Deja Vu all over again...
It has gotten to be a regular scenario at work the last couple of years - we lose another body in operations and get handed another new hire that must be trained from scratch in how the plant works. Not everyone has the temperament to handle a job that could be likened to playing chess in three dimensions - what we have is called an interactive plant where any change made in one area has a ripple effect throughout the process. The quality we most prize in a new hire is called situational awareness - the ability to keep a picture of the entire process in mind while dealing with each individual part of it as needed.
I got to thinking about this today as I again gained a "shadow" - a trainee who will stick with me for a full month training rotation on what we call the "wet side" of the plant. He is generally a decent individual - think a stereotypical country boy with some prior experience in wastewater in small town plants. He's a bit intimidated by the sheer size and scale of the plant and the computerized control system. He's never worked or played with computers and regards them as being somewhere well to the left of a black art. Wheres my wizards hat and cloak when I really need them?
In some ways his lack of exposure to computers is a benefit - he doesn't have many bad habits to unlearn! But just explaining how the controls work to someone with no computer skills is going to be an interesting experience! So I'm starting him out on basic routines out "in the field" and hoping that once he has a good idea of where everything is that I can start tying all the parts together as a complete system. It's going to be an interesting month...
I got to thinking about this today as I again gained a "shadow" - a trainee who will stick with me for a full month training rotation on what we call the "wet side" of the plant. He is generally a decent individual - think a stereotypical country boy with some prior experience in wastewater in small town plants. He's a bit intimidated by the sheer size and scale of the plant and the computerized control system. He's never worked or played with computers and regards them as being somewhere well to the left of a black art. Wheres my wizards hat and cloak when I really need them?
In some ways his lack of exposure to computers is a benefit - he doesn't have many bad habits to unlearn! But just explaining how the controls work to someone with no computer skills is going to be an interesting experience! So I'm starting him out on basic routines out "in the field" and hoping that once he has a good idea of where everything is that I can start tying all the parts together as a complete system. It's going to be an interesting month...