PACCAR reviews

3.6

63% would recommend to a friend

(1,039 total reviews)
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Preston Feight

72% approve of CEO

52% positive business outlook

PACCAR has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 1,039 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The PACCAR employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
1.0
Aug 1, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Cannot comment because there are no pros to working here.

Cons

The experience with the Corporate Accounting department was quite challenging. The long working hours, especially during busy periods, required coming to the office on weekends, which made achieving work-life balance nearly impossible. Although they promised to compensate for working late, the process of requesting time off was quite painful and cumbersome. Micromanagement was prevalent, and it felt as if every task was under constant scrutiny, leaving little room for autonomy and creativity. Subordinates often faced mental and verbal abuse, which was demoralizing and created a hostile work environment. In addition, the manager's constant pestering for results every hour only added to the already stressful work environment. The relentless pressure to deliver instant updates and progress reports became overwhelming and hindered the team's ability to focus on their tasks effectively. The lack of consideration for personal time and family commitments was apparent, as they expected employees to plan their lives around work, even sacrificing weekends. The manager's constant loud eating and phone conversations in another language made it challenging to concentrate and work peacefully. In conclusion, the corporate accounting department's approach to management and work-life balance left much to be desired. The excessive working hours, micromanagement, and disregard for personal time were major downsides that affected the overall work experience. It is my hope that they can address these issues and create a more supportive and respectful work environment in the future.

1.0
Oct 1, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A paycheck (that is below market value) If you play your cards right, and you figure out whom of your non-management peers you can trust, you will make some good friends at PACCAR. I emphasize the word trust, because it takes time to figure out whom you can trust. If you accept an offer at PACCAR, especially if you are a woman, it is critical that you find your people to look out for each other and lift each other up. In general, no one at PACCAR will lift you up, but this is especially true if you identify as a woman. PACCAR men stroke each others' egos all the time. Ladies, you have to find your female peers who will look out for you.

Cons

All of the negative reviews you are reading on Glassdoor are true! My advice if you are a potential candidate or considering accepting an offer is to RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!! Management is incompetent and delusional. Everything they do is for show. They do not care for anyone but themselves and making money. The company is run by a narcissist psychopath chairman. The hearsay and rumors you hear about PACCAR are all true and the weirdest part is that senior management thinks it's normal, when it's not. PACCAR is the most openly racist and sexist company I have ever worked for. If you are a woman, forget advancing and moving up and pay increases. If you are a person of color, the gaps are disgustingly larger. They pretend that's not true. If you are a woman and you ask your boss for a raise because you know what your male colleague of the same grade level and years of experience is making, he will turn it around on you and will demand to know who told you about the man's salary. Even though it is completely common for employees to know and talk about each other's salaries. Turnover is out of control but directors choose to ignore it. People become managers because of nepotism and sucking up. The HR division is run by a clown who doesn't know what he's doing and his minions exist to serve him and the CEO. Teams operate lean. Not just "short staffed" but there is no rhyme or reason for anything. For a multi-billion dollar company, there are only 7 recruiters in the United States who are also involved in "projects" that quickly die without buy-in or financial investment from senior leadership. This company does not care about you, never has and never will. Even if you think they care about you, do not be fooled. I learned that the hard way. They will work and work and work you with no recognition or financial compensation. If you are a woman and you are doing a good job, your male boss MIGHT give you a minuscule raise (I emphasize the word MIGHT because it is a very slim chance, and if you do get a pay increase it is measley). But he will tell you not to tell anyone because it "will hurt others' feelings who did not get a raise." Then, they will make a big announcement about your male co-worker who got a raise. Salaries are way off market value for the Seattle area. It is a joke and no one of the education and experience level they expect would accept such a low offer, especially when you have to wear a suit and tie and a blazer and pantyhose and come into the office everyday. It is bizarre! The company intentionally failed to acknowledge BLM. In the CEO's quarterly all employee meeting, employees can submit questions to the CEO. Many people asked how they were going to respond to BLM and what they were going to say to acknowledge (the very few) employees of color. The CEO got mad and his response was that if he addressed BLM, then he would be alienating people and that PACCAR's stance is to not take sides. In other words, he didn't want his and the other white guy "OpCom" feelings to be hurt by shifting the conversation away from themselves for once and addressing an uncomfortable topic. This company is in denial about everything going on in the world outside of their prison gates and ugly old walls that are an eye-sore compared to all of the modern buildings in Bellevue. When the world was shutting down due to COVID-19, Sr. HR Directors gathered in secret and laughed and pretended like nothing was wrong. By the time they came up with a temporary work from home plan, PACCAR was the last company still coming into the office every single day, and they were defying the governor's orders. Eventually, they had to comply, and the temporary work from home schedules that took the HR Directors weeks to meet in secret about and not communicate about, went to waste because the governor closed the state and everyone had to work from home. That was the end of March/early April. They didn't talk about COVID much after that. The entire focus was to get everyone back into the office to prove to the "OpCom" that employees were still being productive. In their minds, you have to be physically present in the office to prove that you are doing your job. Their motto is "we are a work from work company." PACCAR was back at 50% capacity by June 2020 when COVID was still new and the world was in a frenzy, and in the minds of senior management, COVID was over. That is still true as the world is in year 2 of the pandemic. Employees were given "pins" to wear if they had been vaccinated, but no one has talked about the Delta variant or the fact that many employees are still afraid or have been impacted by COVID. Unless you are desperate for a job and need to accept an offer, keep looking. Or, accept the offer and continue looking for another job. If you are smart, professional and educated, technologically advanced and want to talk about the world around you outside of PACCAR, and if you are progressive, you will hate it at PACCAR.

