…the Group’s leadership is working very hard to promote open and honest communication within Shell, as well as with our external stakeholders. We genuinely do welcome all comments, positive and negative. We also believe that employees must be able to speak out without fear of rebuke or retribution.
John Hofmeister
By John Donovan
I have printed below a posting made in June 1999 by John Hofmeister on the “Tell Shell” forum for lively and open debate on the Internet.
Hofmeister at that time was Shell Director of Human Resources. He later became President of Shell Oil Company and is now happily retired from Shell.
The “Tell Shell” forum, buried within shell.com, was later suspended then closed down when the debate got rather more lively and open than Shell had anticipated and Shell no longer wanted to hear what employees and external stakeholders had to say.