laborer

lifeguard

engineer

manager

planner

City of Edmonton

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 differential is $1.10/ hr as compared to more then $5 with other employers. Wages are average so no compliant there. Pension is good and after five years the city matches your contribution. Benefits are average. The shops in fleet services have a fairly high turnover rate for mechanics and it is my belief that it is due to poor management skills. Many committees and surveys and pilot projects which management uses to gauge many inefficiencies in the organization.A high level of computer time reporting a step by step recollection of the work you performed. As well as a high level of administrative duties for mechanics,doing data entry, this is a point of contention for most mechanics Recently the new branch manager released statistics for there engaged employee survey. One result on the survey stated that 30 percent of fleet services employees had experienced intimidation and bullying and threats, not sure of how many employees in fleet services as a whole more then 2,000 which means more then 300 have experienced this problem. I am currently waiting to start with a new employer otherwise i would be afraid of the repercusions of this review by management. As i have new employment this is not a concern as i would never re-apply to work there again. And like most of the others that work for fleet services i would not reccomend them as an employer. It is not an environment conducive to a healthy work enviroment. I am only putting this review here in the hopes that it helps in the decision of your choice of employment and is only a very small inside view of what happens in fleet services and only reflect my personal experiences and opinion.

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 television, radio and print media interviews
• Worked with the Edmonton Naturalization Group (ENG), various Non Government Organizations, city departments, government agencies and the public at large in developing vegetation management plans for natural areas
• Participated in numerous Pesticide Ban committees and public consultation forums
• Established rapport with the ENG and other NGOs in the preservation of natural areas
• Conducted numerous presentations promoting Integrated Pest Management program and Good Growing Neighbours public education campaign at various conferences
• Provided leadership in developing, implementing and coordinating annual work plans including recruiting required seasonal staff to implement annual work plans and capitol projects
• Demonstrated effective management of Integrated Pest Management and Vegetation Control budgets
• Successfully responded to all public & Councillor inquiries 
• Instrumental in the development of the City’s Integrated Pest Management Policy C501 and Parks Enviso (ISO 14001).


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 what it's for but it's mandatory. Once you take the pension your benefits get cut off. You have to pay for your parking stalls. Coveralls were recently provided, i suppose 30 years of people wearing torn and worn down coveralls finally made them realize the technicians appear homeless. The union does absolutely nothing for us but love taking their dues. They've never been fully staffed in years untill the oil field went down the drain, that says a lot. Made more money as a 1st year apprentice than being here with 3 journeyman tickets. Leave your brain at the door and you'll be fine. In the end you do the formans job, the parts departments job and the mechanics job all for one low wage.

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 doing your work, when they are not doing there work, outside smoking very few employees will lend you a helping hand when you need it saying "its not my job" or they will say yes but ditch you and never be found, the

place is a joke I have been injured nurmous times at the fault of careless journeymen only to have management assure me in writing that the issue would be resolved and it never is, they tell you want you want to hear to get you out of there office the whole company is a deshambled mess I would highly avoid working for this company at all cost you will be more depressed and miserable then you have ever felt in your life

• The work pace varies. It can be very slow at times, with supervision taking 25–60 minutes to delegate tasks. Once you're working independently, things generally run smoothly, aside from some inefficiencies in process controls.  

• Minimal, though I did learn about some new machines (MT7/WAM)

• My direct management experience was positive, but upper management often struggles to provide clear explanations on operational decisions, such as equipment and tire choices during winter. There is also a tendency for accountability to be unclear, with responsibilities sometimes shifting between departments.  

• Seniority plays a major role. Employees with even a year’s seniority may use that status to their advantage. I’ve noticed a disconnect between the city’s stated values and the actual work environment. Workplace culture varies, with some individuals highly dedicated while others appear less engaged.  

• New employees should anticipate extended night shifts during winter, as seniority determines scheduling. While long-term shift work has well-documented health impacts, this structure appears to prioritize tenure over potential well-being considerations.  

• Compensation and benefits are based on tenure rather than individual effort, which can be frustrating for newer employees. It’s common to see disparities where someone putting in minimal effort still earns more and receives better benefits.  

• The best part of the job is the people—especially the newer employees and those who take pride in their work. However, many stay due to job security rather than engagement, creating a sense of being "locked in" by financial stability rather than workplace satisfaction.

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 do. Everyone makes mistakes. My mistake was thinking that the Union I was a part of could do anything for me other than take my money during my probationary period and following their bad advice. Learn from my mistakes folks!

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.

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.

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!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Laborer 6 salaries reported	$24.00 per hour
Lifeguard 7 salaries reported	$24.27 per hour
Engineer 3 salaries reported	$31.33 per hour
Manager 5 salaries reported	$117,200 per year
Planner 1 salary reported	$58.42 per hour

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