Unhealthy work enviroment, aging buildings not maintained, no support from management concerning service manuals. Bullying by management.
I am currently employed as a hd mechanic on the fleet services side have worked there for more then five years. Have on many occasions experienced intimidation and been threatened by foreman. Management isnt concerned with this as it has been an ongoing problem for years. Supervisors are yes men for upper management and will smile and look into anything you suggest to your face but behind closed doors there is a different attitude.there are some good supervisors as well but they have little ability it seems to act on problems either due to a high level of work they need to accomplish or tired of dealing with the same problem and seeing no results. They do have some excellent mechanics working for them but do not give them the opportunity to advance unless they learn to do favors for there superiors in management. Your more valuable as a mechanic then in a leadership role if you are a knowledgeable mechanic. Almost all in management are there due to either belonging to a small group of people that know someone or are willing to become yes men and will do whatever they can to get a shot at belonging to this group including doing personal favors after hrs for there superiors. Or have been injured working on the shop floor and taken the city foremanship training. Your not promoted due to being a highly qualified mechanic. There is poor communication skills with mechanics and workers but excellent with management when referring to foreman. Shift work is required and the shift diff
Prosaverage pay, pension plan, three weeks holidays after eleven month temp, if a permanent position is posted
Consshiftwork, including having to cover shifts, due to not enough mechanics to cover shifts this is partially due to high turnover rate, little to no information on equipment, such as service manuals, as well as tooling they say they supply, poor management skills at foreman level, very disorganized, and have experienced and witnessed foreman using intimidation tactics on serviceman
There were no typical days in my position, every day was different, unpredictable. What starts as a quiet day can easily erupt into a flurry of public complaints, inquiries from the Mayor or City Councillors. Working with 30+ union staff was also a challenge especially when things go sideways. Interesting work but stressful at times.
My duties as the Vegetation Management Supervisor and Integrated Pest Management Coordinator included the following:
• Provided leadership in developing, implementing and managing annual work plans including recruiting required seasonal staff to implement annual work plans and capital projects
• Built effective teams by providing coaching and counselling, organized staff orientation, safety training, attendance management, performance reviews and educational development.
The most enjoyable part of the job was my accomplishments,
• Led the Parks Vegetation Management Team in the continuous reduction of pesticide use from 1999 to 2012 leading to the Charles Labatiuk Award for Environmental Excellence
• Instrumental in the development and implementation of the City’s Good Growing Neighbours public education pesticide reduction program
• Forged partnerships with the County of Strathcona, City of St. Albert and City of Leduc in joining and contributing to the Good Growing Neighbours program
• Represented the Vegetation Management section and the Good Growing Neighbours public education campaign as media spokesperson conducting tele
Where to begin. The shop is a mess, you spend a lot of time looking for shop tools and equipment. No time is provided to clean up the shop so you constantly work in other peoples messes. The parts department is useless and you frequently get wrong parts even when providing the old parts as samples. Don't bother asking foremans for technical assistance because they have no experience and they're not even heavy duty techs. Knowledge and hard work gets you no where. You must know people in managment to move up. The less experience you have and the less you know about your job the better the chance of being promoted. All of the paperwork gets completed by the technicians so not sure what the foremans do. They frequently use works like "efficiency" and "productivity" yet nobody seems to know what it means. The rotation schedule is insane giving you 8 nights in a row with no overtime in the winter. There's little to no overtime unless you manage to work on stats. I think of it as opposite land since all the wrong people get promoted, and nobody cares about anything and 6 months technical experience is good enough to be foreman because your buddy is in a higher position. Don't bother applying for the internal job postings because they already know who they want and create a posting to avoid suspicions. You pay for the benifits and they're useless and expensive. There are way too many deductions on pay checks, benefits, union dues, pension and charitable donations that nobody knows
ProsPaychecks don't bounce
ConsBad rotation schedule, disorganized, too many pay deductions, inexperienced management
2.0
Director of Fleet Services | Edmonton, AB | Jan 2, 2013
This Place is a Joke
I've worked for this company for many years its a deadend job the morale, is very low the company seems to think that they can ignor everyone's issues. but provideing us with gross lunch in's is a way to redeem themselves. unless your in good with management or have a friend or family member who is high up, the you will be promoted I was not intrested in taking certain training in the beging it was so
