re: What do plant operators do? And how much do they really make?

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Did you pick this up on Refined

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Look at who you are replying to. The guy is a dunce.

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Look at who you are replying to. The guy is a dunce.

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Oh I'm aware. I hope he enjoyed his attention for the day.

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Whatever. For a guy who wanted to just retire with a paid for house and be able to buy a bass boat it’s pretty good. In addition to that investment he has his wife’s investments and both of their social security.
Hell they could live in the interest alone

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The guy you speak of could pull more than the median income of the average US citizen and never touch the principle. Honestly, with even a fricked up investment portfolio he would be gaining more than the would be withdrawing. Especially since he is probably pulling enough social security to cover his necessities.

Saying he is "rich" is subjective, but I would retire right now if I had eliminated all of my debts and could pull that type of income.

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its not really that bad its basically working a 12 hour shift vs an 8.

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That sounds terrible

I'm an operator and I wouldn't consider myself "rich". But all bullshite aside, I did pull in $131,000 last year (taxable income). I don't give a frick if somebody believes me or not. And I was 2nd to last (out of 6 on shift) in OT hours worked on my shift, so it's not like I had no life. I'm not saying that to brag either. It's really not a lot of money. But for those who don't believe that's how much most of us make, whatever. Knock yourself out.

When it comes to operators, I see more of others on this board making fun of operators than operators actually being douches. I'm not going to join in the generalization and make assumptions on why this happens.

All I know is I make a great living, able to provide very well for my family both through what I bring in salary wise and my insurance plan is relatively cheap (480 a month for a family of four with a great Blue Cross plan). You're going to be hard pressed to find anything comparable when it comes to insurance in the private sector. Also, our 401(k) is matched up 10 percent. Regular bonuses dependent on production. Every year I receive a raise, regardless of how the year was. Again, you might get that here and there at a few private industry jobs, but certainly not across the board. I worked the private sector for 15 years between 3 companies.

As for what we do, we operate the plant. Hence, the term "operator". The guys inside are monitoring every single facet of the process - pumps, columns, exchangers, tanks, all the instrumentation which provides temperature, pressure, flow, level, etc. The guys outside are the hands, eyes, ears, and sometimes nose (for possible leaks) for the inside guys. Everybody works as a team. I don't know who came up with this, but you cannot be stupid if you're an operator. It's a dangerous job, and usually the stupid ones are run off quicker than shite. You could frick up a lot of people's lives, the community's life, the entire ecosystem if you're not careful. Knowing this, a company is not going to hire a dumbass.

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All in all, I think most of the OT would see a turner boiler maker at the gas station with his truck nuts and stickers and lump him in with a plant operator.

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SO fricking true! That's like seeing a kitchen worker in a hospital uniform and equating him/her to a doctor, just because they work at the hospital too.

And for the guy saying working holidays is no big deal... if I happen to work a holiday - I get paid for 32 hours vs getting paid for 12. I would say that getting 20 extra hours is a little big of a "big deal", no? You learn to make adjustments. You celebrate an evening or day early/later. A lot of times you actually have holidays off. It's not like you're always working a holiday. It depends on how your shift falls. But to say it's not that big of a deal is bullshite. There's a reason not a lot of people call in sick on a holiday.

I know it's a wall of text, but I get so fricking sick of seeing the ignorant commentary when it comes to being an operator. There's a reason that when a slot opens up, there are usually hundreds of applicants fighting each other for that one spot.

And last but not least, most operators do not retire operators. A lot will move up the chain in their later years, to day jobs in supervisory roles.

The thing I love about overtime is every time my wife wants me to go to some bs piano recital for the kid I tell her it's a turnaround. He isn't even that good

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know it's a wall of text, but I get so fricking sick of seeing the ignorant commentary when it comes to being an operator

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I get sick of ignorant operators.

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There's a reason that when a slot opens up, there are usually hundreds of applicants fighting each other for that one spot.

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Because there's a shite ton of people with little education in Louisiana.

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Operators shouldn't be dicking in the PLC

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That's why I was asking. You never know sometimes, I've been around some shady clients

There's an ole baw from around here that just retired from Dow after 30 years..... he's bringing home $7,100 a month as a retired electrician. He's not even 55 yet.

I know a PHd in Econ that makes $120K, works 25 hours a week