Engineer in Construction Industry Insight

Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 18:16
Last edited 29/10/2016 - 21:55 by 1 other user

Rant

Insight into construction industry- Australia vs the rest of the world

Engineers in the Aus construction industry are treated like crap. They are the brains of the company, they take on all of the risks of the project yet they get harassed by the labourers, mistreated by the foremans and they get paid way less than them. This is how the Australian construction industry is run. This is so backwards compared to other countries especially asian countries. I hope to give you an understandin of whats happening.

If sh*t hits the fan, Labourers walk away free. they dont take any risks and they just blame the engineers. With all these risks on the engineers, they dont get paid half of what labourers gets paid.

Engineers gets paid on salary, 13hr days, works Mon-Sat. Working on Sat is essentially working for free. Labourers on saturdays however gets paid double time. Pocketing some $300+ on a single day. Just this sat for eg, there was a company wide training session held at a place thats 1hr away. All engineers + labourers had to attend. Labourers gets to enjoy listening to a presentation while getting paid for his time while engineers had to fork out his own weekend time. Engineer had to incurr travel expense while labourers get company vehicle + company fuel card.

Labourers gets RDOs (rostered day offs) thanks to the Aus unions which gives them essentially 12 extra public holidays. Engineers none, just like any normal person on salary

Engineers get harassed by labourers. Being called names like Pu55ys, nerds and being told to toughen up if they feel offended. If labourers turn out to be wrong, they will have an immense sense of ego and they will never admit wrong. Engineers in this case will just have to swallow their pride and in some cases suck up to the labourers to get the project moving within timeframe. They suck up because otherwise, Engineers get screwed over for not meeting project time requirements. This culture is significantly different in other countries

Why study to become an engineer?

In other countries, all these labourer benefits dont exist. The savings as a result are essentially distributed to the engineers who take on all the risks. They are compensated for the risks they take.

Rant over

TLDR: Engineers in construction are mistreated compared to rest of the world. Their risk-reward ratio is not proportionate. Unions screwed up Australia's construction industry.

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  BadHorse on 29/10/2016 - 18:45

  Have you tried looking for work with a different company? Or do you have knowledge that this is all the same regardless of the the company that the construction engineer works for?

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    Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 20:37

    +1

    Nope because what i said is for the whole construction industry. Not individual company based. I just want to spread the word to rebalance the supply and demand of engineers so they are not mistaken of any prestigeousness that may come with it.

    • 

      justaverage on 29/10/2016 - 21:05

      +1

      I agree with some of your points. But as a fellow engineer who has worked on construction sites i believe that it is possible to develop a good relationship with the labourers. If you go in thinking you are much more important then them it will lead to a poor relationship.

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        Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 21:14

        +1

        I too believe it is possible to have a good relationship but they make it somewhat difficult by being self centered, egotistic human beings. It also doesnt change the amount they get paid over engineers.

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        justaverage on 29/10/2016 - 21:59

        @Thenarrator:I guess it depends what site you are working on but i have never been on a site where the majority is like you described. I think what your saying is a bad generalisation.

        Yes it doesn't change the amount they get paid but i never mentioned anything about pay. If you are an engineer who has a job you are lucky i know many without jobs.

      • 

        Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 22:14

        @sandgroper94: What is your site like

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  super8 on 29/10/2016 - 18:50

  Lobby your federal member of parliament to bring back the Australian Building & Construction Commission.

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    Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 21:00

    Im all for ABCC, the unions needs to be regulated

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    Vampyr on 30/10/2016 - 13:16

    The unions are ruining our economy. It has gone way beyond reasonable workers rights at this point.

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  nrg2010 on 29/10/2016 - 19:34

  Dude,sounds like your working for the wrong company. I know guys/girls who are in the engineering world and doing sweet FA and raking it in.
  Also 'the brains of the company' attitude ain't gonna win you any friends. Seems like you gotta step up and start acting professionally, rather than having tantie like a four year old. No wonder the labourers give you a hard time if you act anything like your 'rant'.
  Action Plan
  1. Develop people management skills.
  2. Drop the I'm better than you attitude.
  3. Enjoy your career as an engineering because the opportunities are endless.
  4. Drop the attitude

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    Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 20:40

    Nah bro, those are insights into the industry. No raking anything. its how it is. Your friends who are said raking it are probably from the mines boom which is no longer here or just lying to you to boost their ego which had been shattered by the foremans by being called pu**ies

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  trustnoone on 29/10/2016 - 21:01

  +1

  I know some laborers and engineers in the industry and seen it being sometimes common.

