Plastics & Beyond

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Jon Ratzlaff
Welcome to the Plastics and Beyond Podcast, an SPE-sponsored podcast supporting a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce. I'm your host, Lilian Judy, and I invite you to join me every month for new, diverse conversations.

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Lilian Judy
Welcome to the Plastics and Beyond Podcast. My name is Lilian Judy and I'm your host and we're here live at ANTEC® 2022. And I'm really excited to speak with this guest of mine because he's a former president of SPE. And I'm just going to have him introduce himself. So welcome, John. Tell me a bit about yourself. Tell me your name.

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Lilian Judy
Tell me your background.

00;00;45;25 - 00;00;47;21
Lilian Judy
And tell us everything about yourself.

00;00;47;21 - 00;01;05;16
Jon Ratzlaff
My name is John Ratzlaff. I'm a technical manager for Chevron Phillips. And as you said, I'm a past president of SPE, served on the board for seven years, also involved in all kinds of committees, serves as chair for the Oklahoma section. I served as chair for the Rotational Molding Division, also on the Injection Molding Division.

00;01;05;16 - 00;01;22;18
Jon Ratzlaff
So I spent a lot of time in SPE. It’s given me a lot of reward back in my career, both in working with people and networking, and also learning all this technology in our industry. I also sit on the board for the Plastics Industry Association, and I sit on some other boards in the industry just to help to know our industry, how things are working.

00;01;23;00 - 00;01;29;17
Jon Ratzlaff
How I can better support my customers, and I've been doing it for about thirty-six years now, I’ve been with Chevron Phillips, 33 years.

00;01;30;02 - 00;01;34;15
Lilian Judy
So I just want to highlight how much experience you have, and I think that's so aspirational.

00;01;34;24 - 00;02;03;24
Lilian Judy
And as a millennial, I know that we are really hopping around in the industry, and this is a conversation that has been happening a lot recently. What are your thoughts? Because I know that most of the older generation stay in companies for 20, 30 years plus, and millennials tend to stay in companies like three years, two years, and we want to move on to the next. So what are your thoughts about that? And like having worked in the industry for so long?

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Lilian Judy
What have you recognized?

00;02;05;02 - 00;02;18;28
Jon Ratzlaff
Well, you know, that's a very interesting point. You know, one of the things that we were talking about earlier was about diversity. And the first thing is speaking about millennials. Yes, there's a lot of millennials that do hop around every three, five years. That's true. But let's also not try to put everyone in a box.

00;02;18;28 - 00;02;34;19
Jon Ratzlaff
I know some millennials that really want to pursue a career of ten years, 15 years. But I think that one thing is really key in all of that, is basically understanding who you are. When you first step out in the industry, you need to know, am I an introvert? Am I an extrovert? Do I enjoy working with people?

00;02;34;19 - 00;03;09;21
Jon Ratzlaff
Do I enjoy working with technology or are you a mix? Right? And if you're trying to find that place where you best fit in and moving around, power to you. But if you do find a job that really fits you, you find that job where it fits your personality, and you like the company of who they are and what they're doing, then stick around. Now, you may get a tendency, if you're always hopping around, that you are not willing to put up with some of the tough things in a job. And you need to be willing to have the diligence and the persistence because it's not always going to be sweet.

00;03;09;21 - 00;03;09;28
Lilian Judy
Yeah.

00;03;09;28 - 00;03;35;10
Jon Ratzlaff
You may have economic changes like we're having now, some challenges. And hopping around will not develop the persistence and the diligence that you may need to carry on your career. But I think we need to be careful about not being critical of people who are trying to find their place, but I also would challenge the millennials that are used today just like everyone, everyone else is who is starting, to figure out who you are as a person, know what you want, and then discover the job that best fits you.

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Lilian Judy
Yeah.

00;03;35;22 - 00;03;45;13
Jon Ratzlaff
Because as we were talking, when you find a place you really like, you aren’t really seeing working the rest of your life. Yes, you're making an income, but you're enjoying what you're doing right.

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Lilian Judy
Okay.

00;03;45;24 - 00;04;07;29
Jon Ratzlaff
And I was blessed with that. I found a place with Chevron Phillips, formerly Phillips 66, but they in their move to Chevron Phillips, I found the place that married both working with people, but also working with technology and required both the personality and understanding people and understanding who they are and what a company wants, what a person in their company is looking for.

00;04;08;12 - 00;04;22;09
Jon Ratzlaff
But they're not understanding the technology that Chevron Phillips has. And how can I marry the technology that we have in the products that we have, to what the customer wants? So it was a good marriage. So I found a happy home, and that's why you'll find me there for 33 years now and ongoing.

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Lilian Judy
Well, thank you for that advice, because I feel like you're really talking to me as a millennial, but you're in a managerial position. You hire people. So what do you look for? And I guess in talent.

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Jon Ratzlaff
Well, it’s a funny thing you should say that because I just hired two people, offered jobs to two people about 30 days ago. And my first one just started Monday.

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Lilian Judy
Oh, nice.

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Jon Ratzlaff
And then I gave them a computer. I gave some assignments and I'll see you Friday because I came to the SPE ANTEC.

