machine operator

extrusion operator

operator

maintenance person

operator trainee

Hood Packaging Corporation

If you're single, no kids, and just need to hold a job down until a better opportunity presents itself, then this would be the perfect fit.
Note: You'll likely work every Saturday during your tenure. Non negotiable. More on that later.

Coworker drama is through the roof. A constant drama fest between people, morale is completely shot, likely because of the overscheduling and little to no down time. Management feeds this fire, either taking photos of someone else's work and trying to get them reprimanded by other supervisors, spreading rumors, and playing favorites. If you come to work here, I strongly recommend you keep to yourself and do NOT get involved in any drama.

Machines haven't received any PM (Prevent Maintenance) for years. A lot of parts are held together by some small miracle, tape, glue, or a combination of the three. 

Prepare to do a lot of standing around. You will not be released early due to a lack of work. You'll just stand there, 8 to 12 hours just waiting for something to do. Easily the most painful aspect about this job, but really easy money if you can day dream.

Saturdays are almost mandatory. I think I've had only 3 weeks of no Saturdays out of my 6 month tenure. I requested one Saturday off to basically say my goodbyes to my Grandfather and I was basically told "Tough luck. You'll get a mark if you don't show up." They are definitely not family friendly. Do not let them mislead you.

Local 105 Steekworkers Union is a pretty weak union. Standard initiation fee, small dues and fees every paycheck. They'll fight for you if you have a credible grievance, such as a pay rate change that management will never sign off. Other than that, they're pretty non existent.

Advancement is based off of seniority rather than skill. You could have an absolute dunce that stayed there for years and advances solely based on the amount of time he's been with the union. If you're looking to make top dollar, you'll either have to wait for someone to retire and cross your fingers that no one with seniority takes the bid.

Last: Management is definitely the worse and is what ultimately caused me to leave. None of your supervisors or even production manager will have little no knowledge of how any machine operates. If your machine breaks down, you'll likely have a winded conversation as to why we need production, worst, you can't call for maintenance only the supervisor can. More often than not, the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. The plant manager is probably the worst and most demoralizing person. Within my 3 months, he already talked about lay offs happening due to a glue shortage, but that we were also picking up several different customers from other plants, so we were going to have to work Sundays too. It was almost as if they were trying to rush into running out of glue by scheduling constant Saturdays just to lay off people. Luckily, neither ever happened, but the cloud just looms over your head, causing unneeded stress for what is already a stressful environment.
When I put my 2 week notice in, as is common practice, I got dragged into the office by management, and they acted as if my coworker was the problem and that she was causing me to leave (The rumor is...). Completely unprofessional.

Overall, this is probably one of the worst companies and work environments I've ever had to endure. If you're just looking for a job, this is okay, but if you're looking to have a career, I implore you to seek elsewhere.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The checks cleared. And I liked working with some of the other operators and backtenders.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management was very unprofessional and under qualified for any leadership role. It's no wonder the plant closed due to the inefficient decision making. Lack of communication in every way. Management didn't communicate with the supervisors and nobody on the floor had any idea about quality product, how to run the machines efficiently. It was all about running the machines even if product was out of the customers specifications. So much wasted time. So many customer returns. Maintenance never did preventive maintenance on any machines it was expected to be done by the operators most of whom did not do it. Under qualified maintenance.  Just poor standards all around. Management did not care about our safety or quality of the product, just run the machines. Favoritism was a problem. Double standards were an issue. Safety issues were ignored. The main manager was a bully literally yell at operators for stopping the machine to fix issues with the product or to make machine running more efficient. In my mind a good operator knows how to run the machines, make adjustments to keep product in spec. Set it up to run and keep running not just to run and jam up. Management expected the operators to run the machines as I call it the stop start method. Machines were set up so poorly that they would run for a minute then jam up. Clear the jam up then run again for a few minutes and jams up. That is not efficient, and very stressful to run like that for a minimum of 8 hours. So everyday I would come to work and half to do at least an hour or two of adjustments and it would run non stop for the remainder of the day only to come in the next day to do it all over again. It was actually a blessing to me the plant closed.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
We had a saying at work. We make bags not sense. Or to do things the most difficult way that we can. The customers will never know just send it anyway.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful and full of workplace animosity

Hood hired me as a manufacturing supervisor. During the interview they mentioned in passing that they work an "occasional" Saturday. Wasn't long after I was hired that we began working EVERY SATURDAY. Come to find out from the people would have be there a long time, this has been the status quo forever. Completely misleading!!! There was also another supervisor hired at the same time as me. He was a 20+ yr holder of season tickets for the Oregon Ducks. He had to miss every game. He also said he was mislead about the Saturday work during the interview. Management had no answer for why or how we would get out of working Saturday; only that we were always behind schedule. No goal to shoot for. 

***WARNING*** if you are interviewing for a manufacturing supervisor position at the Vancouver WA. plant you WILL work every Saturday. Do not let them lie to you and tell you it will be "occasional". 

Morale among the union employees is terrible. Constant fighting and bickering. I believe it is due to very poor communication and leadership from management. 

Zero improvement in process. There are no viable systems in place to improve any part of the process. You see the same quality mistakes being made repeatedly. Very little preventative maintenance done on the equipment. Constant breakdowns while staffed and running for simple wear parts like belts and bearings. None of the procedures are standardized. Every operator sets machines up and runs according to their own tribal knowledge. This leads to terribly long set up times.

This place is horrible to work at. Minorities get treated horribly wrong, no matter how many hours you work or how good you are at your job. The General Manager, and production Supervisors are apart of a "Good Ole Boys" club that conspires against minorities. The front office only employs 1 minority and they will hire a a caucasian person with no experience over a minority with years of experience. The Supervisors talk to minorities like we live in the 1930s and the GM goes along with it even resulting in name calling. Lead employees can sleep on the job and when employees provide proof such as pictures they are told to leave the situation alone by the HR Manager. Employees that they like can be called back to work after turning in their ID card and walking off the job without consequences. Diversity does not exist at this company. Upper Management sought out and paid a caucasian lady who had quit to come back to work by offering her more money to avoid hiring an African American temp employee that had been doing the job for almost a year, and did an excellent job! Please do not work for this company. It will be the worst decision you will ever make. Keep your sanity and stay away from Hood Packaging!

typical day at work: Running multiple blown film lines by yourself, even though it's supposed to be 1 person per line. Feeling rushed and non stop busy, mostly because the equipment is old and constantly having problems. 

what you believe you learned: Some experience in the blown film industry. Which can be good if you like doing this type of work.

management: They only care about production and making money. They say to do stuff safely and take your time, but if they feel it's taking too long, then you get in trouble. 

workplace culture: A 2 out of 10. They don't replace anything and still expect you and the equipment to run like you're a 20 year old with brand new equipment. If you have a complaint, you might as well keep it to yourself because they don't care. They expect you to work the full 12 hours without breaks if they can get away with it. 

the hardest part of the job: Running the multiple lines by yourself in the summer time when it's over 100 degrees everywhere in the facility. Trying to stay motivated enough to do a decent job while you're here. 

the most enjoyable part of the job: The other operators I work with make it enjoyable.

The job itself isn't too hard once you understand it and the pay is alright. Between mandatory overtime and the new attendance system (which we've already lost a few employees that were great at their job over) don't expect to have much time at all at home. If you do expect free time it will usually be taken by a last minute overtime sheet after you've already made plans. No reward for hard work. You will be just a number to management. While interviewing they will preach about how they want to promote from within while constantly hiring higher positions from outside. New guys come in and train then fail their assessments but get moved to operator anyways and you will be expected to pick up the slack. A lot of the machines are outdated, constantly breaking, and barely patched up but you will always be asked to push them to their limits. As I said, you will be given an employee ID number and you very much will just be seen as that number while you say goodbye to your time with your family and friends.

Work at Hood in the maintenance department.  Work schedule is a Pitman schedule, so you work 2 on 2 off, 3 on 2 off, 2 on 3 off (every other weekend is a 3 day weekend, only work 15 days a month but get paid the equivalent of 44 hours a week).  Pay is slightly above average for the industry in this area, but the medical benefits are fantastic (still on a copay plan, and it's very inexpensive compared to my last 2 jobs)  There are times that the hours can get long, especially during peak vacation season and you're covering for others, but overall they've improved greatly at keeping overtime down as much as possible.  Company is very invested in success, and is very good at promoting from within.  Definitely a good place to work.

Pay is decent for the type of work but that's literally the only perk. Company doesn't care about your life outside at all, only the people with the most seniority can take vacation time off, and the people with the least seniority get forced to work overtime on their off days constantly. No room for advancement, plant manager is constantly disrespectful every time he talks to anybody. Any issues with the machines that effect production are met with condescension and passive aggressive jokes from management about how you must be breaking the machines on purpose instead of them trying to help you solve the issue.

This would be a great place to work, if it had a plant manager that didnt bring his home life to work. He was tolerable before his divorce...then he seemed bipolar and created a hostile work environment a few times with me specifically, then the next day, acted like nothing happened and patted me on the shoulder, greeting me. Micromanagement is how this place operates often and fingers get pointed whenever something goes wrong. 
Communication is poor. It could use a few positions cleared and rehired with new people...starting at the top. I DREADED coming to work, way too much.
Forced overtime happened a lot and you were expected to drop any plans you had.
The pay was good though and the work isnt extremely difficult, if you pay attention to detail.

Management prioritizes nepotism over technical skill, often hiring and promoting unqualified friends of the leadership from the same company. I experienced a lack of communication, a double standard in accountability, and a complete disregard for modern technology. Despite going above and beyond, my accomplishments were ignored by a manager who created a toxic environment. This culture lacks respect for diversity and engineering expertise. Avoid if you want a professional, merit-based workplace.


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 8 salaries reported	$24.43 per hour
Extrusion operator 25 salaries reported	$24.12 per hour
Operator 40 salaries reported	$23.26 per hour
Maintenance person 42 salaries reported	$30.01 per hour
Operator trainee 21 salaries reported	$26.73 per hour

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