Not a good look for the Class 1’s …
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/17-worst-companies-america-170000191.html
Surprise, surprise, surprise…
Between all the other negatives
The most highlighted one was the realtity that railroads operate 24/7/365 and to do that many employees have to work other than 8-5 Monday to Friday.
Remember what I said about the “jungle telegraph” in the “Finding Train Crews” thread?
Well here it is, and on Yahoo no less.
Interesting how many of those places named listed management issues as a major problem. Obviously there’s a problem but it’s going to defy an easy fix.
Hey, Wayne, when do you think NS is going to reveal the results of Whitehead’s survey, so we can discuss it here in this thread?
I think Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine would remember the answer…
Survey is not a surprise to me and it is one of the reasons I choose against a railroad career back when I was in my 20’s. I had a choice and I did my research via phones, letters and asking around. Just with the letters out of 10 attempts, 5 returns were railroad managers bitching at me, 2 were positive with patches, decals, etc returned (of those 2, one was the Milwaukee Road and it was bankrupt)…the other three boilerplate HR negatives.
IT consulting has those hours some of the time. However, your compensated for it in that you usually get paid $15,000-20,000 above market salary vs a non consulting position, they do put you in 4-5 star hotels generally, they pay a per diem higher than what the railroads pay. Typically your manager is smarter than you, though I had a few that were fairly stupid as well and should have given up with ambition after McDonald’s team lead.
My perception of railroads formed initially back in the early 1980 when I first did my research in High School. Railroad Managers usually bitchy. Railroad employees seemed to be generally friendly but would rather not talk with outsiders (Vets are same way). Pay is OK to shitty unless you do over time (depends on if railroad is Class I and what your assignment is). Benefits better than average job but if you shop on the civilian side you can do better…though you can’t do better than railroad retirement vs SS. Customer facing usually limited to warehousemen or shipping dock manager. Rare you ever talk to a client Executive or someone near the top responsible for running the business you serve. Heavily unionized, leading to bouts of management vs emp
I think the “pool” nature of the crew call is a major part of the dissatisfaction. The call AT ANY TIME, and be here in an hour aspect, really leaves a lot to be desired.
I worked 4 twelves (in another industry) per week for a number of years, but always with the same days off, with (mostly) the same shifts, as a salaried employee, …and really didn’t mind the long hours, or the non-standard weekends. But being able to look forward to always having Tuesdays thru Thursdays off was a major factor in my happiness. Being able to plan forward with 90-95% certainty that I was gonna be able to stick to my personal plans made it worthwhile.
I went through a couple hiring sessions with Norfolk Southern, and when you need a job you make concessions with yourself, trying to justfy the personal sacrifice, in order to get a paycheck. But looking back now as a retiree, I’m actually glad that I never got the call to report for training.
I’m flexible, if they would have said "Hey look, you are gonna work 12 hour shifts, 5 days per week, and we decide which days will be your weekend, you will work holidays, but be given comp time off in the same week, but on a day ouf our choosing…I would have been just fine with that.
But working an entire crew district as “an extra board” (which is the only thing they were offering) is insane.
And of course the other side of that being, not only can the phone ring at any time, but you also have to live with it when the phone doesn’t ring at all.
Yes and the classic 1920’s atmosphere of us vs them is in place as well (management vs employees). You run into that sometimes on the non-railroad side but my current employer…not the case. I get Quarterly town halls with the CEO with Q&A, Twice yearly small round tables Skypes with the VP. Monthly one on one Skype sessions with my manager. They do not always take my suggestions but sometimes they do and enough times that I feel it is participatory management.
I don’t think you will ever see a railroad do that unless it is a shortline.
If the employee survey is like the ones we used to get it’s probably going to cleverly worded so the answers they get are the ones they really want! [;)]
If that’s so, then we may just see the results. But if the survey questions are worded so the answers they get are the ones they should get we probably never will. That happened with us too.
Too many corporate HQ’s are la-la lands where the real world isn’t welcome, and too many times those promoted up to corporate from the real world and try to bring reality with them aren’t welcome for very long either. Sometime I think the philosophy is “If it wasn’t for the damn customers and employees we could run this company exactly the way we want!”
But I suppose the above is true for any long-standing hide-bound organization of any kind. Human nature never changes.
Man, I haven’t thought about Ernestine in years! She was a gas!
These surveys were done last year, during the height of the pandemic.
Do you think there would be any changes in attitudes since then?
I won’t try to come to the defense of any company. I do know that employee attitudes feed off each other. Once bad attitudes take root, it’s very difficult to turn it around. New employees adopt the bad feelings of older complaining employees.
Not all railroad employees are T&E operations that are in FIFO pools or any of dozens of other calling schemes that attempt to regularize the T&E working times. That being said - every craft that is involved in keeping Class 1 railroad operations operating are in the position that even if they have a 8 to 5 M-F regular job their services may be required to work outside of those normal hours.
Crafts such as Clerks, Signalman, Carmen, MofW employees, Mechanical Dept employees all have regular jobs that have regular hours and days worked - that being said - those regular hours and days worked will not necessarily be 8 to 5 M-F; they may be 5 AM to 1 PM Wednesday to Sunday or 9 PM to 5 AM Saturday to Thursday, or maybe weekly around the clock Relief Jobs - In the world of PSR railroading all employees are expected to work overtime when directed as PSR’s main aim is to limit employee head count.
Non-contract employees in operations (Officials) are probably the closest to wage slaves of any employees as they are on a flat salary - at least those involved in 1st level Supervision. For them 24 & 36 hour days are not unheard of and are not that unusual. Working 30 or 40 consecutive days without a day off are also not that unusual. Complain and you get the response 'You were looking for a job when you came here
How do the .MARINES Rank in this survey? Clearly we are turning into a nation of lazy basement dwellers
Not so much anymore. Most of our managers seem to keep banker’s hours anymore. Of course most of their RRing is done via Iphone.
Heck they even get regular days off.
Is anyone surprised? Did BNSF, CN and CP participate?
Hospitals and various emergency services are also 24/7 operations. (There were some healthcare corporations listed but sound like nursing homes and homecare.) Although in size, most are too small for survey, I wonder about their dissatisfaction levels. One constant thread is complaints about management.
Someone wondered about people getting soft. Military folks grouse all the time, always have since Roman legions.
Railroaders complain as a pastime. But there used to be good with the bad. But lately, the bad has been outrunning the good. A lot of talent is leaving.
Last few years have been trying.
Must be some GOOD vitamins!! [oX)]
I was in The Painters Union in San Francisco for 30 years. I have always been a bit shocked when i hear about the Rail Unions.
This is all anecdotal on my part of course. But it seemed like they were not the most organized. It might be hard, with the distances they travel and the odd Hours/Days they work. I hope they can get their numbers aligned and correct some of the problems they have.
This is ONE article from a bad period of time in recent history…C-19… maybe things are not as bad as the article implies.? Either way, i wish my Railroad brothers all the best.!
I’m surprised that some of the OTR trucking companies aren’t listed–CR England, CRST and Swift, in particular.
In too many cases the ‘vitamins’ were 86 proof.