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Lilian Judy
Yeah.

00;04;52;02 - 00;04;55;22
Jon Ratzlaff
But what I like about most is first of all, do they have the experience and the technology?

00;04;55;22 - 00;05;18;10
Jon Ratzlaff
Because I am in technical services and application development, and they first of all, have to have in the field that we're looking for. Right. But one of the most recent hires that we offered a job to is a millennial, a young man about four years out of college. But one of the things I appreciated most was is he spoke to me immediately in his interview saying, I'm an introvert, and this is what I enjoy.

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Lilian Judy
Okay.

00;05;18;24 - 00;05;37;04
Jon Ratzlaff
And when he was wise enough to tell me who he was as an individual, gave me a lot of confidence that when a young person knows who they are and they're looking for jobs that best fit them. And that gave me a lot of confidence about hiring the young man. Right, because he had both the technical skills, but he also had the idea of what he wants to do.

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Jon Ratzlaff
And I want to make sure my employees are enjoying what they're doing. And I think we found a really good fit. So I guess to get to your point on, in my field, what I'm looking for, I'm looking for people who know who they are and what they want, right?

00;05;52;21 - 00;06;08;27
Jon Ratzlaff
But it doesn't mean you have to be an extrovert or introvert. Neither one of those are considered negative qualities. People may give them a negative connotation based on who they are, but if you really take the right personality and put them in the right jobs, those people can flourish. They can do magnificent jobs. Fantastic.

00;06;08;29 - 00;06;10;28
Lilian Judy
So I'm hearing a lot about transparency.

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Jon Ratzlaff
Oh, absolutely.

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Lilian Judy
And vulnerability. Okay.

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Jon Ratzlaff
Yeah.

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Lilian Judy
And for me personally, when I'm looking to work in a company, I try to have a conversation with them, try to get a sense of whether we have the same values. So I think these are a lot of key things that you mentioned, but you're also a past president and you’ve had a lot of experience working with SPE and other organizations.

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Lilian Judy
What do you think in such, in those positions? What do you think are key things that you need to be doing in order to promote or support diversity in the plastics industry? Because I feel like you have a lot of weight on your shoulders, just being at those high positions.

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Jon Ratzlaff
That is true. You know, it's an interesting question because a lot of people go, well, you need to get more diversity into your particular application. First of all, I would say Chevron Phillips is an amazing company. I really enjoy their values. They put a lot of emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.

00;07;04;02 - 00;07;04;07
Lilian Judy
OK.

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Jon Ratzlaff
I think Forbes voted us in the top third of large companies in the United States for an employer.

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Jon Ratzlaff
We were recently a number one, voted, number one in our chemical petrochemical industry. And we were I think just recently we were voted number one in Texas, where our headquarters are at. They put a lot of emphasis on the value of people and diversity. However, we have to also be careful that sometimes when as in my case, you put out a job application right?

00;07;30;14 - 00;07;36;21
Jon Ratzlaff
You put out a job, a job post, but you only get a certain demographics that apply.

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Lilian Judy
True.

00;07;37;02 - 00;07;50;01
Jon Ratzlaff
And then the demographics are not diverse. Well, I can't change that. Now I have to choose within what I have. I can't wait for four years to find someone. I have to choose with what I've been given and what I can choose from.

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Jon Ratzlaff
But, we don't stop there.

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Lilian Judy
Okay.

00;07;54;08 - 00;07;59;11
Jon Ratzlaff
Right? So where do we get more diversity? Now we've got to start into the schools.

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Lilian Judy
Yep. That's what I’ve been saying.

00;08;00;23 - 00;08;17;13
Jon Ratzlaff
We’ve got to start in schools. We have to start encouraging people of different diversities, people of different races, women, men. We all have to start promoting more science and math, at least in our industry. We need to have that and we promote that and give them the confidence to go into that.

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Jon Ratzlaff
So when the job posting comes out, we have a more diverse group of people applying for it. Right. We have got to start earlier.

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Lilian Judy
Yep.

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Jon Ratzlaff
Yeah.

00;08;26;11 - 00;08;55;03
Lilian Judy
Definitely. But as a woman in the STEM field or as a woman in the plastics industry, yes, it's easy to get in, but to stay in, we're seeing a lot more women leaving engineering as a whole. And I mean, you've been working for 30 years, 35 years. What have you noticed with regards to discrimination and with regards to any sort of behavior that deters women from staying in the industry?

00;08;55;03 - 00;09;04;29
Lilian Judy
And I know that you have a lot of experience with woman. You have kids. You have a lot of daughters and sisters as well. How did that play a role in how you deal with that?

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Jon Ratzlaff
Well, to be quite honest, I have three sisters and three daughters. And if anyone is going to get taught about how to communicate, they weren't going to let me get away with that.

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Lilian Judy
We're good.

00;09;13;25 - 00;09;25;28
Jon Ratzlaff
We're up to it. And yeah, they keep me accountable. But instead of focusing on the negative, which when I first stepped in the industry, you know, 36 years ago, there was not a lot of diversity, and there was a lot of bias.