poorly run and had such of lack of support from the foremen I felt as though I would be at a loss to pursue it and from that moment on I was black listed from any promotions though I do get the interview but they always choose everyone else but me, the foremen are provided no training on how to treat there employes with respect, they can dog you or bully you all day everyday will no ill effects of
management stepping in to reslove the issue, and the supervisor will say you are at fault for being treated that way, you will get the worst of the worst jobs to do while the butt kissers get to do as they please, the foremen just want to send rude jokes to there friends go to mcdonalds and watch movies on youtube the union is under the arm of management not willing to stand up for your rights but very happy to take your $50 union duies every paycheck the benifits are ok but the due's are very high half
your paycheck will go towards it, leaving you with nothing the other employes are rude and strange most of them will try to get you in troubble by tateling to the boss about you not
I worked for DATS for about 6 months. The job itself was great. Hard work, challenging, rewarding. Received several client commendations on my work. There was a lot of bullying, harassment and racism at the scheduling/operations level however. Supervisory staff were incompetent and arrogant. Management blindly followed supervisory staffs lead. I was assaulted by a client on video and called the police after defending myself. I was completely cleared of ANY wrongdoing by the Edmonton Police Service. However, I was told by Senior management (before police or DATS had completed their investigation) that it would have never happened if I had acted appropriately (victim blaming) and my probationary period was extended. Senior management also encouraged me to look at other employment options within the City of Edmonton at this time. This resulted in complete loss of trust and faith in the management and a downward spiral in my work and all aspects of my life. Supervisors who now had decided to micromanage my work (because I refused to meet with them without union representation after earlier harassment) made my job much more difficult. Eventually my stress and the pressure I was under to perform caused me to make poor decisions such as getting a photo radar ticket in an empty bus late at night in my now extended probationary period. I was let go. If I wasn't in extended probation I would have gotten a one day suspension and had to pay the fine. As many DATS operators have had to d
5.0
Chief Nursing Officer | Edmonton, AB | Nov 25, 2015
Professional environment with fun loving co-workers all working toward common objectives.
My thirty (30) year career with The Edmonton Fire Department, provided me with personal challenges, beginning as a Recruit Firefighter, and concluding my career as a senior officer of the Department. I was very fortunate to not only enjoy and respect the people and officers that I worked with but to thoroughly enjoy the nature of the work that we complected as a team.
CUSTOMER SERVICE was paramount to the success of the Department, an objective that I took very serious personally.
Whether assisting people at emergency or non emergency scenes or by representing the department at various educational opportunities or committee associations, representing the Edmonton Fire Department was always a pleasure and my personal responsibility..
As a member of the Department there was every opportunity to learn at least one new thing every shift.
I felt I was able to demonstrate the following attributes which aided me being successful as both a fire fighter and fire officer;
Mental - I had the mental capability to perform the job
Physical- I had the necessary physical capabilities for the position
Moral - I have a good sense of community and public service.
The hardest part of my job was my decision to retire as my career was like working with a family for all those years.
1st of all the pay is not great. So if you need to make a great deal of money, apply elsewhere.
The City is big on covering its butt legally so you'll be taking courses and going to safety meetings etc none of which has made much difference in the 30 years that I have worked there.
Summers are very busy at Parks. Winters get busier with snowfall. It is difficult to get good employees because so many are very young and don't really want to earn their pay.
The City is over managed. There are far more bosses than workers and many of the bosses have zero experience on the ground yet make all the decisions, usually without asking the people who know- the Crew leaders.
If you have a degree, even in Baking, you could be immediately bumped up the ladder. Actual work experience is not necessary.
You will rarely see a boss with a tool in their hands
If a well run organization is important to you-FLEE!
The answer to every problem in the City of Edmonton is more administration! Never more boots on the ground. Chaos rules.
The hardest part of the job is doing it in a fashion that I know is not efficient but orders from above require me to do it that way anyway.
The most enjoyable part of the job is camaraderie among staff and the 4 ten hour/day shifts. 3 day weekends and all stat holidays off.
Pros4 day shift
ConsExtremely poor management and patronage postings for brown nosers common.
Dedicated employees trying to do their best in difficult circumstances
Most of the people at the City are dedicated and hard-working public servants, but I feel we are continually let down by senior management. Constant re-organizations over the last five years and near-annual budget "adjustments" (i.e. cuts) have led to burnout and poor morale.
Senior management does a poor job of supporting and advocating for their employees. Experiences vary widely depending on what department / branch people are working in. Little to no prospects for advancement - senior management seems intent on hiring from outside for anything Director level and up.
Out-of-scope (non-union) employees have had a pay freeze for years and mediocre benefits compared to unionized employees. The trade-off in accepting lower compensation is supposed to be stability/job security and work/life balance, but the last few years have seen threats to jobs and people being asked to do more with less.
If you are fortunate to have a good team, you will enjoy the work.
ProsInteresting and fulfilling work, Collaborative approach in most business areas, Good horizontal integration, Most employees are dedicated and hard-working
ConsMediocre Benefits for non-union employees, Political environment, Absolutely no perks (bring your own coffee pods), Poor vertical communication
High work volume with huge responsibility allowing little time for regular breaks which can affect ones health. Regular unexpected terminations of middle management resulting in regular chaos, miscommunication and actual "fist fighting" among business units as they are trying to do their jobs without proper direction. Bullying, harassment is common place and lack of supports prohibit one from doing a professional, stand up job (if this is what you desire)! Favoritism is also common place which may prohibit one from advancing internally despite possessing quals, just a toxic place to work in general if you "care" about your own personal performance! Lots of staff off work for stress so be prepared to pick up the pace! Senseless IT programs without value and the "We are One City" is a joke as you won't know what your own business unit is doing and those are always changing resulting in way too many little departments with lots of middle and upper management to run these department (ie.10 upper/middle managers, to run a little department of 10???) Top heavy in management all lacking leadership!
Very Productive and busy all the time. Always deadlines to meet. Great people to work with.
A typical day at work is very busy and never dull. learn new things all the time. I learned how to work a lot of the City of Edmonton's in- house programs and expanded my knowledge of the Microsoft office suite program.
For the most management was great. Sometimes it was hard to meet with management when i had a question to ask and would have to wait for them quite awhile. I would ask as many of my co-workers the question that I had to ask my boss, and they were very helpful. I would only go to my boss if none of my co-workers knew the answer to my question about certain projects etc.
Sometimes clients/customers wanted certain things done immediately. Due to some procedures, sometimes we couldn't always do things as immediate as the customer would have liked, but i would always do my best to meet the customers expectations.
Most enjoyable part of the job for me was dealing with the customers, I thoroughly enjoy working with the public.
ProsWage is good
ConsNot being able to meet the customers expectations as fast as they wanted, but due to rules and regulations, things were out of my control.
Questions and answers about City of Edmonton
What would you suggest City of Edmonton management do to prevent others from leaving?
Asked Mar 25, 2017
Revamp management across the board
They are set in their ways and privileged, retrain or replace with competent experienced professionals.
Answered Dec 16, 2019
Stop treating your employees like they’re a dime a dozen. Stop financially cutting every single corner possible at the expense of employee well being. And hiring supervisor based on real life experience and quit with the university degrees get hired first nonsense. Too many bosses - not enough clues .
Answered Jun 7, 2019
If you were to leave City of Edmonton, what would be the reason?
Asked Mar 25, 2017
No job opportunity
Answered Nov 5, 2019
Harassment by management
Answered Aug 26, 2019
How often do you get a raise at City of Edmonton?
Asked Nov 9, 2022
Every 4 months
Answered May 3, 2023
Monthly
Answered Feb 18, 2023
How often do raises occur at City of Edmonton?
Asked Jun 24, 2019
Yearly for four years and then maxed out.
Answered Apr 29, 2023
Depends on the contract length, and below inflation. Always below the public sector for Techincal, and proffesional
Answered Mar 9, 2023
How should you prepare for an interview at City of Edmonton?
Asked Jul 4, 2017
Your dressing. The first impression.
Answered Feb 25, 2019
Always look into their eyes. Eye contact very important
