subject: 3 Reasons To Work On Oil Rigs [print this page] An extra page of document, an annoying customer, or a malfunctioning piece of gear that breaks the camel's back...honest to goodness we've pulled our weight; now where's the carrot? Everybody feels that way from time to time, when they're at their workplace.
Some of us don't sit very well with routine, whereas others relish in it. A five-day week might be comforting like Linus' blanket in Peanuts, and equally it can be a straitjacket for the clinically deranged. So what if you're one of those people who is motivated - and very much so at that - when it's due?
*You should take a look at offshore oil rigs - the anti-hero in the modern world. Like it or not, oil courses through our economy in much the same way blood does through our veins, but its importance is vastly underrated unless we happen to be standing next to a pump. While many land-based rigs are indeed standard manual labour fare, they are shutting fast as the deposits are being rapidly depleted.
So where's the rest of the oil? Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, for instance, neither of which boasts the most brilliant record on labour welfare. There's also our biggest foreign oil importer, the international black sheep/despotic regime that is Canada, but they will have to rely on tar sands for years to come. The real deal is offshore oil platforms: little artificial islands designed specifically to siphon off oil from beneath the seas.
*What sets these sites apart from most occupations is their solitude. Short of submarines and the International Space Station, you would be hard-pressed to land on a job that, well, hasn't got land in the equation at all. The man-made nature of the environment isn't necessarily harsh once you've gone off your shift, though, for reasons that will become clear.
*When we say offshore, we really mean offshore. There are many oil fields that are located tens or hundreds of nautical miles off any coastline - and not necessarily an inhabited one as well. As a result, it becomes impracticable and sometimes impossible to transport staff on a shuttle on a daily basis. If you're wondering how expensive a boat could possibly be for all of this to be economical, providing accommodation in the middle of the ocean, bear in mind that these boats often come in the shape of a cockpit with a big propeller at the top. Yes, it's helicopters, because boats can't reach that high.
The typical schedule will be one week on, one week off, or perhaps two on two off. This happens throughout the year, so you'll be working six months out of a year. Of course, if you're up for it, you can work extra time, knowing with certainty that an extra 168 hours of overtime will be paid in full. Now that's a satisfying feeling you don't get very often at your typical land-locked workplace, isn't it? That should motivate anybody - and we haven't even talked about the pay yet.
