Amtrak Reviews

Cons

Safety issues and accidents due to the nature of the job.

Cons

I love Amtrak and don’t get me wrong it’s my dream job to be apart of Amtrak and I will never say nothin bad about the company but the management is a different story in Albany the management tried no they did fire me because I wanted to move up in the company and after your 90 you can go wherever and apply to any job you see fit but they fired me not knowing I was pass my 90 which led to a trail so I wish I knew what I knew before I went up there

Cons

Experience will vary greatly depending on who your manager is. Regularly work 10-12 hours and nights and weekends. Lots of PTO but can't ever take it or you'll be working even longer and harder when your back. The company literally doesn't plan at all. They wait till its out and buy it. These aren't exceptions this is the standard. So constant pressure on purchasing. And culturally everything is purchasings fault. Engineering and project management don't believe its their job to plan or help define their project or requirements. But still everything is purchasings fault. Generally a mean culture and management isn't very nice. They put on show appreciation pizza parties so they can look good to their higher ups, but then it's right back to being treated like dirt. Just now you have to work even longer because they made you sit in a pizza party for three hours. If you want to transfer or even apply to another team your manager has to approve it. So if you are in a bad situation your only option is really to leave. And you will not get promoted ever. No matter how hard you work. It's an old school, work yourself to death or face possibility of getting fired. They motivate through fear. They also actively monitor your screen time, and access your teams and email messages. Part of being an employee anywhere is knowing your productivity is measured. But the intrusiveness and lack of trust this shows has a really negative effect on morale.

Cons

none that I can think of at this time

Cons

Multiple departments to link with.

Cons

I'm in a training class for an Assistant Conductor and so far it's been a rough ride financially. The training class is the largest Amtrak has ever had. 105 students. They are trying to recover from the pandemic so understandable but ill prepared. Normally a classroom consists of roughly 15 to 30 students in the past (hear say). This would allow for better one on one with the students. But it's been nothing but chaos and miscommunication for 8 weeks of training. They had to use a makeshift training center instead of the actual Amtrak training center which is what we were told we would be training in during our hiring process. To make matters worse, we are allotted a per diem of $25 a day which you don't even get until your first paycheck after 4 weeks struggling to survive. Mind you, breakfast is included at the hotel as one plus. Half the class was given a hotel with kitchenettes. The other half, my half, was not. In which case $25 would suffice if I had the ability to cook my own food. But because the class is so big they had to overflow us into a different hotel without any type of long-term amenities. Financially it's been incredibly difficult to survive off of $25 a day for a meal when the average meal here in Wilmington Delaware costs $15 to $25 for just one meal. Another issue is I'm already getting charged expensive Union dues and was told they wouldn't charge us until we were protected by them once we make it through our 90 day probationary period which doesn't start until after 9 weeks of training. I've had to use my credit card with an extremely high interest just to survive on my own to make it through this training and it's been super difficult. Word to the Wise, make sure you have lots of money saved before you take this job.

Cons

Long hours, must be able to work with people that you may not always like or agree with

Cons

Disconnect between management and unions. I was stuck on third shift for 2 years due to seniority.

Cons

Sometimes limited opportunity for upskilling

Cons

PTO isn't the best when you start