learned invaluable "soft skills" such as effective listening, communication, and presentation. At the end of my term, I was required to give a presentation covering my accomplishments and business value to upper-level management staff, among them the CEO of the company.

I gained technical experience in database programming, scheduled programming, Excel optimization, chemical process simulation software, and Honeywell sensor and reporting technologies.

Co-Workers

Marathon employs some of the most exemplary technical and non-technical staff in the world. Should you encounter any difficulties on the job, they will be sure to help you to the best of their considerable abilities. The co-workers share a strong bond and we would often celebrate welcoming new employees and the happy departure of leaving employees by eating together at local restaurants.

The Hardest Part of the Job

Your experience may differ from my own. I found the most difficult part of the job to be sitting for long periods of time. My legs and lower back would hurt, but the Human Resources department is always open to suggestions for improving ergonomics. During my co-op, each of the temporary co-ops received brand new, fitted chairs to ensure proper posture and comfort.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job

Occasionally department engineers would take co-op workers to production facilities for tours. If you get the opportunity to go on one of these tours, do it! The refineries and terminals are amazingly complex and any IT/Computer/Mechanical/Electrical/Chemical/Civil Engineer will get a huge kick out of the intricate processes that occur on such a large scale with nearly perfect accuracy.

Poor management, very absent culture from the managers to all the employees that are organizationally "beneath them". The management doesn't listen to their employees concerns or suggestions. The company decided to cut the sick time for all employees during a pandemic from a very generous 4 weeks to only 7 days annually. The Managers now watch salary non exempt employees badge scans and run reports for where those employees are throughout the day, runs reports for how long you were on your computer doing work and responding to emails etc.. They now monitor all emails and microsoft teams messages and can use any communications against you. They question you daily on all badge scans with location enabled GPS and now make only salaried non exempt employees (not salary employees) take an unpaid lunch starting January 1, 2022. There is one sub shop by the refinery besides that there are no lunch or food places near by. The closest is 15 minute drive if you don't bring your own lunch. That is not their fault but with over 500 employees and just as many contractors Marathon should have food options available to workers like other Marathon locations have.  Working for Marathon used to be a career I loved and it was a very close knit company with family vibes, now you are just a number and another body taking up an office as an employee. Of course as in any Job you can always be replaced, but here it feels that way everyday and I and many of my other coworkers walk on eggshells every day I go in. Company morale has not bounced back since the 2020 15 percent of employees being fired. The Detroit Leadership Managers will do more for the community for the publicity and the opportunity for positive press, then they will do for their own employees They do nothing to bridge the gap between management and employees and they do nothing to fix the very low morale. I don't know what happened but this is not the same place I started working for years ago 😕

Make sure you are being hired into the refining business unit. The other business units are called Marathon but may actually be MPLX. A separate publicly traded company with its own COO and board. All of the high salaries, job security and budget go to the refining division. The terminals and especially transportation assets rare bought and sold constantly and there is no job security. They moved me 4 times in 3 years across country, which I was lucky because each time other colleagues weren’t so lucky and were let go. Eventually they adjusted the refining plan and they left me in the desert with my family and no job 1500 miles from home. At least they let me fishing the project after all the difficult technical work was complete before eliminating my position to save a few 0s on the balance sheet during the holidays. There is 0 accountability for support service divisions, safety, training, accounting, commercial development, scheduling, but make sure you don’t speak up about money being lost, or people out right not working, making you do their jobs plus yours. They are all located remote or at one of the three corporate headquarters and have political friends and so can get paid to do nothing. Operations better be able to turn on a dime to make up for their negligence and lack of work. If you speak up they don’t offer you to move the next time they sell or reorganize, which is every 6 months.  The retirement benefits are ok but you will need them to get back home when they lie to you in order to get you to move and then reorganize every 6 months and leave you and your family in the middle of no where. 

Marathon was our (Ashland's) merger "partner" in 1998.  Marathon's corporate success in those days was due in a large part to their company's foresight to also be an oil producer, not just a refiner as Ashland unfortunately had chosen to be.

Marathon's corporate philosophy of the 'refinery' portion of their company was totally different than Ashland's philosophy.  Marathon sought only commodity markets, nothing niche, nothing custom or special.  Bulk quantities of a very few products were all that were considered important.

A good portion of Marathon management looked with disdain at Ashland's people, expertise, and resources that knew or did anything novel, niche market, or unique.  Many former Ashland people left or retired as soon as they got the chance (or couldn't stomach their new Marathon supervisors' hubris any more.) A lot of former Ashland employees were barely tolerated as 'idiots'; apparently we couldn't possibly know anything of value since our company was considered the 'junior' partner and had been not nearly as monetarily successful as Marathon.  However, Marathon's monetary success was due to it's hugely successful oil production arm, not its refining arm.

