![Peterhead harbour in storm conditions](http://mackintoshjim.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Feature-Storm-840x385.jpg)
Last month, when I put my first post up, I was in Holland with work. I mentioned that I work away from home for 6 months of the year, but I didn’t say what it was that I did, and I thought it would make sense to give an insight into what it is that I actually do.
I work as a Health and Safety Consultant on various projects across various industries such as maritime construction, oil & gas, renewable energy and seismic survey. Most of my work takes place at sea on board different ships, vessels and oil rigs.
Whilst it sounds exciting with a picture painted of sailing all over the world, drinking cold beers in warm climates, the reality is actually very different. I work away for long periods at a time, usually between 3- and 6-weeks duration. During this period, I will work every single day, with contracted shifts being 12 hours the reality is more like 16 hours. I miss key events at home like birthdays and BBQ’s, often work over holiday periods like Midsummers, Halloween, Christmas and Hogmanay, may have to share a cabin with other workers, endure unsociable meal times, not much choice in food selection, most of the work is North Sea based and on these projects there is a complete alcohol ban, so no cold beer in warm climates!
In saying that, the various projects can be very interesting and rewarding. Although I work away for long periods at a time, this is compensated with long periods off where I can work on my own projects and have mini adventures. I was in Holland last month conducting some audits on a floating hotel that a client wishes to use for an upcoming project, a project that I will probably join as the project Health and Safety Advisor in the near future.
I’m a firm believer that we’re all on our own journeys and choose our own paths. We all choose our careers and decide what we want to do in life, although I also believe that what’s for you, won’t go by you and kind of ‘fell’ into this role. I left school at 15 years old with no qualifications and no idea about what I was going to do with my life. I worked with a removals firm until I was 18 before getting a job as a Postman. When the sorting office I worked in closed I was made redundant, and at 22 years old with no qualifications or trade to back me up and a young family to support it was a bleak future. In an effort to provide for my family I joined the military where I served for 15 years. When I was leaving the military, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for the next chapter in my life, but the military is a very pro health and safety environment and so it made it sense to pursue a career in this field. The military installs a sense of ‘I can do anything’ attitude in you, and for 6 months before I left I was pursuing my next role.
I was very lucky, I left the military on a Friday, and less than 2 weeks later I was on a DP2 vessel working on a project in the North Sea. The project was a Walk to Work campaign and lasted for 6 months, our role was to transfer teams of construction workers from the ship to an oil rig every day via a pneumatic gangway called Ampelmann, and my role was to oversee the safety of the project from the ship.
That project kick started my sea going adventures and was ultimately a knock-on effect of leaving school at 15 with no qualifications! People like to look down on others and will tell you that you should ‘stay in your own lane’ and know your place in life. I say fuck the boundaries, it’s not impossible to break out of your lane and move into the next one!
Anyway, here’s some photos from the Walk to Work project I oversaw recently, proof that with hard work and determination anything is possible.
![](http://mackintoshjim.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Reef-Despina.jpg)
![The Auk platform as seen by the Reef Despina during the 2012 Walk to Work for Talisman Energy](http://mackintoshjim.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Auk-platform-as-seen-from-Reef-Despina.jpg)
![Jim Mackintosh on the Reef Despina with the Auk platform in the background](http://mackintoshjim.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jim-Mack-on-Reef-Despina.jpg)
#work #historylesson #Reef #Despina #Ampelmann #WalktoWork #lifeatsea