Shaw Communications Reviews in Calgary, AB Area

Pros

Great technology, some of the most talented local talent in all areas

Lots of horizontal opportunity

Cheap cable, tv and internet!

Cons

Very structured, not a lot of room for upward movement.

Options dont make much sense when the stock price doesnt move

Advice to Senior Management

They have great innovations, but play most large decisions safe. Taking some risks can pay off during a downturn environment

Pros

good benefits, employee discount (great if you watch a lot of TV)

Cons

backstabbing
not a professional environment
lots of med***res
dog eat dog environment

Advice to Senior Management

why hire highly qualified people and tell them they can move up when you know they can't?
your manager ishighly scared you may take his job, hence, would not recommend you to another dept.

Pros

Shaw Communications does a lot of different events which help with the community and they do provide excellent benefits and plenty of "perks" for working with the job- such as holiday parties, gatherings and dress ups for most holidays, a cafe is on the main floor, and parking for staff is under the building - of course you pay $400.00+ a month to use it but at least in winter it is nice to park indoors rather than on the street.

Cons

I found my training to be incomplete. I was informed I would just have to learn most of my job tasks in various web systems on my own. I was also informed that I was giving too good of customer service to internal customers. My manager and a fellow staff member were leaving work around noon twice a week to go home- I was instructed to reply "they have an appoinment' if anyone inquired about their whereabouts. I was left behind a total of 2-3 afternoons a week to work alone with improper training. This lead to multiple frustrations. I thought Shaw was a wonderful company to work for, I was hoping for better management in the department I was hired in. Unfortunately, there was only 4 of us working in my department and we were often overlooked by upper management so these issues were and still are going on unnoticed. I feel I would have succeeded and enjoyed my position if it were in a different department under a different supervisor.

Advice to Senior Management

My advise to management at Shaw would be to evaluate supervisors regularily and effectively to ensure proper use of company time, including training and work ethics within each department. I was hired and set up to fail because senior management "forgot" about my department and were not concerned with the day to day tasks and overal supervision from the supervisor of the department.

Pros

- Culture focused with strong values.
- The people are great and professional at what they do.
- Lots of opportunities to work on projects related to one's experiences.

Cons

- More reactive than proactive in approach when dealing with market conditions.
- Limited spending on training for career advancement
- Limited summer/co-op/internship placements

Advice to Senior Management

Adopt best practices from other industries and companies instead of being so "Shaw centric". This would improve the effectiveness of processes and technologies as well as enhance the company image in the market place.

Pros

Good salaries, nice people, good benefits

Cons

Very poor management, a lot of politics

Advice to Senior Management

Stop intriguing, start working

Pros

The following is regarding the Accounting/Finance department:
- If you get a good team, then it's a great place to work.
- If you get a good manager who manages in your style preference and supports the team, then it's a great place to work.
- If you are patient and the managers like you, doors will open and opportunities for professional growth or career advancement will come your way.

Cons

The following is regarding the Accounting/Finance department:
- Employees are treated differently whether by accident or not (favoritism shows as well as employees whom management either don't like or watch overly carefully).
- Work load is not evenly distributed among the employees, within the team and outside the team, in fact there are several that are over worked
- There seems to be a consensus that many are under paid even though Shaw claims they are within the market ranges they do research on.
- Not all employees are treated with respect by other employees/supervisors/managers.
- When a mistake is made as we are all human, you are made to feel as if it's the end of the world instead of helping the person understand and learn from their mistake.

Advice to Senior Management

There are many reasons as to why the Accounting/Finance department had such a low engagement survey results. There are two very large factors among those many reasons. One is the salary and the other is work loads.

A quote from Daniel Pink: "Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table." What is enough? Well let's start with market value and not always at the very bottom of the range.

As for the work load, pay attention. Everyone says they're busy but only some are truly busy all the time and sometimes to the point that they can barely keep up even with working overtime on a regular basis. Those people rarely get time for breaks not even one. The others that claim they are busy I find they spend so much of their time surfing the net including reading the news, talking to people either on the phone or visiting others for long periods of times, and taking all the breaks each employee is supposed to be entitled to. It's no wonder that they're always busy. There's not enough time for them to do all their socializing, fooling around, and chit chatting AND get all their work done within their 7.5 hour work day.

Those that are always busy and work hard I can honestly say resent the employees that seem to get away with slacking off. It's like some are watched like a hawk and others they turn a blind eye and ear to. I only say this as often it feels as though the ones that work hard that take 5 minutes to socialize once during their busy day are told they are talking too much and can't get all their work done. Well perhaps it's not so much that they took only 5 minutes out of their day but that those 5 minutes would not have changed the amount of work they would have gotten done at the end of the day and if that's the case they are over worked. As I had mentioned before work load is not evenly distributed. After all a 5 minute break to socialize when they don't have time to take their allotted breaks through out the day is not bad in comparison to all those slackers who maybe work half as much and take all their breaks on top of slacking off.

Pros

many benefits but not great

Cons

many issues like lack of new technology

Advice to Senior Management

focus on Technology and stop or minimize contractors

Pros

benefits are good
subsidized services, great if you are into watching lots of tv
not much micro-managing
tech support envi is a bit relaxed

Cons

poorly managed
not many opportunities for advancement
high level of mediocrity among frontline managers
not well educated staff and therefore not a professionL environment
bickering, gossipping, dog-eat-dog approach to work.

Advice to Senior Management

fire the middle managers
embark on succession planning
not many have post-secondary education among the managers, make a first degree the minimum qualification to become a supervisor
fire all the high schl graduates who are either mgr or supervisor bcos they ve been in the coy for years - things don't always work that way.

Pros

Exposure to new gadgets and technologies

Cons

Some managers show no respect for others and yell like a basketball coach.

Advice to Senior Management

Read up on Respectful Work Place.

Pros

Company wants to operate as a small company even though it over 10,000 staff. Everyone tries to help as needed and there is lots of flexibility with roles. Shaw’s vaules (on their website) tend to bring in like minded team players. Top things I have heard from fromer staff is they miss their co-workers.

Cons

- Shaw values tend to feel one way, they expect employees to live them but management does not employ it in their leadership style.
- Finger point is quick to happen with senior leadership back on them to deflect accountablity off them self.
- I have seen staff let go for asking the wrong question (that would not be considered out of line) to seniro leaders.

Advice to Senior Management

My advise is for Peter, Jay or Brad. If you truely want change to come you need to replace the VP of IT and Customer Care and some of their directors. To get the reason why invite former staff for an in person interview after they have been away for a while to collect feedback on the good and bad. If needed use a third party company to keep thing anonymous. Step-up and ask what good and bad from those who are not concerned about keeping their job and are outside of the environment. Like the saying it is hard to see the forest through the trees.