engineer

line technician

technologist

utility operator

training developer

ATCO

To any students considering working for this company:

I was in Telecom for 11 years after 2 summer student positions. My first 5 years was really good and I thought I would retire with this company. It takes time and some relocating to see this company for what it really is. Understand you will not be working for a great family owned Alberta company but will be working for shareholders. Coworkers are very friendly until their job is in competition with yours or job security is at risk. I supported my group anytime they needed me. Never did anything wrong. Took care of my equipment. Got everything working during standby calls. I was always told in performance reviews that everything is good and keep up the good work. I spoke highly of my position in the company. Never said anything negative about coworkers. Took a job in Edmonton and I was moved to a small group that was later targeted for restructuring. I was offered a Communication Technologist position but saw it as too risky at the time.

This company has no common goal as workers form groups within groups. If you are accepted or forced into the wrong group, it will not be good for your future in the company. Working here feels like you are working in a big high school. They claim to want team players, but in my experience this is not a group of people that respects each worker equally. Don't believe the "treat each other like family" image they try to portray. Over my years I have seen training for some but not for others and no real reason other than individual personal preferences. Team leads have been dishonest.  Some Techs are sent to the field to do routine work and site maintenance while a few were secretly groomed for "leadership" positions. There was no fair test for talent or suitability for new/future job positions. Also, if you don't play hockey or have experience coaching hockey you probably won't get noticed by the decision makers to help you move up.

I was hired into a position and that position was abolished only 4 months later. In the new group I was merged into I went to work every day and had to figure out a new job with no support, no training and no mentoring. I voluntarily joined a learning group during the unpaid lunch hour. My time and effort was not even noticed. Knowledge within this group was often withheld, and many requests for support went unanswered. An "engineer in training" got one on one coaching for the same position I was in. It seemed like a fixed competition for personal credit and advancement.

Bias, discrimination and favoritism is common and accepted in this company. Coworkers and other employees would not speak up about it to jeopardize their paychecks despite agreeing to a code of ethics. This is not a supportive team player workplace.  Do not relocate to work at this company. You will regret making any sacrifices. Do not think your care and dedication will get noticed. You are not building credit with this sneaky and secretive company. I often asked for written responses from leaders and decision makers and after saying they would the requests were just ignored. The new leaders claim to be a "new" company after many changes but remember: " Past behavior predicts future behavior. "

A lot of good people left this company and they are working in better places.
This company has too much shame to rehire past employees and is not worth your years of service. 

My experience with ATCO was mixed and as I progressed through the company it became clearer to me that this is truly a ship lost at sea.

Morale is generally poor and the company constantly overhauls its strategy due to a lack of leadership and conviction. As a result, a huge amount of time and resources are spent chasing projects with little chance of success. The company has been selling the furniture to pay for the house - it sold a number of businesses over the last few years to maintain its dividend - leading to limited job security. Many employees in the head office are overworked and demoralized. The most successful people in the organization are those that toe the line and will simply agree or advocate for the CEO’s personal interests (“yes men”). My experience in dealing with her at the executive level suggests she has a limited understanding of the business and the company has consistently underperformed its peers over the last 5-10 years (but don’t expect any accountability at the top levels).

ATCO is also quite old school and you should not expect a high degree of flexibility in terms of working (except to work longer hours).

The company positions itself as a champion of integrity but senior management’s actions are consistently contrary. The ownership structure of ATCO/CU and the organizational structure (Nancy Southern as dual CEO/Chair and controlling shareholder of both companies) are ripe with conflicts of interest. The senior management ranks and Board are both old clubs with plenty of family and friends.

On the positive side, the company’s pay and benefits are reasonably good for the industry (remember - it’s mainly a utility business, not oil & gas), professional development opportunities are provided, and I learned from a lot of smart people during my time there. Management is making efforts to improve its communication and transparency with regular town halls and employee feedback surveys. The office facilities are very new and modern - albeit very isolated in SW Calgary. There are some great people within the organization.


