Have you ever sat in a field and held a team meeting? Do you have access to a toilet near your desk? Can you change the view out of the window every day?
For most people the answers to these are straightforward. Working out in the field however, our vehicles are our offices. Our view depends where we are working, our IT sits on our laps and our canteen is our cool bag which we have brought our sandwiches in.
However, this is Van Life, and for most of us we wouldn’t have it any other way.
We know where everything is, and we mean everything, glimpse in the front or back of a van and ask where something is, we can tell you which shelf, what is next to it and how many are there.
We have to be organized, we have to segregate, and we have to be clean and tidy. However, in the middle of a flooded field, in gale force winds and torrential rain, those manhole lifting keys might just get put on the floor and not back in their rack….
The hidden key workers
Do you see Severn Trent vehicles out on the road?
What most people haven’t seen over the past few years is the vast workforce of Severn Trent employees working in all weathers, at all times of day and night, seven days a week.
Our key workers mostly work out of the public eye. They maintain a huge infrastructure of potable water network, foul and surface water drainage networks, and countless sewage treatment works, water treatment works, water pumping stations, sewage pumping stations and other critical assets which enable us to service our contracts and customers.
Checking my ‘mobile office’ I can see that I drove 20,846 miles in 2021 and I am one of the low mileage drivers in my area.
So next time you’re out and about keep your eyes peeled for some of your local hidden key workers and spare a thought as most of them won’t be going home just yet but heading out to go the extra mile and continue to provide Wonderful On Tap.
Article credit: Phillip Isaac
