How I Lightened the Load

The Challenge

Prior to my undertaking of AEL 3001, I have been working as an in-house lighting technician for the Limelight Belfast. Whilst I knew going from this to working at Forfey would definitely provide a different set of challenges I was unaware just how great those challenges would be.

The biggest challenges came from the idea of working early hours in a warehouse environment compared to working in a venue. A few key differences here make the two places very different to work in even though I presumed the same skills would apply for both.

The main difference is the prepping process. In the venue, prepping for a show would take place not long before load in as all that is normally required is a console, cables and sometimes floor package for extra lighting. Prepping in the Forfey warehouse can be a whole day long task. This is because unlike the Limelight, Forfey as a production company supply all the production expertise to its clients. This essentially makes the vast majority of jobs an installation requiring every piece of technology to be transported from the warehouse to the site. What this looks like in practice is co-ordinating with production managers about which speakers, amps, fixtures desks etc are going to a specific place. We organise this by packing the company van for the nearest show whilst putting everything else in zones so each team for each job can load in/out efficiently. So in my regular job, prepping is just a small part of my day whilst at Forfey, prepping is a much larger aspect.

I found this particularly challenging due to the sheer volume and mass of flight cases that are being moved around and lifted. This began to have an impact on my body that I’m not used to in work, particularly in my hands and feet.

Reflection

To reflect on this challenge, I will use Boud’s Reflective Model. I find this model to be the most efficient for reflection as it contains much of other models but manages to keep it condensed down to three steps. The three stages here are Experience, Reflection and Learning.

Experience

As I began to mention in my opening section, the size and scale for prepping a show with Forfey was a major challenge for me as it was more physically demanding than I’m used to in work. On top of this the dynamic of working to prep multiple shows in one day was one of confusion monotony. I’d find myself labelling 20 boxes at a time with show details and later in the day constantly looking around a huge warehouse for various pieces of gear as each show would require specific needs. This would become very tiring with particularly big prep days and towards the end of the shift I’d find myself checking the time more often.

Reflection

After those busy prep days despite feeling drained from all manual aspect of the work, I did find myself satisfied with the new things I learned. As I said in my opening section, this company is essentially installing a show on every job they are hired to do. So, after each prep day once I come home and take a while to unwind, I began to take a look back at the new concepts I came into contact with that day and further down the line I feel that this helps me in both my work and my placement at Forfey. Another side to this is the wear and tear I know experience of my clothes when working these shifts, I also find that my hands are starting to feel quite rough at times, so I’ll need to combat this for the future. In terms of how I relate to my feelings at the time, they are almost always completely forgotten as I experience the natural endorphins that come after any intense physical activity.

Outcomes

I find that as each day goes by, I’ve learned to not push myself when it comes to manual handling and begin to ask for help more when I need it. After nearly 7 months of working there I came to realise that there’s no shame in asking for help if something is too heavy or awkward to move. The company has a very strong looking out for each other attitude approach that I now fully partake in. In terms of learning from experience which I did have as part of my reflection. I found that this has compounded over time with small things adding up to myself becoming a more skilled person in this industry. This greatly helped me in work too as I found myself to be more confident with areas that I found difficult previously. I also managed to solve my wear and tear issue with a few investments into hard-wearing clothes such as steel toe-capped boots, work trousers and gloves for working on site. It was here I learned that the Health and Safety at work act didn’t apply to my as I would be a freelancer in this line of work and therefore my PPE would go down as a business expense. (Brittanny 2020)

What now?

To conclude. Working with Forfey has allowed me to peer into a totally different side of working the Music Industry and gain a perspective in what goes on behind the scenes at most of the major music events across Northern Ireland. Not only has this greatly aided me in my current job role, but it has broadened my knowledge and equipped me with more skills to help me in the future of my career.

Bibliography:

Avendaño, D. (2022) Boud Reflection Model, Toolshero. Available at: https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/boud-reflection-model/ (Accessed: April 18, 2023).

Brittany (2020) Protecting people at work what about PPE, The Compliance People. Available at: https://thecompliancepeople.co.uk/updates/news/protecting-people-at-work-what-about-ppe/ (Accessed: April 18, 2023).