machine operator

press operator

Ventra Plastics

A typical day of work... I worked as an operator for 2 and a half years and now I am a material handler. I come in, do a walk around of my machines and check my material. I fill my clip hoppers and then get on my forklift. They recently cut some jobs so now I have 5 machines that are my responsibility. I have to take completed packaging away and put it up in the warehouse, as well as put empty packaging in at the machines. I also have to keep an eye on my material to make sure it doesn't run out, as well as components. We are supposed to get two ten minute breaks and a twenty minutes lunch break. We just take our ten minute break on our own if we have time, which I usually do not. We get relieved for our lunch break which was recently cut from thirty minutes down to twenty, so going somewhere to get food is out of the question. The management is somewhat subpar. If there is a change we usually hear about it from the other shifts, rather than our supervisor. Also they cant make up their minds, one week they want us to do something a certain way, the next it will be something different. The shifts are not on the same page and do not work together to get things done. We used to have thirty minutes overlap at the end of our shift to clean or get anything caught up, but they recently took that away also. The hardest part of my job is keeping up, as I said before, they cut some jobs so it has put a bigger work load on everyone. The forklifts we drive only go 8 mph so I can only go as fast as that will allow me. The most enjoyable part of my job is some of my coworkers. I work with some great people, and its not hard to make the best out of a bad work day. I am glad I have gotten the chance to work at Ventra through the years. I have learned a lot about manufacturing and time management. I have picked up valuable skills I will be able to use in future work environments. I am wanting to find another job because I am topped out, and have been for a while, and there just isn't any room to move up at Ventra. I am also in school to get my associates in applied science at South Central Kentucky Community and Technical College. I am doing the industrial electrician program and I am over halfway done.

On a typical day at ventra. we would start the day out with a morning briefing on what issues like Quality, saftey, if we are having visitors coming through. then we would go to are work areas and start working. My job was training new people or temps. i learned alot in 10 years such as just about everything we did there. Worked very well with management like on how to talk with them on what we might need to make the line run more efficient safety issues. where to place the personal to make the line run better. The hardest part of the job was are racking station the parts would get heavy after about 8 hours. I just love my job working there and the people i worked with it was a fun place to work. you treat the people right they work hard for you. Now if they are doing something wrong then they deserve to be talked to or discipline. But i just love to work hard do my job and go home safe and that means all of us go home safe.

My typical work day consist of going in at 11:00P.M and getting off around 8: in the morning. When I get to work I have to start up machines except on Sunday when I have to come in at 8:00 P.M so I can heat the machines up before I can start them. I have a total of 9 machines that I keep running and have to do water checks every three hours on.

The whole 19 years I have been there I have learned how to operate fork lifts and over head cranes, how to supervise other co workers, how to set dye cast tools and process machines.

The management was good but had its ups and downs just like every thing else.

I tried to get along with all of my co-workers and I did get along with most of them.

The hardest part of my job was going to work late and not getting home till 8 the next morning because it seemed as if I was missing out on my children's lives

The best part of my job was I got the chance to work with some really good people and form friendships with some

What is the best part of working at the company?
What can I say they make you cone in at 330a.m.for overtime mandatory sometimes but they sint want to pay you the premium 3rd shift pay. Management has their favorites, no appreciation for employees insurance not great no cookouts or much bonus

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Overtime mandatory come in at 3:30a.m. when your regular shift starts at 630a.m if not you get points find that very unfair. You get write ups for nothing

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Is diversity of races environment somewhat hostile can't go much to the bathroom team leads are not always around to give u a break if they do they get upset.  Can't leave the line someone has to replace u

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work in the line assembly we make tailights

What is the best part of working at the company?
Always on the move. There’s always work to do and zero downtime. Good people to work with in all areas.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being on time. I’m 45 minutes away and my start time was 6am and it was during the winter months. Only missed two days of work while there. Once due to driving conditions in the winter the other due to the flu.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Doing your job was top priority. Helping out in other areas always welcomed but only if your own work was completed. This company has a huge turnover especially in the plant area.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
6-730am in the tool room inside the plant monitoring what the workers took for their job for that day then from 8-3 worked in H.R.

Decent place to work, if you want to be given a job to do and go. Jobs are easy to learn but most are really fast so you will have to work quickly. Typically work 8 hours M-F but there is a lot of overtime because of being short staffed, so expect 2-3 12 hour shifts per week and maybe a weekend here and there. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
If you knew the right people you didn't have to work at all. Unfortunately you have to be good at gambling and golf..

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Heat. People, and over all the work that others didn't want to do was shoved onto a lower guys plate making it more stressful but! There was free coffee.. if you didn't make enough production the guys on top didn't get there extra bonuses. So they are sure to hit there marks. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very hot. Even in winter. People throw race around for advantage over others.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
"Survival of the fittest". "Baptized in fire"  and "your replacable" are a few of the things told to me on my first week...

Good thing about work place is learning different job's overall it's never on course don't know what you are doing stand around for 10min before team leader,RtR,supervisor come around to let you know what you are doing there is no communication talk to employees with no sense max out at 15hr bring Temps in at 14.25 hr make you feel  like  you are not part of the company seen people come  and go good workers that have been there for years retires they don't give nothing no matter how many years you have been there don't care the few jobs they have to move up to pays 50 cents more not a good place to work now advancement in this company 

If you want to be belittled and unappreciated every day this is the place for you.  We are not allowed into the HR offices until we phone them from the lobby, tell them what you want and they will decide if you are worthy of there attention. They say this is for our privacy, but how can that be when I am talking on the phone, telling them my problem while everyone in the lobby can hear me? Most employees don't even bother trying to talk to them, and that was the goal. And if you do talk to someone, don't expect anything but them telling you that you need to work on getting along better with other associates and be more tolerant.  I have never worked anywhere that I felt so disrespected by management.

This job requires repetitive pushing, pulling and lifting of items 50 pounds or more. Most of the production jobs aren't hard to do but are fast. 
The management sometimes has attendancy to make us feel like they're looking for puppets and not employees that can form a plan. There is a strict attendance policy with a point system. The plant is non union and often times the HR team makes the operators feel as though they're not looking out for them. They seem to only look out for the profit of the company itself. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 3 salaries reported	$17.48 per hour
Press operator 1 salary reported	$30,000 per year

Working at Ventra Plastics: Company Overview and Reviews

Ventra Plastics

Ventra Plastics Ratings

Popular jobs at Ventra Plastics

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected