Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Job security & advancement reviews

CNL does work that matters to all of humanity. The pay and benefits are very good, and most employees enjoy the protection of a union. The management team aspires to greatness, but falls down in execution, which in part is a consequence of a long transition from being purely a federally-funded research and development lab, to, a commercially-driven organization. Personally, this place is the best fit of my career, and there are no barriers to what I can achieve. The fact that my work is now 100% remote, coupled with the very good pay, means that virtually no other employer can make a good-enough offer to entice me away.

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Toxic work environment, corrupt leadership

professional (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 1 June 2023

Very corrupt leadership with contracted management from abroad. Toxic work culture. No real system in place. Old facilities and no chance to advance. Dying organization anyway with old facilities being phased out by the government.

Pros

good pay

Cons

waste of life

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Insights into Canadian Nuclear Laboratories

Based on 24 survey responses

What people like

Time and location flexibility
Feeling of personal appreciation
Fair pay for job

Areas for improvement

Sense of belonging
General feeling of work happiness
Overall satisfaction

Uninspiring

Engineer (Current Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 10 November 2022

Your experience will vary widely depending on your position. But overall the work is quite uninspiring. The pace is really slow. The company is full of life-timers who have very deeply entrenched ways of doing things and cannot tolerate newer ways of working. The location is not the best one could hope for. Good if you're used to living in small towns with almost zero options for good food and restaurants and variety of cuisines. You are virtually stuck in a well.

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Good work environment, interesting work.

R&D Technical Officer (Current Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 19 May 2022

CNL overall is a good company to work for. I personally enjoy the type of work I do and look forward to growing with the company. The company, like many others, needs to work out a plan to make wages more competitive in the current run-away inflation crisis.

Pros

Interesting work, good flexibility and work life balance.

Cons

Somewhat low pay for the cost of living in the area.

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Good place to work

Cyber Security Analyst (Former Employee) - Fredericton, NB - 7 April 2022

Good place to work...The pension is great compared to other private sector.Unionized position. I had worked with lot of experience knowdgeble people

Pros

Good learning curve

Cons

Some time work is slow

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Very low morale

Plumber (Current Employee) - Pinawa - 10 November 2021

Do not work here, toxic culture, low morale. Trades group at the bottom of priority list. Very hard to work there because everyone has been mistreated on several occasions throughout their career there and now most employees are disgruntled .

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My experience at CNL was positive and great team environment.

Project Engineer (Former Employee) - Deep River, ON - 13 September 2021

Really enjoyed working at CNL. I would highly recommend to anyone looking for engineering opportunity and great experience.Great training program and professional development opportunities.

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Respected and treated like a valuable member of the team.

Training Consultant (Current Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 29 January 2021

I love this place. Love it.Perhaps it is because I am a 31 year veteran AND worked for 5 years for a company providing training for the military that I just amazed that supervisors/managers can be respectful and not abusive. The respect I receive is off the charts and the benefits are equally amazing. I simply love love my job of courseware development.

Pros

Creative freedom.

Cons

The odd dinosaur who should retire.

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Non productive

Carpenter (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 11 October 2020

Working in the trades on site is very limited as most of the large jobs are contracted out so trades only get the small tasks to do.A lot of sitting around and waiting for work to start.Micro managed and poor supervision.They are big on safety on site

Pros

Good benefit package

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Great company to work for.

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 21 June 2020

Worked for great people and was provided with an abundance of training in various programs. Hours were flexible and pay was generous. Employees were kept up to date with the various projects going on.

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Jobs at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories

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Project Supervisor - Onsite

Production Coordinator

Professional workplace with friendly co-workers

Process/Mechanical Engineering Student (Former Employee) - Deep River, ON - 16 June 2020

Good company to work for to meet new people in the area. Lots of different branches with in the company to venture into to best benefit yourself and the company.

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World Class facility

Research and Development Technician, Fluids Engineering Technology Branch (Current Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 31 May 2020

CNL is a great place to work. A lot of teamwork and a great research laboratory. There are a variety of avenues that can be explored at Canadian Nuclear Laboratory.

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Great working environment

Engineering Co-op (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 16 April 2020

Flexible working environment and cooperative employees. The company provides a lot of learning opportunities to enhance your interpersonal, technical skills.

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Learning experience

Project Coordinator (Former Employee) - Port Hope, ON - 16 April 2020

Spent over seven years with this organization. The last three years, several organizational/management/staffing changes. I have simply decided to step away from the nuclear industry.

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Not happy with how I was wrongfully dismissed and not offered another position.

Administrative Assistant (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 13 March 2020

It was very clicky up there and I felt very in the way and dumb. Was to be a one year term and I was let go at 6 months as the person off came back early.

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A lot to learn from

Engineering Summer Student (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 18 February 2020

Being a first year student, I didn't have a lot of prior work experience. The engineers there were very lenient and put me up to speed and gave me a lot of tasks to learn with.

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There is a deteriorating culture and lack of trust at CNL

Occupational Safety and Health (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 5 February 2020

The company is seriously mismanaged and experiencing financial struggles that are affecting productivity, the culture and job security. Management is very secretive about true long term goals and the true plan is not disclosed to current employees. The company is working very hard to downsize employees. There has been recent large scale layoffs with rumblings of more to come in the very near future. I do NOT recommend with the current state of affairs with CNL.

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Best company for people who seeking retirement soon

Instrumentation technician/technologist (Current Employee) - Pinawa, MB - 2 February 2020

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories at Pinawa is the best working plant for people who seeking the retirement shortly. Or old age people. Because there are nothing much to do there. Most of the buildings are gone. Process are stopped. No maintenance , Boiler equipments. It’s a nuclear company but no documentation. No support from engineers because they don’t have enough knowledge.All experience people are gone.

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lacking ethics, leadership

Project Lead (Current Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 29 January 2020

Wide range of work environments, as organization is very compartmentalized. Lots of corporate noise about ethics, transformation, safety and respect. Actual behaviour does not align with messaging. The site operating company exists to milk as much from their 10 year contract as they can, and don't seem to have any qualms about misrepresenting the success of their projects and initiatives. The key to a advancement is being willing to repeat any corporate spin without shame. "High Performing Organization" means layoffs. "Environmental Remediation" means creating rubble piles by tearing down buildings. "Safety Culture" means lots of paperwork and no ownership. I could go on. If you are a performer, be prepared to be obstructed at every turn. The place is still a bureaucracy. How you are treated will depend on who you work for. Some groups have managers that should never be put in charge of people. Bullies. Others have genuinely good people and competent leaders in charge. Management direction is schizophrenic as there seems to be a revolving door at the director level. The more junior you are, and the less you know, the better this place gets. Good pay for the area, adequate benefits, untested pension plans (cut off from government pension plans in 2018). If you have to take medical time off, be prepared for daily calls and demands to return to work from Morneau Shepell agents. They have a contract to harass employees back to work. DO NOT recommend for positions with IT, Supply Chain, Project Management, Health and Safety, Trades, Environmental Sciences. Most of the -

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Co-workers are amazing, the area is beautiful. Management was beyond terrible.

Nuclear Operator (Current Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 14 January 2020

I enjoy working here but there is no job security and layoffs have already begun. Often it is impossible to advance due to abundance of unions and over regulation.

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unique workplace

Software Development Intern - C++ Simulation & Modeling (Former Employee) - Chalk River, ON - 5 December 2019

has a relaxed culture as it is government, it was an internship so pay was slightly above average but the type of work you get to work on is super interesting.

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