Workers' Diaries

Articles and interviews recounting people's experiences at work. The "My life at work" series of interviews with workers; and the "Diary of an Engineer/a Tubeworker/a DWP worker"; and similar.

Diary of a Tube worker: A bonfire coming

On the Tube, you don’t really notice Lockdown 2 until the weekends and the late evenings. It’s definitely quieter then, but throughout the day the flow of people seems about the same. How many people have returned to working from home is hard to gauge. “We’ll be back in lockdown January to March, won’t we?” N says. “If furlough is on till March, that’s what they’ll do. “And in April, when they do the new accounts, they’ll be getting rid of everyone won’t they. I’m not sure people have seen it coming. It’ll be a bonfire.” F, the supervisor, thinks that “In March we will see a lot of changes...

Diary of a Tube worker: "I don't like to be any trouble"

“Sorry, I’m not sure what I have done here.” “What’s happened? How can I help?” “Well... has it changed? I am sure it hasn’t done this before, but I think the card is stuck.” “Stuck? Inside the gate? Ah. Did you put it through like a ticket”? “Yes, well I think so. But has it changed? What should I have done?” I try to smile kindly, but with a mask on, I am not sure that comes across. “Let’s try and get it out for you and then we’ll check it still works.” “Thanks. Sorry. Is it a pain to sort out? I just need to tell my Mum to wait”. She gestures over to a much older woman, in a long coat...

Diary of an engineer: Lockdown, guilty, worry, losses

A chat over fish and chips in the mess room begins with J, a young apprentice, talking about his trip to see his family. He says, with a smile on his face, “My Dad’s a bit of a bastard.” “Your step-dad?” N, the maintenance manager asks him J: “No my actual Dad.” N: “Do you know who my best friend is?” J: “Who?” N: “Not my missus, not my mates, it’s my Mum and Dad. Gotta appreciate them.” B, a maintenance assistant: “Don’t tell your missus that or she’ll kill you.” After talking about families for a bit, M and B start talking about Tier 3 restrictions M: “I was listening to Jeremy Vine, prick —...

Diary of an engineer: Control and the pollutants

There is talk among the operatives that the Environment Agency will be setting new emissions limits across the UK. Our daily limit for sulphur dioxide (SO2), which causes smog and lung irritation, is already lower than most power stations because we’re based in a city — but not by much. SO2 emissions may be reduced across the board, regardless of plant location. Another monitored pollutant is Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), which irritates the lungs, affects soil chemistry and reacts to create ozone, a more powerful pollutant. The plant controls NOx emissions by spraying urea into the furnace with long...

Diary of an engineer: Distance in the training centre

We’ve begun the new college term in strange circumstances. The training centre needs to provide some face-to-face teaching – working remotely and teacher absence hasn’t suited many of the apprentices, and the first years need to do six months of practical workshops. My group is split in two; half of us watch classes remotely, and the other half goes into the training centre, the next week we swap. The training centre is almost deserted. Staff are secluded in their offices, and everyone indoors is masked. We follow a strict one-way system, and the dining hall is spread with small round tables...

Diary of an engineer: Cutting tools

A week ago I felt like giving up, but this one I think I might be getting somewhere. This is often an up-and-down job. I’m asked to make a pin for the crane from a rough sketch. I can’t find any solid bar of the right size, so I use threaded bar. I use a cutting saw to trim a piece to size, then the pillar drill to punch a 7mm hole through the centre. When the hole ends up off-centre on the curved surface, I cut another piece and drill it again, but accurately. I’m happy that this is simple, but good, work. I’m not even fussed when A tells me threaded bar will snap too easily to be useful — I...

Diary of an engineer: Shock and learning

It’s autumn, and we need our thick coats again. Since the Outage [the annual shutdown for major repairs] something has changed among the apprentices. We are more confident, and there’s less work to do, so we are competing, suddenly, for jobs. In downtime, I do college work, then discover engineers have gone to a job without telling me — “Don’t worry about it, do your apprentice work” — I forget basic things, I screw up testing, I fake confidence and dread embarrassment. K asks us to look at an electric heater in one of the cabins and I go alone, isolate it, struggle to get the cover off...

Diary of engineer: the compressor is burning

Underneath the plant turbine is a concrete basement where most of the noisy machines operate. One of those is the air compressor housed inside a large blue box in a locked iron cage. I‘ve been working with an electrician (A), the other apprentice (L), and a contractor for Simms, who manufacture the compressors. We can’t hear each other, but we can smell the compressor burning. A explains to the contractor that the two air compressors operate in phases; one compressor will build up pressure in its cylinder and then release it onto the plant; while the air flows out of one compressor the other...

Where will the axe fall? (Diary of a Tube worker)

"I've been here 13 years, so you know what, yeah? If this fucks me, now, and it doesn't come round, I'll be pissed, pissed". D shakes their head and goes back to their food. "Well, the training [for Tube station workers to become drivers] has to restart at some point, but it's going to be a long time yet. They haven't even got enough instructors that can do the in-cab training yet". I'm in a similar boat myself. Several of us all thought we had a route out. It has been six months now since the lockdown put our training on pause, and time is really dragging. And some days drag more than others...

Diary of a Tube worker: "If no one else bothers"

Mask enforcement has faded on the Tube since July. Now the company want to do something about it. TSEO (Transport Support and Enforcement Officers), who mostly work as revenue inspectors on the buses, are now being deployed across stations. They stand around, looking a bit meaner than the rest of us. They remind people to wear masks. Some listen, others just breeze past them. Unless people kick them out of the station they’ll still come through no matter what. We get reminded everyday to use the apps on our Ipads that allow us to record people travelling without a mask. It is probably easier...

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