Vocational Visits by Magnus

By utilising the Rotary system of family, friends and favours, a trip to a large engineering consultancy had been arranged where I could witness Project Planning in action and compare it to similar work in Britain. The manager who had been tasked with looking after me for the day was very welcoming and took time to get to know me in his office before giving me a tour of the site. He talked of his company’s main product which he proudly called ‘Ball Walls’ and described their best applications in Nuclear and Hydroelectric Power Stations. ‘Very relevant to my job’ I thought but ‘what the hell are they and how do they work?’ I’m not an engineer but am normally quite pragmatic and can visualise working pieces of plant and machinery. Unusually this time, I couldn’t imagine how a bunch of balls could possibly stand nuclear pressures without moving all over the place.

I soon realised that there was a slight communication problem between us as I was shown a circular valve on an axis that rotated between two separate outlets. ‘Ah ha’ I announced proudly, ‘a Ball Valve’. We continued past the finished products into the workshop area where I was impressed, shocked and embarrassed at what I saw.

Firstly, I was impressed at how industrious everyone was. It was like watching ants at work as numerous people scurried about hoisting huge pieces of metal plate and grinding and welding.

On closer inspection, I was shocked to realise that despite tonnes of metal swinging about from cranes at head level, no one was wearing a hardhat or protective footwear. The majority of the workers were in sandals and several of them were barefoot. In addition, there was a man busily grinding the surface of a weld down to perfection. He took pride in what he was doing and frequently stopped his tool and leant back to get an overview of his handiwork. I was very impressed by his work ethic but felt worried that he wasn’t wearing safety glasses.

It’s too easy in the west to hide behind the ‘Health and Safety’ regulations and find an excuse not to get on with your job. This wasn’t being done by the hundreds of workers in that manufacturing warehouse and I felt embarrassed that I’m not as dedicated and committed to my job in Britain.