A Day in the Life of… an AW Engineer

Ryan James joined the business in April 2021 as an Automated Warehouse Engineer*. We caught up with him to see how he’s enjoying his time at Encirc so far.

What does a typical day look like for you?

It’s a mix of proactive and reactive work. We attend and repair breakdowns as they come in but we try to be proactive and work to prevent future breakdowns. For example, we might take a crane down and do a set of checks, grease it all and give it a full bill of health in order to avoid down time further down the line.

What’s the best thing about working at Encirc?

I enjoy how different every day is. The work-life balance is great too. I work a mix of days and nights, and I get two full weekends off a month on my shift pattern so it works really well.

What’s the biggest challenge you face at work?

Sometimes, some of the trickier breakdowns occur at night. This is always harder than a day breakdown because there’s not as many staff on, or you might feel fatigued. It’s not often we have major breakdowns but one night we had three fairly large ones and had to dip deep and draw on our collective experience to get it sorted. If it’s a lengthy job, you might have to hand over a breakdown to the next crew and you don’t get to finish what you started, which is a shame!

What’s something that is important for you to keep in mind?

The company values. I really see our leaders driving the values from above. Our department really do live them. Especially Collaboration: we work with various different business units and any issues we face will have a knock-on effect to those departments. It’s important for us to work well with everyone and maintain positive relationships. I also see our value of Continuous Improvement in action every day. It’s an important one for us as a department.

What would you say to someone who was thinking about applying to work at Encirc?

Do it and don’t look back! Trust your gut, I just had that feeling that this was the right place for me to work. There’s been a big investment in Engineers in particular and I feel appreciated. In a previous job, I had all but begged for four years to go on a specific training course, and I’d completed it within six months of starting here. There’s plenty of new opportunities for training and progression, and it’s actively encouraged.

*Since the time of writing this article, Ryan has seconded into an Interim AW Supervisor role, well done Ryan, we’re extremely proud of you!

For more information about jobs available at Encirc, see our opportunities here.