Are there controls jobs that don't take 50+ hours every week?

[Liam Moran]

One of the shortest words in the English language is also one of the hardest to use. It is a very important word to learn. The word is no.

 

[DBLD99]

If you find it let me know.


20 years in and I finally got to a point when I am in the office I work 8 hours and gone. I put in 10-12 onsite the rest of the time - salaried of course.

 

[cardosocea]

Some plants have the automation engineer position where he's in charge of the automation systems (improvements, repairs that require re-engineering and new projects). It's within maintenance, but branches into capital projects and project management. Depending on the size and condition of the site this position may well be in charge of developing things for the company and get someone to build panels for them.

This is the position I have and do give or take 40 hours per week. There's the occasional call but I have remote access to the plant and during the shutdown period where most projects are implemented (over the course of roughly two weeks) working weeks are longer, but the agreement I have is that I can take the hours or additional days off work after.

Some companies also have a group or division Automation and Controls Engineer or expert. Many of these will have the guy working from home too. This is also a fairly relaxed role, with some hands on. Again depends a bit on the sites the position looks after and whether some sites want his assistance for project definition or not. This is the position I am gunning for in a couple of years time still within the same company. Although other companies have the position too... depending on size and condition, it may well be more of a creating standards and tools to enforce them and a lot of procurement striking up deals with controls and instrumentation companies for the entire company.

 

[PLCMentor]

Interesting comments. I crossed the line from integrator to work for a client a few years back. Gotta say the work load is generally more consistent. I specifically told them during my interviews that the only way I could successfully complete the project upgrades they wanted was to not be part of maintenance. That's kinda working. I regularly remind them that they need the projects I am working on completed and they will not be if I am fighting fires. It is a constant tug of war. I was able to go from a fair amount of travel as an integrator to no travel where I am now. If you are looking at strict 9-5 then you may want to look at some sort of lateral entry. Many good controls engineers that I worked with in the past moved over into the banking sector doing VB programming or some other sort of high level language. That does seem to be more consistent with the hours.

 

[lfe]

I spent more than 20 years working as a designer, programmer, put in service and repairs of large ceramic firing installations, working long hours and traveling a lot.

Some time I worked a month in a row, away from home, without a day off.

In the crisis of 2008 I lost my job, I was recycled as an Android programmer and now I work 7 to 3 all year round with one day a week on remote.

My salary is somewhat lower than before but my quality of life is much much better ...

 

[janner_10]

I duck and hide at the back nowadays and let others take the bullets. Even our large projects tend to be written in the office which is strictly 37 1/2 hrs (2pm on a Friday), I can’t remember the last time I was in the office after 5pm.

Even on site I don’t often stay much past 5, but like to get in early. Don’t mind the odd extra bit of time, the company credit card buys the beers and steaks in the evening. I also usually rack up a weeks worth of free hotels throughout the year too for my own use.

I set out my stall early doors with my current employer though and made it clear my family and free time comes first.

I don’t take my laptop on vacation and the phone goes to divert. Everyone one I know just texts or messengers anyway instead of calling.

You got to set your boundaries.

 

[radfahrer]

Work in Pharma

I work in pharma, and generally I've seen fairly decent schedules in my time (~20 years in the industry). Especially if you are end-user supporting a production site. The trade-off is that there is a lot of paperwork involved in addition to the coding, I like to estimate it's about 75% paperwork to 25% coding...which can suck sometimes, but that's why the hours are reasonable, if your boss wanted you to be coding for 60 hours a week, there's an army of QA, Validation, etc. people that would have to put in similar hours and that just doesn't happen in my experience.

The only times you see a better coding/paperwork ratio is during a new build-out or startup, but then the hours might get crazy again...as I said it's a trade-off.

 

[Toine]

I don't do crazy hours, working 4 days a week, usually can stick to the regular 32hrs a week. Five weeks off per year. A few trips to clients for commissioning or upgrades. I only travel within Europe, will gladly leave the overseas trips to coworkers who don't have a family at home. When I do travel, I tend to make long hours. Doesn't happen often though.

It may sound like heaven to some of you, then again I don't get the pay that high profile automation engineers get in some other countries. I enjoy my work, but there are so many other things in life that I want to spend some of my time on. You win some you loose some.

 

[bill4807]

I would gladly work 50+ hours/week if i didn't have to travel. At least i would be home.
Its tough, "the one who knows is the one who goes."
We need a few more ones who know at my company..

 

[OkiePC]

I slowed down to 40 hours a week for a few weeks when the pandemic first hit, but now it is as many hours as I want again. I have an outstanding situation here though, so I just keep chipping away at the work load and don't let it stress me out.