1.0
Nov 10, 2017

Mediocre

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work Life Balance is great (as a salaried, non-manager technical employee). Seldom is overtime expected and the work load is seldom overwhelming (the one exception I witnessed to this was for production-related positions which is to be expected). Employment: if you are salaried, chances are you will not ever be fired. (There are some obvious pitfalls to this practice, namely tons of deadweight). Resources: it's a big company, so there are many opportunities for professional training: technical classes such as CREO/CAD, GD&T, Green and Black Belt certifications as well as industry-specific training in material cost excellence, leadership training, etc. For the most part the content of such classes is quite good (implementation, well that's a whole different beast). Given the low overtime expectations and the stability of employment, you could say that their salary and benefit packages are appropriate.

Cons

There is no expectation for things to be done the right way. I’ll go further, there are no incentives or rewards for doing things the right way. I’ll go even further, there is a tacit and widespread hostility towards doing things the right way. The real priority is doing what you are asked to do without questioning it and being able to report that all your goals are being met. The result is an eerie mentality where the goalposts are shifted, inconsistencies are overlooked and everything that does not add up is rationalized away. Aside from the relatively few who are discontent within the organization everyone else adopts a version of ‘things are not perfect, but where are they anyway?’ and implicitly or explicitly condone the way things get done. The ensuing dynamics are those of expedient problem-solving by management in order to present a situation under control, frustration or impotent resistance by those employees unwilling or unable to overlook the duplicitousness of the whole culture and indifference or complicity by everyone else. For me, one of the most difficult consequences to live with was the lack of pride of workmanship. The norm is just to do things and not ask any questions. Further, there were very few, if any, opportunities that actually allowed for ‘good work’ to be done; most positions being tailored around unrealistic or ineffectual job descriptions, responsibilities or expectations. Another noteworthy consequence is the inability of the company to attract and retain talent. If you’re looking for motivated, talented employees looking to do good work, this is not the company for it. I met only two managers who I looked up to in my entire stay and both of them were senior managers who arrived at the company after having made their careers elsewhere and who by this point were simply finishing it off in a comfortable note prior to retirement. This is a place where mediocrity abounds. most live comfortably next to it, some fight it to no avail and yet others embrace it full-heartedly. Bottom Line: There is something to be said about stability and 40-hour-week expectations. If all you want is a ‘job’ then look no further than PACCAR. If right now what you really need is stability or a leg-up, then PACCAR is a decent bet. Just be aware of the risks and drawbacks going in. If you’re interviewing, I’d suggest you be very skeptical about any job descriptions, expectations or promised opportunities – an opportunity to fix ‘____’ means something very different inside PACCAR than outside it. So I would suggest you get as specific an answer as possible (anything that veers into the opportunity to do ‘projects’ should be are red flag). Also, do not underestimate the effect of the culture on your mental health. Even if you are a laid back, flexible person the requisite load of mental gymnastics may come to eventually affect you. I’d suggest that you assess whether there are any potential areas of conflict where you’d be uncomfortable doing things out of expediency. Try to assess which skills you’ll be able to develop no matter what and what your exit strategy will be as this place may simply suck you in into professional irrelevancy. One last note for engineers (of any kind as far as I’m concerned): Be extra careful. The foregoing advise is especially germane to any technical position in PACCAR. In most likelihood you’ll only learn things that are PACCAR-specific so that you may only be ever employable at PACCAR, especially if you are just starting out.

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Glassdoor has 1,213 PACCAR reviews submitted anonymously by PACCAR employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if PACCAR is right for you.