journeyperson

laborer

insulator

construction laborer

associate project manager

Thermal Systems

Cant wait to quit, if I spend anymore time at this place I don't know how I could explain this life to my wife and kids. 

Typical day at work starts with, being rudely eyed down as you walk into the office. Then theres a mandatory 8am meeting that is utterly useless but valuable to keep an eye on the employees/slaves. 

Then throughout the day you are told one thing to do, then you do it how the managers requested, then they somehow forgot their statements! It seems like the managers have amnesia or alzheimers, its possible most of them got the jobs during the oil/energy boom and thus have no educational background. 

There are some good people that work there, with some real integrity and commitment to their output. Actually, I take that back, that quickly disappears once immersed in the managements' lack of leadership and unfortunate lack of strategic management. Poor decisions and poor accountability. 

The hardest part of the job was pretending to agree to illogical nonsense. Yes = No, basically.

Most enjoyable part of the day, 4:30 PM when we are allowed to leave, but still get the evil glare.

You should know the breaks and anything to do with breaks are treated like slave works...

10-1015 first break - you miss you thats too bad! and somehow some managers like to schedule their meetings with their subordinates at 10 or 3, during our slave break time! 

12-1230 - lunch. only 30 min, only. 

3-315 last break only 15 min, but dont be seen leaving you will get the glare! 

I dont want to leave this on a terrible note, so some good points.
1. they pay on time (mostly)
2. the computers work
3. the president is pretty decent 
4. ind manager gets paid to joke around and have meetings with anyone but non managers he chooses to ignore them completely. (opinion) 
5. free coffeee!!!
6. you get rewarded for brown nosing, so if you are skilled at this you will succeed, albeit without any real knowledge gained but a stinky nose. 
7. Free Parking :) :)

Recommendation: 
place managers in strategic management courses and microsoft office courses.

from what i could see they didn't plan much when they bought out the previous company (owner of that company retired) really poor planning on the funds and horrible organizing. took months to get a shop setup and then things were left everywhere for months on end. any time there was a showing of some sort it was a case of hide everything to make it look good instead of actually sorting things and putting it in proper places.i will admit they put on a good show when you first start, as people seemed like they cared but after a couple weeks you realize they care about only themselves. once in awhile they would even prove it by spending thousands of dollars on a lunch once in a blue moon how good they thought they were as a company but the next week it was cut back after cut back because they had no money.

it was easy to see that of the remaining supervisors (who didn't walk off the job) only had that position because they knew how to brown nose, other then that it was clear they needed proper training. we would get yelled at because a manager or supervisor wanted something and then got it wrong or couldn't be bothered to look it up. it took weeks or months to get a PO to order a small part/piece and then you would hear complaints because something couldn't be fixed... if the company took 5 minutes to plan instead of doing 5000 things at once and finished what they started then they might be ok. we were always told start a task and finish it but then you were demanded to do the other 15 things they needed to do and it was always do things over and over thus earning the name triple systems.

i think the worst thing that stands out is the yelling at employees from across the shop and having them publicly humiliated or threatened. 
there is SO much more but it brings up a headache so ya...

Pros:

Good place to learn if you know who to ask and how to make the opportunity to learn.

Simple ACM panel system.

Good R&D. You'll learn a lot if you take the initiative.

Good pay at least on my end.

Knowledgable people in the jobsite.    

Good support team from the site.

Good progressive thinking from the owner eventhough reality sometimes do not cooperate.

Good utilization of technology.

Good core values*

Efficient data recording but, questionable data and data analysis.

Good fundamentals*

*see cons below


Cons:

Poor upper management. They tend to complicate things.  They can't relate to their subordinates because they think they are smarter than everyone else. They don't notice people agree with them mostly because they are the immediate family of the company's founders. Sad.

Redundant useless processes and protocols... there's an app for that.

Inexperienced PM's can't/don't manage their projects, coordinators do. They mainly manage the upper management's impression on how they do their job.

Core values do not to upper management. 

Fundamentals are being supeceded from time to time by upper management for arbritrary reasons. 

No accountability culture or the person accountable already left the company.

Changes after changes after changes. They change a lot more than Calgay's mountain weather.

Before I started working for the company I've heard that they were planning to buy a private jet to "save money" on airfare for out of town employees. I thought it's just a propaganda from the upper management. After working for them, I really think they were seriouslly contimplating buying one. It doesn't take much to figure out that is not viable and these people went to college. You will see decisions like this from time to time.

