ATCO Reviews

Pros

Good people to work with

Cons

Old fashioned and favouring certain employees

Advice to Senior Management

Promote within and treat everyone equally

Pros

Competitive overall compensation
Stable work

Cons

Hard work is not recognized
Slow to change
Resistant to change
No worklife balance

Advice to Senior Management

Less micromanaging
Value your employees

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

Great staff and competent salaries. I'd suggest this for senior engineers or individuals looking for a permanent life-time job and great benefits.

Cons

Not really a great city to live in. Very dull and seems life-less. The nearby Rocky Mountains though are very beautiful and serve as a nice retreat.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't think there needs to be much change at administrative level at ATCO. My time working here has been pretty smooth and enjoyable.

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

The salary and benifits are very competitve

Cons

Work life Balance is definately not a priority. With the high salaries come an expectation that they can call on you 24/7. No boundaries appeared to exist.

Lack of goals or objectives, performance evaluations, and career development programs. In over two years I did not have a set of objectives on which a constructive evaluation could be completed. The attitude of "You shouldn't have to be told if you are doing a good job" seemed to prevail.

Poor leadership from middle management. Many middle managers lacked common sense leadership and people skills. What would have worked on an employee from 20 years ago will not work on today's employees.

Corporate culture is change resistant. "Thats the way that we've always done it" is the battle cry when new ideas arise.

Visible lack of respect for non-professionals or union employees. Senior mangement has created a hostile environment of us vs them rather then fostering a we're in it together spirit.

Advice to Senior Management

Read the every exit interview to gain insight on how middle mangement is really doing.

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 always something new to learn. The people are a key reason for my continued career at ATCO.

Cons

The workload is incredible. Recruitment and retention is a key priority for the company but it doesn't make it any easier to hire resources and take some of the pressure off those of us still working here.

Advice to Senior Management

Less work, more flexibility.