Work-life balance? Fuggedaboutit. You may see your co-workers more than your own family. Transportation is a 24/7 business. If you're a new hire on an extra board you will have little to no social life outside of work unless your friends are also working odd hours like you. However, this is not a surprise and is made very clear during pre-employment testing, interviews and training.
Lack of and slow pace of operational decision making (being reactive rather than proactive). Improving this would dramatically reduce the time and impact of service disruptions. Those decision makers seem to forget these trains have hundreds of PAYING passengers that will choose other travel options if you keep jerking them around.
Customer service employees are not provided with enough information for passengers during extensive delays
Surly, rude and incompetent front-line employees that are quick to say "I Don't Know" or "That Ain't My Job" to basic questions but on the same hand, may not be empowered or have the resources to step outside of their job descriptions to find information and help customers. It's embarrassing to watch those interactions as a fellow employee.
Nepotism. This is slowly going away as the mothers/fathers/grandfathers/uncles retire and the company is forced to hire QUALIFIED and COMPETENT individuals
Departments are run like kingdoms. Depending on where you work, non-managerial staff may not even interact professionally with other departments, let alone know how they contribute to the company