ATCO runs 3 production lines. A typical day at work included aligning all the resources to ensure the safest, most productive mehtods of meeting/exceeding the daily production schedule.
I started at ATCO as a plant sweeper and within my first 6 months was promoted to the receiving deparment where I became the first female leadhand in all of the ATCO companies world wide. I lead a team of 7 people in all receiving, material distribution, line moves, floor loading, and inventory set ups for a period of 7 years. I was promoted through the ranks working in every shop for periods of time developing processes and visual aids to benefit the employees, managers, contract administrators and customers.
I developed a work break down structure (WBS) for a multi million dollar project which allowed me to work closely with all employees on the plant floor as well as all levels of management and the customer.
Management provided me with training, mentorship and support over all my years and assisted me in developing myself to my full potential.
My co-workers were not limited to any specific group of people, I considered everyone a co-worker at all levels. I had an amazing group of employees that were as dedicated and committed to my success as I was to theirs.
The hardest part of my job was finding the seperation between work and life. I became so absorbed in my work that I lost my work/life balance. In my time with ATCO, I never took a vacation or sick day throughout my career and failed to recognize the impact it was having on my family.
The most enjoyable part of my job was my ability to see people through to their full potential, develop great leaders and the employee committment I achieved through being an honest, dedicated team player that was never afraid to try something to improve the working environment, and allowing the employees to make those improvements with little to no cost to the company.

At the plant (local level), ATCO Power is a good place to work.  Pay and benefits are average, but tend to lag industry.  Additional hours worked by salaried employees are not generally compensated or acknowledged.  Staffing is lean and managing workload with family life is challenging.  

Training is obsessively focused on policies and procedures and to meet legislative and regulatory requirements.  You will spend hours of your time periodically renewing this training and managing paperwork associated with policies and procedures.

Employee development support is weak, so if you are not in an urban environment, you will have to rely on self-directed and distance learning.  Creativity and innovation are generally not encouraged or rewarded.  

At the local level, manager, supervisors and line personnel are generally good people to work with.  Employee complement turns over about every five years; however, a significant number of employees have worked for ATCO for more than a decade.

There is a modest degree of autonomy at the local level; however, the corporate structure overall is hierarchical and top heavy and the culture conservative, risk averse and directive.  Corporate management decisions often appear to be made largely without input from the local level and are usually reactive.  

There is an intense focus on meeting budgets and annual earnings growth targets.  Because of the management structure and culture, ATCO struggles to adapt to changing business and economic environments, and makes reactive business decisions.  For this reason, ATCO may not be able to offer a stable employment environment as it transitions to the new business and economic reality.

For those who are looking for steady 40 hour weeks with decent pay ATCO Structures & logistics is a very promising place. especially for journeymen of any trade. Work is always indoors, place is slow and relitivily easy. full benefits after three months. ATCO is great for those with kids and family.

The negatives though, they currently laid off 103 employees out of 400 due to lack of work as of October 2012. They are a union based company and as a result of that segiority rules over all.

Also, for those looking to start an apprenticeship at ATCO, please look elsewhere. In my personal opinion ATCO is not supportive of giving employees apprenticeships due to the fact that they cannot keep apprentices and employees, they to keep you there for as long as possible (or till they dont need you that is)

If you are planning on doing your entire apprenticeship at ATCO structures do not plan on keeping your jouneyman wage when you leave ATCO. You will not gain the required experience needed working here to be a well rounded Journeyman.

I suggest ATCO to those who are nearing retirement or looking for a steady decent paycheck. Work is very repetitive and relativily easy.

