CSX reviews

3.3

56% would recommend to a friend

(1,470 total reviews)

Joseph R. Hinrichs

74% approve of CEO

44% positive business outlook

CSX has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 1,470 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The CSX employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Transportation & Logistics industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
2.0
Apr 9, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits and total compensation are some of the best for the Jacksonville area. If you are a townie who just wants a stable job for the next 30 years (or until the next re-org), this is the company for you. If you're a high-performer and free-thinker, then you'll only be happy for a short-time. The lifers openly say they just "drink the Kool-aid" so they can collect a check (or make it to 5 years to lock-in Railroad Retirement). From a technology standpoint, CSX does leverage modern methods and technology, but it will vary heavily on your team and manager. They have not actually adopted a true agile mindset across the Technology organization. The CIO is easy to talk to and open to feedback. She'll actually listen/read what you have to say and get things done. The overall benefits, as a management employee, like healthcare are great. You get HSA matching and relatively low premiums. There's access to a gym, plus other programs.

Cons

Ever since the Hunter Harrison takeover, CSX has dramatically shifted its focus aware from employees toward the bottom line. Of course a business needs to be profitable, but leadership only cares about big their dividend will be of of their shares, or their end of year bonus. Leadership often uses meaningless jargon to make it seem like not giving employees a raise or reducing bonus potential is actually a good thing. IT leadership specifically is full of conniving individuals lording over their fiefdom. They prefer to play corporate politics, rather than properly leading and mentoring their teams. The business partners have little regard for technology, which strains the relationship when trying to build solutions. CSX tends to promote individuals to their highest-level of incompetence (Peter Principle). This results in managers and project managers who have no idea how to lead, nor proper understanding of their domain. You can actually leverage this to your advantage as an outside hire. I saw numerous individuals talk their way into technical roles, when they clearly could not do the work. They just delegated their work away and blamed others when things were done incorrectly. That said, certain individuals like this are protected by their bosses and HR. Leadership would rather keep an ineffectual PM/Mgr in place, than admit they made a bad hire. If you follow the ethics process and report issues, as instructed, with evidence, you will be outed and punished for not being a team player. On the topic of promotion, because there's many incompetent individuals in senior positions, you'll be hard pressed to be promoted. Leadership tends to promote those who they hand-select and groom into loyalty. You'll see certain individuals quickly skip pay bands and positions, while you and your teammates are told you need to follow specific track; that there are no promotions available. If you apply for an internal transfer/promotion, there's a good likelihood that your manager will sandbag your interview if they don't fully condone your team change. If you're a high-performer, you will be heavily relied upon to carry your team. Yes, you should be a team player, but you should not be expected to cover for senior teammates who consistently drop the ball. There's a reason IT has such high turnover. There's a reason why the overwhelming majority of my training class left the company. At the end of the day, you are expendable to CSX.

5.0
Jan 20, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Everything is amazing at CSX. I love it.

Cons

There is no cons at CSX. Best company ever

3.0
Sep 3, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great compensation and benefits Wonderful cafeteria, starbucks coffee and on-site gym Free downtown parking River views

Cons

At least for me, there seems to be a real downturn in development and employee engagement. The atmosphere is tense, and has been for the last 2 years. We've been through a lot of upheaval, but management only barely acknowledges the struggles before asking us to carry more. It's stressful and I can see how anyone who survived the last few rounds of heavy cuts could just be exhausted now. We're all "doing more with less" which seems to be the new company motto. Barely scraping by each quarter is no way to build a loyal workforce. The culture of this organization is non-existent compared to when I started 6 years ago. We never even hear from the new CEO, Jim Foote, except for when he hires new people to his team. Our old CEO, Michael Ward, gave a state-of-the-railroad address every Friday morning and our previous executive team would hold quarterly townhalls to talk with everyone and answer questions directly. I don't even know who the upper management is anymore, it changes so frequently.

Viewing 37 - 39 of 1,470 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,557 CSX reviews submitted anonymously by CSX employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if CSX is right for you.