Full time employee for over 5 years - Anonymous employee CPKC Employee Review

2.0
Jul 1, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Upcoming opportunities for advancement in the near future due to revolving door attrition - DB pension plan for unions and management hired before summer 2010

Cons

- Culture of terror - No respect for personal time off. Panic email and calls on weekends and even during vacation to be addressed immediately. Creates a lot of stress on employee and family. - Mandatory program to become a train conductor or locomotive engineer - Relocation out of downtown Calgary to a windowless warehouse in an industrial area at Ogden - Poor communication - Need to pick up the slack of the many employees leaving for oil and gas, with no recognition for the extra effort - Poor communication and management style: "if you don't like it, don't be here"

Explore other reviews about CPKC

5.0
Dec 20, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great pay, and benefits, good environment,

Cons

First 3-5 years stressful until you get familiar and understand how railroads work.

1
2.0
May 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of opportunities to provide value

Cons

Poor leadership at the C-level. CIO has no control over the direction of the IT landscape beyond what is dictated to her by the CEO and other business owners. The IT environment is almost solely controlled by the demands of the business at the cost of being able to manage and adapt to needs. 20 years behind the market in the adoption of cloud technology. Existing cloud strategy was built by engineers pressed into the role of architects and learning as they progressed along. No automation or DevOps presence whatsoever outside what the platform teams use to simplify their own workloads. Remote work is considered a 4-letter word and is extremely frowned upon as anything other than an as-needed and pre-approved option. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery are still done using backups and shadow copies of key infrastructure, and those key systems are decided upon at the time the tests are planned instead of testing the company's infrastructure in its entirety. Data centers are geographically separated, but are significantly disparate in what is physically hosted and accessible. Recognition and rewards are overtly encouraged, but are covertly handed out based on the level of visibility and impact to the business and stakeholders. Senior leadership constantly touts open-door policy and approachability, but give off vibes and impressions opposite of the overt policy. The company puts on a show of being diverse and inclusive. Case in point, the hiring of a female CIO. The problem is that working within an 'old boys network' leadership, it doesn't matter how inclusive and diverse the company appears because those elements are never given the opportunity to show their value.

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