Poor management: Front line managers at CN are hired off the street because internal employees are not dumb enough to take management jobs. They know nothing about working in the field. They are trained to worry about budget and spying on employees in order to find rule breakers ( no matter how minor ).
Have fun making $60,000 a year, front line managers. ( They also get treated like crap. 20+ hours a day and screamed at constantly). This will account for a moody supervisor.
Low morale environment: Safety comes first? No. It's get it fixed as soon as possible, even if you don't have proper tools because your supervisor is too cheap to buy them. Nobody cares if it's -40 and the highways are shut down. Nobody cares if you have worked for 16 hours. There are not enough employees for the amount of territory a Signal Maintainer has. Especially since double tracking everything is in process.
Tools: A rule for this company is to use "the right tool for the job". This can be difficult to accomplish when managers cheap out and are unwilling to buy tools. It's is also unsafe when you have to jimmy rig something with an inappropriate tool.
No life: There are not many "normal" jobs with the railways. You are either: on call most of the time ( many calls for mainline work during winter), working shift work, working away from home. Expect long days and not much sleep. Expect a short lifespan due to stress.
Many of my coworkers despise this company. Would not recommend to anyone.
