On November 1st, I attended my dad’s workplace. I went to Seaspan, specifically to their shipyards in North Vancouver. During the day I attended different meetings with my dad. He had several meetings with his boss and a meeting with the vice-president of the North Vancouver shipyards. These first couple of meetings weren’t at the building where my dad’s office is located. They were in different meeting rooms that were outside of the shipyard. The meetings weren’t that interesting since I didn’t always know what they were discussing. Most of the meetings were about a problem they have to solve and what they can change to solve the problem. Around 12:30, we had lunch and there was a little break until my dad’s next meeting. After that meeting, my dad took me on one of the ships that they are building which was very interesting to see. When we were done seeing the ship, I finally got to see my dad’s office. This office was on the shipyard and my dad showed me different models of the ship. It was very interesting and I attended one more meeting with him. After that he had to send some emails and then we left.
This is a picture of my dad’s office:
This is a picture of the view from the ship:
- What did you hear, see, smell, and feel in the work environment on Nov. 1st?
When I first arrived at the workplace, I saw many different buildings. There are buildings that are meant for many different people. Before I started work with my dad, there was a meeting with all the grade 9s who were there. The meeting was in the training room, and it was very nice. I met the vice-president, and he was really nice. After the meeting we met back with our parents. My dad’s office is on the shipyard, so we had to walk on a designated path because we weren’t wearing safety gear. When we were walking on the path there were a lot of random metal things around and a lot of buildings. There was a lot of noise going on like drilling and sounds of cutting metal. A lot of people were wearing high-vise vests, hard hats and safety glasses. When we entered my dad’s building it was way quieter, and the building was pretty nice. There were a lot of desks and cubicles for people to sit at. There were a lot of people sitting at desks and my dad introduced me to some of the people who work for him. My dad took me on a ship that they are working on. I had to wear all the safety gear and there were a lot of stairs I had to climb up. The ship was really big, and it wasn’t even finished yet. The view from the ship was really nice and the people from below looked really big. Back at my dad’s office he had a couple of meetings which I sat through with him. It was interesting to listen to them talk about how to solve problems going on.
- What about the environment would motivate you to wake up every day to attend work?
The environment was very friendly, and everyone was very respectful. Everyone was nice to each other and before the meetings they all talked to each other in a friendly way before getting to business. They also respected each other during the meetings, and I think that’s very important. Even if they didn’t agree on something they didn’t become angry, they found a way to compromise or listened to and tried to understand what the other person wanted. I think that it’s good that you can joke around sometimes and have fun and the people were able to do that and keep things serious at the same time. I don’t want to always have to be serious all the time so it’s nice to have an environment that can also be relaxed at times.
- What about the work environment would discourage you from waking up every day to attend work?
The work environment was a bit boring. I don’t like sitting around all the time and sitting around at a computer all the time. Sometimes my dad can be in 90-minute meetings and that’s not really something that I like. I don’t like sitting around and it makes me tired sitting around and listening to people talk. He also has to sit at a computer and work all the time and after a while I would get tired if I didn’t get up and walk around. The environment outside was also really loud. There’s a lot going on, but mostly I would be nervous if the construction workers accidentally messed up and I got hurt. I mostly didn’t like that most of the time they can mess up something and then my dad has to go in with his team and fix it. I would be pretty annoyed if they messed up something simple and I had to spend hours trying to figure out how to fix it.
- What is ONE thing you found interesting about your workplace visit?
One thing I found interesting about the workplace I visited is the amount of effort that goes into building a ship. Before, I didn’t think that it was that hard and you just nail a couple things together and you’re done. But there’s much more thought that goes into it than I thought. For example, I got to see a model of piping for the fire system that was being done. There was more than 2 kilometers of piping for this fire system and that was only 1 out of 3 systems. I didn’t think it was that complex and we didn’t need all of that. It also takes a lot time for the construction and design. The construction is in 2018 and they still have a long way to go. For me, I thought before that it would already be over but now, I understand how it works. I found it really interesting how much time is devoted to these ships and how long it takes to build them.
