Pros
The company offers decent benefits and strong infrastructure. Some coworkers are genuinely supportive and do their best to create a positive atmosphere despite the difficult environment.
Cons
CN Rail has a deeply unhealthy management culture.
Employees are often expected to work 60–100 hours per week without any additional pay or compensation. There is no respect for personal time — managers schedule meetings during lunch breaks and after regular hours, showing little concern for work-life balance.
The management team is poorly prepared to handle diversity and inclusion, and the culture tolerates public humiliation, burnout, and emotional distress. Employees are often poorly evaluated for problems caused by leadership decisions themselves.
The environment is highly political, with contractors and third parties doing whatever they want, often lying or playing politics, and this behavior is normalized.
Software quality is very poor — the focus is on documentation and bureaucracy rather than functional, well-designed systems. There’s no ownership mindset; people are demotivated, and excellence is replaced by survival.
