TransCanada Reviews

Former Employee – worked at TransCanada

Pros – As a regulated utility, it is fairly stable in comparison to the oil and gas industry.

Cons – Overwork is encouraged, even demanded. No support for employees when the inevitable burnout occurs.
As a regulated utility, it can tend to have an overly bureaucratic mentality.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees like people instead of using them up and discarding them. You would then earn their loyalty and keep their experience for the benefit of the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at TransCanada

Pros – Compensation program, flex days, benefits plan

Cons – Very top heavy, incompetent management, lack of innovation, poor morale, people locked into pensions that don't want to be there, slow to get things done, people promoted into management that do not have the people skills, large and unwieldly burocracy, low employee morale, traditional, inflexible, employees not treated with much respect,

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to employees when they are dissatisfied with their management.
Promote competent people from within.
Reduce the layers of management.
More management training programs.
Don't rely on pension as the main retention tool.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at TransCanada full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – decent pay, good benefits, nice office

Cons – work load! constant management changes, work load, middle management that really knows little about what they are managing. Not nearly enough field employees. work load.

Advice to Senior Management – We seem to have plenty vice presidents and directors, but not enough people that actually do the work. Don't have salary ranges and then only "allow" people to get to the middle of them and no higher.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at TransCanada full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – The companies compensation system is easily in the top 10% of employers country wide.
There are great opportunities for the 'right' people. If you find yourself on the right side of this glass wall, it's a great place to work. If not, shut up and get back to work.
Most people there are great to work with.
The business model is very sound so your underlying job security is great!

Cons – Extremely political environment. "Impression" of doing something is just as or more important than actual results in some departments.
Middle management is consumed with the politics and makes for very busy work life with little to show for it, except a lot of stress.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at TransCanada full-time

Pros – Part of a large, high profile pipeline

Cons – High turnaround. They are not able to retain quality people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at TransCanada full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good people
Strong, Canadian-owned company
Good variety of work
Diverse business lines
Great health benefits
Good opportunities for annual bonuses/retention bonuses/stock plans

Cons – Conservative with money for training, travel, and operating
Decisions become easily bogged down in beaurocracy
Overwork and frantic environment is chronic

Advice to Senior Management – Spend some money and hire enough people to maintain the work-life balance

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at TransCanada

Pros – - Flexible hours
- Relationship oriented company. Co-workers are generally very friendly and approachable. It's easy to build relationships.
- Opportunities to grow (but you have to fight for them. You can't sit back and expect to be recognized. You have to get yourself noticed)
- Flex days

Cons – - Poor middle management
- Difficult to grow unless you fight for opportunities
- No formal mentorship program
- No worker lounge area
- Lack of resources (staff, field workers, office space, etc.)
- Too much work for the number of workers available so workers are overworked throughout company

Advice to Senior Management – - Managers need to be fitting for the role. They should have hands-on experience working within the department they are managing or at least have enough knowledge to be able to provide insight to workers when challenges in workers' work arises.
- Recognize hard workers beyond giving a bonus. Provide new growth opportunities for them, hear their ideas, etc.
- Obtain more resources (need a major increase in employees in the office and in the field)
- Improve communication between managers of departments which work together. Some managers seem to think one thing while other managers seem to think another and it's the workers who are left to suffer when one manager says "no" while the other manager says "yes"
- Have a formal mentorship program available to all employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at TransCanada

Pros – Fairly good compensation package with flexibility of purchasing more vacations.

Cons – Too much office politics between departments. Lack of clear directions from senior managements. Opportunities for promotion or internal transfer are minimal unless you worked for the company for a long time. The demographic of company is mostly made up by baby boomers. Middle management lacks leadership and initiatives.

Advice to Senior Management – Should promote more training or continue education for people in the mid-thirties to prepare for the baby boomers' retirements. Best to have a re-organization of the middle management level.

Current Employee – been working at TransCanada

Pros – As a whole, it is a safe organization. Essentially a low-risk player in the energy industry and that means more security.

Cons – While senior management (c-level) are forward thinking, middle management can tend to be archaec in their attitudes and approaches to management. TC has grown significantly in the last few years, and the internal divide is apparent. This translates to heightened frustration and job dissatisfaction at the employee level.

Advice to Senior Management – Some serious house keeping is in order at the middle management level. The cracks in corporate culture may be hard to see, but could result in serious performance shortcomings down the road.

Current Employee – been working at TransCanada

Pros – TransCanada offers some really good Good benefits, and offers many opportunities to climb the coporate ladder as it is a bigger company.

Cons – It is very large, sometimes you feel like insignificant, just a fish in the ocean. It's hard to see all aspects of the work.

Advice to Senior Management – Need to spend more time on the indiviual may be with a mentorship program or some kind of professional guidance structure.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend