Suncor Reviews in Calgary, AB Area

Pros

Top line oil and gas in Canada

Cons

Too big in dealing with some detials

Pros

Work / Life balance is supported by all levels of management. Career planning and progression offer many opportunities for those who wish to move within the company.

Cons

Very dynamic work environment with competing/changing priorities more the norm than the exception. Very large company with normal large company policies and processes that can seem onerous at times when trying to work towards deadlines.

Pros

Worked with many smart people I coud get along with
Amazing benefits
If you stay with them you can get lots of money for school
Big company with lots of jobs
Pockets of amazing people throughout the company

Cons

Old boys club, especially if you are from fort mac (was told you have to "do your time in fort mac" if you want any advancement)
Incompetent middle managers that are part of the club are destroying the company and are untouchable
Many ex coworkers had to leave suncor as the only way to get a significant raise
friends/daughters/sons of employees getting very easily and getting paid more than employees
SAP was a mess, even with hundreds of people working to prepare for years in Cornerstone.
Lots of long term stress due to being told to catch up on my job that was behind because 75% of the company didn't know how to approve charges and didn't know their cost centre despite mandatory training.
Worst feeling was being blamed for the problems that I had no control over while trying to prove otherwise, which fell on deaf ears for over a year
Contractors are gods, they had a hayday figuring out all sorts of ways to extend their contracts and create extra work (many accounts of thinking up ideas and then going against them as they were being implemented).
Lots of lip service, manager once removed interviews felt like I was talking to a lamp.
If you are in a service department all blame will run down the hill towards you, some departments get an unlimited tab for team building while others get nothing.
Not a lot of openess to communicate between departments, fort mac had some of the most stubborn, pissed off people and were always the last people to change.
Outsourcing IT made things very messy.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep a better eye out for incompetence. Stop listening to contractors over employees. Give an even share of power and responsibility to different departments. Change the way you think, a computer program isn't going to do it for you. Go on that show "Back to the Floor", the only problem is you probably wouldn't get out alive.

Keep making money, if it stops you will have a sobering look in the mirror.

Pros

Name recognition as Canada's largest oil company.
Will hire immigrants
 You can make mistakes and not get caught-poor culture of accountability

Cons

Very political environment--merit has nothing to do with promotions
Petty tyrants in corporate functions like Supply Chain, Finance, HR--piss off the wrong person and you are toast
Lack of respect for people--sweatshop with excessive hours in Finance, HR, Supply Chain functions
Good people are leaving in droves for other opportunities with competitors
Pay is poor compared to rivals--HR SVP has confused aging CEO that Suncor is in top quartile.
New hires are getting paid way more than good existing employees--worsening the attrition
They keep talking about Operations Excellence--in reality company is anything but that
Lack of direction, training and goals

Advice to Senior Management

Walk the talk --Operations Excellence is more than just an irritating speech by COO Steve
Treat people with respect
Fire the incompetent managers of the support functions--Supply Chain, HR, Finance

Pros

Decent salary and mediocre benefits package

Cons

Completely disorganized management - senior management are unclear about goals, methods. Cart before the horse management style. Lots of talk about innovation and being "cutting edge" but in reality fresh ideas and strategic thinking are not welcome.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of incompetent middle managers. Set clear goals. Recognize that your greatest asset is PEOPLE.

Pros

Good time off. Was a great place in the early 2000's but went downhill fast when times go tough. Natural Gas was a great place to work until about 2007. Management changed and Suncor made serious errors - not hedging oil when prices were north of $100, implementing SAP which did not work and cost way more than advertised.

Cons

Lack of respect by senior management. Poor communication - possibly misleading and some may say dishonest. The company is bleeding its best employees and now is run mainly by Petro Canada people who don't know how to get things done.

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees are your future. YOu need to recognize this. They are intelligent and you need to treat them so.

Pros

Excellent benefit package, lots of flex days

Cons

Very political environment. Who you know vs. what you know is key.

Advice to Senior Management

Managers qualification is a major obstacle to moving company forward

Pros

- Excellent vacation entitlement 17 personal days (unfairness shown to legacy PC employees and new hires who only get 15 days)
- Good opportunities to move to other business units
- Salaries and benefits quite good

Cons

- Poor decision making ability of Executive VP (unable to execute on announced goals)
- Confusing and unclear go forward strategy
- Top down and process driven
- Cubicle workspace environment for all jobs levels (including managers)

Advice to Senior Management

Turf the Executive VP due to lack of coherent strategy.

Pros

- lots of processes
- incredible training programs
- orientation program is very good
- Seven Habits for Effective People as the corporate standard
- willingness to look at career development and succession
- excellent performance management system, focus on capabilities

Cons

- sometimes hard to break out of your role if you're a specialist
- LONG hours for many people
- IT systems and processes are so complicated. They should definitely move to the Petro-Canada IT model of SAP. It's a much better, more effective system.

Advice to Senior Management

- use the Petro-Canada version of SAP and intranet
- be courgeous and creative when looking at career development

Pros

Variety of areas to work;
International company;
Competitive Salaries & Benefits

Cons

Difficult to promote change within the organization;
Fix versus prevent mentality;

Advice to Senior Management

Stabilize before you grow.