• Question: How is your job life

    Asked by anon-88010 on 7 Nov 2022.
    • Photo: Seán Kavanagh

      Seán Kavanagh answered on 7 Nov 2022:

      I really love my job life. Research in universities is very flexible, so I can choose my working hours. Some days I come to the lab later in the morning, and work a little later in the evening and other days the opposite. I work with other people in my research group as a team, and we try to figure things out and solve problems together.
      We also go to science conferences in different countries, for example I’m in Japan at the moment and I was in Hawaii earlier this year. These are big meetings where we talk about our research with other researchers from around the world, and hear what they are working on, then share ideas and try to figure out big scientific problems together. This is always really fun, but tiring!

    • Photo: John Harland

      John Harland answered on 7 Nov 2022:

      In my current job, there’s quite a bit of flexibility over my hours, so long as I get my minimum required number of hours a week in. I work from home much of the time, and go into the office for occasional face-to-face meetings, but I could go in more frequently if I chose to. My role involves quite a bit of planning of the work, managing other engineering team members and reporting of progress, all of which involve a lot of discussions (via Microsoft Teams) with lots of people. On some projects, I get much more into the technical side of designing equipment, machinery and whole plant or factories, which is more the sort of work I did in the earlier part of my career.

    • Photo: Veronica Pisani

      Veronica Pisani answered on 7 Nov 2022:

      My current role is a winner in terms of my job life. I love that I get to live and work in Chicago and work a “glamorous” office job (like taking public transit and buying expensive coffee and salads) and that I get hands-on exposure in a manufacturing environment. I can usually choose to collaborate in my office with my team or to go to a pipeline station and see the equipment I support with my own eyes. Working from home all the time during the peak of COVID was not a good fit for me being so early in my career, so I’m glad I split my time between the office and home.

    • Photo: Katherine Whyte

      Katherine Whyte answered on 7 Nov 2022:

      I have only been in my current job for a year, but I am really enjoying it. There is a lot of flexibility- I can choose when I want to work-from-home and when to come into the office. Working-from-home means I can save time and energy by not having to travel to work everyday, but of course it is nice to see people face-to-face in the office too. I can also decide when I start and end work each day, and take time off in the middle of the day, as long as I do my hours each week. In the winter, this is great as it means I can go outside and get some daylight! I also don’t have to work weekends or evenings, which is really nice for meeting up with friends and family. I like that I get to work with lots of nice, supportive people, and that we are working together to solve important scientific problems.

    • Photo: Rebecca Henderson

      Rebecca Henderson answered on 9 Nov 2022:

      I have recently joined my team so we are establishing our working agreement – we have flexibility of splitting our time between working from home and the office. I like the hybrid of working from home and office – as I like to be social and collaborate with my team – 100% work from home was not for me! My experience in the past 4 years is that my job goes in waves, we have periods of busy where you may need to work an extra hour in the evenings but then periods where it’s not as intense so then I can leave early. At my work, we are expected to work a certain number of hours a day/week but we can be partially flexible with how we work those hours – some of my colleagues start work at 6am and then leave earlier whereas I prefer to start at 8 and usually leave between 4 and 5.
      I previously worked offshore where I worked 3 weeks at site (in the middle of the North Sea), then I had 3 weeks off at home and didn’t have to work. That working pattern took a little getting used to because for 3 weeks, I worked 12 hours days and you don’t have a day off then I came home and 3 weeks to do as I pleased – go on holiday, have a lie in etc.

    • Photo: Emma Farquharson

      Emma Farquharson answered on 14 Nov 2022:

      My job life is really good – it’s very flexible and I’ve definitely been encouraged to find a good work-life balance. I can also choose when to work at home and when to go into the office. I usually try to go in on days I know my team will be in and when we have team meetings, as I find it more enjoyable to be there in person – it’s handy when we’re needing to work on something together but also just nice to be able to catch up with everyone over lunch!

    • Photo: Paul James

      Paul James answered on 17 Nov 2022:

      In terms of what I do at work, very few days are the same, but my typical workday is
      I wake up at 6am, dress and take Arlo (a 2 year-old red cocker spaniel) for his morning walk.
      I drive to work and usually sit down with my coffee and complimentary pot of porridge at about 7:45am and check my emails (but in the new ways of flexible working, I could be working from my spare room at home – This way I get an extra 30mins in bed 🙂 ).
      Starting work proper at 8am, I will spend the day in virtual or face to face meetings, replying to emails, writing technical guidance documents to address engineering issues from BP sites around the world.
      I stop working around 4:30 and in the evening drive my son to football practice and take Arlo on his evening walk.

      I typically get to visit 4 to 6 of the sites each year to see how we are looking after the equipment and offer advice where there are opportunities to make things better / safer.

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