 

[PLC Pie Guy]

Confessions of an Automation Tech pushed "ALMOST" to far, in the flesh!

Maybe not 50 hours a week... But here I am at 2:57AM, at the plant, with a pounding head, 3 hours sleep and wondering where I went wrong in life as I have so much **** on the go today. I just at this moment really don't care if I ever look at another computer again, or production supervisor, or maintenance tech or any other broke *** piece of equipment.
The dumb asses don't get called in the middle of the night... I'm a victim of my own success and it sucks! Does anybody else feel penalized for their accomplishments? I mean, I like working on machines, but this is not the way I like to do it. Especially when I get to the plant and they tell me its all running again, haha it was a blown fuse on a safety relay, if they even know what they changed, they cant show me now, cant remember which one they changed.. The call I got was that the plant network was down, nothing would work! I get here and folks are just like oh yeah the line stopped for a minute but its all working again.
Does anybody else deal with the complete stench of incompetence running through their workplaces?
I don't even have internet available at home to check first, I have to drive in.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm feeling that I'v been doing this enough years now. I don't want to hear the phone ringing at night anymore. Might be time to find a new game to play.

 

[cardosocea]

Confessions of an Automation Tech pushed "ALMOST" to far, in the flesh!

Maybe not 50 hours a week... But here I am at 2:57AM, at the plant, with a pounding head, 3 hours sleep and wondering where I went wrong in life as I have so much **** on the go today. I just at this moment really don't care if I ever look at another computer again, or production supervisor, or maintenance tech or any other broke *** piece of equipment.
The dumb asses don't get called in the middle of the night... I'm a victim of my own success and it sucks! Does anybody else feel penalized for their accomplishments? I mean, I like working on machines, but this is not the way I like to do it. Especially when I get to the plant and they tell me its all running again, haha it was a blown fuse on a safety relay, if they even know what they changed, they cant show me now, cant remember which one they changed.. The call I got was that the plant network was down, nothing would work! I get here and folks are just like oh yeah the line stopped for a minute but its all working again.
Does anybody else deal with the complete stench of incompetence running through their workplaces?
I don't even have internet available at home to check first, I have to drive in.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm feeling that I'v been doing this enough years now. I don't want to hear the phone ringing at night anymore. Might be time to find a new game to play.

I've had similar working offshore drilling because recruitment was mostly done by nepotism or "experience" rather than actually testing people out or checking references (it's an unbelievably small industry). I got taken out of bed at around 2AM because a brake wouldn't come off...

Coveralls on, walk to the switch room and the tech had the computer open with the logic showing that the output was turned on to release the brake.

First question: Did you check the panel?
First answer: No.
Open the panel...

Second question: There's a fuse holder showing that the fuse is broken. Which terminal is the brake solenoid on?
Second answer: Terminal 1.

Yeap, broken fuse. Get a new one, measure the loop resistance and confirm it's not going to ground and replace it.

There were plenty more like this... one in particular the tech was already on the phone with remote support in Norway about lost comms to a profibus node. Walk in the switch room and ask the exact same question as above. No one looked in the panel.
Open the panel and voila, breaker tripped.

In other places I worked, there was one particular employee that would ring me about any little thing before doing due dilligence. I started waiting 5 minutes to hear from him again before doing anything about it. 90% of the times he'd ring back with whatever the problem was.

Ultimately this will be down to management to make sure a line is followed and only a certain person can call you. This should ensure that maintenance gets a crack at it, rather than an operator jumping the gun before any diagnosis is carried.

 

[PLC Pie Guy]

I've had similar working offshore drilling because recruitment was mostly done by nepotism or "experience" rather than actually testing people out or checking references (it's an unbelievably small industry). I got taken out of bed at around 2AM because a brake wouldn't come off...

Coveralls on, walk to the switch room and the tech had the computer open with the logic showing that the output was turned on to release the brake.

First question: Did you check the panel?
First answer: No.
Open the panel...

Second question: There's a fuse holder showing that the fuse is broken. Which terminal is the brake solenoid on?
Second answer: Terminal 1.

Yeap, broken fuse. Get a new one, measure the loop resistance and confirm it's not going to ground and replace it.

There were plenty more like this... one in particular the tech was already on the phone with remote support in Norway about lost comms to a profibus node. Walk in the switch room and ask the exact same question as above. No one looked in the panel.
Open the panel and voila, breaker tripped.