  Honestly though I feel its more of a cultural problem, I've seen the fault come from both the engineers (I'm an engineer and I know what I'm doing so listen and respect me) AND the labourers (Engineers are idiots I know better then them and didn't even need a degree) with each one wanting their own work to be recognized as being the best.

  On top of this you typically have say 10 laborers for 1 engineer (sometimes worse ratio then that). I can say for certain I've heard things along the lines of "I know more then the engineer", "Who needs a degree I can do better", "Engineers are idiots".
  Coming from people who don't even know or understand what an engineers does (and I've even seen cases from people who don't even understand basic addition). I'm quite surprised to see this occur over varying areas as well (mechanical, civil, electrical engineers, (construction and geo)).

  But understand that Australia is NOT a class society, we don't have blue collar and white collar workers being seen as separate here, so if you're hoping for respect due to your position, you're probably not going to get it. Hell you can be the manager or CEO and you'd still get flack if a labourer didn't agree with you.

  Now these problems is obviously not always the case, I've seen areas where both the engineers and laborers work amazing together, and when they do, their project (whether construction or otherwise) end up coming along amazingly.

  Unfortunately the problem stems from a culture of the company and the people itself, and if you're hoping to change the culture of a particular company. Good Luck mate because you'll probably find that to be much harder then getting your degree itself lol. Easier to just move jobs.

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    Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 21:21

    Id say moving job wont help as it is the whole industry. Also mention the pay difference. Ive heard in other places, the foremans would come up to the engineers and say sir, madam.. im not asking for this here in Aus but at least not to a level where engineers are belittled. It is worse for fresh engineers. This is problematic because fresh engineers are typically those who are creative and innovative and have new ideas of new ways of construction. Those ideas get dismissed by the labourers who 'know-it-all'. This I believe is a contributing factor to the lack of innovation in construction industry also… What initiative are there to go about countering this culture issue? im sure im not the only one feeling this way,

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    Mad Max on 30/10/2016 - 10:23

    +2

    Trustnoone is spot on (love your name by the way).
    Australia is a very "horizontal" type society. All equal (except if you have a lot of money).
    The only profession that seems to command respect is doctors. And they are the ones that get a title in front of their names. Every other university qualification (engineer, architect, lawyer, accountant, etc) does not.
    Very different in Europe where if you have a university degree you get a title and often you get called and referred to with that title and with the "respect" attached to it.
    Similar in Asia where title and "class" are very important.

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  scrambledeggs on 29/10/2016 - 21:41

  Lol, untwist your panties bud. If you're not getting paid more than a labourer than you're probably not a very good engineer. Remuneration in the construction industry is based on merit, not a piece of paper from a uni. I have family who are engineers in construction and earn 200k + bonuses. Based on your tanty I'd say you probably need to work on your emotional intelligence above all else.

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  niner on 29/10/2016 - 21:43

  I'm an engineer and I work on large electrical based projects. If one of the technicians spoke to me like that, I would fire them on the spot.

  I rarely go out in the field anyway. I suppose construction is vastly different.

  THe electricians and technicians under me are usually more respectful, though. A lot of kind and quiet men and women.

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    Thenarrator on 29/10/2016 - 21:53

    +1

    In construction, foremans/trade run the show. Engineers are the support. Trade fires engineers.

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      justaverage on 29/10/2016 - 22:01

      I dont know what sites you are working on but this is not true from what i have seen. Project managers (engineers with 15+ years experience) run the show

      • 

        niner on 29/10/2016 - 22:46

        Yeah, that's what I have always known to be true.

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  dlf73 on 29/10/2016 - 22:03

  Next insult just say boing flip!

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  Euphemistic on 06/11/2016 - 07:03

  +1

  In my experience with engineers and labourers in the construction industry there are plenty of engineers that are respected, and a few that are not. The ones that aren't respected tend to be new grads that don't respect the experience of the people actually building stuff. Plenty of times the engineer is wanting something that could be done a better way, how you take that criticism leads to future relationships.

  Anyone seen that meme of the young girl in a hard hat: "I have no idea what you are doing, but my book says you are doing it wrong". They are the ones that don't get a lot of respect.

  Same goes for a lot of things in Australia, if you think you're better than other people, theyll bring you down a peg or two.