Pros
Insurance is better for Union than it is for management, but management is still decent. Pay is alright, once you have a family though your hours are not worth it. Bonuses. We get more bonuses than any of the Union workers. Many other opportunities other than Operations Management... if you can get there.
Cons
Literal screaming and cursing from senior management. Innovation is truly not welcomed by local leadership, corporate claims its wanted. Company restructures often and silently. Stress. They say they have programs for it etc, but all of your bosses expect you to be on call, be there when they call, doesn’t matter if you are at a wedding, birthday party, doesn’t matter. You get called, you come or your fired. Want another opportunity or promotion? Prepare to move. Also if local leadership literally needs you to stay, you’ll never leave. They can make phone calls to their friends in other areas and will tell them not to take you, that you are too valuable to them in your current position. I have seen this happen to two of my colleagues. “Us vs Them” mentality by senior management when it comes to how we can interact with Union. We are forced to write up “failures” in Field Training Exercises that goes on the workers records. The workers are smart though and know that rules contradict themselves, and worse are left up to the manager doing the observations to say if they looked long enough before crossing tracks, or threw switches correctly. If we do not have enough “failures” we get an inordinate amount of pressure from local leadership as their bonuses are affected by it. 99.9 percent of railroad property is located in dangerous, impoverished areas of cities. We do not have enough police officers for the Union guys, and we are regularly called to investigate trespassing, accidents etc with little protection. Self insured company, one catastrophic incident totally outside of your control, anywhere in the system and we are out of business… the company lets you know this. One incident, and no matter how much of your life has been dedicated to the organization, its gone. If you want experience in management for your resume, do as 70% of my peers do, leave once you have the minimum time your next position requires. Don’t believe me? Don’t worry, they usually tell you about it at the introduction to management.