THE OIL business isn’t about snakeskin boots, ten-gallon hats and family feuds, on this side of the Atlantic anyway — more’s the pity. Shell’s employees are soberly suited and booted and, as you’d expect from a company turning in record profits, they look for answers in spreadsheets not clandestine meetings in spa baths. In fact, if you’re looking for JR-style drama in the workplace, don’t apply to Shell.

The world’s third largest oil company is a “very civilised” place to work where everyone’s rather reasonable and grown-up, according to Lucy Slinger, the head of business analysis for Shell Group Reporting.

“Shell’s people are high-quality individuals who are respectful, hard working and driven to get results,” she says. “Shell is such a big company and lots of things it does are very complex. It’s a huge challenge for anyone with the capacity to take it on.”

The workload is certainly challenging. Shell supports and encourages its employees to pass professional exams to boost their skills, but it’s a juggling act to fit study time around long hours and travel.

Slinger completed her Chartered Institute of Management Accounts exams and has just completed a part-time masters degree in finance, supported by Shell. “It’s quite tough, but compared with my friends who work in the City, the workload is in a different league, with much shorter hours,” she says.

Paul Clayton, the recruitment manager for Shell in the UK, Ireland and southern Europe, says that the company is aware of the pressure it puts on employees. “I agree that Shell treats its employees like grown-ups, but that doesn’t mean you are left to your own devices,” he says.

Every new face sits down to discuss and agree business, professional and training targets on Day 1. Mentoring is common practice.

There are also generous rewards for meeting those targets, as Slinger says: “It’s a meritocracy which recognises that people will do a good job. If someone has to leave early one day, no one bats an eyelid. It’s a reasonable company — working hard buys you goodwill and flexibility.”

Working hard will also buy you Air Miles and duty-free goodies. Slinger has been to Chile, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands for work. “I spent so much time in Madrid that I bought my wedding dress there because I could make the fittings, even though I was usually back here for weekends,” she says.

Slinger lists Shell’s international business as a “significant” factor in her decision to stay with the company for the past six and a half years.

You don’t have to leave the office to grasp that Shell is international. Slinger manages a team of seven people and no two share the same nationality. Surprisingly perhaps, Shell relies on conversations over lunch and away-day bonding sessions rather than structured cultural intelligence courses to achieve effective cross-cultural communication.

“It’s one of the key skills but there is no specific law on how it should be done,” Clayton says. “You just start talking to people and discover that you have lots in common upon which you can develop a relationship. On a personal level, it’s a fantastic environment.”

DATA FILE

» Royal Dutch/Shell, the global petrochemical and energy group, operates in more than 145 countries and employs 119,000 people.

» Last year the Royal Dutch/Shell Group made more than £300 a second with record profits of £9.82 billion due largely to the high price of crude oil.

» On Shell and the environment, a spokesperson for Greenpeace says: “There are no angels in the oil business and Shell is far from perfect . . . but they don’t actively lobby against agreements like Kyoto.”

» The Tell Shell forum on www.shell.com posts both positive and negative views of Shell’s business activities.

» Shell is named after the small London shop where Marcus Samuel, the company’s founder, started out selling sea shells to gentleman enthusiasts in 1833. Samuel’s son and heir to the import/export business began exporting oil for cooking and lamps to the Far East, commissioning his first oil tanker in 1892. Shell merged with its rival, Royal Dutch, in 1907.

» Lord Oxburgh, the non-executive chairman of Shell UK, is the chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee and gave this year’s Greenpeace Business Lecture. The event was targeted by Greenwash Guerrillas protesting against “toxic levels” of corporate social responsibility.

» Jobs are advertised at www.shell.com/careers

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO