Hayes Okesene

Graduate Engineer - Process
Bachelor of Engineering, Honnors

Hayes finished our grad programme at the end of 2024 and has recently begun his new role at Technology Innovation Lead at our Māngere Wastewater Treatment plant. Below is a day in the life from his time last year in his process rotation. Process Engineers are responsible for ensuring Water and Wastewater around Auckland is treated to improve the water quality in the receiving environments that we love to swim in.

4:15am (Not all of our grads are such early birds!)

The first thing I do each day is question my life choices as I wonder why I get up this early every morning. After some time contemplating – I am generally out of the door on my way to the gym around 4.40am.

5:00am

By now I have made my way to the gym. Usually, I start with a bit of stretching before doing some cardio followed up by some accessory work – to help prevent injuries.

6:00am

After I have done a sweat-sesh, I quickly shower up, get changed into my long-longs and then head off to enjoy the ‘poo-ey’ paradise that is work.

7:00am

I settle in at the office and the first thing I do when I arrive for work is to do all the morning checks to see how everything is operating from a process point of view. This mostly involves looking at various different trends to see if anything looks ‘off’.

I am lucky to have my own dedicated desk but around Watercare some, smaller offices have an open-plan, hot-desk function.

7:15am

Time for the first meeting of the day. I meet with the operations staff, leading hands for mechanical, electrical and instrumentation, maintenance controllers and major contractors to learn of major issues that have popped up on night shift and to discuss upcoming jobs such as pipe cleans, inspections that may affect wider plant staff. I typically report any potential issues that I have spotted during my morning checks.

The best part of the meeting is always getting a fun fact or a motivational quote at the end of the meeting though.

7:30am

After the morning toolbox I action any tasks that were given to me and then check my emails.

8:00am

I have a quick sampling run that I need to do for one of my process investigations that is looking into the consumption of dissolved metals in the wastewater treatment process.

8.30am

This is where the fun begins. Typically things start happening around 8.30am to give contractors or maintenance teams time to get set up on a job.

Today I have organised a shut for a large line-clean so I head out to meet the contractors and the foreman leading the work to make sure they have everything they need. We have also started a small concreting job that I am managing too. Part of my role is operational, to help make sure certain processes are running properly. The other part looks at improving the process, whether this be through small capital projects or optimising chemical, power and air usage etc.

9:30am

Once I am back in the office time to tick off tasks on my to-do list. This could be anything from conducting process investigations, collecting samples, business case development and feasibility studies and attending other various meetings. But today I have already done my sampling for one of my investigations and now I am off to give a tour of the Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant!

11:30am

Best part of the work-day…. Lunch! I personally make lunches for the week but there are plenty of places nearby where you can grab a bite.

12:00pm

Time to go for a bit of a walk – a good way to get the steps up but also to keep an eye and ear out for anything that doesn’t seem right. It isn’t the most peaceful of walks since I am listening out for motors and keeping an eye out for unsafe situations around site.

12:30pm

Over the hump now, so I use up the remainder of my productive hours continuing desktop work. Usually this would involve some sort of financial management for the projects I look after, mostly checking remaining budgets, receipting invoices etc.

2.00pm

Toward the end of the day, I head out to check in on contractors to see how the jobs have gone. Typically, they should all be finished by now but the odd one might drag on a little bit. For project work, I will just check in to discuss upcoming tasks so both groups are on the same page.

3:00pm

By now, I am back in the office rounding up my day with some more emails and admin work before shooting off.

3:30pm

Home Time!!

4:30pm

Depending on the day, I might head to the local pools for a swim otherwise I am once again contemplating life choices as I end up back at the gym. On a particularly crazy day, I might do both…oops.

5:45pm

This is usually when I get home, time to get dinner on the go so I can eat straight after walking the dog!

6:30pm

Time for a bit of tucker and relaxation.

7:30pm

Start packing bags and lunches to get ready for another day in ‘poo-radise’ tomorrow.

8.30pm

Head meets bed – another 4am wake up on the cards.