Pros
The pay is the best you’ll find. RR retirement is also way better than social security, or so they say.
Cons
In the beginning it was good, the schedules are great if you like working weird shifts, holidays, graduations, weekends, etc. you kinda eventually get used to it and sometimes you can grab a desk that has one weekend day off. Having days off during the M-F week is actually kinda nice for dr appts, running errands, having the house to yourself, etc. The last year or so I was there was difficult because there were so many changes going on both company wide, procedure wise, etc. Upper management really wanted things to be geared toward making the stakeholders happier and that included hundreds of firings. Myself included. As a Train Dispatcher we thought were untouchable, if you’re running a railroad you have to to have train crew and dispatchers for sure. It’s a hard job to get too. Training is more than 6 months and it really is an intense job. I was in a group of about 60 that got let go in Sept 2020. In the year since I was released (set free), about 60-80 others have walked away and quit. It’s insane that they got rid of so much talent. The ones of us who were let go feel like we were blessed. We got paid a nice severance package and got let go of a job that most of us were growing to hate because of managers, but yet making 6 figures is a job you can’t easily just walk away from. The others who were left behind had all their vacation taken away, many work 6 days a week now, and are stretched thin on desks they don’t know very well. It’s a clusterF. A year out, I REALLY, REALLY miss the paycheck and the people who became my family there, but I don’t miss all the corporate BS.