Career Path > Outages
House tech vs. Road Tech
Content1:
I looked on all the posting and did not find this subject. I found on my years of a road tech, even with many returns to the same plant, we are never fully trusted or given much authority or to "Make a difference" where we go to, short of doing the work we are paid to do. We learn, then do our tasks, and move on.
As a house tech, our training is much more detailed and we are given tasks that are new and unique, and work part of a team and not an "outsider." It is a great feeling going to work each day at a desk and computer researching journals and manual and given real responsibility. We don't sit around in a break area as we all have tasks to do, make reports on our progress and later sling the meters as only a part of the job.
They invest 6 months plus into our training and there is incentive to keep us happy and we hold a piece of the workload puzzle only we can do. I guess that is the life at a research facility. Have anyone else found this job satisfaction from their work at a long term job at DOE sites or as a house tech?
UncaBuffalo:
--- Quote from: Content1 on Jul 29, 2009, 01:03 ---I looked on all the posting and did not find this subject. I found on my years of a road tech, even with many returns to the same plant, we are never fully trusted or given much authority or to "Make a difference" where we go to, short of doing the work we are paid to do. We learn, then do our tasks, and move on.
As a house tech, our training is much more detailed and we are given tasks that are new and unique, and work part of a team and not an "outsider." It is a great feeling going to work each day at a desk and computer researching journals and manual and given real responsibility. We don't sit around in a break area as we all have tasks to do, make reports on our progress and later sling the meters as only a part of the job.
They invest 6 months plus into our training and there is incentive to keep us happy and we hold a piece of the workload puzzle only we can do. I guess that is the life at a research facility. Have anyone else found this job satisfaction from their work at a long term job at DOE sites or as a house tech?
--- End quote ---
NO! :(
I am on my 5th house job & it is yet another round of routines & politics. Give me the entertainment & feeling of accomplishment of completing an outage (and heading down the road).
jjack50:
--- Quote from: Content1 on Jul 29, 2009, 01:03 ---I looked on all the posting and did not find this subject. I found on my years of a road tech, even with many returns to the same plant, we are never fully trusted or given much authority or to "Make a difference" where we go to, short of doing the work we are paid to do. We learn, then do our tasks, and move on.
As a house tech, our training is much more detailed and we are given tasks that are new and unique, and work part of a team and not an "outsider." It is a great feeling going to work each day at a desk and computer researching journals and manual and given real responsibility. We don't sit around in a break area as we all have tasks to do, make reports on our progress and later sling the meters as only a part of the job.
They invest 6 months plus into our training and there is incentive to keep us happy and we hold a piece of the workload puzzle only we can do. I guess that is the life at a research facility. Have anyone else found this job satisfaction from their work at a long term job at DOE sites or as a house tech?
--- End quote ---
When I came back in the business after a two year haiatus after two years back after a six year hiatus (!!?!!) I went to VY as a contractor. Through the smoke and haze of contract company planning and conniving I wound up with an early assignment for an outage. I had just come from a job where I was an independent worker and I brought that professionalism with me. As a contractor I was assigned lead for the turbine building on nights for replacement of the HP turbine and four feed water heaters and a generator rewind(for those who don't know, VY is a boiler). I was given an assignment with authority and did make a difference. I was not treated as an "outsider".
I transitioned to house following the outage. I found the training reminded me of more of the kind of training we used to get in the industry even as contractors. Much more informative and technical than what we provide contractors now.
The work as a shift tech following the training does provide job statifaction if you make it.
UncaBuffalo:
--- Quote from: jjack50 on Jul 29, 2009, 07:44 ---When I came back in the business after a two year haiatus after two years back after a six year hiatus (!!?!!) I went to VY as a contractor. Through the smoke and haze of contract company planning and conniving I wound up with an early assignment for an outage. I had just come from a job where I was an independent worker and I brought that professionalism with me. As a contractor I was assigned lead for the turbine building on nights for replacement of the HP turbine and four feed water heaters and a generator rewind(for those who don't know, VY is a boiler). I was given an assignment with authority and did make a difference. I was not treated as an "outsider".
I transitioned to house following the outage. I found the training reminded me of more of the kind of training we used to get in the industry even as contractors. Much more informative and technical than what we provide contractors now. The work as a shift tech following the training does provide job statifaction if you make it.
--- End quote ---
I do have to agree that contractor training is really weak in recent years.
Dave Warren:
With outages shrinking and downsizing being the norm, these utilities are producing the bare bones minimum amount of training.
A great system to look at (and I thought I would never say this) is the Exelon system. When you go to Braidwood, Lasalle or Dresden, you have a massive, 2-story building that houses nothing but inprocessing activity. You get there at 0 dark thirty on Monday, you get a folder with all your stuff and you venture on your way.
The PADS system has streamlined everything. Contractors used to bitch and whine about having to carry their records around, take the MMPI again, and so forth. Guess what? They listened and realized that all the contractors were sitting around getting paid for nothing. Some guy said if we keep their training standardized, we can save millions in down time.
They realized that resource sharing worked by bringing house techs from sister stations to fill slots because Company A couldn't staff them. When they saw that the outage was successful by using 8 less contract techs, they said if it worked once, By God, it will work again next outage. The more they learn each outage about dependency on the contract HP, the faster they will eliminate them.
When a superstar in sports has played for the same team for 10 years and then they get traded, out of the blue, what do they say? They say, "Hey, you know this is just business". Same stuff people. Same stuff.
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