I worked in the Janitorial department, they hired a bunch of people in the summer and let them all go before thier 3 months.  In a span of a month 20 people either got let go or they quit (just in this department).  The harassment from other employees and some management was the number 1 issue!  It was awful and very stressful, to the point that it was making me physically ill.  If it wasn't for this and the disorganization from management the job would have been great! 
You were expected to do more work then physically possible, however if the work was organized better the hard work would have been tolerable.   Be prepared to have blisters and sore swollen feet.
There was always issues with peoples pay, not getting paid on time, amount of thier pay did not reflect thier hours, overtime not being paid properly.  However, management always addressed the issues, it just happened A LOT. 
The pay was good (reasonable living wage) especially if you could get overtime.
If you where able to get hired on permanently the benefits package is really good!  You also get Free gym access, free (unlimited) food and drink (if you don't live in town).  

This company is a terrible company to work for, I have been a lineman for 10 years.  It took me several of those years to get to the point that I was no longer required to live on the road.  But a bid to boost profits they are forcing me and several other employees to go back on the road.  We applied and accepted the positions we are in so that we did not have to be on the road and Atco in bad faith has forced us back into a travelling construction company all with the purpose to dupe the regulator into giving atco more moeny next year.  Albertans are upset about the power purchasing contracts they should be equally upset over this because it will only cost consumers more.  Atco will just pocket this moeny and make the rest of us suffer.

I along with several others will be leaving atco at our earliest convenience. Or when atco decides to cut staff again, because they will as they see employs a number not a person.  No other utilities have made these drastic cuts, unrealistic budget expectations and excessive work load requirements that will result in burnout or unfortunately fatalities due to management greed.

I was involued in setting up a Fire Service of Kanadhar Airfield. The most used single runway in the world. We had a Mulit- Nation Fire service and it was a very busy day in dealing with aircraft emergencies. Handling stress was the key to holding a fire service together as every day brought a new problem to deal with. The management were always changing and this was hard to deal with as I had 5 project managers in 3 and half years. The co-workers were good to work with but we lost 60% of our staff after the first year of operations and then we hand to rebuild the fire service again. The hardest part of my job was dealing with men who were having to deal with stressful situations as there was no company support staff in place to deal with these type of problems and we losted alot of good fire fighters on returning to there home Countries. The challenge was great and exciting there is no other Fire Chief in Canada that I know off that has completed a task such as this,a career accomplishment.

Starting over 10 years ago, leaving on an 18 month sabbatical, and then having the opportunity to return and change roles, my overall experience has been great. I've had 2 amazing Senior Managers who trusted me, developed me, invested in me, and didn't micro manage me, but this isn't always the case. Since being promoted from a Coordinator, I feel stuck in terms of advancement, but my current working conditions are also very good. I largely manage myself, I have flexibility to work from the office/home, and I've been given the opportunity to work with other departments and learn new skills. The company favours generalists over specialists, and if you are flexible and don't mind wearing multiple hats you can definitely have success here. On top of that, there's great benefits, but it's still an older Alberta company that struggles to keep pace with modern technology.

Overall, it's a solid company and in my role there aren't many places I see in the marketplace where the grass would be much greener. It would just be exchanging one set of challenges for another.

ATCO electric has a global business unit and is a very large company with many disciplines in the utility group. The company is progressive and likes to have highly trained people working for it. I have learned many new technologies and developed my skills over the years to a very comfortable level of electrical knowledge and would not hesitate to look for more challenges within the company and outside if the opportunity presented itself.
Atco is a very diversified company and has a good overall business model to make the company attractive to investors and employees.
The management is always looking for new opportunities to diversify the operations base, and expects the employees to be professional and act in good faith in all it's daily operations.
There is a very diverse group of people that make this company function and your daily activity involves many different aspects of interaction from technical issues to public complaints and always placing safety first in all aspects of the work plan.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Engineer 8 salaries reported	$106,750 per year
Line technician 28 salaries reported	$56.11 per hour
Technologist 21 salaries reported	$42.74 per hour
Utility operator 12 salaries reported	$28.73 per hour
Training developer 7 salaries reported	$86,779 per year

Working at ATCO: company overview and reviews

ATCO

ATCO ratings

Popular jobs at ATCO

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected