Good day everyone. Zak Ludick here from Cape Town, South Africa.
Time will tell how my actions positively affect my future but I feel that it might just be possible that I have done something very different with my work-life situation that might change my trajectory in life going forward in the future.
I am a multi-skilled person in the company that I work for. I fulfill a variety of duties. I started in the company as just an assistant but proved quickly to have organizational skills, brains, and the willingness to learn.
I am not about to explain to you every step of the way right now, but the result is that 9 years later I find myself in the position of Middle management. I am the Health and Safety Officer of the company. I do Project management for the company on various sites. I have been trained as a Technician and a Controls Technician, both of which I am only asked to do occasionally since I have the other two bigger responsibilities to fulfill.
I act as a sort of stand-by person should it be needed on site.
So what's the issue?
Well. I have a lot of work to do. More than a single person can do. Even when I go to the docks as in the picture I took above, I am appointed as several people on the Health and Safety file and am usually appointed as too many people than I have a right to be!
Project Manager
Site Supervisor
Safety Officer
Risk Assessor
Fall Protection Planner
Incident Investigator
Ladder Inspector
Hand Tools Inspector
Portable Electrical Tools Inspector
Fire Extinguisher Inspector
Health and Safety Representative
And more!
And in the end of the day, I earn one salary and my company can only charge for one person that is on site. We do not benefit from me filling so many different roles and juggling everything.
Meanwhile, there is a lack of both Safety and Supervision on our sites. We have had one of our projects turn into a total shit-show because there was no anyone on site to take control of critical processes.
So I came up with a plan.
It would be advantageous to me if I hired in a seasonal worker to do some of the menial Health and Safety tasks, such as inspections of tools and filling in registers and attending meetings at the docks that I do not always have time to attend.
Thus we put out our feelers and I came upon Dominque. She was a Safety Representative for Allweld at the docks and Allweld did not renew their 3 year contract. So she was looking for work.
Today was her first day, where she joined me at the office and I had her help me with some tasks.
This means that I can be classified on site as a Project Manager and Dominique as the Health and Safety Officer.
I can teach her to take control of the Safety aspect on site at the docks. I will be the overall supervisor and our lead Technician will be the Supervisor's assistant. Thus, should it be required for me to attend to a matter on another site for either Health and Safety OR Project Management, I could do it!
I am still gauging Dominique's capabilities but she can already do a range of things and seems to be capable of learning new things.
Time will tell...
I am hopeful that this means that I can move upward and onward. This part is ironic to me. Instead of waiting for a position above me to appear, I have created a position below me and stepped upward. Time will tell if this means that I can start standing higher than I was before!
Exciting!
Thank you for reading this post!
Cheers!
