ATCO Reviews in Calgary, AB Area

Pros

Good people to work with

Cons

Old fashioned and favouring certain employees

Advice to Senior Management

Promote within and treat everyone equally

Pros

Benefits and the attitude of the workers.

Cons

Heavy workload, not just in my job. Everyone works hard.

Advice to Senior Management

ATCO is a lovely place to work.

Pros

ATCO does a fantastic job of hiring good people that care about their work and others. The pay is fair for the work done although perhaps not as competitive as the oil and gas industry. Overtime is not required on a consistent basis. Direct supervisors are there to listen and availble to answer questions.

Cons

When it comes down to it, what is promised and what is delivered is quite different. Management takes pride in saying that what the employees want matters and comes first. However, the reality is that business operations are what matters and will always trump everything else.

Advice to Senior Management

If you ask for employees' ideas and feedback then be ready to make changes. Listening is not enough. Need to keep up with work/life balance initiatives available in competing companies like flexible work arrangements, working remotely etc.

Pros

ATCO encourages its employees to contribute to their community through donation matching and allowing employees paid time off to volunteer. The company has programs to offer summer employment to employee's children as well as educational scholarships. Full benefits which include 100% perscription, if you choose to reduce your benefits you can use the extra credits to pay for gym memberships or tuition in classes. They also have an educational reimbursement program so that if you register in job applicable classes you may be compensated 75-100% for the tuition and books.

Cons

ATCO is a very structured company, there is little room for creativity or change. The job is stable but eventually you will have seen the majority of the projects and it can become cumbersome.

Advice to Senior Management

ATCO needs a department dedicated to creating change and promoting new ideas within the company. With the changes to energy sources in the near future, ATCO needs to promote innovation so that it will be able to respond and adapt. It's a wonderful company that does a great job hiring exceptional people.

Pros

Salary and Benefits are the only reasons to work here

Cons

Management is arrogant and pompous.

If you don't put you life on hold for the company you will be looked down upon - zero work life balance.

An incredible amount of politics - especially in the upper management ranks which makes the org. very slow. Prepare to get nothing done.

Old School culture with policies about everything - no creative thinking allowed.

Advice to Senior Management

Get with the times

Pros

Opportunity to learn new things.

Cons

The management and reporting structures don't make any sense.

Advice to Senior Management

Take into account the amount and quality of work that is done by someone instead of how long the person has been with the company. Do more to get rid of the ineffective people and more to keep the effective people.

Pros

There is ample stability and opportunity with the diverse ATCO companies, allowing for someone to work in different industries and companies over their career. ATCO is a company that encourages and supports community involvement, and the people of ATCO always seem to have some initiative to raise funds for charitable organizations.

Cons

Often times the advantage of being in a stable working environment is used as an argument against receiving competitive compensation and attracting and retaining the younger generation is seemingly difficult. The culture is generally quite 'old school' and change can be slow and painful depending on the company or department you work in. Though people do move between companies quite often, the process of doing so is loosely defined and challenging to navigate.

Advice to Senior Management

Engage the people of ATCO and listen to what they have to say, it may promote healthy change.

Pros

ATCO is a large company that appears to present many opportunities for its employees through all the sister companies, stable in terms of job security and not necessarily subject to (or impacted by) market trends and oil patch instability like many other employers in Calgary, employees all seem to be treated equally, and the company is very consistent in recognition and expectations for individuals.

Cons

Stand-out performers are not easily recognized or compensated as the same benefits (i.e. vacation) and salary brackets are applied to all employees regardless of effort level. There does appear to be small opportunities for recognition applied, but these are typically few and far between. Overall the company has a too middle-of-the-road mindset in terms of targetting salary and compensation, with the opporutinity for growth in either area limited solely based on years of service.

Advice to Senior Management

Look to your peers in the industry in terms of more creative options in terms of work-life balance, such as tele-commuting.

Review the overall mindset of fairness to identify better ways of rewarding performers, besides more work.

Years of service is not the correct benchmark for assessing someone's worth.

Pros

diversified company so there are many areas where you should be able to explore if there is an interest. Can start with one career and end up doing something completely interesting. There are really good people that work there and very talented individuals as well. There is never a shortage of things to do and if you are the type of person that wants to take on more and more this could be the company for you. It is an international company as well so there are opportunities overseas as well. Has a recognized name in the community for a number of reasons.

Cons

Senior management have worked thier way to the top for the most part which is commendable, the unfortunate side to this is that quite often they have forgotten where they came from and the power and position have clouded how they interact with those that they lead. Communication about the direction of the company and future is not clearly articulated. There is a lot of talk about how things should be but little commitment to put things into action. Sometimes decision making seems slowed because leaders are apprehensive to commit to a decision - or take the time to clearly give direction. It is hard to obtain the time required to get input to direct the expected outcome on projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management should get out into the field more, they should interact with those that do the work to gain a better understanding of the impact of decisions. Improve communication with those on the front lines. Saying thank you is not that hard and you dont have to spend lots of money to do so. Better leadership training for senior management. It is not the number of years that you put into an organization that makes a good leader. Just because you have been in a company for 20 years does not mean that you know how to manage people. Loyalty to the old guard can be detramental to the growth of a business.

Pros

The only reason someone would want to work for ATCO is money. Plain and simple. And in speaking to the money, it's not even that great. We are talking middle of the pack, never an industry leader. Always a follower and as of late, there are zero perks. I mean nothing. No external health subsidy (ie. gym membership), no flex time, no telecommuting, no nothing. Standard 3 weeks vacation to start and no increase until 8 years in. As recognition, we got a freaking ugly yellow jacket for the 75th anniversary of the company. The place just smacks of discontent.

Cons

Brutal management and no training whatsoever. They throw you in the deep end and expect you to swim.

Advice to Senior Management

Train people.