Toxic culture, unpaid overtime, and unqualified management - Senior Software Engineer CN Employee Review

1.0
8 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

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.

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CN Response
7mo
Thank you for your feedback and for your hard work. We pride ourselves on providing our team members with great benefits. With a 24/7/365 operation CN could not function without its dedicated employees. We thank you for having helped move our business and the economy forward and hope you shared your thoughts during your exit interview.

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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