NOVA Chemicals Employee Reviews

Like any place, some good, some bad. This is a great company milking the life out of 60 year old assets in the safest, most environmentally friendly way possible. Nothing wrong with that. Some of the leadership is awesome. Some, well, not so much. STRONGLY recommend Nova to anyone.

Pros

Fantastic pay and benefits

Cons

Clicky, competitive, talk a good game about inclusivity, but....

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Really good place to work

IT Technician (Current Employee) - Sarnia, ON - 4 July 2023

Helpful. Good pay and lots of positives. Work life balance is the best part. Support in the field could be a lot better but time off and pay make up for it. Would recommend. Management can be poor at times but workers are competent and helpful.

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Insights into NOVA Chemicals

Based on 29 survey responses

What people like

Clear sense of purpose
Feeling of personal appreciation
Ability to learn new things

Excellent Company to Work For

Mechanical Engineering Co-op Student (Former Employee) - Joffre, AB - 4 May 2023

Loved my time spent with NOVA (16 months as a co-op student). Staff are outstanding, pay is very competitive, and a great and supportive company culture. Also made strong efforts to incorporate diversity and inclusivity into their workplace. No complaints working here.

Pros

Staff, pay, culture, D&I, lunches

Cons

None

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Responsible and supportive to growth

Process Engineer (Former Employee) - Joffre, AB - 23 March 2023

Excellent safety culture, and management supportive of career growth both horizontally and vertically. Competitive pay and excellent work/life balance.

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Terrible Leadership

Coordinator (Current Employee) - Joffre, AB - 15 March 2023

Over the last couple years the company morale and environment has tanked. Far too much change , lack of resources, rework and chaos, all while trying to balance work with unfairness and favouritism. No one is held accountable and the problematic folks keep getting promoted ! Would not recommend!!!!

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In summary

Advisor (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 11 March 2023

Similar to other organizations you will meet some good people and some unkind selfish people. You will be fine if you happen to land under a good leader.

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Toxic, stressed out work culture

Operator (Current Employee) - Joffre, AB - 5 November 2022

This company has gone way down hill in the last 2 years. They are still making money hand over fist but because of the economic times, have cut back everything that was a perk. Most everyone is unorganized or confused as to what their job is.

Pros

The 5 week schedule

Cons

Managment

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Very interesting,always reasonable and safe.

Journeyman Welder (Former Employee) - Corunna, ON - 22 August 2022

It was a wonderful job,everybody was goal oriented and working to an end),the shutdown was orderly,the people of all trades worked together,never a conflict, safety was always job one,the pay was great and on time and correct,all in all I,d say 1st class ,I would be happy to go back anytime for KELGOR and NOVA CHEMICAL.

Pros

Organized and safe, reasonable days work for a reasonable days pay.

Cons

No cons for me

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Not good

Process Engineer Co-op (Former Employee) - Joffre, AB - 16 August 2022

good pay but baaad environment, i had to reach down into toxic water with my hands. Avoid at all cost unless you are starving to death and need to be paid.

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Great Company

Process Engineering Intern (Current Employee) - Red Deer, AB - 5 August 2022

Great workplace with satisfactory salaryLots of learning as a co-op and great support system to help succeed at workplace. Lots of efforts being made to transfer into greener energy

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Jobs at NOVA Chemicals

See more jobs

Technician, Operations

Lacombe County, AB

17 days ago

Maintenance Supervisor, Instrumentation & Electrical

Lacombe County, AB

12 days ago

Scientist, Material - Product Development

Calgary, AB

7 days ago

Engineer, Process Control

Lacombe County, AB

1 day ago

Technologist, Research

Calgary, AB

5 days ago

Good place to work

Chemical Plant Operator / Panel operator (Current Employee) - Red Deer, AB - 7 June 2022

Good benefits, vacation etc,Work with alot of great people overallMinimal time off company is understaffed lots of pressure to work extra shifts often run short

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Great workplace

Associate - Administrative (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 15 March 2022

Respectful work environment, professional and great overall. The management is great very respectful calm environment and room to learn from leadership.

