Your Career as a Process Technician

Industrial training programs vary from one company to another. Some are certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. This certification requires a specific number of on-the-job training hours and scheduled classroom hours. These programs can run from one to five years and usually are correlated with pay increases. 

Handling stress, conflict, cultural diversity, and sexual harassment are all important aspects of a process technician sjob. The people who make up the workforce within a plant are typically diverse and well educated. Diversity training identifies and reduces hidden biases between people with differences. Work relationships can be expected to last as long as 35 to 40 years, so it is important to fit in on your unit. Understanding your assignments, multiple roles, and responsibilities and contributing to the overall team effort is important to a successful work career. 

Sexual harassment is defined as behavior that constitutes unwelcome sexual advances. The behavior could take the form of verbal or physical abuse or unwelcome requests for sexual favors. This behavior may involve persons of the opposite sex or of the same sex, and may involve supervisor-employee behavior, or employee-employee behavior. In addition to being illegal, sexual harassment creates tremendous stress and conflict within the workplace. 

New technicians describe entering a chemical processing plant as an unusual experience similar to being transplanted into a foreign environment with pipes, tanks, strange equipment, noises, smells, and advanced computer technology. This initial experience is very stressful for the new technician. Each plant has a variety of techniques for reducing the stress on a new technician. Some of these techniques include  

Stress levels will drop as the new technician qualifies on a job post and becomes more familiar with the environment. 

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