laboratory technician

analyst

foreur

inspector

laborer

There were good and bad factors to working for SGS Winnipeg, also depending on your lifestyle and needs. I'll list some examples:

Good: 
-Phone, food, mileage, travel expenses all covered
-benefits were good but took over 1 year to come into effect 
-travel all over Canada to grain facilities, exploring and meeting clients
-interesting job, learning about the grain industry and how to inspect many types of commodities. Gained a lot of skills and knowledge
-co-workers for the most part were pretty cool, fun, enjoyable people to be around
-Office is really nice, good-ish location (downtown, nice view)
-rack up tons of banked overtime and can take most of summer off

Bad:
-Very little control over personal life, must always be available at a moment's notice. 
-Scary management. Lots of lying, mental games, pressure, stress, always worrying about making them mad. Lots of backstabbing, talking behind backs. Extremely toxic culture. In the past 5 years, easily 25 people have come and gone as inspectors, on bad terms with the bosses.
-Unhealthy amount of overtime between August-April. Borderline illegal amounts of hours at some times (18-22 hour shifts) 


_Summary:
The Bottom line is, this is a cool job, very involving, and can be a lifelong career. I enjoyed traveling, bonding with people, learning a lot, but it is definitely not for everyone. The spontaneous travel and extensive overtime is not compatible for a person wanting to life a settled down family life. A perfect candidate would not be the type to celebrate christmas, birthdays, new years, or any type of weekend activity. You must always be available and this job will take over the majority of your life. If I was a drifter or a recluse with no family, friends, pets or commitments to anything, and I was really passionate about the grain industry and assigning grades to grain, it would be doable.

 I personally left because I was losing my mind, the money wasn't worth it and I couldn't handle my boss anymore. I would often make little mistakes such as logging a number wrong in spreadsheets (easy to make mistakes at 3 or 4 in the morning after 16 hours of work) and was getting really worried about getting fired. Lots of getting sworn at, yelled at, fists banging on tables, finger pointing, etc. So I basically ran away screaming. You can do this job elsewhere for a more respectful boss and a better wage. Give it a try if you want but this is my review. I was initially reluctant to submit this but not anymore. Good luck!!

I worked in Mineral Processing at this company for five years, primarily in metallurgy. During my first few years under previous management, I performed well and was informally identified as someone who would be considered for a future leadership transition within my area.

Following management changes during COVID-19, the workplace culture shifted significantly. I experienced ongoing interpersonal conflict that included exclusion from team communication, dismissive behavior, and repeated challenges to my competence despite consistent performance. I raised concerns but did not see meaningful resolution.

After returning from COVID-related shutdowns, I discovered wage discrepancies between myself and a colleague who started the same day. It required formal advocacy to achieve pay equity. Similarly, when leadership opportunities arose in the area I had worked in for five years, the promotion process lacked transparency. The position ultimately went to a colleague with substantially less experience in that specific department.

From my perspective, advancement appeared influenced more by personal relationships than tenure or role-specific experience. The lack of clear promotion criteria and inconsistent management support created a work environment that felt unstable and, at times, adversarial.

I encourage the organization to implement clearer promotion frameworks, transparent wage structures, and stronger anti-bullying policies. Prospective employees may wish to inquire about advancement pathways and management culture before accepting a position.

Cons: During my year of service, nearly 90% of the staff I started with had either quit due to lack of communication from management or stress from unreasonable workloads. They had a lay off occur during a new year due to mismanagement of samples and lack of communication, told people time and time again their jobs were safe afterward to just terminate a batch of us without cause, with no severance and pay continuity for 2 weeks during my off weeks essentially meaning 0 severance, travel pay was horrible, if I travelled 780km in my own personal vehicle and the other guy travelled 125km, we both got the same amount. Our travel and food allowance were taxed? Because the company deemed them “bonuses” and then our biyearly bonuses got cut completely. I was dumped to the nightshift for 7 months straight even though my contract stated rotating schedules, our yearly wage increase was cut from .88cents to .50 cents, because of “lack of workflow” but that has due to the company’s actions not the workers, my pay was inaccurate on multiple occasions leading me to have to wait to receive my full paycheck, During winter months the place had 0 heating on the work floor during -40° conditions, we were told to “work faster to keep warm” . And those are just some of the things that occurred here,

Pros: Peers were friendly and welcoming, pay was good for the job (if you received it all) 

I have worked for geological engineering firms, municipalities and not for profit organizations.

I came to SGS looking for a final place to settle down and start a career. I had an abusive supervisor, very little positive feedback, no proper management (ironic as i was a manager in past jobs).

No one in the Lakefield Company communicates with other departments and has no hope to know who is doing what.

I have never seen a company advertise a job fair at the same time as having mass layoffs. they hire people asap when there is any sort of back log just to lay them and current contracts off because there is soon no work. if you have an education expect to be doing a lot of disposing of scrap metals and cardboard because they actually pay you less than a janitor at SGS (granted the janitorial staff are amazing and deserve their wage)

New lab being built? why? They can't land the contracts to fuel a lab 1/3 the size of the new one.

I am disgusted that a company I grew up near, it was such a disappointment. Every bad review here is accurate and unfortunate for those who get sucked in with promises and hope. NO JOB SECURITY AT ALL RUNNN!

I am working to get out ASAP! and good thing as i and 21 other ppl got handed out 2 weeks notice and there is much more to come.

Thanks for reading this as I am trying to help you not make the same mistake as I by thinking a world wide company has anything to offer.

