Equipment Not Glassware

BATTLING INNER WARS By JanMell Dugenio

Earlier today I was filled with excitement of the multitude of things that deserve my expectation. As the day waned, however, I was only clad with the dreadful feeling that much of what has been said is true- that I would be left hanging and my expectations would never be met.

The OJT orientation was definitely a blast- of course, from someone who finally landed a company after grueling weeks of trying to find one, everything is explosively scintillating. Despite the fact that my classmates in other companies are enjoying their daily allowances and free grub, (and not to mention air conditioned rooms and my envy!), I comforted myself with the feeling of relief that finally, I’m here, and ready to render my man-hours to this company. After all, training is more important than allowances. (Oh c’mon, I’m not fooling myself here.) But anyway, stipends (or the lack of it) are not the reason why anxiety bugs me tonight. It is actually the bleary, cold experience of being, or shall I say, doing a job that does not fit that of a chemical engineering trainee.

I just hate it when people get mistaken with my course as BS Chemistry, which is a pure science. I vehemently object this oppression. This is certainly a case of academic racism and condescension! Hookay, just kidding. But I addressed this apparent confusion by saying “ChemEng” instead of “Chemical” when I am asked what my course is, which, I think, starkly suggests that it has an engineering surname. Hello, ring a bell?

What do I mean with “doing a job that does not fit that of a Chemineering trainee?” (Note: Chemineering is another cute, I think, apocopation of my course name.) Instead of trying to picture out what that is, I think it will afford me less trouble if I outline instead what a Chemineering trainee should do or should have done in a cement plant like this. It’s a vision, instead of an expectation. And I have my favorite model in mind, myself, complete with what they term as PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) e.g., hard hat with chin strap, “hard” shoes, I mean safety shoes, highly visible clothing with reflectorized straps, and safety goggles. (The fact that it is referred to as equipment and not clothing exposes the fact that it really is cumbersome, and makes you shout, Hey man! I’m wearing the same stuff as these towering silos!)

For one, a Chemineering trainee should be thoroughly knowledgeable of the plant’s complete process flow, not unless there’s some company secret like a huge snake under one of the plant’s large equipment. I am not referring to confidential information, which I think by the way is the meaning of confidential. I am pointing to the basics, which by the way, doesn’t mean its layman. The orientation about the cement process flow barely provided for this, albeit the slideshow was detailed enough. The lecturer who had to simplify technicalities to facilitate Marketing, Psychology, Electrical Engineering, and etc., students, overdid his job. I could have suggested that technicalities be retained in its purest form, because it’s why we trainees, whether majoring in drums, placed ourselves in a cement plant. We know better than coming unprepared for a major nosebleed. I don’t care if I don’t know what C₃AlF is or whether it’ll make me rich or not, but the point is everybody in that hall deserves to be lectured a dissective, scientific knowledge so that afterwards they may know. It’s self-gratifying, trust me. (Thank God, there are hand-outs.)

Another thing, I hate to be confined in a laboratory. I feel like I’m some serious scientist or a lab rat. Hey, I’m an engineer, which is exactly why I always emphasize the “ENG” part, for the very reason that it stands for “Equipment Not Glassware”. True, test tubes are cute, but I would never risk failing equipment design just to gawk at a colorless liquid turning pink for the rest of my life. In fact, I want to be blown with compressed air in a dryer, or get inside a ball mill turning at critical velocity, or join blasted limestone in their amazing journey through a jaw crusher. Hookay, that’s hyperbole. But you get what I mean?

At school, I only see flowcharts-- boxes with a word on it. Now is my chance to see for myself that this ginormous monster with a hellish temperature of 1450 degrees Centigrade is not just a box labeled idiotically as rotary kiln.

True enough, my excitement and expectation may have afforded me arrogance, but forgive my vanity. I am planning to focus on the academe after I graduate, and this may be my only chance of working in the industry, so I better kick the hell ass out of it. Very much, I wore oil-resistant, steel-toe, safety shoes during the orientation. It was so bulky I felt like saying, “Sakayna!” to anyone who might wanna take a ride. But nevertheless, I wore it on that first day. After all, my enthusiasm was to a degree that caused me to expect that blasted quarry boulders would fall on my feet while we are sitting comfortably in a heavily air conditioned room, looking at a slideshow.

[04.10.10]