1) Horrible Pandemic Response
So much for practicing “the highest degree of integrity and ethics.”
PACCAR was slow to acknowledge the pandemic and only acted when they were legally required to, months after the initial outbreak. PACCAR has exploited every possible loophole to ignore or discourage WFH support and continues ignoring state guidelines to allow telecommuting for all eligible employees even while the Delta variant spreads. Senior leadership has created an unsafe, hostile, and paranoid environment because they’d rather block any precedent for WFH instead of acknowledging that employees are burned out, fatigued, and fed up. I guess they like feeling tough at our expense.
Senior management eliminated support for WFH support by requiring signatures from the top 10 people in the company, then flat-out telling department heads that nobody qualifies for remote work even though we busted our butts and outperformed expectations during the lockdown. Prior to his, we are required to come into the office on severe weather days when icy roads and snow banks made driving dangerous, all because most executives live close to the office.
High-performing colleagues with pre-existing conditions or compromised immune systems were told no when they requested WFH support. PACCAR made them acquire doctors notes every few weeks, further burdening an already suffering hospital system. When they were told to report back to the office full-time in September, they promptly left for other companies.
PACCAR pretends like everything has returned to normal. Vaccinated employees don't have to wear a mask if we wear a special little pin, which does nothing to curb transmission when we're all packed into the office with no spacing between workstations. PACCAR is making parents risk infecting their kids at a time when children are being ventilated in hospitals. People are leaving because they’re fed up with being told that “The health and safety of our employees is our number one priority” (actual wording from HR emails.) Positions aren’t being filled because job seekers don’t feel safe coming into an office full-time and the rest of us are picking up the slack.
2) No D&I Support from Senior Management
The company talks about how it established D&I councils at each of its divisions. At Corporate this amounts to little more than sending out brief "Awareness" emails with no real effect, except to alienate people the one year they completely forgot about Black History Month. There is no community outreach, no focus on improving work culture for POC and very little impact on employees. While there are very good, hard-working people trying to change the culture, upper management isn’t involved or engaged beyond the occasional speech at an event. It feels like they don’t care beyond making a superficial effort.
During the BLM protests, many of us were shocked to hear Preston Feight (CEO) say that he had spoken with many other CEOs, including black CEOs, and that he felt it was time to "practice listening" to one another. He made it about him and what he was doing with his extended network, but failed to take any stance of solidarity with POC employees at his company. He alienated many people in doing so and, to this day, PACCAR has failed to address any of the societal issues that continue affecting us. It is incredibly disappointing to hear colleagues talk about how let down they feel.
3) Zero Employee Focus
There is zero focus on morale or on the people. PACCAR focus exclusively on financial performance, which is fine, but doesn’t understand that people are motivated by other people. PACCAR acknowledges service anniversaries and annual company awards but morale, employee well-being and other factors are non-existent. It would be a much better place if they practiced a more holistic approach to their workforce beyond health benefits.
