Livin' The Nightmare - Former Employee If They Find Out Who Wrote This CN Employee Review

1.0
Nov 13, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Money is pretty good, pension plan, like my co-workers I work with, most are pretty good people. Scenery is always beautiful.

Cons

Long hours. Probably looking at 70-80 hours a week gone from home. Hard on wives/families. Still, CN wants the "slave contract" where your never home except for your annual vacation once a year. This would replace the 70-80 hours a week with 120-180 week because Hunter says 80 hours a week is just not enough! That's from the "steam engine days" and we now need something to reflect today's needs and desires of the railway. They have this already in the US. How does it work? Well, about 10 years ago we a lot of surplus employees here at CN who went and worked in the US because of their acute shortage with finding enough people for their railroads. Considering you have a country with 200-300 million people and a lot of low paying jobs, you would think that there would be no shortage of people vying for $80,000 and up jobs. Wrong! No takers! Gotta import 'em from Canada. What was it like for the workers that went down there. They were treated great. But basically a taxi took you from your residence to work, you made you round trip, and then you went back to your residence where you'd better get to bed, because in 8 hours you were gone again on another trip, and on and on it went. Finding time to do laundry after a week, or get groceries got to be difficult. But this is the kind of conditions Hunter wants to force on us. Legalized slavery. Plus they really don't value us. In my 30 plus years, there has never been a company staff party at Christmas for the running trades EVER! Christmas party, what's that? Their annual showing of affection is offering a free hot dog in a parking lot by the diesel shops in a dust storm. Oh you shouldn't have. Need I go on? Can you spot the pattern? Oh and the growing earings. Every quarter. It gets slower and slower and the earning go up at CN-ron. Skies the limit.

Explore other reviews about CN

5.0
Apr 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Its what you make of it. Good union job with good benefits

Cons

You're always waiting on trains.

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CN Response
2mo
Thank you for your feedback and for your hard work. We pride ourselves on providing our team members with great benefits. We thank you for moving our business and the economy forward. Please share your thoughts with your manager and on your regular Interaction surveys.
4.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pays decently well for first job out of college. My manager and team are very reasonable with expectations placed on new hires. Working after office hours (past 4:30pm) is extremely rare and only expected in emergencies.

Cons

Very slow and/or limited job growth potential. Promotions into middle management are almost purely based on reputation with middle managers who are largely people with previous field experience. This is very disadvantageous to direct-from-college hires like myself and even my current manager.

avatar
CN Response
1mo
Thank you for your feedback and for your hard work. We pride ourselves on providing our team members with great pay. With a 24/7/365 operation CN could not function without its dedicated employees. We thank you for moving our business and the economy forward. Remember to leverage your development plan to have career discussions with your leader and please share your thoughts on your regular Interaction surveys.
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