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Very Poor leadership!!

Maintenance Technician (Current Employee) - Joffre, AB - 3 February 2022

Very Poor leadership!!No job satisfactionGoing through a re-org that isn't going goodpeople get promoted by who they know not what they knowVery poor moral across the company

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Great place to work if you can put up with whining co-workers

Operator (Current Employee) - Joffre, AB - 13 January 2022

Operator role as a whole is a pretty good gig, some days are very busy but most are not. Always something to do to keep you busy though if that's what you like. The maintenance and modernization is kept up pretty good.

Pros

Great pay and shift schedule, the training can be good. Great experience and nice mix of fast pace and slower work environment.

Cons

Crybaby co-workers who don't know what the real world is like

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Very collaborative environment. Caring management

Research Engineer – Materials and Metallurgy (Current Employee) - Calgary, AB - 7 January 2022

NOVA culture is such that leaders and most of employees treat employees as human being with most of respect and care. Innovation centre plays a key role in company growth with many educated and talented people. Company stakeholders value research and development in company advancement. Highly recommend NOVA.

Pros

Collaborative, innovative, team setting, leadership

Cons

Sometimes over loaded with high level of stress and short timeline.

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Excellent Role Clarity

Administrative Associate (Former Employee) - Joffre, AB - 22 December 2021

Roles are well defined. SOPs are clear and concise with a standardized change management process in place. Nothing is rushed unless it is truly emergency. Excellent safety culture.

Pros

Contracts are clearly defined. KPIs are regularly monitored and performance is maintained evenly.

Cons

Drive to the plant, traffic in and out. Bus service and in town parking has since been implemented to my understanding.

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Significant decline in the past couple years.

Engineer (Current Employee) - Joffre, AB - 17 November 2021

Used to be a good place to work but I’m recent years NOVA has brought in teams of ignorant and incompetent management and directors. These directors and managers have shown willful ignorance in taking the time to learn what has been successful for NOVA, and instead are hellbent on trying to blindly copy the previous organization that let them go. Ignorance and nepotism has made internal progression and advancement a thing of the past and hard work is not rewarded.

Pros

Lots of good people work at NOVA

Cons

Ignorant management and directors.

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Very toxic environment and fake culture

Engineering Technologist (Current Employee) - Joffre, AB - 18 May 2021

CliqueNepotism More leaders than doers - (at leas at the Joffre site) Inept and VERY unexperienced leadersKnowledge and experienced don't count"Yes" person only listened to, and/or promotedSay something that the leaders don't like hearing and... you're out, or your career path is doomedPack of wolfs-promote their own species withinMid/low level leadership don't convey messages to upper management

Pros

All the Pros are gone. Used to be a decent company to work for, not anymore

Cons

Too many to capture

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Very stressful and management is terrible

Operations (Former Employee) - Joffre, AB - 16 May 2021

Management will throw you under the bus to save there own jobs. Very stressful environment to work for would recommend staying away from this place If you have other opportunities.

Pros

Free lunches and team building events

Cons

Management will throw you under the bus at any given opportunity

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Inept Management, that really think they are something special

Technical Support (Current Employee) - Joffre, AB - 23 February 2021

Very dysfunctional management, some leaders are good, but many are on power trips, and live to cause employees to live in fear for their jobs. They even actually said, they want to instil a “constant sense of unease” (anxiety), amongst employees. Its no wonder they have so many fatality incidents, As everyone is constantly walking on eggshells, which is how they want it to be.

Pros

Decent pay

Cons

Everything else

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Great place to work

IT Security Analyst (Current Employee) - Sarnia, ON - 26 January 2021

Great company, good environment, and coworkers, innovative projects. Safety culture company that cate for the well-being of their employees and extends to providing a responsible, collaborative and engaging workplace.