A Bit of Fun Makes the Day

Written by: Mapule Thinane & Robyn Spalding
Featuring: Adrian Hepburn

During his last year at high school Adrian Hepburn wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. His father wanted him to go to Matric but he had had enough of school. He tried for a job at Comalco and there weren’t any jobs in the area he was interested in so he was asked if he would like to be in the electrical trade. He didn’t know anything about electricity but he said yes anyway and started as an Electrical Apprentice. Now a qualified Electrician, Adrian has worked at Comalco for thirty-two years and has not looked back since his apprentice days.

When he was 21, Adrian was promoted to Leading Hand and at 25, to Electrical Foreman. He has been a Supervisor, Crew Leader and Maintenance Superintendent and is now a Project Specialist. A Project Specialist, Adrian explained, involves working on different projects around the site, directing work or engaging contractors, but it is mainly to do with supervision and making sure people are trained and can carry out the work safely.

Adrian still enjoys his job even after nearly 33 years, but not necessarily the 5 o’clock starts. He really likes the people he works with and he believes he was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time for promotions. He says that good people around you at work makes life easy.

Life at Comalco is not all about serious work and Adrian told of a few amusing incidences that have occurred during his working life. There was a man who never used to walk anywhere; he drove a little three wheeled buggy all around the site. One day after he had driven to the workshop the apprentices decided to play a trick on him. They changed the gears around so that the buggy would only drive in reverse. So, when he took off all he could do was go backwards! On another occasion, one man liked his three-wheel buggy so much he would even take it into the toilet block so that no-one would pinch it. Some of the guys put extra timber down near the door of the toilet block so the buggy couldn’t get through. It got jammed and couldn’t get in or out!

There have been a lot of changes since Adrian began working at Comalco. There used to be 1300 people working there and now there are less than 600. There have been changes in the pit lines and Comalco used to process bauxite and alumina. Now there is greater emphasis on automations and less on manual labour. The scrubbing systems have also improved. There has been a lot more attention to training and more emphasis on safety and environmental issues. Adrian said that there has always been a safety aspect but now there is a lot more training with things being clarified and training on-going. As an example, they used to climb ladders without a harness but now if it is a certain height, you don’t use a ladder, you use a platform.

In summing up, Adrian thinks that his job is ‘pretty good’.