Fabien's Story
Working in the fossil fuel industry
My career in the fossil fuels industry almost never started because of my concerns over its environmental impact. I was first approached for a role within BP by a headhunter in 2010, shortly after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Despite the attractive prospect of professional advancement, the thought of being part of, or associated with, an organisation having caused so much harm and acted unethically was too much for me to consider. Nevertheless, time and career prospects did their work as a year later I accepted to go for an interview, and, having met brilliant people in the process, started my career with BP shortly after.
During my time, I worked in several areas of HR. First, I supported expatriates in the Downstream sector as a manager in the Global Mobility team. Later, I provided HR business partnering to central functions globally. All of this kept me suitably distanced from the end product, yet familiar and connected with Head Office dynamics. I experienced some memorable times, supporting the evacuation of expats out of Egypt and the crisis centre following the attack on one of the sites in Algeria, witnessing first-hand the resources we could mobilise to support our people
When I realised it was time to leave
I managed to juggle with the demands of my global role for a few years. However, the ever-increasing demands of the role and pressures to deliver took their toll as I ended up experiencing burnout and being signed off for a couple of months in late 2017. This was a pivotal moment, as taking the time to acknowledge and heal from the physical and mental impact of what my working conditions had become (some of which, it should be said, were self-inflicted to try my best to deliver to the level I thought I needed to), meant that there was no returning to the way I had worked before. It also enabled me to see some of the aspects of the working culture which I had come to live with, particularly some harmful leadership behaviours which remained unchallenged because the same leaders drove either efficiency or revenue.
Perhaps inevitably, having adopted a position of outsider after my return to work, I left in 2018. I had started searching for a new role, and my experience led me to re-evaluate my ambitions and priorities. I was offered a role nearer home, with more local accountabilities, effectively a step sideways or even backwards from a career perspective, yet one which would enable me to put a better emphasis on my wellbeing alongside my work.
The irony of it is that a few years in a different industry might have brought me a much better balance and ability to care for myself, but also ethical challenges of a different nature. Ultimately, I re-engaged with the world of academia for further studies and decided to take my corporate experiences, the good and the bad, towards a new career.
What are you doing today?
My experiences of moral dissonance and unrest led me to choose this topic for the research I conducted as part of my PhD which started in 2022. Having since then closely followed BP’s new strategy and green ambitions and their mixed success, I decided to look back at the fossil fuels industry and investigate the existence of moral dilemma for employees in the industry, in the context of the increasingly loud alarms being sounded about climate change, and the leading impact of fossil fuels.
My research has been truly fascinating. In it, I identified the presence of moral reasoning mechanisms whereby employees in the industry made sense of their involvement and constructed justifications, but also the moral ambitions for alternative futures which came through, and how these were being shaped. A wide spectrum of positions emerged, from employees championing their organisation’s discourse of “cautious” energy transition and trust in technological advancements, to acute moral distress and concern over the legacy people were leaving behind for their children and generations to come.
My research also led me to study the fascinating stories of “conscious quitters”, people who left the industry and engaged in climate activism or lobbying. From these stories, I conceptualised the idea of a “space in-between”, straddling the boundary, normally quite set, between the fossil fuels industry and climate activism, and based on relational care, self-reflection, knowledge building and moral ambitions. I now aim to continue this work and help people engage more actively with the moral and ethical aspect of their professional activities, and shaping of possible alternatives.
Parting reflections
Looking back at my experience when I introduce myself lately, I often jokingly say that I have moved towards academia to redeem myself from my professional past. But it really is only half a joke. The path towards which the “oil giants” are headed takes away what I would have considered to be positive contributions I made in the past.
Embarking on a career transition is daunting; heading towards an unknown professional future takes a lot of personal energy and resources. What made a difference to me was to get to know a few people who helped me envisage what this new career could look like, shared their own path, challenges they faced, and rewards they found in it.
It takes time, planning, support, and resilience to make a significant change, but what it takes above all is one first step, and to create space for reflection, connection, and discussion.