IT department is a shell of what it used to be - IT Specialist CN Employee Review

1.0
6 Mar 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Office location (Central Station) Gym Fairly consistent bonus payout Reasonable compensation Good benefits

Cons

Look at how the Glassdoor ratings for the CN IT department has plummeted over the last two years (from 3.5 stars in 2018 to 2.5 stars currently), and you'll have a feeling of how things are going. Been at CN for over 6 years, and in the past three year we started seeing a shift in the management style and it started to feel like IT was no longer valued at the corporate level. Instead it was being treated as an expense that needed to be minimized. Management style and direction keeps shifting, as the last 2 CIOs did not last more than 2 years each. Recent layoffs decided by upper management resulted in valued IT employees being removed from underneath managers without prior consultation. IT employees were being treated as disposable and no effort was made in trying to boost employee morale. We saw significant cost cutting initiatives in the IT department and investment in employees was reduced to bare minimum (e.g. increasing costs to IT Christmas Parties, Activity days, cutting of the Bravo recognition program and no celebration of delivery milestones). Work culture took a turn for the worse as we were forced to deliver more with less, and often with impossible timelines that resulted in overtime work during long weekend holidays and solutions being designed during implementation. Quality of work was being tossed to the side, and it was difficult to find any pride what we do. Large influx of new projects and technologies were being handed to contractors while project management and structure was poor. Low quality work was delivered due to impossible delivery timelines, and once the contractors left, permanent staff was left to deal with the chaos.

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CN Response
6y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We pride ourselves on providing our team with great compensation and benefits including the ability to develop themselves and grow their careers. CN could not function without our dedicated employees. We are concerned to hear about the atmosphere and encourage you to speak with your manager or Human Resources Business Partner to share your concerns.

Explore other reviews about CN

5.0
2 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Its what you make of it. Good union job with good benefits

Cons

You're always waiting on trains.

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CN Response
2mo
Thank you for your feedback and for your hard work. We pride ourselves on providing our team members with great benefits. We thank you for moving our business and the economy forward. Please share your thoughts with your manager and on your regular Interaction surveys.
4.0
13 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pays decently well for first job out of college. My manager and team are very reasonable with expectations placed on new hires. Working after office hours (past 4:30pm) is extremely rare and only expected in emergencies.

Cons

Very slow and/or limited job growth potential. Promotions into middle management are almost purely based on reputation with middle managers who are largely people with previous field experience. This is very disadvantageous to direct-from-college hires like myself and even my current manager.

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CN Response
1mo
Thank you for your feedback and for your hard work. We pride ourselves on providing our team members with great pay. With a 24/7/365 operation CN could not function without its dedicated employees. We thank you for moving our business and the economy forward. Remember to leverage your development plan to have career discussions with your leader and please share your thoughts on your regular Interaction surveys.
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