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Hi everyone, I have a question.
I've been working in manufacturing, predominantly in maintenance, for 20yrs now. I've a Bachelor's in Engineering, MSc in Technology Management and a postgrad Diploma in Asset Management. I've worked in all sorts of industries from heavy steel to pharma to defense to food. And honestly? I'm tired.
I'm tried of the 3am phone calls. I'm tired of the constantly being on and expected to be available all the time if something goes wrong. I'm tired of the constant pressure and stress. Budgets constantly being squeezed, time for maintenance or shutdowns constantly be reduced and the possibility of one breakdown ruining everyone's day.
I love engineering, but I think I need to look at something away from the day-to-day of a manufacturing site. The problem is, I have no idea what that looks like! I'd really like a (mostly) 9-5 job for a few years, or even 9-6, 8-5, whatever, just a job that I can go, do and come home and leave it until the next day. The occasional, say once a month, few days working late isn't an issue, but 60+hr weeks are.
Had anyone got any ideas of what might exist to fit this scope?
Could you move into a more executive/managerial role? Could you do some consulting? Could you serve as an expert witness?
I am a manager! Still get those calls though. I think I need to look into consulting or something alright.
I am so sorry, it must be really difficult. In the short term, if you like the job but hate the hours, is there a way that you can create an after-business hours rotation with the people who report to you? Teach them how to triage and what to escalate to you and so reduce the "something went wrong" emergency calls. Speaking from experience, it is likely that some, if not most, of these calls do not actually require YOUR immediate handling and someone who reports to you can handle it so that you don't need to be "on" all of the time. Often people get anxious, contact you after hours but more often than not all that you need to do is reassure them in a level-headed, clear voice that everything is being handled in a professional manner and whatever it is will be addressed as soon as necessary/possible. You may need to speak with your supervisor first, but in doing so reassure that person that your team is qualified to handle and that you are guiding their professional development and growth so that they can increase value for the company. In speaking with your reports, you can frame it in similar terms (most people want opportunities to show what they can do and grow in a role so that they can advance in their company or get a more managerial position elsewhere) and reassure them that they will not be "on" all of the time. (Give yourself one day of the rotation so that you are making it clear that this is a team effort and you are part of the team, but one day is still better than all days.)
Long term, you can use the free time created by the rotation system to figure out what you want to do next. Also, just thought of it (I wrote the original comment) but since you are a manager and have a record of leadership, have you considered teaching? You could probably pick up some adjunct work at a local community college to see if you like it while you are doing other things. Similarly, maybe you can be a career advisor with a local educational institution that focuses on STEM?
I'm probably not fit to be giving you advice considering you have way more experience and education. I actually just accepted a new job moving away from this, but I'm currently a mechanical engineer for a manufacturing company. It's more of an office type job where I occasionally go out on the manufacturing floor when I need to observe a process or something similar. I have never worked a weekend or gotten calls at odd hours. You could also look into quality engineer roles, if that's something that interests you. Our maintenance team is always crazy busy, so I imagine that does get old fast. There are a lot of engineering options that don't involve the craziness of maintenance.
I have done projects/ design before but it's always been in industry. I might take look at an actual eng company! :)
Hi galros, this isn't an answer in terms of providing possible positions, since I've never been in your industry (this post just popped up on my feed!) - but I absolutely bet you can find something that meets your needs better. Working 60+hr weeks including 3am phone calls and being at the beck and call of work for 20 years sounds EXHAUSTING! It might help to narrow down your search for positions by diving more deeply into what you want (you have a great start there with working hours and the fact that you love engineering - what do you love about engineering?) as well as listing down what skills you have developed. A lot of skills are actually more transferable to other jobs than you might think at first. With a really good understanding of what you want and what you can contribute, I think you'll naturally find your creativity start flowing in terms of finding the right position for yourself. Let me know if you'd like to bounce more ideas on this!
Funnily enough a friend bought me a book for Christmas to help with this!!