In other places I worked, there was one particular employee that would ring me about any little thing before doing due dilligence. I started waiting 5 minutes to hear from him again before doing anything about it. 90% of the times he'd ring back with whatever the problem was.

Ultimately this will be down to management to make sure a line is followed and only a certain person can call you. This should ensure that maintenance gets a crack at it, rather than an operator jumping the gun before any diagnosis is carried.

The maintenance techs are the issue. They take a couple backyard mechanics and put them on night shift in an Automated Plant environment. Not the mechanics fault, they are not equipped for the situations that arise with absolutely 0 electrical knowledge. Example... A few weeks ago, I had a main switch burn on a 480V 400 AMP feed to a freezer panel. 4 "techs" on shift, none are electrically inclined, were getting ready to replace the fuses when I finally arrived onsite. Not 1 of them realized that with the disconnect off, the fuses were still live! Not 1 of them knows how to use a meter! One knife in the switch was burned closed and didn't open when pulling the handle. It was a holiday and only by chance I happened to be near, or it could have been a tragic story. They were smart enough to know a fuse blew, only because it was visually burnt and still smoking when the cabinet door was opened. Nobody checked anything, they were simply going to grasp a straw, change a fuse and throw the switch back on. A 400 AMP fuse doesn't just burn, it happens due to a fault, that fault needed to be found. They were about to touch the live portion of the fuse to unbolt them. Aside from the burning in my nostrils, I knew it didn't smell right and quickly discovered almost 300 volts sitting on the remaining 2 healthy fuses. and almost 480 on the burnt one!
I just cant make them (Management) realize the importance of having competent staff. Its always the farmineering attitude. Now, they say they are not going to support apprenticeships! How crazy is this? Never train or upgrade our peoples skill set and only hire monkeys that are not interested in going back to school, in fear that we will train somebody and they leave for greener pastures..... Like the rest of the modern world and most of the human race, it seems like we are progressing backwards with mindset and overall efficiency.

 

[geniusintraining]

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

― Mark Twain

 

[Saffa]

The maintenance techs are the issue. They take a couple backyard mechanics and put them on night shift in an Automated Plant environment. Not the mechanics fault, they are not equipped for the situations that arise with absolutely 0 electrical knowledge. Example... A few weeks ago, I had a main switch burn on a 480V 400 AMP feed to a freezer panel. 4 "techs" on shift, none are electrically inclined, were getting ready to replace the fuses when I finally arrived onsite. Not 1 of them realized that with the disconnect off, the fuses were still live! Not 1 of them knows how to use a meter! One knife in the switch was burned closed and didn't open when pulling the handle. It was a holiday and only by chance I happened to be near, or it could have been a tragic story. They were smart enough to know a fuse blew, only because it was visually burnt and still smoking when the cabinet door was opened. Nobody checked anything, they were simply going to grasp a straw, change a fuse and throw the switch back on. A 400 AMP fuse doesn't just burn, it happens due to a fault, that fault needed to be found. They were about to touch the live portion of the fuse to unbolt them. Aside from the burning in my nostrils, I knew it didn't smell right and quickly discovered almost 300 volts sitting on the remaining 2 healthy fuses. and almost 480 on the burnt one!
I just cant make them (Management) realize the importance of having competent staff. Its always the farmineering attitude. Now, they say they are not going to support apprenticeships! How crazy is this? Never train or upgrade our peoples skill set and only hire monkeys that are not interested in going back to school, in fear that we will train somebody and they leave for greener pastures..... Like the rest of the modern world and most of the human race, it seems like we are progressing backwards with mindset and overall efficiency.

Do you not require some kind of license to do electrical work over there?

The work you're describing could only be undertaken here by a licensed, registered electrician. Anyone else doing it would be breaking the law.

(Of course that still happens too).

I've been where you've been; getting calls about stuff that isn't even electrical. I've had to drive 40 minutes to a water plant to figure out why the "chemical dosing wasnt working". Pumps were running but the auto control for the coagulant was playing up and the operator had no idea how to figure out a dose using a manual method. So i busted out a manual, ran some jar tests, did the very simple math and got the clarifier healthy again. Operator looked at me in awe and said "was that calculus?!"... er no dude, basic algebra and reading. Haha.

Does sound like you need to find a job where there's a supportive management culture who values employee quality of life. Easier said than done, or they don't walk the walk.

I've learnt to just escalate situations now. The phone call to the manager might be "I'm not on call, but they need me to go in. I'm going to be booking extra overtime for this, or taking a day off to compensate. Are you OK with that?". Do it several times at 3am.

When managers share your pain they're more likely to do something about it. Ive gotten really good at sharing.