00;09;25;28 - 00;09;55;28
Jon Ratzlaff
There's no doubt, we can't hide from the problems we've had. But focusing on the good, I'm seeing a lot of change. I'm seeing a lot more ladies getting into the engineering and science field. A lot of diversity in race and religion. I don't focus on that because I try to look at the individuals, but it's very pleasing to, when you walk into some of our meetings like at Chevron Phillips or like in SPE, and you do see a diversity of people where it wasn't there maybe 30 years ago. We have to keep promoting it.

00;09;56;16 - 00;10;09;15
Jon Ratzlaff
I don't think if we just sit back and go, well, it'll happen by itself. It won't. We have to push it. Right? But staying on the positive, it has been getting better. Are we done yet? I don't think so.

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Lilian Judy
We have a long way to go.

00;10;10;03 - 00;10;11;26
Jon Ratzlaff
But it is on the right direction. Right.

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Lilian Judy
Okay.

00;10;12;07 - 00;10;16;11
Jon Ratzlaff
Yeah. You know what’s a good point. The two of us are here right now.

00;10;16;11 - 00;10;20;11
Jon Ratzlaff
And what are we discussing, the very subject that we're trying to influence people on. Right?

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Lilian Judy
Exactly.

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Jon Ratzlaff
We couldn't even imagine that happening 30 years ago. Right. Maybe in some places. And I can see that in some places, but it's a lot more prevalent today.

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Lilian Judy
Okay.

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Jon Ratzlaff
And thank you for doing it.

00;10;33;08 - 00;11;02;02
Lilian Judy
Thank you for entertaining it. I think that with me being, you know, being so passionate about women in STEM and diversity in the plastics industry, I think a lot of the work falls on our leadership. Right. And I know that, you know, being a leader is not all about the glitz and glamor. What do you think are some of the things that leaders need to do in order to foster a more diverse workplace?

00;11;03;17 - 00;11;25;01
Jon Ratzlaff
I can give an example of our own company, Chevron Phillips, our CEO, Bruce just announced Chevron Phillips is celebrating the (unintelligible) week, of the celebration of the freedom of slaves.

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Lilian Judy
Oh yeah.

00;11;25;12 - 00;11;26;10
Lilian Judy
Juneteenth?

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Jon Ratzlaff
Juneteenth. I’m sorry. Junteenth. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And so there is a start. Yeah, right. He's promoting that. But that's just a, it’s not a small, but that's just one item on the many things that Chevron Phillips does to try to promote diversity, and we don't just try to promote diversity by picking out different races or religions or male or female, people's gender.

00;11;52;08 - 00;11;56;04
Jon Ratzlaff
What we do focus on is even diverse thinking.

00;11;56;04 - 00;11;56;13
Lilian Judy
Okay.

00;11;56;13 - 00;12;17;12
Jon Ratzlaff
We actually have well, we were promoting people to get involved in classes about looking at subconscious bias. Right. And we're promoting of, can you sit in a room with people who don't think like you and be able to absorb their information? Right. So Chevron Phillips is actually looking at diversity in all kinds of manners.

00;12;17;26 - 00;12;30;01
Jon Ratzlaff
And it's an amazing thing, because when you bring that diversity in you get so much more of a wider breadth of knowledge that's in the room. This is an amazing thing, how fast you can solve problems having such a wider breadth of ideas.

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Lilian Judy
OK. So what year were you president of SPE?

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Jon Ratzlaff
2013 to 14.

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Lilian Judy
Okay, so if you were a president now, what would you do differently?

00;12;41;24 - 00;12;42;18
Jon Ratzlaff
Within SPE?

00;12;42;18 - 00;12;43;27
Lilian Judy
Yeah.

00;12;43;27 - 00;12;44;24
Jon Ratzlaff
Hmm.

00;12;44;24 - 00;12;46;04
Lilian Judy
To promote diversity.

00;12;46;10 - 00;13;05;13
Jon Ratzlaff
Yeah, that's a good question. But, maybe more of you, and more podcasts. I do believe that SPE is promoting the diversity, equity and inclusion and actually making it a part of their program.

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Jon Ratzlaff
It's a visible part of their program, right? It's not something off the side. It is actually a focus. I'm not sure I can prove that we can find more creative ideas of how to do it, but I really appreciate what SPE is doing to promote it.

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Lilian Judy
OK. I personally think that you have a wealth of knowledge that I can learn from and so I just want to say thank you so much for doing this with me. I could go on and on and ask you so many more questions, but this has been amazing. This has been a learning curve for me, and I hope that people will start to have more diverse conversations and start to find more ways to help promote diversity in the industry.

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Jon Ratzlaff
Absolutely. And Lilian, I want to thank you for helping us promote all that stuff. And if I can be a further help, you know how to find me.

00;13;50;06 - 00;13;52;07
Lilian Judy
I certainly do. OK. Thank you.

00;13;52;07 - 00;13;52;13
Jon Ratzlaff
Thank you.

00;13;52;13 - 00;14;02;26
Lilian Judy
Well, I hope you learned a thing or two from this episode, and I will definitely see you all on the next episode of The Plastics and Beyond podcast.