If you feel like working under a microscope this is the place! Micromanagement is the actual  M in MPC. Constantly changing rules, guidelines and restrictions.  If it benefits the company, all policies guidelines and procedures are bypassed just to get the job done. 
But if in any way it does not benefit the company, you're going to get hammered. The management here literally gets excited to punish you by holding things over your head and practically bring you up on charges. 
The attendance policy is a joke and they will discipline you with no warning. Before you know what happened. 
You'll come into work on a very brutal schedule that is unforgiving and be told to "sign this" 
This being a document punishing you for God only knows what and to put you in some kind of disciplinary program or attendance program that you can never escape.
There are no cafeterias here or anywhere to grab food and I dare you to go to the gas station for a pop or sandwich.
 
Very hazardous environment!  
They claim safety to be their number one priority but I can assure you, it is not.
Everything we make here is made to burn! Literally burn and or explode. 
Ultimately I blame the management and micromanagement.
A lot of the managers here are dying to be promoted and the only way to get promoted here is by punishing and diminishing your employees and completely killing their morale.


Manager and supervision is picked from the buddy system of who knows who. This is not appropriate since our past 2  suppervisors and Manager know less than the college interns. This has lead to huge financial losses to non-IT desisions on multiple occations and the blame falls on the teams working 50+ hours a week to support these dumb desisions.

All Supervisory and Managment staff cares about is the check boxes they click end of year to get thier bonus. All credit for successes goes to the supervisor or manager. And all failures (due to managment desisions) gets cast on the IT team as punishment. 

They also do not care about your family or personal time and will exspect you to work even if on Leave or Vacation. They will also give you bad performance reviews if you take this time off. 

Promotion is only by favortism and who you know. They treat contractors like nobodys and highly punish employees for speaking out against bad desisions. A good manager or supervisor would listen to a team of engineers that have over 20years exspierence vs what you were sold on by IT sales or you seen on youtube
If managment cant pass the same tests your engineers have to take getting hired, your in the wrong field.

A typical day at work consists of trying to balance being a good worker with not allowing management to put you in a position to be a meat shield to keep themself from being fired.
I've learned that it's best to find a new job the second you realize management will overwork you.
Management is sad to be nice. Management only cares about saving face and not the company. Even to the point of trying to sell food that needs to be replaced.
Workplace culture isn't that good. Some team members spend more time socializing than working which results in unfinished work, food sometimes being left in the smoker and oven or on the stove which has burned. This also results in a few workers keeping the store from facing health code violations such as containers not being washed properly and building up bacteria.
The hardest part of the job is facing harassment from management should you decide to ignore them and fix issues that they've caused.
Most team member are nice and customers will sometimes compliment your good work.

It's an okay place to work if you don't mind the 12 hour rotating shift and have support from family at home. Otherwise, its a killer. A schedule is released every week so it is difficult to plan and have a life outside work if you don't have a bid to follow the DuPont schedule. I worked 70 hours 1 week and was scheduled to work 65 the next. Felt burned out as a result and asked to use a floating holiday to rest and recover but it was denied because I was on probation. It is not a place to work when fatigued because a minor lapse in concentration for 1 minute can mean the difference between life and death.  The company feels they own your life regardless. I called out sick once in six months 6 hours before the start of shift and was written up for unacceptable attendance despite never being late or absent otherwise. Lots of empty promises from people who don't practice what they preach. Nothing ever gets done if there isn't a return on investment involved. I wouldn't recommend my worst enemy apply for a job here. 

I worked at the Canton Refinery, then came a wave of layoffs, due to managements knee-jerk reaction to profit margin for that quarter. Findlay Management always controlled Canton Management, and you always had your manager and dotted line manager, then the District manager,  - like in Office Space if you messed up the TPS reports. Not only that but the union does not like to interact with the office workers and vice versa, HR was chaos with constant layoffs and interns to do mediocre gauge readings for corporate tax write offs. People got hurt, OSHA was there We shot a few hundred barrels of petro product into S.W. Canton's air , -then had EPA was here.... Pays well for Canton Ohio, mostly good times while it lasted, no loyalty unless you pay Union dues, all about the Benjamins especially if some guy in Findlay gets a wild hair ..and wants to show that their B.A. in Business Management was all for not move people around Canton refinery like chess pieces on monthly basis...........

The technical training and resources are excellent, with easy access to experts and company standards and policies.  The focus is truly on safety over production. The bonus plan and benefits are excellent.  The company tends to operate lean, meaning that there is a lot of work and opportunity to learn, though sometimes not much time to make good decisions.  The work life balance and personal recognition are not as good as other companies.  The demographic tends to be younger and they have laid off a lot of good experience over the years.  If you want to stay with the company for a long time, make sure you have a good career plan and establish a good network!  But always have a back up plan.  I was laid off during covid, though was told that a lay off was coming anyway.  This layoff was more humane than others.  HR was very helpful, but I wish I had gotten that attention while I worked there so I could identify how to stay on!!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Transport driver 14 salaries reported	$32.37 per hour
Engineer 8 salaries reported	$163,350 per year
Accountant 3 salaries reported	$79,667 per year
Truck driver 6 salaries reported	$30.31 per hour
Project engineer 9 salaries reported	$120,421 per year

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