Canadian Natural Reviews

Pros

Excellent work culture, project's are a good way to learn the business, company is large and has a good reputation, great location in downtown Calgary

Cons

Some tasks can be boring, some work is not part of discipline/focus.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees.

Pros

Easy going atmosphere
Good for starters - you get lot of work to do and end up learning a lot
Executives are approachable
Free drinks and lots of get togethers (Stampede party, Christmas parties)

Cons

Might is right culture - While executives are approachable, but they do not listen to what employees say. As an example when in a quarterly session an employee proposed for introducing 360 degree feedback, the Chairman physically turned on the stage 360 degree saying that this all he knows what 360 degree is!

Top down approach - Employees are given decisions and told to execute. No culture of innovation or egalitarianism.

Employees are expected to sweat in this sweat shop and when asked for pay are pointed towards stock-options. Employees can hardly control the stock prices as it depends on overall company performance, industry performance and economy.

Outdated system and procedures - Not sure about core operation, but support functions are hugely lacking in usage of modern IT systems and procedures. As a result, by working here for long, one doesn't get exposed to current trends in the industry and hence becomes unemployable!

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the top-down approach, listen and act to employee's suggestions. In other words walk the talk.

Pros

Work Monday-Thursday. Good student compensation including high quality subsidized student housing. As a student, the best thing by far is the opportunity to gain real experience through meaningful contributions to real projects. People treat me like a professional, and not just "the intern". Also, free soft drinks, juice, and water from vending machines is a nice touch.

Full time employees qualify for fly in/ fly out from Calgary and Edmonton if working in Fort Mac. Full time employees also receive great stock options. Employees are all extremely nice and very helpful.

CNRL also seems to be more dynamic and innovative than Suncor and others.

Cons

I can't get any overtime. Also, just some of the same kind of bureaucracy that comes with working for any huge company.

Pros

well organized company, quite competitive. the oil sand and heavy oil business are impressive and have great future. i believe cnrl will be growing as fast as she has been, hope good luck with cnrl.

Cons

poor safety record especially in upgrader. may not be too aggressive on operation.

Advice to Senior Management

take care of safety management.

Pros

very good work environment in the company

Cons

some business process issues in the company

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Balance, some opportunities, no overwhelming beaurocracy

Cons

Short sighted and stingy re costs

Advice to Senior Management

listen to your people

Pros

- Stock options (provided to full-time employees, but not "everybody" - students and contractors are excluded).
- Fellow employees are quite friendly.

Cons

The reputation of the company as a "sweatshop" is highly warranted. Every day was "go, go, go!" Much, ironically, to the detriment of my own job performance: If you feel that you can stop to think about how to better do your job, you'll often vastly increase your own effective productivity. Alas, I didn't feel free to do this. At least not while working "under" my second supervisor. I felt like a mindless automaton.

Systematic "spin" was used at CNRL. For example, at quarterly meetings, it was repeatedly mentioned by Steve Laut (and others) that there were no layoffs at CNRL. However, when you have as many contractors as that company, and you don't renew their contracts, that is essentially the same thing. When a third of the floor empties, one feels something amiss. Likewise, it was cynical and pathetic to hear uppermost management, make comments about CNRL charitable donations ($300 000 here or there). When the company has revenues of 10 billion, this is comparable to me donating a couple of pennies to charity (10 billion is 30 000 times the size of 300 000). Speaking of which, when, during these quarterly meetings, one realizes that the combined wealth of the CEO and Chairman exceeds the combined net worth of every one of the 3000 or so employees in the room, I can't help but feel a little nauseous. After all, I'm making them more money!

Did I mention CNRL is an oil company?

There are a couple of reasons (in a nutshell) why this is an issue.
First, CNRL is heavily invested in the Alberta TAR sands (take that! PC speech). This is an issue because creating oil from the tar sands is the most energetically expensive method of extracting oil -and therefore creates the most CO2 emissions per barrel extracted. Yes, it may be possible to capture and store CO2 underground, but if the costs of this storage were added on to the costs of the oil, it would be inviable: oil from the tar sands costs more to extract, per barrel than any other source (save some exotic locations). So, for carbon capture to work, society will need to foot at least part of the bill. Why should it, when other alternative forms of energy, if researched adequately, may have many times less emissions?

And yes, for all those climate change deniers out there, CO2 emissions matter. (I think of such denial as comparable to Holocaust denial - the difference is that global warming may contribute to the fate of 6 billion, instead of 6 million). As an aside, it was interesting to hear many of my fellow employees (despite now-widespread acceptance of global warming) deny climate change. Is not helping to create such a phenomenon, whilst denying its creation piling perversity on immorality? Committing evil a second time?

Enough of my ranting.

For these and other reasons, I do not recommend this company as an employer.

If you made it to the end of this, I thank you for your time.

Advice to Senior Management

I have nothing to say to you, except to say: I have nothing to say to you. [[[filler to meet twenty words]]]

Pros

Canadian Natural has an excellent compensation package, and decent corporate culture. It's not the best, and it's not the worst. The savings plan is excellent - they match 150% of employee contributions. The stock is the healthiest in the industry, so when you get stock options (and everyone does) it's worth quite a bit. The opportunities for advancement are totally there if you're willing to work and have a good attitude. They also provide bottled water which is awesome.

Cons

CNR has a low cost corporate culture which pervades all aspects of working there. So no frills in office decor or supplies. They are not at the lead when it comes to time off for employees, many competitors do way better with flex days, Friday's off, and much more generous vacation packages. All this contributes to stress and burnout. The workload is quite high - part of keeping costs down and staff turnover can be high because of that. There is a lack of communication in the corporate culture with employees often feeling out of the loop and a huge grapevine. They lack implementing technology quickly due to costs. (software, extra monitors)

Advice to Senior Management

Don't treat your employees like retards. Encourage true communication and trust. Quit working people to death and admit that even WITH the flex days and vacations Encana performs just as well. Inspire people to work harder and smarter by encouraging home grown solutions to dept. problems and challenges. All employees have good ideas on streamlining their environment and being more productive. When a department pulls a feat beyond the call of duty - allow them to reap the benefits. i.e. when payables recoups over a million dollars in 'found money' perhaps allocate a portion as a bonus for the dept. I can guarantee they will recover two million next year.