SGS Canada, Cochrane, ON, Canada for the permanent full-time position hired as a Fire Assay Technician , The dismissal may be due to the incorrect time which I wrote in the book, The receptionist specified that book is physical evidence to know the number of people working, when emergency situation escalates. I was not given the knowledge that it is used as a time card. A smart key or a tag was not given till my last day, therefore I had to wait outside SGS to let someone come out and open the front door for me. On May 8 2019, while I was working, a tiny glass piece possibly contaminated with lead and harmful heavy metals punctured through the safety gloves along with inner latex gloves into my index finger, I was not given any first aid on the moment and continued with my work as usual.This health and safety issue could be avoided if they had used puncture proof gloves instead of heat resistant gloves.Later that day, I was called to the assistant operational manager and a dismissal letter without the written cause was given, the letter provided me the same day dismissal. I asked the management for the reason again, and they were not specific about it. I was allowed to sign the sheet which shows the relocation fees provided by the SGS,Canada, Cochrane,ON, which I did not get. I was in mental distress, 
Other co worker plays dirty tricks to kick you out so that their family or friends can get the position.

Every morning before work I would hope to get hit by the bus so I wouldn't have to go in. I wish I was joking.

I worked for this company for a couple of years, and overall it was good to get experience but looking back, maybe not good for the price of my entire soul and well-being.

SGS is able to obtain many site contracts as they put in the lowest bid - where does the money come from? The money comes from the employee salaries. They pay very poorly and expect a lot of work. The healthcare plan was a perk, but most of the things were covered at 80% and only available to some employees. How they determined who got healthcare did not make sense - some people on contracts got it over the full time employees. 

The management and project coordinator have absolutely no idea what is going on 99% of the time. The project coordinator weaseled her way into the position and thinks it's appropriate to delegate all her work to her co-workers so she doesn't have to do anything. This type of attitude is celebrated by management as long as they are saving money. Cheapest company and I did not feel like my voice was heard at all. No opportunities for advancement unless you're brain dead or willing to adopt their core value of zero integrity. 

Get your experience and get out.

The workers (railcar loaders) at my former site were great people and most of them were good workers.  Management however was another story, employees were promoted to management positions because of the friendship they had with the promoting manager.   Upper management and HR were never there when needed.  Our HR rep always said "I am only a phone call away" however they never picked up their phone so no issues could ever be resolved or figured out.  I was with the company for a long time and enjoyed working at the Imperial Oil site, but SGS as a company is awful.  I would not recommend it to anyone or ever think of working for them again.  There is ZERO support from upper managers and HR, not the way a company should conduct their business... As a first level supervisor, I was not allowed to discipline our railcar loaders because my manager did not want to upset the customer (Imperial Oil) and did not want to follow up with his manager on any issues/problems.  Completely backwards way of running a site.  If you want to work for a company that doesn't care about you, and is using you to get the job done then SGS is the place for you.

Provides management and guidance to ensure maintenance of listing of equipments, including calibration and qualification status and calibration due date.
•	Creation of validation related documents including but not limited to the following:
o	IQ, OQ and PQ Protocols
o	IQ, OQ and PQ Summary Reports
o	Validation master plan
o	Preparation of validation protocols and execution of approved validation protocols
o	Write and review related technical documents and standard operating procedures.
•	Conduct and/or perform precision calibration and validation on analytical instruments.
•	Conduct and/or perform preventative maintenance on analytical instruments.
•	Monitor maintenance on individual instruments and coordinate with external service technicians as required.
•	Maintain calibration data in an organized format.
•	Ensure all calibrated laboratory instruments are provided with calibration SOPs and that the calibration intervals are adhered to and documented.
•	Participate in new instrument site installation requirement activities.
•	Develop and formalize calibration procedures and perform calibration testing in accordance with these procedures.

The general consensus amongst the employees is, get your money and get out ASAP. Everyone who is currently working there is looking for another job. 
Work life balance! Translation: You will work your life away. Always understaffed, overtime is expected. 
The revolving door for employees is so worn out, it broke off years ago. On the plus side you will always meet new people to commiserate with. 
Generous Pay! Translation: Yes, eventually. After enough time "served", you can make top wage. Wages are time based not skill based.  All depends on how much self flagellation an individual can endure.
Advancement! Translation: NO. Like any good marathon, if you are willing to put in the time and subject yourself to the training and conditioning to make it to the finish line, it will make you a stronger individual... for your next job.
A great resource pool to hire talent from for any other company. SGS inadvertently has trained it's employees to be hard working, dependable and resilient in the most deplorable, mental, physical, and environmental conditions

The typical work of petroleum inspector work on board tanker vessel, merchant ship, factories, production plants and other manufacturing facilities.
Once before as junior Deck officer working in tanker vessel carriage of petroleum product  learn and gain knowledge and experience.
Management - monitoring the quality of materials used, inspecting any defects and discrepancies that might compromise the operation, generating reports to assess the the product costing, manage testing of chemicals or petroleum products, sample petroleum/petrochemical products for laboratories analysis.
The hardest part of job, Ensuring the safety of workers and the public; petroleum products  are flammable and explosive, investigating complaints, Ensuring quality control
The enjoyable part when the company accepted me in this job


Top Job Titles	Average salary
Laboratory technician 4 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Analyst 6 salaries reported	$48,833 per year
Foreur 2 salaries reported	$128,386 per year
Inspector 3 salaries reported	$48.83 per hour
Laborer 1 salary reported	$21.50 per hour

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