Worked for this company for the better part of a decade now and seen a lot of lessons learned and career progress.   What has never faltered is the companies dedication to performing quality work.  Management focuses on improvement of all individual staff members in all positions while building profitably so everyone can remain employed doing what they do best.  The senior managers set high expectations and it is reflected in the culture of accountability, which can be tough, but fair.

The type of projects/buildings that this company helps create are quite remarkable & inspired.  Its' the kind of project you end up pointing out to your kids and grand kids and boast about being a part of.   Building inspired designs is not the same as cookie-cutter buildings, and there is always a big challenge in figuring out how to build it properly, on time and on budget.

Every company has its weak spots, however building low quality buildings is not one of them at this company.  You will need to embrace the grind sometimes, however there are plenty of opportunities to look back at what you've accomplished and see how that hard work can pay off.

Thermal Systems is known for hiring fresh graduates, which should be beneficial if receiving the adequate amount of training. Due to the high amount of turn over, there is a lack of staff who are capable of doing so. On the other hand, the competent staff have been loaded up with so much work, they are working 12 hours days trying to complete their own tasks. Thermal Systems "strives" for their staff to have a work/life balance - I never saw them even attempt to make this attainable for their employees.

The management team is greedy and puts a blind eye to their staff. They walk all over their employees and are never appreciative of the hard work and dedication put forward. There is a major lack of disrespect at this company.

The company underpays their staff and promises a "bonus" which will apparently cover your overtime. From experience, the bonus will not cover the overtime, stress, and anxiety caused from working at Thermal Systems.

Management are very aggressive and rude, most of them are labors  background. Therefore, they have not been to schools and do not know how to be diplomatic, they transfer the field environment into the office which absolutely does not fit. Too many connections, the boss best friend who you can not argue anything with him, even through at no fault of yours, but as soon as you do, you will loose your job immediately. no job security at all, if you say the word UNION you will not be fired only, but you might be killed. their reputation is bad with many companies, especially with government of Canada, because they used to bring people from overseas for work, and then they end up with no jobs with them from the first day. too many sad stories you may hear. if you work from 8 to 4:30 as your contract states, you will be fired, because they expect you to work 10-12 hours.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Best place to work. Everyone is super friendly. Management are awesome and always help. Your carrier will not only advance working here but will also be part of the Thermal Family. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
We work as a team to eliminate any stress so there is non. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very friendly, everyone always helps each other out, one culture we excel through teamwork and one another. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Safety always comes first, so team meeting start off the day and talk through what we will be doing for the day. At the end of the day we all go home happy and look forward to the next.

I worked for Thermal as well and found it to be a lousy company to work for pay was okay and on time however the working environment adherence to safety, the over indulgence of both the crew and foreman of alcohol on out of town jobs.  The quality of workers is highly questionable and they claim an alcohol and drug free work environment which is far from the truth.  The one weekend on an out of town job the foreman and most of the crew where so drunk that I looked over from my work lift and the two of them are sleeping in the lift forty feet up and foreman sleeping in the truck.   Wages are yeah a third less than union with benefits after six months which aren't on par either with union rates either. All in all not a career job more a place to use if you absolutely need a job and it's such a bad environment maybe not even then.

Promises are made upon hire but they will never be met. The problems start with arrogant, entitled management at the highest level. Employees are under paid and over worked. The culture is toxic and revolves around management finger pointing like children and calling it "accountability". If you are looking for a company who respects and compensates its employees, this is not the one for you. The business plan seems to be to hire foreign workers or new grads who need a start and to take advantage of them until they can't take it anymore and quit. Turn over is extremely high. I would not recommend this company to anyone.

This company pays roughly 20% lower than the industry standard.
When I was first hired with this company there were many false promises made.
You will be underpaid and they offer little to no training for the position regardless of what they tell you in the interview.
Upon leaving the company, they refused to provide compensation for my previous month's expenses which included multiple business trips and mileage. When the issue was brought up they claimed they "lost" the paperwork and avoided any resolution to the issue.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Journeyperson 4 salaries reported	$37.50 per hour
Laborer 1 salary reported	$25.00 per hour
Insulator 5 salaries reported	$40.20 per hour
Construction laborer 1 salary reported	$24.50 per hour
Associate project manager 2 salaries reported	$70,000 per year

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